Review JN026: Jump! Koiking / Put it On! Yadoking

[Gabo2oo]

Nice episode, not nearly the best in terms of comedy, but it does its job quite decently. All it needed was a bit more of "snappiness" to it, like maybe a couple of faceplants or a slightly faster pace at times.

These could have been two 20-minute filler episodes with some typical plotline to pad out time and I'm sure no one would bat an eye at them. It's not even the weirdest comedy style modern Pokémon has done for that matter; the Magikarp bit doesn't do anything the sports-themed Sun & Moon episodes hadn't done already, and the Slowking bit feels straight from the Decolora Adventure arc.

 

[Handy Man]

I know the Magikarp segment is supposed to reference the mobile game Magikarp Jump, but I also feel like it referenced the Magikarp's Splash mini-game from Pokémon Stadium. I love seeing random references to non-main series games like that.

 

[Gard81]

I can only describe this episode as "kind of stupid". The first half is the entertaining kind of stupid. It was rather hilarious seeing all that Magikarp hijninks. And I'm pretty sure that Serena would die of nosebleed after seeing Ash with those muscles. The only thing that broke my suspension of disbelief were Magikarp's weights. Setting aside the question of who would make weights like those, I definitely don't buy that it would take at least 2 Machamps to lift it. But aside from that, it was fairly enjoyable. The second part, though, was just straight-up stupid. It delved into comedy that I don't think even Sun and Moon would touch. Overall, the most interesting part of the episode was Diantha's cameo on Jessie's magazine. I hope to see her again.

 

[P_S_B]

Finally got around to watching it. It was very much an episode of two halves.

The first half I actually enjoyed. It took a fun concept and ran with it, managing to sufficiently explore it while being funny. I also liked hearing the Sword and Shield Gym Battle music during the training montage. Would watch again.

The second half on the other hand wasn't so good, in fact had it been a full 22 minutes it would probably have ranked up there with the worst of the worst, being just the same Shellder on head gag repeated over and over and over again which was exactly as tedious as it sounds, although paying off the Magikarp in space thing to solve the problem was OK I guess.

First half gets a 7.5/10, second half gets a 0.5/10, .4 of that being due to the Magikarp at the end and .1 for James shutting the door in the Koiking guy's face.

 

[extremeespeon]

This was definitely... something.

This is such a fever dream-esque episode (similar to that one Alola episode where Ash's Pokémon went on a journey of their own). They could've just used this episode for a more detailed battle between Ash and Korrina... but this is Pokémon, you'll have to accept it for what it is if you wanna enjoy an episode.

That said, I actually don't really hate this episode? I found the second half way more entertaining than the first half, and I'm glad that they didn't spend 2 full episodes and dragged these plots out, this way they felt like fun little breather episodes. Anyway, I wish they would have taken a more organic route with this episode and somehow connected the two plots to eachother (Have Ash and Goh visit the island with the Magikarp contest, have it go as it did in the episode, have them travel to a neighbour island (Slowking island), continue how it did in the episode from there so the brick joke at the end feels more organic, AND cut out the pointless Team Rocket scenes).

Anyway, overall this was a cute episode but I really don't see myself re-visiting this one.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

DP 142 is the perfect example of a wacky good episode inside the Pokemon World context. The Litwick mansion episode or even the Beheyem episodes are good example of this.

To me this falls in the category of the horrid Magikarp episode of Sun&Moon or the Pokeball Factory Tom&Jerry episode of trying to hard.

DP142 was about an evil Togepi who turned all male pokémon into her slaves and flew into space with Team Rocket's hidden base/space shuttle.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

DP142 was about an evil Togepi who turned all male pokémon into her slaves and flew into space with Team Rocket's hidden base/space shuttle.

That Togepi was also clearly insane, as it wanted to go "to the end of the universe".

 

[prog rocker]

Should I watch this once subs come out? I mean, if I could watch a full playthrough of Tong Nou, I can stand this level of weirdness, right?

To be fair, the first Digimon series was a gag dub and completely unfaithful to the original script, as was the case with a lot of anime back then

This is why I'm glad I watched the LA Spanish dub...

DP142 was about an evil Togepi who turned all male pokémon into her slaves and flew into space with Team Rocket's hidden base/space shuttle.

Did... did that really happen?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Should I watch this once subs come out? I mean, if I could watch a full playthrough of Tong Nou, I can stand this level of weirdness, right?

The subs are already out. And yes. You should definitely watch this.

 

[Daren]

Did... did that really happen?

Yep. It was...weird.

I think that was the one where they had supposedly had a Neon Genesis Evangelion reference with James doing the Gendo pose.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Should I watch this once subs come out? I mean, if I could watch a full playthrough of Tong Nou, I can stand this level of weirdness, right?

Yes you should. Watching it with the subtitles ups some ranks the episode. For me it's not the worst episode of the season. Those are still episodes 6,8,9 who lied to our face.

This episode promised crazines and it delivered, however it's still a meh episode for me.

I hope this is a once per season thing, if they abuse the forced comedy this will get really bad.

This episodes are easier to digest in small doses.

Did... did that really happen?

Yes, also Rayquaza tried to kill them for invading his territory, Yanmega was revealed to be a girl and a Robot Giovanni burned Meowth ass. Among other things.

