Review JN028: Sobbing Messon

[90'sPokéfan]

Did anyone else notice that every time Raboot was crying, he hid his face. Like he was too cool to be seen crying.

Yes, I did.

Honestly, I really couldn’t care less if Ash doesn’t get a fire, water and grass Pokémon this time. They usually get half of Ash's party. And if we take into account, Pikachu and the regional bird, there is only one spot left.

He has already so many water, fire and grass types, it's time to give some spotlight to some Pokémon of the other 14 types.

It will maybe be the least requested one of all Ash's water types, but I wouldn't mind Ash using Kingler if he needs a water type, even if it's only for one episode like when he used Mimey.

Even after all this years I feel sorry for Kingler how the writers handled him for the Silver conference. At least it doubled as a reason why he wasn't used the entire League. And if I'm not mistaken, he also didn't show up to fight in the battle frontier and we also didn't see him in Sun and Moon when the group went to Kanto (or maybe a cameo, like on Rotom Dex photos, I don't remember).

As a water type, I would like a guest appearence of Kingler, fire from Blazikan (I would also like Charizard, but he already returned a couple of times, even to travel with Ash again), and grass maybe Sceptile or Bulbasaur.

Just in a one off deal, because Ash needs a pokémon of those types and he didn't caught new ones yet. But I'm afraid the writers will not do this.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Even after all this years I feel sorry for Kingler how the writers handled him for the Silver conference. At least it doubled as a reason why he wasn't used the entire League.

And what gripes me especially about this was that they did this just to give Squirtle the spotlight. As if that turtle hadn't gotten plenty of spotlight already. Especially compared to Kingler...

 

[90'sPokéfan]

And what gripes me especially about this was that they did this just to give Squirtle the spotlight. As if that turtle hadn't gotten plenty of spotlight already. Especially compared to Kingler...

Indeed, I forgot to mention it, but the only reason to write Kingler out of the League was so Squirtle could claim a spot in the League against the Fire-type trainer. Her name was Macy I believe.

 

[Nicolas721]

It doesn't matter how many patterns the writers brake, there's always gonna be a capture episode who feels like we've seen it dozens of times before. But it wasn't really that bad...

The good
+Some decent humor with TR's flying away, Morpeko and crying eyes gags.
+The googles solution was very smart. Of course one has to wonder where did they got them.
+We got a clear explanation of why Sobble went with Go instead of Ash, he needs a friend rather than someone who realizes his true potential. Their relationship wasn't extraordinary but cute nevertheless.

The bad
-I'm not a fan of Sobble's crying, it becomes very repetitive after a while.
-The pacing felt very slow on the first half, they should have fitted some scenes of Sobble alone having adventures.
-No Galar characters.
-Again, the structure of the episode feels very similar to some fillers and capture episodes seen in the first few series: New Pokemon with personality appears ->Misunderstanding->TR fight->Confirmation of friendship.

 

[Eeveely]

That kinda....sucked.
TR felt more shoehorned than usual, if they were blown away all the way to galar, wouldn't they need food? Of couse it's just a gag to make them feel more shoehorned, but morpeko appeared, turns out they had food, SO MUCH food, you can already see where the nonsense start.
Talking about being shoehorned, morpeko, what the distortion world?! You were supposed to join the sith not destroy them! It was a perfect gagmon to stay with TRio, or at least follow them to stay in the series, but nope, stay in Galar, where we can't even see if you'll sell enough plushes(try to convince me that leaving morpeko behind is a good idea from any standpoint), add to the usual gachat problems and you get a disaster, but can we at least get an actual battle, not ember plus thunderbolt equals a cringe-ly animated blasting off again?
To sobble, the episode's actual focus, so far ,trash.
The capture was just stupid, I guess sobble got GOd (hehe, puns), from there, raboot ignores sobble, didn't raboot like to stand with the weak? Then why didn't he do anything to help sobble? Well I hope they aren't ready to write another one out-of-charcter, A NEW ONE fot crying out loud, but my hope for raboot-sobble interactions is getting lower, my new hope is that the flashbacks will become a backstory beyond "he was born a sobble so he has to make ppl cry so they started hating him, which technically means that's the whole species destiny but whatever", and why is Go the one to suddenly be intrested in catching it, mew? Ohhh,I don't know if that's worse than the "you have mew's DNA, so I'll catch you" they have been going with.
Go character developpement, a great thing out of this episode!!: don't do stuff that your pokemon doesn't want to! Hmmm, 2 certain nidoran,and literally every pokemon Go caught (except raboot and cubone, and let's not talk about sobble's capture) would feel awkward now wouldn't they?
Here's hoping sobble won't follow his precedent who's path became even sadder in this episode.
And there is also the kinda smart asspull of them an excess of goggles, the pokemon attack from the distance and they weren't crying when far away , and wouldn't it be better for Go to actually live with tears and accept sobble without needed protection of something that isn't really damaging.
A less smart asspull is sobble bending whatever the cage was made of, how cheap could they accept a cage that's made to catch pikachu(even if I remember it wrong and it was never made to catch pikachu, I can think of a million that are better than what happened and aren't WhY dOEsn'T MegA MAn JUsT kiLl Dr.WiLU?????)

