Preview JN018: Satoshi Participates! The Pokémon World Championships!!

[Beatsy Ray]

"His opponent in his memorable first battle is Pisces, an Electric type Trainer and the acting Gym Leader of the Kuchiba Gym while its Gym Leader Matis is absent."

I get that the writers have been forbidden from acknowledging any meaningful continuity in this series, but this is going to get old really fast. Why even mention the old gym leader anyway? Prepare for a long series of all-too-convenient continuity dodging. I can already see it...

Goldenrod Gym: Ash will be facing a stand-in as Whitney is on vacation.
Eterna Gym: COTD #52 will be filling in as gym leader because Gardenia has jury duty.
Lumiose Gym: Clemont had a dentist appointment so they got some random guy off the street to face Ash.

They are playing the risky game of trying to celebrate a franchise's long history while simultaneously pretending it never happened. The expression, "Having your cake and eating it too" comes to mind.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Melemele Island: Hala got dragged off the set by the producers of the show leaving Ash to face off against himself because nobody is there to face him.

He then heads to Kukui's home to see him again but sees a note on the door that says "We had to go now. Our planet needs us."

Ash proceeds to facefault on the ground whilst Go is too busy to even care.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Really thats a new low...

So in order to participate in the mighty Pokemon World tournament you have to defeat the Gym leaders again, and not only that they put a fake Lt Surge? ,Was to much asking for Sargeant Bolt or Colonel Sanders for all that I care.

That give us hope that we may indeed see the Galarian gym leaders at some point, but really thats cheap. The Kanto battles with the exception of Lt Surge one or the epic Battle with Blaine were kinda bland, some rematches of those wouldnt be so bad.

But then you throw this garbage at us.

Bollocks absolutely Bollocks.

Also a Raichu vs Pikachu, put some Magneton, Macnetric, Eelectross I dont know put some new pokémon to fight Pikachu.

 

[Islander Princess]

This also begs an interesting question: how exactly does this Pokemon World Championship work? Pisces is the "acting gym leader" while Lt. Surge is gone. So does Pisces just take Lt. Surge's place in the championship? They just let World Championships participants challenge someone who isn't the actual gym leader? Is it Pisces' own spot? I understand having a fill in for a gym battle, but this is the World Championships. Isn't it supposed to be a little more prestigious? Personally, I'd be annoyed if I thought I was challenging a specific trainer in this kind of setup and instead was matched up with someone who may or may not be on the same level as the original trainer.

It's probably thinking a little too technically, but this is something that could've been relatively straight forward and then they go ahead and pull this...

 

[P_S_B]

I'm not as bothered as I should be about Lt. Surge being replaced because he was one of the gym battles that was already legitimately earned, however if we get to the likes of Erika and especially Sabrina and they pull this crap I am going to be very unhappy.

 

[L-05308]

Lol, continuity teased — continuity danced around.

 

[Daenerys]

I'm not surprised nor bothered that Lt. Surge is conveniently MIA. I remember warning people that just because Lance came back that it didn't necessarily mean that the writing staff were going on a character return frenzy, and now here we are. But my God, why do we need to see Pikachu vs. Raichu for the 1,639,450th time?!

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I get that the writers have been forbidden from acknowledging any meaningful continuity in this series, but this is going to get old really fast. Why even mention the old gym leader anyway? Prepare for a long series of all-too-convenient continuity dodging. I can already see it...

Goldenrod Gym: Ash will be facing a stand-in as Whitney is on vacation.
Eterna Gym: COTD #52 will be filling in as gym leader because Gardenia has jury duty.
Lumiose Gym: Clemont had a dentist appointment so they got some random guy off the street to face Ash.

I fail to see the funniness in this joke.

 

[Egakor]

Well, I think I would love to see Ash battling Forrest if they're going to use anime-original characters as replacements for Gym Leaders in this tournament.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I try to stay positive about stuff until it actually airs, but it's kinda hard around this forum sometimes.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

I fail to see the funniness in this joke.

It's not a joke

It's a reality that may be possible

 

[P_S_B]

I try to stay positive about stuff until it actually airs, but it's kinda hard around this forum sometimes.

They don't make it easy when they reveal that the increase in overall quality and lack of nostalgia baiting without payoff was just the eye of the hurricane and not an actual improvement in series direction.

 

[BigDocFan]

Although disappointed at the fact they're not bringing Lt. Surge back to battle Ash, the overall concept of Ash battling in the tournament with the writer who gave us Kukui vs Ash (minus Tapu Koko) and the animation team responsible for brilliant episodes makes this one to look forward to

To me, the good outweighs the bad

 

[BugCatcherinVF]

A couple of things...
- I don't think this is a gym battle at all, they just probably mention what the guy is acting as to show that he is strong, but this is probably unconnected to gym battles.
- Pisces means fish, so it might be that they are a water type specialist that loses because they are using pokémon who are not their own and that's how the battle gets original.
- I'd actually like if Clemont eventually shared gym duties with Bonnie!

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

- Pisces means fish, so it might be that he is a water type specialist that loses because he is using pokémon who are not his own and that's how the battle gets original.

That actually makes me think... What if the Raichu he uses is actually one he loaned from Surge?

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Are they f**ing kidding me?
I'm tired of my favourite Pokémon being beat by Pikachu all the time for bullshit reasons, and they danced around bringing Lt. Surge back, too.

I try to stay positive about stuff until it actually airs, but it's kinda hard around this forum sometimes.

I’ve been let down whenever I tried to stay optimistic, so I’m gonna be realistic now, relying on past trends. It’s just continuing the trend of bait and switch. At least they made it clear that it’s going to be a CotD right at the start.

 

[Charcoatl]

I'm not bothered by Lt. Surge not battling Ash in this episode, as long as he gets mentioned it's fine. Stand-in for Gym Leaders have been a thing since OS anyways *cough* Flint/Forrest *cough* Clembot *cough*

 

[nickdt]

I'm not bothered by Lt. Surge not battling Ash in this episode, as long as he gets mentioned it's fine. Stand-in for Gym Leaders have been a thing since OS anyways *cough* Flint/Forrest *cough* Clembot *cough*

True, however, not every gym leader has a stand-in.

 

[VetProf]

Although Lt. Surge probably won't be appearing in this episode, this at least sets a precedent of Ash battling a non-Galar Gym representative as part of the World Championships. Hopefully we'll get more similar episodes in the future, but with the actual Gym Leaders instead of COTD stand-ins. While a part of me finds the writers' attempts to tease and avoid explicit continuity somewhat amusing, it's starting to get quite tiring.

 

[Silktree]

We don't know that this will become a trend, although Forrest and Janine would make sense. Oh, and we don't even know who the Viridian leader is these days.... Agatha was a substitute.

This Jolteon gal from the Lugia raid might be Pisces. Her friends have cool designs, too.