 

[Islander Princess]

A preface to my post: in my re-watch of the anime, I'm currently up to XY. Just a few days ago, I watched XY123: the Carbink filler. For the first time in my year and a half of re-watching this show, I was tempted to turn the episode off and just move onto the next one. I ultimately didn't, just to keep my own personal streak alive, but man did I regret it. That episode was so horribly boring, bland, uninteresting, annoying, and quite honestly, probably one of, if not the, worst episodes of the entire series, in my eyes.

All of that just to say that I think this episode is getting a lot of unfair "worst episode ever" sentiments. I don't even think this is the worst episode in JN.

In fact, this episode was freaking funny.

Both halves of the episode were equally wacky and had their great moments. The overdramatic training montage was fabulous. Magikarp jumping into freaking space and getting eulogized by Ash was kind of dark in the most hilarious way possible. I felt like the Slowking episode was even more cracked out than the Magikarp one, but just as funny. Ash busting out some English with the shell on his head was exceptionally great...I wonder what they'll do in the dub for that. And I actually thought Magikarp coming back at the end was a nice touch, considering they could've just left things the way they were and just had Magikarp randomly appear later on like nothing had happened. Seriously, this ending was actually better than last week's when we didn't find out if Goh actually caught the white Flabebe or not!

Also, I thought Team Rocket being in this episode was a nice touch. Their imitation of Ash and Goh in the beginning was hilarious, as was James' deadpan "nope" closing of the door at the end of the episode. Those kinds of reactions always get a rise out of me, and honestly, it was just perfect for James.

I get that this kind of humor isn't everyone's cup of tea, so not everyone is going to enjoy it, which is fair enough. For those who didn't enjoy it, look at the bright side: this one came in between two "big" episodes, and each plot was contained to half of the episode instead of splitting them up into two separate, full length episodes. But I appreciated a half hour of getting to bust up at the absurdity of it all. I haven't gotten to laugh at too much in this living hell of a year, so I take whatever reprieve I can get. If it's gonna be an insanely bizarre episode of Pokemon, great! Truth to be told, I'd rather get an absurd episode like this one that I can laugh at rather than the generic and typically boring "let's help the COTD" plotline that's been beat into the ground.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Yanmega was revealed to be a boy

A girl, not a boy.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Um, guys, what the hell was that???
This "episode" didn't feel like Pokemon at all! Seriously, it rather felt like the writers were on drugs. I've got no other explanation for that extent of craziness.
The first part was unnecessary and pointless and the second part freaked me out completely .

There's no need for me to further comment on that because, unless they're celebrating carnival in Japan right now and the episode wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I can't tell what it was. It can only tell what, in my eyes, it wasn't: The Pokemon Anime we know.
I'm still trying to explain it with some crazy antics by the writers, but hopefully, this kind of writing will be something we won't have to see again for a very very long time...

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Um, guys, what the hell was that???
This "episode" didn't feel like Pokemon at all! Seriously, it rather felt like the writers were on drugs. I've got no other explanation for that extent of craziness.
The first part was unnecessary and pointless and the second part freaked me out completely .

Welcome to what the Japanese consider the height of comedy, where repeating the same joke for ten minutes only makes it funnier

 

[RustyTrubbish]

At least this episode serves as a bold reminder that Fujisaku can't write a good episode to save his life. I thought the Fujisaku curse was over once Sun and Moon ended but oh boy this episode showed me how wrong I was. I'll never watch another episode that he had a hand in writing from now on.

 

[Eclipsical]

I personally hope we get more off-the-walls wackiness like this. I think the 2-in-1 formula worked well for this episode, though the formula itself would probably only work for some scenarios. I was consistently smiling throughout the whole thing. Both parts of the episodes worked well for me.

Go’s training with Magikarp was fun to watch. It was good to see Go doing some serious training, even if he isn’t interested in battling. The weights coming off was hilarious, and the fact that the weights were so heavy that two Machamp couldn’t even lift it is amazing. Sucks that Go lost the competition just because they couldn’t measure Magikarp’s jump even though they see his go exponentially higher. Magikarp is a star in my heart.

The Slowpoke part was definitely the most wacky. The Magikarp episode almost seems normal in comparison. Found it interesting how the Shellder didn’t technically take control of the wearer’s mind, just merged with it, and found a commonplace within their goals and the Slowpoke, such as Ash wishing to be a Slowpoke Master and Go wishing to catch every Slowpoke. Makes me wonder what Pikachu and Raboot were thinking, besides the fact that they pretty much want what their owners want.

 

[Kurolegacy]

At least this episode serves as a bold reminder that Fujisaku can't write a good episode to save his life. I thought the Fujisaku curse was over once Sun and Moon ended but oh boy this episode showed me how wrong I was. I'll never watch another episode that he had a hand in writing from now on.

I'd say that James’ reaction at the end of the episode is the perfect meta response to seeing that an episode coming up is written by Fujisaku.

 

[Dogasu]

You guys really do have a hate boner for Mr. Fujisaku, huh?

 

[Ashpower]

You guys really do have a hate boner for Mr. Fujisaku, huh?

they should check who wrote the episodes for both raboot catch(when he was a scorchbunny) and the most important ASH FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!