Overall, didn't like it at all, it was funny (scary mime, TR rotom phone being a jerk, raboot trying to hide his tears..), but the way the whole episode was "made" basically contradicts itself and that of the whole series.

On an other hand, since I'm about to finish FMAB, any advice on other animes I should check out?

 

[Kurolegacy]

+We got a clear explanation of why Sobble went with Go instead of Ash, he needs a friend rather than someone who realizes his true potential.

This is Ash we’re talking about. Those 2 things are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Pikachu, Charmander, Torkoal, CHIMCHAR, Gligar, Gible, Oshawott, Tepig, Rowlet, Gengar etc. say hi.

Might have missed a few in there.

Don’t forget Litten and Rockruff for whom he not only was a friend, he became family. Especially Litten who had just lost Stoutland.

 

[Nicolas721]

I wrote that from the writers' perspective, obviously Ash can befriend Pokemon who need friends too. I think that's the message they want to get across specially with the roles Riolu and G-Farfetch'd had in this episode and the previous one.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Some people said that Ash cannot have Sobble cause he is a crybaby Pokémon.

Noibat and Torkoal must be rolling in their graves right now!!!!

 

[Kurolegacy]

Some people said that Ash cannot have Sobble cause he is a crybaby Pokémon.

Noibat and Torkoal must be rolling in their graves right now!!!!

Hell remember back in the day Ash cared for Larvitar who was a massive crybaby. And then there was Nebby who Ash was entrusted to raise so it’s really not as though Ash is a stranger to Pokémon like that.

 

[Schemer99]

For all the people who are mad that Goh caught Sobble, Nurse Joy says that Sobble may be lost since his kind normally lives in lush environments instead of cities. Maybe in the future they'll find Sobble's original home and Goh will release him.

 

[extremeespeon]

I'm actually kinda surprised that people here hated this episode so much. I loved the fact that Sobble was basically caught on accident by Goh, it's incredibly refreshing after having tons of boring cliché episodes where a main character magically befriends a wild Pokémon and then catches it, at least this way Goh and Sobble had an excuse to bond, and I liked the way Team Rocket arrived in Galar because of their incompetency. The first half had me way more entertained than the second half, since that was basically just a Team Rocket fight and one of the main character's Pokémon overcoming an obstacle they struggle with, something we've seen a thousand times before. I'm gonna hope Sobble evolves faster than Raboot did if it's actually going to become a main part of Goh's team, it's crying gets annoying fast.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

This is one of that epiosdes that the final rating depends on future episodes. Depending on Sobble and Goh development this episode will be good or bad.

I have to say that for example Lumiose Trainer Zac that is well known to his positivity towards Pokémon Anime has rated the episode with a 5 one of his lowest marks.

This episode is really controversial. And I agree how he points how Cubone got a beter capture than a new starter.

A Cubone that is doing nothing by the way.

When we got into November and we get into the 1 year mark of the series maybe we should do deep review of the positives and the negatives of this series.

 

[Panky..]

Pros:

