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Review JN036: Satoshi and Go, Crawl Up From the Sand Hell!

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.
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.

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).
 
So Riolu got all the focus again? Damn I was hoping he would use Farfetch'd in one of his early battles to emphasise his slump. I get that Riolu's more popular and all, but it feels so off having his rival (who was sparring with him in the opening) get no screentime here.
 
Last week we were complaining about Satoshi's slump seemingly coming out of nowhere, and now I'm seeing complaints that the opening battles served no purpose but to enforce this slump... damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.
Depends on the context of the situation. This slump came out of thin air in this episode and ended in this episode itself (if it had ended in at least the Alola episode, it would have been somewhat bearable given the tone of that episode). There were no long term build up, implications or ramifications, no tension behind it outside of those somewhat forced losses and Ash behaving helpless, nothing, nada. This issue is a long running one that arises because of this series' "self contained format" and not just exclusive to this episode itself.
 
Depends on the context of the situation. This slump came out of thin air in this episode and ended in this episode itself (if it had ended in at least the Alola episode, it would have been somewhat bearable given the tone of that episode). There were no long term build up, implications or ramifications, no tension behind it outside of those somewhat forced losses and Ash behaving helpless, nothing, nada. This issue is a long running one that arises because of this series' "self contained format" and not just exclusive to this episode itself.
Ash was already dejected at the end on the Bea battle, and here, that dejection escalated into a losing streak.
 
Ash was already dejected at the end on the Bea battle, and here, that dejection escalated into a losing streak.
Not the problem. The problem is that it ended up being a self contained matter and a rushed plotline that didn't go anywhere. The entire thing happens and will only be relevant within the episode itself. Its impact is kind of weakened due to that.
 
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Not the problem. The problem is that it ended up being a self contained and rushed plotline that didn't go anywhere. The entire thing happens and will only be relevant within the episode itself. Its impact is kind of weakened due to that.
Yeah, I think it would have been fine if the writers had given some hint about his depression in episode 35.
 
I was confused what drove those COTDs to walk into the sandstorm. At first I thought they were just being hypnotized by Flygon's song but if that's the case then why weren't Satoshi and Gou affected?
Protagonist plot armor, is my guess?

EDIT: It would have been nice to see Ash/Satoshi and Go hypnotized, even if for just a moment.
 
Protagonist plot armor, is my guess?

EDIT: It would have been nice to see Ash/Satoshi and Go hypnotized, even if for just a moment.

It would also be nice if Ash's funk didn't come on way too quickly. Could have someone last episode to contribute to it instead of suggesting Ash has tentacle trauma.
 
I knew it! I just knew it! (Sobbing) I just send a letter to studio in Japan about someday that Ash will get a shiny Flygon and other episode ideas & wait for replay. Ggggrrrrr!!! Now I’m upset! I was hope that Ash will get Trapinch not Goh! And those silly writers keeps making up! I’m from England!
 
One thing that I really didn't like about this episode was the setting. Mauville City looked extremely different from the last time we saw it, as in the city's geography itself seemed to change drastically. Wasn't it right next to the ocean in AG but now suddenly it's in a generic spot surrounded by forest? If the animators weren't going to be consistent with how the city looked in AG then this episode might as well have taken place in some anime exclusive place instead. /rantover
 
I knew it! I just knew it! (Sobbing) I just send a letter to studio in Japan about someday that Ash will get a shiny Flygon and other episode ideas & wait for replay. Ggggrrrrr!!! Now I’m upset! I was hope that Ash will get Trapinch not Goh! And those silly writers keeps making up! I’m from England!

You were already told in your other thread where you bragged about sending them a letter that nothing would come of it, so I don't know what you were expecting? They were never going to read your letter, partly because they don't have time to go through all their fan mail and partially because nobody wants to read a machine translated wishlist.

But even if they had read your letter and given a crap about your desire for Ash to get Trapinch, they never would've had time to change the episode's outcome on such short notice. I mean why should they have spent who knows how much time and money revising the episode just to appease you?
 
One thing that I really didn't like about this episode was the setting. Mauville City looked extremely different from the last time we saw it, as in the city's geography itself seemed to change drastically. Wasn't it right next to the ocean in AG but now suddenly it's in a generic spot surrounded by forest? If the animators weren't going to be consistent with how the city looked in AG then this episode might as well have taken place in some anime exclusive place instead. /rantover
Don't forget that Mauville had a complete redesign in ORAS, so this is probably just the anime doing something similar!
 
Not the problem. The problem is that it ended up being a self contained matter and a rushed plotline that didn't go anywhere. The entire thing happens and will only be relevant within the episode itself. Its impact is kind of weakened due to that.
What’s worse is that it really seems that, rather than creating an overarching narrative for Ash, they only put him in the rut in this episode so that they could sideline Ash so Go could be the big hero here. It’s completely unnecessary. They could have had Ash and Go get separated in the sandstorm and it would have changed nothing of how things played out.
 
Maybe someday, that Ash will gets a Shiny Flygon for his own somewhere in future episode.
 
Well that's why I send a letter to studio about this....
サトシ&ナックラー!砂の砂漠で失われた!

サトシとゴーがホーエンに到着。サトシがヌチュラーを捕まえた後、彼は砂の丘に落ちて道に迷いました。それで、サトシは彼の新たに捕らえられたナックラーと共に他を見つけなければなりませません。



(Transition: Satoshi & Nuckrar! Lost In The Sand Desert!

Satoshi and Go arrive at the Hoenn. After Satoshi have catches Nuchrar, he fell down the sandy hills and got lost. So Satoshi along with his newly captured Nuchrar have to find the others.)
 
Maybe someday, that Ash will gets a Shiny Flygon for his own somewhere in future episode.
Wouldn’t hold my breath. Now that they’ve given Go a Flygon, it’s basically off limits. Ash tends to not catch the same Pokémon that his companions have especially in the same series. And between Dragonite and Farfetch’d, he’s already pushing that.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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