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Review JN031: Hinbass's Beautiful Scale

Just finished watching, and I have to say I'm really happy with this episode. lots of cute stuff to focus on! Ash being the sweet boy he is and thinking Feebas is cool even though it's considered ugly, Koharu being dedicated towards this whole thing and growing to care more for Pokémon, Ren's desktop wallpaper of him and his Magnemite omg, the cool Iron Tail animation....

but the best just has to be Yamper's little pawsies and him in a swim tube??

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I love him too much. ;_; Overall I'd say this was an 8/10 for me, there was a lot to like and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would!
 
In XY, he told Goodra that he could have asked professor Oak to send him some pokemon but he wants to battle with Goodra.
That's a tease more than anything else. Wow, Ash remembers that he has some Pokemon at the lab, but chooses to use Goodra which left for a reason.

Here we have got zero mentions of Ash's old pokemon and since ash is competing in the world championships, I want him to use teams combined with new and old pokemon but unfortunately , this series has handled that element and the world championships in probably the worst way possible.
I agree that it's taking too long, but we still don't know what the art and merchandise for the Kanto starters is all about. Even Charizard has been spotted with Bulbasaur and Squirtle (in Pallet no less), so it isn't Leon's. Anyway, to say that there's been zero continuity ignores the Lt. Surge reference, Korrina's return and as many as three instances of "I Choose You" flashbacks. That's league betters than we got in the entire run of XY, and the first major continuity nod in SM happened in SM042-043 (there was just one more time after that, which was derivative).

Panky.. said:
A better incentive would be to have reserves for the sake of character development/showcase alone.
Character development in an episode about a COTD? Okay.

Let's keep it simple. Someone misunderstood what was said in the episode. Regardless, the episode wasn't designed to give any of Ash's Pokemon meaningful screentime. This would have been a pretty terrible way to revisit a reserve. If he'd been eligible to enter, Ash could have just used Dragonite for a Water contest, anyway.
 
Maybe my Japanese just sucks, but I’m pretty sure I heard “too old” rather than “don’t have a water type.” How did anyone draw that conclusion?
Yeah, the assistant said something along the lines of "chit chai" (ちっちゃい), which meant tiny/little, so I immediately assumed she meant that the competition was for little kids only. There was absolutely no mention of '"Pokemon" or "Water-types" at all. Then again, this is coming from someone who's gained a very basic understanding of Japanese from watching too much anime, so... yeah, misunderstandings before watching the subs are perfectly understandable. It's still a bit disappointing to see people jumping to conclusions just because of how strongly the "Gou shouldn't have caught Sobble" bandwagon is still going, though.
 
A pretty average episode. Just your usual character-of-the day plot.
 
...Well that's an odd statement to hear. Ash being 'too old'. When has that ever been the problem?
Well, in the Princess Day episode Ash couldn't compete in the tournament since it was only for female participants. (However, I do think he was also under the impression it was a beauty contest juist like Misty and Jessie.)

But in real life it's not unusual to have a maximum age for some contests or competitions.

If for example the maximum age was 6 or 8, Ash is too old to compete.

At least he wanted to compete, so he would have needed a water Pokémon. Maybe he wanted to bring one of his reserves. (However I don't think the writers gave it this much thought.)
 
Ms. Omode can and has done better.
She definitely has, but this also isn't the first time she's missed an easy opportunity for something better than what she ultimately delivered. Another such example of her work where improvement was so easy yet she managed to miss it was in the Kiawe and Sophocles training camp episode where Mimo was told that she wasn't allowed to join them despite the seemingly obvious comedic potential in seeing her upstaging Sophocles at everything.
 
Well, in the Princess Day episode Ash couldn't compete in the tournament since it was only for female participants. (However, I do think he was also under the impression it was a beauty contest juist like Misty and Jessie.)

But in real life it's not unusual to have a maximum age for some contests or competitions.