• Pretty sure that this episode has proven that they don’t have to resort to that ridiculous self-contained episode format anymore (not that there was any need of proving in the first place, that format is objectively bad for a plot progressive anime like Pokemon). Right off the bat, they forgo the usual “Ash and Goh have goals” segment in favor of a previous episode recap and directly continue the episode from where it was left off the last time. They could have just used this method like they used to in the previous series and made more episodes continue directly from the previous one plot wise to give them proper conclusions and depth, which wouldn’t have sacrificed the storytelling of some of them, especially important ones like JN025.
• Raboot turning away or attempting to hide its face/eyes while crying should be immortalized as one of the better gags of this series (or even the anime as a whole), I feel stupid to have not noticed it the first time around. Every time it happened, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at some of the poses/faces it made. I do hope it gets repeated a few more times, just not enough to the point that it'll feel like beating a dead horse. The entire “Sobble is quick to cry” gag on the other hand, wore off its novelty quite quickly. It doesn’t help that it took priority over Sobble’s character and disposition, which should have been the main focus of the episode (hence the reason for the crying in the first place) instead of it being just a quick clip show flashback.
• I guess I’ll have to give credit where it’s due. Goh getting the proper development that he’s needed, this type of character development should have taken priority and been done earlier instead of all the other unnecessary stuff that has happened. It's good to see that the entire aspect of sending out a timid Sobble forcefully into battle against an imposing opponent gets called out later, unlike all the other issues with Goh's character that have been handwaven or swept under the rug in the past. Goh doubting himself as a trainer should be a big point of his character including the subsequent pep talk from Ash, a good character arc would give him a few more failures to work hard out of. Now here's hoping all the development that happened here doesn't suddenly disappear as well, it'll only cheapen this episode otherwise. I do have issues with the actual capture of Sobble as explained in the next few sections.

Cons:

• Bait and switch advertising. I thought we were done with this nonsense half a year ago but no. Everything, every major advertisement and even the upcoming preview in JN020 itself, pointed out that Ash would be getting Sobble prior to the previous episode but at the very end, they suddenly decided to switch it around? Granted, this episode was made a long time ago, but the advertisement around Sobble’s entire capture didn’t have to be filled with blatant lies, no one appreciates stuff like that. At least in the case of Farfetch’d, there wasn’t any placement based advertising like Sobble’s, hence the capture could have gone either way with Goh being the choice in that case. They could have done the same for Sobble and made the advertising about the capture ambiguous, yet not one that outright lied.
• Remember back in JN024’s preview/review when I stated that I hate when villains are given sudden overpowered-ness and the protagonists turn helpless automatically for ‘plot’? Then you’ll know that I take issue with how Magnezone’s Supersonic stun locked every opponent (including humans) because it was outright nonsense and just seemed like another fake tension moment for the sake of it. Speaking of opponents, what is it with the writers’ handling of TRio? They get a decent episode and then they’re suddenly tossed into a forced conflict and turned into generic villains soon after. Outside of some shenanigans with Morpeko (which could have become a TRio Pokemon due to its unique bipolar nature, I still reserve my opinion about it belonging to Marnie only), I believe that there was no need for them to be in this episode at all especially not in the generic villain trope manner. Sobble’s timidity issues could have been dealt with any other scenario including feral wild Pokemon attacks. And where were the two Farfetch'd during the battle?
• Goh’s actual capture of Sobble was an outright mess, even if Goh did make up for it in the end. The entire capture is starkly contrasted by Ash’s capture of Farfetch’d just recently. In the latter case, Ash offered Farfetch’d to join him of its own free will and he did so because he recognized its desire. Here though, Goh only wanted Sobble initially because it reminded him of Mew’s invisibility (a superficial reason) and this was followed up by what is one of the worst captures possible. A random throw without any visible target, instant hit, instant capture, "shock" factor. Are you telling me that the Sobble who was quick to cry and run away in every other scenario, stood absolutely and patiently still for the capture to happen? It doesn’t help that this is supposed to be a mainline Pokemon. For context and comparison, see the paragraph I wrote about how bad Cubone’s capture would turn out if it happened like the one in this episode to know why this one was bad.

Additional:

• The curry making was one of my favorite minigames in Sword/Shield just because of how lax and unrelated to usual intense Pokemon activities it ended up being that actually fit in well with the adventure aspect, and to try weird combinations of ingredients all the time. Here’s hoping Ash can finally cook some proper curry by himself, since the game’s protagonist technically can as well. All that time spent in the family life with Burnet and Kukui needs to have some effect after all.
• So, on to that comparison that I was going to make about a hypothetical Cubone capture that is similar to Sobble's. Imagine if in JN015 and upon seeing Cubone, if Goh had just decided to pelt it with Pokeballs without even stopping to help it because he wanted to. Imagine if it happened like - "Who's that Pokemon?" - *Marina screaming Cubone's description* - "MONSUTA BOL GO!" - instant capture. Imagine if Cubone had to cry about the loss of its bone and subsequent sudden capture, which ended up guilt tripping Goh into helping it. It would have easily damaged his character and made him look very inconsiderate. Thankfully, the actual capture was easily his best because at the end, Cubone was the one who chose to willingly join him and it showcased Goh doing something good because he wanted to and not because he felt guilty (like with Scorbunny and Sobble). Is the entire "bond before capture" a cliche and overused trope? Definitely. Is it boring and unproductive? Absolutely not, because it actually adds to the character of both the trainer and their future Pokemon instead of making them look negative in some way. Shame that Cubone is very irrelevant now.
• Anyone else noticed that the Rotom Phone was also crying whenever Sobble unleashed its tears? Aicholtz’s line deliverance did not fit the visuals of that at all, it made the phone look weird (Or is it the other way around? I can't tell anymore.).
• Bad world building (AGAIN). Wyndon City, you know, the biggest city in Galar? It feels absolutely deserted and desolate. I really don't have to tell why, just look at the streets in the episode itself.
• I wonder if Giovanni intentionally wants TRio to fail, by sending them what is apparently a lazy and snarky Rotom, as well as that vending machine that takes away from their character and gives them Pokemon that rarely come through for them.

