Review JN022: Goodbye, Rabbifoot!

[Daren]

I'm so glad we're going on hiatus knowing Go's future trajectory: aiming to become Kalos Queen with his dancing Rabifoot! A series-long struggle for this lone boy to break into the exclusively female ranks of that competition should address some of the issues we had with Serena's Tripokalon arc

I'd unironically love if we actually get some sort of dancing competition going forward. We could use more non-battling goals (Contests had enough battling I think they're sort of half and half).

Gou's ultimate rival can be a Galvantula--how can you keep up with someone that has that many legs?

Spoiler

Answer: You can't. Nobody accomplishes their goals first time around in this show.

 

[Kurolegacy]

I'm so glad we're going on hiatus knowing Go's future trajectory: aiming to become Kalos Queen with his dancing Rabifoot! A series-long struggle for this lone boy to break into the exclusively female ranks of that competition should address some of the issues we had with Serena's Tripokalon arc

And so we now know where we will get the traditional crossdressing from; not a single instance but Go impersonating a girl to take part in the Pokémon Showcases and become Kalos Queen ;P

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Can he not be interested in multiple things?

I still maintain Raboot's issues could’ve been portrayed better, and I agree with Go's conclusion that the issue is; it’s bored. It just wants to keep doing stuff, and it may not be exclusive to dancing: which opens a wide gate of opportunities like contests. This interpretation also doesn’t discard the earlier observation of it being interested in battles. Raboot wants something it can actively be a part of. Like I said in the other thread, Pokemon catching is a passive process, and that’s why Raboot ended up being bored and uninterested.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

It's been days since the episode aired and I still can't believe this was a thing. It's like they looked at Satochu/Ashachu and said, "Oh we can top that easily."

 

[extremeespeon]

Well... I'm late.

• The scene at the start of Ash and Gou having a drawing competition on their phones.. more of this please.
• Ash-Beautifly is very uncanny.
• Missed opportunity to at least mention May since the episode was focused around Beautifly. Sigh
• The entire second half of the episode feels so… weak? It feels like none of the ‘jokes’ really landed, especially with Raboot showing little sign of changing, this whole thing just feels pointless honestly.

The preview for next episode seems really promising, especially with most of Ash and Gou’s previously caught Pokémon appearing again. Unfortunate that it’s getting delayed :/

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Missed opportunity to at least mention May since the episode was focused around Beautifly. Sigh

I think it’s unrealistic to expect any character who just owns a Pokémon (that isn’t really that iconic enough to begin with among the audiences) to get a shoutout when it’s not even tangentially related...
I think it’s just unrealistic to expect something not directly advertised in this series, given its nature.

 

[Kurolegacy]

It's been days since the episode aired and I still can't believe this was a thing. It's like they looked at Satochu/Ashachu and said, "Oh we can top that easily."
View attachment 132559

Someone at the studio took one look at Ashchu and was like “Hold my beer.”

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Someone at the studio took one look at Ashchu and was like “Hold my beer.”

More like "Hold my sake."

 

[Daren]

It's been days since the episode aired and I still can't believe this was a thing. It's like they looked at Satochu/Ashachu and said, "Oh we can top that easily."

Masuda retweeted Ashchu fanart once, so they probably know about how iconic it's considered. This may well have been a bit of a shoutout.

 

[Islander Princess]

I'm so glad we're going on hiatus knowing Go's future trajectory: aiming to become Kalos Queen with his dancing Rabifoot! A series-long struggle for this lone boy to break into the exclusively female ranks of that competition should address some of the issues we had with Serena's Tripokalon arc

No joke I'd watch the heck out of that.

 

[Adil]

What a sweet episode. It's endearing to see Raboot being so considerate about other Pokemon and in the end, for Go. He's precious when he teared up in the end.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

It's been days since the episode aired and I still can't believe this was a thing. It's like they looked at Satochu/Ashachu and said, "Oh we can top that easily."
View attachment 132559

I don't want to know what these writters smoke...

 

[BigDocFan]

Not sure if anyone has made this joke already but

Professor Birch: Ever get the feeling you've been forgotten
Max: If you say so Lurch
Professor Birch: It's Birch

 

[Eeveely]

I'm hoping this isn't the end to every problem with Go. The episode was enjoyable as heck though, just upload the raboot dancing clip and I'm happy. Also ashifly is haunting for the next few years. But I'm still dissapointed with the outcome...

 

[TheLoonyRebel]

This episode felt like a mixed bag to me. On one hand I found plenty of good things in the episode such as Ash and Go drawing at the start. And watching Go and Rabbifoot having that bonding moment over dancing was adorable. But... I found the moment when Go trying to leave Rabbifoot behind like they were trying to channel Pikachu's Goodbye a little too much. At least with Pikachu's Goodbye the emotional impact was earned because we had over 40 some episodes prior to that moment of bonding with the Pikachu character and watching Pikachu grow. I mean remember Pikachu on the pilot (I Choose You) episode had attitude issues towards Ash but they built their relationship which is why Ash trying to leave Pikachu behind felt emotional even to me the adult watching that episode for the first time only a year ago. On the other hand we really haven't had the time to really have much of an relationship between Go and Rabbifoot developed the same way Ash and Pikachu had going into that moment. I just felt like trying to get that emotional feeling from me wasn't earned here like it was with Pikachu's Goodbye.

