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Review JN034: The Solitary Fighter Saitou! The Threatening Otosupus!!

Damn, the dream team delivers again. I'll not write down my initial thoughts this time since I want to save it for the big write up which I'm very excited and looking forward to.

Two things I have a nitpick with, and a personal one at that for the first one, is that they made the match a bit too one sided, though in retrospect it does make sense. Secondly, Goh is handed out a free Pokemon on silver platter, out of nowhere and with no development whatsoever.
 
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The winning streak of Ash finally end here. Better train harder as you can, Ash and be prepared to arrive back to Galar again to battle Bea somewhere in the future episodes.

Overall rating: B+
 
Another really great PWC-ish episode with Bea now being a pretty worthy opponent or heck, even a rival for Ash to face.

Also love that little part with Bea talking about how she even defeated Korrina, just little pieces of continuity like that helps make the world feel more alive and Tomioka’s been damn good at this.
 
We saw Ash get wrecked.
Farfetch'd did the same as my pinky vs all the furniture in the passing years.
The only weird thing for me, was how still grapploct was, making the battle lack fluidity.
Ash is clearly on a downwards spiral after the clash, hopefully not for long.
Raboot clearly shows signs of battle eagerness.
Hitmochan was a bit out of nowhere.
 
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Another brilliant battle courtesy of Iwane; I cannot decide which I like more-this one or Leon Vs. Lance. Hawlucha vs Farfetch'd was as it should be (what an epic debut for Hone Claws) while Riolu Vs. Grapploct was an excellent example in a difference in strength; I love how Grapploct made sure to bind Riolu's legs with the second application of Octolock, after learning from the first time.
 
I enjoyed this episode, partially because I like Bea and also because Riolu has been an aggressive little shite since it hatched, so it was a bit of a guilty pleasure seeing it get beaten up. Bea was Rank 751 vs. Ash's 890, so I think if they wanted to make it as one-sided as they did it might have been better to have shown Bea at a much higher rank possibly in the 4 or 500s. Koromi was Rank 895 and was significantly less of a challenge than Bea. Maybe they want to indicate that the levels of ability jump exponentially the higher rank you get, but that will rely on them to uphold that curve into even higher ranks which I'm not convinced they'll be able to believably do, but we'll see what happens. Either way this episode was fun. PWC matches shoved into random episodes tend to be crap, but when the episode is purely PWC focused then it's generally good, as seen here.

Was also nice to see no Gou catching or Messon crying.

The Saffron Dojo was completely unrecognizable from the AG version, although the AG version wasn't exactly the most fitting depiction of it from what I recall so seeing that quietly replaced with a more game-based one is fine with me. It was unfortunate that the Karate Master bore zero resemblance to the character that was clearly meant to be him (had his name in both Japanese and English and had a Tyrogue in the area where you get Tyrogue off him in the games) who appeared in Johto, but then again I don't think that episode referred to or treated him as the actual Karate King so again no real harm done.

A. Could have got a plus if Bea was ranked higher from the start so it wasn't a Youngster Joey-Ultra Necrozma jump in challenge over a relatively small degree of numbering, although this will be mute if they are able to stick to that level of increasing difficulty the higher the rankings go.

I dont like beas character
Probably because they want to build up your hype for the inevitable rematch.
 
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Having the same attittude of Guzma might be reason. Why she is emotionless?

Bea and Guzma are notably different individuals...

I wouldn't say she's emotionless. She's focused and serious; she actually came off as intense to me, but in a subdued manner.
 
Panky.. said:
Secondly, Goh being awarded a free Pokemon out of nowhere and with no development whatsoever.

Kitasuki said:
Hitmochan was a bit out of nowhere.

The whole reason Satoshi and Gou were at the Yamabuki City Fighting Dojo in the first place was because Gou heard that Trainers could get either a Sawamular or an Ebiwalar from the dojo. They talk about it constantly throughout the episode. At one point Gou finds out that the dojo doesn't just hand over free Fighting-Type Pokémon and that you have to actually defeat the Karate King in battle first.

After Satoshi and Saitou have their match Gou and the Karate King go off to have their battle. The battle happens off-screen but since we see Gou with an Ebiwalar in the very next scene we can assume he won the battle.

So no, he wasn't "rewarded a free Pokémon" "out of nowhere."
 
Also want to add. This episode might be a catalyst to Ash bringing back old mons.
If he continues to face opponents like Bea, cannon glass gengar, huggy bear dragonite, c'mon but slowly farfetch'd, is constantly in need of a snickers bar riolu, and randomly jealous pikachu are clearly not gonna be enough.

The whole reason Satoshi and Gou were at the Yamabuki City Fighting Dojo in the first place was because Gou heard that Trainers could get either a Sawamular or an Ebiwalar from the dojo. They talk about it throughout the entire episode. Later, Gou finds out that the dojo doesn't just hand over free Fighting-Type Pokémon; you have to defeat the Karate King in battle first.

After Satoshi and Saitou have their battle, Gou and the Karate King go off to have their battle off-screen. Since we see Gou with an Ebiwalar in the next scene we can assume he won the battle.

So no, he wasn't "rewarded a free Pokémon" "out of nowhere."
Still sad that they skipped the battle
 
The whole reason Satoshi and Gou were at the Yamabuki City Fighting Dojo in the first place was because Gou heard that Trainers could get either a Sawamular or an Ebiwalar from the dojo. They talk about it constantly throughout the episode. At one point Gou finds out that the dojo doesn't just hand over free Fighting-Type Pokémon and that you have to actually defeat the Karate King in battle first.

After Satoshi and Saitou have their match Gou and the Karate King go off to have their battle. The battle happens off-screen but since we see Gou with an Ebiwalar in the very next scene we can assume he won the battle.

So no, he wasn't "rewarded a free Pokémon" "out of nowhere."
You proved the part where I said that it happens without relevant development (I had edited the post before you posted your reply). Goh getting the Hitmonchan in itself would have made for a decent Pt. II continuation to this episode and a chance for him to develop while actively pursuing a Pokemon. Instead, it became a case of tell but never show (that I so recently called out in episode 33's review thread) where we're expected to believe that Goh and Hitmonchan are now fast buddies after he supposedly won in an off screen battle and got a free Pokemon. There's only surface level interaction present there, not enough for it to be anything positive.
Also want to add. This episode might be a catalyst to Ash bringing back old mons.
If he continues to face opponents like Bea, cannon glass gengar, huggy bear dragonite, c'mon but slowly farfetch'd, is constantly in need of a snickers bar riolu, and randomly jealous pikachu are clearly not gonna be enough.
I really hope so too, this episode flat out proves that he can't compete in the WORLD Championships, especially in the upper tiers, with just his series core party.
 
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Still sad that they skipped the battle
So am I, however if they had tried to squeeze it into this episode it would probably have ruined it. 22 minutes sounds like a long time but it really isn't. Of course a 2-part episode with Gou training for and having his battle for the Hitmonchan next week instead of the yet another "will Pikachu evolve???!!1!?!!1!!?" that doubles as a bootleg Pikachu Valley episode that we're getting would have been nice.
 
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The relation between Goh and his Pokemon, which only exists on the surface. That's what. This is what I said in the last episode's review thread about Goh's relation with Pinsir.

You can bet the same thing has happened / will happened with Hitmonchan.
I understand your point and I agree with it.

Nonetheless, all we saw was an hitmochan that knew he was meant to be given away, responding to its trainer when he said he got it. Never saw a hint of a deeper bond
 
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