Review HZ038: SOS from Wakkanezumi?

[Poke Trey]

This was decent. I liked how both Chansey and Hatenna learned Heal Pulse, the deal with Tandemaus and Maushold and BF reference with the log part. Ya'll know which one. I'll give it 7.5.

 

[Eitarou]

I think the reason the pokedex didn’t recognize the Mausehold it’s because they were not all together. The difference with tandemaus is that they don’t have one the little ones, so pointing the pokedex at a lone mouse caused this.

Liko explicitly asked the Rotom Phone to look up information on Tandemaus.

The Pokédex didn’t make a mistake, it never scanned it to begin with.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

I think the problem is that there’s basically no real nuance to their approach with Liko when it comes to the writers’ approach to her as a trainer. Say what you will about Ash but he much better represented the aspect of understanding the feelings of Pokémon as, just as they tried to emphasize for Liko in an attempt to be deep, there’s not just a single way of understanding another. Despite what the revisionist mentality seems to be with Ash, he didn’t only solve everything with battle especially when it came to helping Pokemon. He connected to the feelings of others through battle, through helping them overcome their shortcomings, through helping them when they’re weak, reuniting them with their loved ones, etc. There was a nuance befitting a protagonist. With Liko though, they try so hard to make her the polar opposite of Ash that it ends up feeling like she’s more designed for support but put in the spot of protagonist.

For another character that seems to follow this path but done much better is Yellow from Pokemon Adventures. In the beginning, she held a pacifist nature, not wanting to hurt either side and so would work towards solutions that avoided battle to the point that she kept her Pokémon from evolving. However through her development, she came to learn that sometimes that fighting is necessary and came to become a skilled trainer even if not to the same degree as the likes of Red. There was a nuance to her character that I don’t feel the writers are doing with Liko that I feel is hindering her as a trainer.

Wait but Liko likes battling and does use her pokemon to help others?? While yes she isn't battling every other second like Ash, she still battles and gets stronger. And she also connects with people while battling too, like when she battled with Murdock to help him bond with his friend and in the double battle against the pig duo with Roy to help then connect.

Even if Sprigatito isn't learning new moves, she's still using the moves she has in unique ways and battling.

And not to mention Liko is literally just starting and learning as she is going.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Wait but Liko likes battling and does use her pokemon to help others?? While yes she isn't battling every other second like Ash, she still battles and gets stronger. And she also connects with people while battling too, like when she battled with Murdock to help him bond with his friend and in the double battle against the pig duo with Roy to help then connect.

Even if Sprigatito isn't learning new moves, she's still using the moves she has in unique ways and battling.

And not to mention Liko is literally just starting and learning as she is going.

Liko’s “liking of battling” is inconsistent at best with the vast majority of the time the only time that she does any sort of battling is when it involves them being attacked or if someone else initiates it. The rare exception was in the case with Murdock and even that had been because she had to essentially act as a middle man to get to help them resolve their tensions. As for the pigs, that wasn’t the case at all as not only had she a d Roy been asked by the 2 to battle them for practice for the tournament but the situation had already been resolved.

And you can say that she’s using the moves in unique ways but there’s only so many times that you can see the exact same move used in the same 3 ways before it wears thin. This is the case with Leafage. Even if it was creative before, that time has passed.

And while you say that she’s just starting, we’re already half way through the Hero Pokemon story and she’s still essentially on the basics. The show likes to go on and on about how far she’s come but it really just comes across as a participation ribbon when the series continues to hand hold her hand as much as it does to the point of not even allowing her to experience failure and the growth that comes with it.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

You said Ash battled others to help them grow and resolve their issues, that is what Liko did in that scenario with Murdock, and no with the pigs the situation wasn't resolved as it was ONLY though the actual battle training that they learned how to work together as a team and thus being able to win the tournament.

Except it hasn't been in the same three ways, not to mention even if it learns a new move, doesn't mean it will use it all the time. Fuecoco has all these new moves and it's go to is still Ember and Tackle lol.