Verdict: I really don't have to say much. From the 'villainous' usage of TRio to provide conflict where it wasn't needed, to the underwhelming capture of a mainline Pokemon, it didn't really feel up to the mark especially compared to JN015. Sobble deserved better for its own capture episode, so it's 6/10 from me.

 

[Kurolegacy]

For all the people who are mad that Goh caught Sobble, Nurse Joy says that Sobble may be lost since his kind normally lives in lush environments instead of cities. Maybe in the future they'll find Sobble's original home and Goh will release him.

I doubt it. If it were really just any regular Pokémon they might but not for a starter. Hell, the only real reason that they seemed to have gotten rid of Greninja was because it basically had a story breaking power.

I'm actually kinda surprised that people here hated this episode so much. I loved the fact that Sobble was basically caught on accident by Goh, it's incredibly refreshing after having tons of boring cliché episodes where a main character magically befriends a wild Pokémon and then catches it, at least this way Goh and Sobble had an excuse to bond, and I liked the way Team Rocket arrived in Galar because of their incompetency. The first half had me way more entertained than the second half, since that was basically just a Team Rocket fight and one of the main character's Pokémon overcoming an obstacle they struggle with, something we've seen a thousand times before. I'm gonna hope Sobble evolves faster than Raboot did if it's actually going to become a main part of Goh's team, it's crying gets annoying fast.

Part of the problem with the way Sobble was caught was the fact that it was the way that it happened. You mention that bonding with the Pokémon first is cliche but Go’s ability to just throw a ball and magically capture the Pokémon 97% of the time got old a long time ago so the fact that he not only did so completely by accident and still proceeded to be successful all while the Pokémon in question was anything but calm only exacerbated an already existing issue.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Fantastic review as always @Panky..

Let me use some of your points to make and opinion

Cons:

• Remember back in JN024’s preview/review when I stated that I hate when villains are given sudden overpowered-ness and the protagonists turn helpless automatically for ‘plot’? Then you’ll know that I take issue with how Magnezone’s Supersonic stun locked every opponent (including humans) because it was outright nonsense and just seemed like another fake tension moment for the sake of it. Speaking of opponents, what is it with the writers’ handling of TRio? They get a decent episode and then they’re suddenly tossed into a forced conflict and turned into generic villains soon after. Outside of some shenanigans with Morpeko (which could have become a TRio Pokemon due to its unique bipolar nature, I still reserve my opinion about it belonging to Marnie only), I believe that there was no need for them to be in this episode at all especially not in the generic villain trope manner. Sobble’s timidity issues could have been dealt with any other scenario including feral wild Pokemon attacks. And where were the two Farfetch'd during the battle?

One of the aspects that is annoying me more in this series appart from the Gatcha is how Team Rocket is shown in this series. You just only have to watch episode 3 and see how something is wrong. They are there cause.. reasons. It's like the writters dont now what to do with them anymore but since they attract a lot of fans they have to remember his existance.

People can say that his character is the same from Sun and Moon but Mimikyu and Marearnie did wonders for them and now they are stick with Rental Pokemon that are impressing but Mimmikyu could beat his asses in a second.

Also the rental Pokemon were tunred into joke Pokemon with the eye shenanigans. While clever is still stupid.

So Team Rocket has turned into Team Random and that is not good since now you don't have to make them appear every episode like it happened in GS or AG for example. So his appearence could be worked a little more. Team Rocket in this episode could have been easily replaced by a pair of wild Pokémon or random trainers who wanted to catch Sobble.