If for example the maximum age was 6 or 8, Ash is too old to compete.

At least he wanted to compete, so he would have needed a water Pokémon. Maybe he wanted to bring one of his reserves. (However I don't think the writers gave it this much thought.)

It was more a joke at Ash's tendency to never get older than anything else
 
That was a great episode. Development for Chloe, while Ash and Go were involved in a supporting role (and final a break from attention hog Riolu). The water type friendship contest had enough similarities to the Pokemon Contests of the Advance and D&P series to note the reference but still be subtle enough.

My only complaint is Team Rocket. They show up in Slateport City with no warning and essentially try to steal candy from babies, or water types from young kids. The gatcha machine has long overstayed it’s welcome. Go catching Wingull should have been in the background rather than suddenly the focus.

Just a minor thing, but I liked the touch of the sticky notes on the side of the computer monitor at the lab.

Well, in the Princess Day episode Ash couldn't compete in the tournament since it was only for female participants. (However, I do think he was also under the impression it was a beauty contest juist like Misty and Jessie.)

But in real life it's not unusual to have a maximum age for some contests or competitions.

If for example the maximum age was 6 or 8, Ash is too old to compete.

At least he wanted to compete, so he would have needed a water Pokémon. Maybe he wanted to bring one of his reserves. (However I don't think the writers gave it this much thought.)

I think the writers didn’t want to put too much focus on Ash this episode, or raise the topic of Go entering with Sobble.
 
I'd call this a pretty standard filler episode.

I don't know why they had to have all those little kids in there because it turned it into a rather childish episode (if it hadn't been for Milotic's appearance). The writers apparently need to appeal to little children every once in a while. Oh well...

Also, I was confused how easily the group can now jump around between different regions just for a local, tiny tournament with a handful of children competing.

Apart from that, there's not really much that would be worth mentioning.
 
Delayed by all the power outages due to thunderstorms in our area. Can't believe this thread dried up so quickly though.

Pros:
  • While it’s technically just a run-of-the-mill filler with the usual generic “help a character/Pokemon a day” plot, there was something about the way it showcased Koharu that made it stand out better and made it enjoyable (at least until the last quarter). It’s interesting to note that at the start of the episode, she has that usual semi-annoyed expression when she observes Goh’s Pokemon while noting that there “being even more” in an exasperated tone which is a stark contrast to how she is at the end with her saying that “Pokemon are amazing(special props to Sakuragi for egging her a bit). It’s nice to see her older sister instincts kick in to help Nami as well as develop a protective complex to the point she becomes fired up whenever anyone speaks negatively about said girl (something we rarely got to see with May). And the best part is that she’s traveling with the main duo to other places, they should just hurry up and let her get started on her own path since there’s been more than enough build-up for her at this point. Sota being a honorary member of the group is also welcome though I can't of something unique that he can bring to the group, that's not similar to Max or Bonnie.
Cons:
  • Another forced and pointless TRio appearance where they were never needed, especially not in the generic villain manner. It’s quite aggravating how they needed to resort to the Gacha machine to steal one helpless and feeble Pokemon from one young girl who has no knowledge about Pokemon training… something about the entire scenario grated my nerves and made them come off of as worse than their BW selves. It’s quite weak TRio writing from Akemi Omode and as someone rightly pointed out, she’s done a lot of great episodes with them. If TRio can’t be utilized in a proper manner, then I’d rather they not be utilized at all instead of them being ruined the way they are. One way they could have been written in this episode was to enter the competition themselves and only resort to stealing after losing and becoming salty. Also bad animation in the latter third, too choppy with stock/repeating/echoing footage.
Additional:
  • It's somewhat odd and strange for kids taking care of Pokemon that'll end up evolving into powerhouse Pokemon before they're even eligible to be official Pokemon trainers. Even more so when you consider the fact that you now have competitions for kids under trainer age. And when that competition was a 'contest' but not a Contest. I don't know, might just be me.
  • BAD WORLD BUILDING, I've already explained this in the past and don't intend on repeating, this is a problem with the series in general though. Slateport didn't feel like Slateport, could have been any generic filler town near the beach.