Actually we have no idea where we are in the story. We think that oh find all six and the magical paradise is found but who knows where the story can go from here.

And where the heck doesn't she experience failure?? She was kidnapped for Christ's sake and was able to get through it with her determination to save herself and the bonds she made and cultivated. She doesn't just sit there and let everything happen. She's usually coming up with plans or helping along the way.

Like the last episode for instance, Liko could have easily sat in the cave and waited to be rescued but she saved herself and the pokemon by forging a bond with them and using her brain to get out of it.

 

[Kurolegacy]

You said Ash battled others to help them grow and resolve their issues, that is what Liko did in that scenario with Murdock, and no with the pigs the situation wasn't resolved as it was ONLY though the actual battle training that they learned how to work together as a team and thus being able to win the tournament.

Except it hasn't been in the same three ways, not to mention even if it learns a new move, doesn't mean it will use it all the time. Fuecoco has all these new moves and it's go to is still Ember and Tackle lol.

Actually we have no idea where we are in the story. We think that oh find all six and the magical paradise is found but who knows where the story can go from here.

And where the heck doesn't she experience failure?? She was kidnapped for Christ's sake and was able to get through it with her determination to save herself and the bonds she made and cultivated. She doesn't just sit there and let everything happen. She's usually coming up with plans or helping along the way.

Like the last episode for instance, Liko could have easily sat in the cave and waited to be rescued but she saved herself and the pokemon by forging a bond with them and using her brain to get out of it.

Yea, I said that Ash does that among other methods of helping others. With Liko, you can count on one hand the number of times they’ve had battle be the method of connecting and one was because she had to be involved as Murdock’s friend refused him any other way. And again, with the pigs they quite literally asked Liko and Roy for a battle to practice for the tournament. Their teamwork was not the main problem of the episode, it was getting her pig to be accepted to be the partner of the other. Hell, the battle was such a nonissue that the 2 were working together with no issue and it cut out part of the way into the battle. Liko’s contribution wasn’t in anything with battle but in helping the pig to be confident as to get the other’s attention.

She quite literally uses Leafage in the same ways all the time, either as a smokescreen, a big Leafage or in a fast attack means. And having more moves at least gives it more versatility. As big of a joke as it is that Fuecoco still uses Ember, it’s at least been shown to make use of its other moves when in battle. For Liko, it’s once in a blue moon that you see her go with anything but Leafage to the point that it’s a common complaint among the fandom, so quite a few people take notice.

The entire premise that they’ve built this one is gathering the six heroes and finding Rakua. Unless they’re just going to be spinning their wheels with side story, they’re already half way there. This is Pokémon that we’re talking about, we’re not exactly gonna get some surprise twist that changes everything of this collection quest. And with the clock ticking on this generation, they don’t exactly have 3 years to move Liko’s development at the speed of an iceberg.

She lost her pendant yes, and then in the span of 2 episodes was able to get it back because the plot decided that the villain who had the thing he came for would basically wait nearby for her to have the chance to reclaim it. Then in the same fight, the second that he started to get serious, the power of plot armor has the pendant active and summon Arboliva to scare him off. Then, when we get to the castle and more Explorer admins show up, rather than allowing them to lose to them as a showing of how they still don’t measure up to the admins and possibly give them reason to get stronger, Captain Pikachu bails them out. She’s not allowed to know failure because she has all of the safety nets in the world to bail her out if anything gets remotely hard.

And that’s how rare in almost 40 episodes that they actually saw fit to have the protagonist act like the protagonist rather than a damsel having an adult bail her out? When that kind of thing becomes the norm rather than the rare exception then we can talk.

 

[Singaporean]

A kind and alright episode for Liko rescue Maushold family and her Hattena learns Heal Pulse is a good development. No surprise, if during battle ahead, Hattena will use the move to Heal other for it needs.

Overall rating: C+