I know that was a lot I wrote in regards to just one aspect of the episode. Perhaps I just needed to get this out of me so I can feel better about the positives of the episode. It's not the best episode of this season but I do feel like they did plant some seeds on developing something larger between Go and Rabbifoot with dancing.

Next episodes whenever it's released... that could be interesting.

 

[Panky..]

Delayed with this because I wasn’t really excited to re-watch this episode in the first place due to the amount of lost potential in it, not to mention that there’s no rush to get it done since the next few episodes are on hiatus.

Pros:

• The entire episode was overall relatively calm and pretty enjoyable. I feel like it’s been ages since an episode had no battles or captures involved in i t. The episode had so many enjoyable interactions between Ash and Gou that gave them a brotherly bond which we last saw with Ash and Clemont (sorry yaoi shippers, please face the harshtruth that bromance =/= romance). From the drawing competitions to going back to the researcher angle with the Beautifly migration, this episode had all the positive points to make it a decent slice of life episode. Speaking of the Beautifly migration itself, it’s a major shame that it wasn’t the main plot point since it was quite interesting and needed expansion upon instead of rushing, just like how the Dragonite line was researched in PJ010. This entire episode and the one dealing with Raboot would have benefited from being a 2-parter, this is where the entire self-contained premise of each episode hurts the series because of how they need to rush things instead of developing things naturally. The dance battle was fine but I won’t go into detail here since it might become a con (which is already covered below). Gou becoming overly emotional and depressed far too easily by Raboot’s behavior was quite genuine and would have worked out very well by factoring into his backstory, especially if you recall the entire “you’re one of those guys” in PJ003 which explains that he had trouble making friends, this was a seriously missed opportunity. We could have had Gou developing by learning to be more social and understanding to the problems and needs of people around him, putting them ahead of himself and what not. It's not even his fault that he couldn't have developed in a meaningful way and this is where the cons come in...

Cons:

• So... the entire reason why Raboot is acting the way it has been doing since evolving, is not something related to Gou's behavior towards it and his self-serving nature where he doesn't bond with his Pokemon and what not, but because it's just in its moody and edgy teenager phase? This felt like such a cheap cop out especially after the way things unfolded in PJ017, it ruined a chance for Gou to grow out of his characterization of being self-serving and somewhat aloof socially. Gou did make an active attempt to learn about Raboot's problems but apparently, the latter never had a problem with the boy in the first place. We were all led to believe that Raboot had become the way it is because Gou failed to understand and help it with its passion and what not. And what the hell, where did the random dancing interest come from? Weren't we all led to believe that Scorbunny was more interested in battling with the way it would rush into battles every time? Or how it was engrossed in Ash's PWC match? Gou didn't grow in this episode the way he needed to be and he'll continue to keep doing what he's been doing, which will only stagnate his character. And Raboot will continue to be moody/edgy/sulky in the corner because now apparently, it's behavior is because of its teenage phase. *Sigh* At least Ash managed to give him a lesson about how he shouldn't make a Pokemon's decision for them with that release attempt, question is if that lesson will ever factor into the future.

Additional thoughts:

• Ash-Beautifly. Come on OLM, make this 'amazing' transformation a reality, give us the most unexpected and powerful Bond Phenomenon / Pokemon Morph / Fusion Dance, because ? Joking aside and speaking of Ash, I guess I should breath a sign of relief that Ash wasn't written out of character and made to go several steps further to keep him in line with how he's supposed to be with him rushing to check on the 'injured' Zigzagoon and finally scolding Gou for his mistake of trying to release a Pokemon without even talking to it.
• Seriously, this is annoying and I can't really know if it's an oversight or an intentional decision, but you're telling me that they spent four days in Littleroot town to study a Pokemon related phenomenon out in the wild, and there's absolutely no sign or mention of Professor Birch? You know, the Professor Birch who actively goes out on field trips to watch and observe Pokemon in their natural habitat even if it means taking wild risks? You'd think a major migration event in his own home town would draw his attention.

Verdict: Why is that whenever it comes to solo character development for Gou, they always find some way to mess up and waste potential? Might as well hand every Gou development episode to Reiko Yoshida, she did write the best Gou episode with PJ015. I’m giving it a 6.5/10, would have been lower if not for all of those calmer bonding moments.

Haven't really been active here since the hiatus started, what a shame.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Lets... REWIEW!!!
Edgy Sh** Becomes Less of an Edgy Sh**
Goh and Edgy Sh** Development
Dance Battle? Really
8/10 Solid Episode.