Verdict: This ended up being a relatively short write-up (if not, one of my shortest), mostly because I rushed through it due to the delay (who knows how long the next power outage will last) and partly because of its filler structure where there weren't many points to discuss. I'll give it 6.5/10, would have given it higher if not for that last quarter.
 
I see people complaining about Meowth being too evil but I'm more concerned about the fact that Koharu didn't do anything to help the girl? Why not use Yamper to battle against Team Rocket since this was an episode focused on Koharu? Especially since TR had a Kingler today which would give Koharu the type advantage. This would have showed that Koharu is somewhat smart and has learned something from spending time with the Pokémon in the lab even without traveling. This reminds me of how Serena and Bonnie would cling to each other in some episodes while the boys solved the problem.

I must admit that I'm getting tired of female protagonists who dislike battling. I think it was OK for Serena and Lillie since they had other plots to balance it out (family drama, romance, Kalos Queen contest, good emotional development) and there was also Iris in the previous season who battled and was a little bit more of a tomboy. Feminine characters are fine but there should be a balance.

There seems to be a lot of focus on getting siblings in the anime lately. Such as the jealousy plots and Kouharu being an older sister like figure to younger kids. While this is OK and probably relatable to the target audience, I think she needs some other traits too. Haruka/May and Clemont played this role as well and they still had established goals and other traits so the older sibling aspect didn't overshadow everything else.
 
Move over Ash and Goh: Chloe is the star of this show.

Seriously, I love her. I love the way she's been written and has developed so far. Even though this was a pretty standard filler, I really enjoyed it because of her role in the episode. Her interactions with Nami were so sweet, and I just love how she went out of her way to help the girl. I really think it'd be great to see Chloe have some kind of goal where she works with kids and their Pokemon. I'm not entirely sure what that would be (some kind of coach perhaps?) but it seems like something she'd really enjoy that ties in with Professor Cerise's work that she appeared to think was kind of cool.

I also would love to learn more about how she and Goh met and became friends. It was cute to see Goh tease her a little bit and how their friendship seems to work. Since Goh doesn't seem totally open to most people (until Ash came along, at least) I'd be curious to see how their friendship came to be and evolved over time. It was a fun side of Goh that I feel like we don't get to see very often. It was also funny to see Goh get negative about the contest and have everyone else turn on him because of it. Just shows off their different personalities and was a nice little addition.

I'll admit I think the episodes where the main characters are helping out young kids are very cute and I tend to really enjoy them, but it was definitely a little dry in parts. Team Rocket was really not needed here. I just wish they were given something more interesting to do than reverting back to "ruin event, try and steal Pokemon, and fail" in almost every episode where they appear (which, so far, hasn't been a lot). I basically stop paying attention once that stupid prize master comes around, because it's already became so formulaic and predictable. It just adds absolutely nothing to the episode or to Team Rocket themselves.

Another great episode for Chloe. Other than that, a little bit bland, but not unbearable!
 
Team Rocket were pretty evil in this episode, but it's not like they didn't do it before: Bombing the lake in Kanto, throwing Eureka down from their balloon in XY, seriously attacking and hurting Rowlet, who was just trying to protect Meltan, in SM, etc.
Contest in this episode kinda reminds me the pokémon contests. That whirlpool they made is a pretty standard constest move, not to mention Koharu line about "not everything is about battles."
I see people complaining about Meowth being too evil but I'm more concerned about the fact that Koharu didn't do anything to help the girl?
Yeah, the whole time I was expecting her to do something, as expected from this type of episodes. I guess the writer wanted to give the focus to the little girl and Hi-chan, since it would be more meaningful for them to be "proven" in the eyes of children.
 
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