VetProf
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2020
- Messages
- 429
- Reaction score
- 2,019
I'm not sure where Ash's PWC battles took place (probably Vermilion City), but yes, the sandstorm occurred in Hoenn's Mauville City. The Sakuragi Institute received news of the phenomenon, and Gou volunteered to check it out together with Ash.They did go to Hoenn?! That was not clear to me... the battles at the start were in Vermillion though right? I must watch again.
Did they just teleport?! Admittedly I don’t speak Japanese, it would be good if the city looked a little bit like it did in the game.
Anyway, onto the episode itself. Seems like I enjoyed this episode a bit more than some other peeps here, but anyway, here's my early thoughts.
1. A losing streak combined with dropping back to Normal Class are perfectly understandable reasons for Ash to be in quite a slump this episode. With that said, the losses did felt a little bit forced (if this were the games, I'd say Ash received the short end of the RNG stick with the Psybeam and Poison Sting hax), and I feel like the writers overdid the whole slump thing when they made Ash use an Electric-type move against Flygon. At least this time there's a reason for it compared to the Unova episode, I guess.
2. I'm actually quite ok with Gou's captures in this episode. Yes, the Trapinch and Vibrava captures were battle-less captures, but at least they weren't instant first-try captures. Gou caught both of them on his second attempts via curveball throws, with the Vibrava capture also being assisted by Raboot. I think it's already clear by now that curveball throws are, for whatever reason, much more effective than regular throws, so I feel like there's no use in complaining about them anymore. Also, neither Pokemon are fully-evolved Pokemon, so... yeah, I'll let it slide.
3. And finally there's the highlight of this episode: Flygon. Watching Gou take the lead in a battle for once was super refreshing, with both Raboot and Sobble putting in some work. I really loved how the Flygon battle felt like a multi-phase boss battle you'd see in a video game, with the Sand Tomb first phase, Dragon Rush + Dig second phase, and the Draco Meteor final phase. Almost felt like I could've heard Monster Hunter soundtracks during that entire fight. Anyway, Sobble's Water Gun spam allowed them to break through the Sand Tomb shield, and I liked how Gou scurried to return Sobble to its Pokeball before it could cry. The rest of the battle was hard-carried by Raboot, and I absolutely loved how Gou pulled an Ash by having Raboot climb through the Draco Meteor and kick one of the meteors back at Flygon. That's just downright awesome.
Overall, I'd say this was a pretty decent episode, despite some of the flaws. Will wait for subs to see if there's anything else interesting in the dialogue (especially the conversation at the end of the episode).