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Review JN032: Celebi: A Timeless Promise

I felt that this episode had the misfortune of bad placement and should have taken place a lot sooner, especially followed up with an important episode involving development for Goh, instead of sitting in between what are two filler episodes which are disconnected ("self-contained" format, anyone?). I'll admit that I wasn't as into it because of the lack of Ash and the middle portion of the episode felt like it dragged out a bit too much without much of interest happening. There's just one thing that pissed me off though, I got a bit excited when Goh called out Scyther and Farfetch'd because I assumed he'd battle using them but he only used them to cut tall grass instead, which came off as revenge captures a bit too much (and the usual monotonous one ball captures).

Will wait on subs obviously.
 
I just decided to wait for subs outright and haven't watched it yet. From what it sounded like it was going to be dialogue-heavy and since Goh is already not in the best of my books I thought it would be best if I gave him a proper chance to redeem himself by being able to understand what he's saying and know what development he gets if any. I have seen the new opening however and while I prefer the previous version the new one has some good stuff in it, particularly the Alola group, I look forward to seeing them again in the future.
 
Panky.. said:
I felt that this episode had the misfortune of bad placement and should have taken place a lot sooner, especially followed up with an important episode involving development for Goh, instead of sitting in between what are two filler episodes which are disconnected ("self-contained" format, anyone?). I'll admit that I wasn't as into it because of the lack of Ash and the middle portion of the episode felt like it dragged out a bit too much without much of interest happening. There's just one thing that pissed me off though, I got a bit excited when Goh called out Scyther and Farfetch'd because I assumed he'd battle using them but he only used them to cut tall grass instead, which came off as revenge captures a bit too much (and the usual monotonous one ball captures).

Will wait on subs obviously.
Click to expand...

I think the cutting the tall grass was a throwback to the OG games where you could cut grass when using cut on them.
 
A very heartwarming episode for Goh on his childhood, that he wished Celebi appear, but never fulfilled until Goh return back to the place, where Tokie been. That finally got resolve after he left the message from the shrine all those years. Which mythical pokemon had been watching them the whole time. Nevertheless, better episode than last week.

Overall rating: B+
 
I actually enjoyed this episode more than I thought I would

It was good to see a great variety of wild Pokemon in Johto, I don't actually mind Ash being absent as I think it worked in his favor, allowed us to see the story instead of having Goh explain what happened

I had a bit of a tearjerker when Tokio fell ill, better than my suggestion of Celebi transporting him to the future
 
From the new intro you can deduce that Goh will catch Heracross and Flygon. And I think Zapdos? Raboot evolves in Cinderace. Ash Riolu evolves in Lucario. Ash's friends from Alola will show up.
 
I caught the second half.

The crux of it was Gou and Tokio became fast friends and promised to meet again the next day to continue searching for Celebi. However, Tokio developed a fever and couldn't make it. Gou was sad and disappointed - complete with dramatic rain falling on him - and seemingly developed trust issues (hence his comments way back in episode three). Gou returns to Johto and finds the Ilex Shrine, where a letter is conveniently waiting for him. Tokio returned to the shrine in hopes Gou was there, and when he wasn't, he left a letter behind apologising for breaking their promise. Then Tokio appears, says he has a lot to talk to Gou about, and the episode ends.

Tokio wanted to find Celebi for a reason I didn't catch. Gou tells him about meeting Mew at Oak's ranch and decides to put off his search to help Tokio find Celebi. Most of the episode centres on their misadventures in the wild, including one too many chase sequences. Gou has some kind of device his parents made that can help find Mew. They then sit under the stars and talk about the Pokemon that came from space, like Clefairy, Jirachi and Rayquaza.

Throughout the episode, Tokio is depicted as being delicate while Gou is happy-go-lucky. Tokio was worried Gou wouldn't come back when he went into a cave to find a Pokemon to cut the long grass. Gou says "of course I was coming back!". This scenario was flipped later on when they promised to meet again, only this time it was Tokio who didn't come back. It was a tidy bit of irony.

The episode ended oddly. We didn't hear what Gou and Tokio had to say to one another and there was no direct indication Tokio will be a recurring character, other than him having a Chikorita. Tokio could be a new trainer so maybe he'll show up a few more times down the road. We'll see.

It was a cute enough episode, though it's placement was a little off. It's always a bit weird when a character just thinks about their past for no reason, and the uncertainty over Tokio's status in the show means we're not quite sure how important this episode will be in the grand scheme of things.
 
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A Celebi episode without time-travelling shenanigans? Impossible! This is blasphemy!

Jokes aside, I'll wait for the subs before I say much, but for now, I'll say it was an above-average episode. On one hand, it was fun seeing Gou and Tokio exploring the forest and interacting with tons of Johto Pokemon, and that little segment of them staring into the night sky and talking bout space-related Pokemon like Rayquaza and Jirachi was nice too. On the other hand, the last quarter of the episode (the post-flashback part) was kinda iffy. I didn't really like how Gou was getting free, battle-less captures during his fit of frustration. That whole scene felt a bit jarring, honestly.
 
Looks like the new intro has Spoilers. I'm not going to tell them here, but there pretty interesting.
 
Great episode! This is one of the few episodes (along with PM030) that nails the "episodic format", it was a strong and compelling story that didn't feel rushed or padded. One small aspect I really enjoyed was the "lore dump" when they were looking at the stars, it was nice hearing them chat about many of the space-related Pokemon myths, many of which call back to previous films and episodes. I also thought the scene where Gou returns to the forest was pretty effective. He curses Tokio and proceeds to send out all of his Pokemon as an obvious over-compensation for his lack of human friends. He even ends up capturing two Pokemon that remind him of Tokio out of sheer spite.

That ending was really shocking, they way it cuts away as the two were approaching each other. It leaves a lot open to interpretation, but you can imagine it was an intense and emotional reunion (get your mind out of the gutter). One can only hope this leaves a lasting impact on Gou's character. Tokio breaking his promise was responsible for much of Gou's later anti-social behavior after all.
 
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