Also lets say that while its awesome that they have some episodes for themselves, those episodes were not on pair with Sun and Moon or XY Rocket episodes. In a ranking of Rocket episodes the Ditto episode will be really low and the Vacation episode would be in the middle.


Talking about the capture of Sobble lets say also that now the episode is 3 and a 1/2 stars however the Cubone episode for example was 3 stars however knowing what I know now I would give that episode 2 or maybe just 1 and a 1/2 star. Since what is the point of giving and entire episode to a Pokémon that is not new and it's doing absolutely nothing?

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I'm just glad we finally got another good Go episode.

It's been way too long.

 

[Islander Princess]

Finally got around to watching this episode, and unfortunately this is the second week in a row where I felt pretty underwhelmed.

I'll start it off by agreeing with everyone who said the way Goh caught Sobble was straight up bad. And I was never anti "Goh catching Sobble"; the capture itself was just weak. And I had to laugh at Goh commenting "I wasted a valuable poke ball" considering he typically doesn't hesitate to throw them around without much of a strategy. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there one episode where he wasted an entire pile of poke balls trying to catch a Pokemon?

I do like that Goh got some decent character development here. I was pretty shocked when he automatically sent Sobble out to battle, and I'm glad they had that ultimately be the main problem of the episode. They didn't really portray it in the best or most interesting way, unfortunately (the whole situation just came across as very dull), but at the end of the day, it's still development for Goh and very refreshing to see him admit that he made a mistake and that he was going to learn from it.

I actually found the "Team Rocket getting blown away by the wind" gag to be pretty funny (I love when they throw in some background humor), but I didn't really get the whole point of them with Morepeko. I'm hoping maybe it means they'll catch it in the future and this was just the initial build up (it's a great Pokemon for them, honestly), but if not then those scenes were just kind of wasteful.

Ultimately, I wasn't really impressed by this episode. Again, like last week, it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination...it was just kind of boring. It does get points for the Goh development, however, and I'll be curious to see how he and Sobble continue to work on their partnership.

 

[Sobble Bubble-O-Seven]

I finally watched the episode. While I didn't think it was bad, there were some things that annoyed me. Panky hit on those points already, so I won't spend too much time beating a dead horse here, but I do want to say a few things.

The Sobble capture legit made me upset. Writers, you mean to tell me that you thought it was a good idea to have Gou randomly throw a Poke Ball and have it actually capture Sobble? I'm sorry, but I find this whole capture to be dumb. It comes out of nowhere, even for a character like Gou and in turn, it makes Gou look even worse to those who are already against him.

That being said, I am glad that Gou got some good character development here even after the dumb capture. The bond he formed with Sobble was nice. I just hope he keeps Sobble with him and not leave it at the lab. If that happens, I'll be pretty upset. Don't you dare leave my precious little water lizard at the lab. Also, don't let it evolve too quickly. I don't want to see another Scorbunny situation happen to Sobble.

Sobble being able to bend that cage was a head scratcher. While it's true that Team Rocket used a low budget cage, Sobble still shouldn't have been able to bend those bars. As much as it pains me to say it, Sobble isn't that strong of a Pokemon in its base form (at least physically, anyway). So to see it be able to bend those bars just screams ass pull to me.

Some people had a problem with Magnezone stun locking everyone, but I didn't mind it. Let's not ignore the fact that Magnezone is a strong Pokemon, so I can buy it being able to affect everyone with Supersonic. Also, I liked seeing it and Armaldo cry from their eyes on the sides. That was a nice touch.

Another thing that really didn't bother me too much was Sobble's crying. This could just be bias on my part considering how much I love the little guy, but I thought it crying wasn't that big of a hindrance in regard to the quality of the episode. As long as the writers don't overdo it in the long run, I won't mind seeing Sobble cry every now and then (though I do want to see it grow stronger and become more courageous and brave).

That's all I have to say really. Again, please writers, don't have Gou leave Sobble at the lab. If you do that (especially to a new starter and one I love so much), I'll be angry. Give the little guy the screen time and action it deserves.

Edit: Speaking of ass pull, those goggles. Not sure I dig that decision by the writers, but whatever.

 

[P_S_B]

I still haven't watched this yet, so can anyone please tell me whether or not Ash and Gou cry every time Sobble does? Because if they do and the gag is as overused as it reportedly is then that's enough to put this in the skip pile for me. If not and it's mostly just Sobble crying then I'll attempt to forge through it even with the horrendous first impression it gave me last week (which at least does sound like it was the low point of the episode).