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

[Max1996]

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.)

You...actually sent a letter to OLM?

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I really didn't like this episode. I'm not a fan of how forced this slump feels for Ash and Riolu deserves far better than this. Plus, it really made Riolu look weak. I'm also not crazy about Goh catching the entire Flygon line, though I did love how Raboot had to battle Flygon and seeing Goh use a strategy like that.

 

[Max1996]

I really didn't like this episode. I'm not a fan of how forced this slump feels for Ash and Riolu deserves far better than this. Plus, it really made Riolu look weak. I'm also not crazy about Goh catching the entire Flygon line, though I did love how Raboot had to battle Flygon and seeing Goh use a strategy like that.

This, so much...

 

[Kurolegacy]

I really didn't like this episode. I'm not a fan of how forced this slump feels for Ash and Riolu deserves far better than this. Plus, it really made Riolu look weak. I'm also not crazy about Goh catching the entire Flygon line, though I did love how Raboot had to battle Flygon and seeing Goh use a strategy like that.

Also not a fan of them giving him the entire line especially after them giving him an episode where he realizes he doesn’t have to capture an entire line and can evolve Pokémon. His development is feeling really disjointed as if there’s no real communication between the writers.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I really didn't like this episode. I'm not a fan of how forced this slump feels for Ash and Riolu deserves far better than this. Plus, it really made Riolu look weak. I'm also not crazy about Goh catching the entire Flygon line, though I did love how Raboot had to battle Flygon and seeing Goh use a strategy like that.

This, so much...

Also not a fan of them giving him the entire line especially after them giving him an episode where he realizes he doesn’t have to capture an entire line and can evolve Pokémon. His development is feeling really disjointed as if there’s no real communication between the writers.

...I liked this episode...

 

[Max1996]

...I liked this episode...

What about it did you like?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

What about it did you like?

The Flygon battle and Ash showing how he was affected by his loss to Bea, at least.

 

[Max1996]

The Flygon battle and Ash showing how he was affected by his loss to Bea, at least.

Those are nice bits about the episode, yes. But that's about it for the positive, I think.

 

[Tom1291]

You...actually sent a letter to OLM?

Yes, I wrote a very nice letter to the studio. I'm from United Kingdom.

 

[Max1996]

Yes, I wrote a very nice letter to the studio. I'm from United Kingdom.

...You do realize OLM only does the animating, nothing more?

 

[BigDocFan]

Seeing Goh battle this episode gives me hope we'll see more of him battling in the future, maybe become a rival for Ash as well as a friend in the world coronation ceremony

 

[Max1996]

Seeing Goh battle this episode gives me hope we'll see more of him battling in the future, maybe become a rival for Ash as well as a friend in the world coronation ceremony

That sounds like an intriguing possibility.

 

[BigDocFan]

That sounds like an intriguing possibility.

Would give Goh something good to do than just catching every single Pokemon and to be fair, none of Ash's other companions have been competitive battlers outside of gym leaders

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Can we talk about how when Sobble was invisible while wearing Goggles it nearly gave everyone a heart attack? XD

The fact that Gou didn't even know Sobble was there implies Sobble was either there the whole time but invisible or it followed Ash and Gou from the Lab without them knowing.

Lol such an innocent Pokémon. It's so adorable.

I also loved seeing the Riolu and Sobble Double Teaming Flygon and getting good hits on it
Bonus points for Sobble being the one who broke through Flygon's Sand Tomb Shield and landing the very first hit

(Also I'm probably the only one who noticed this but did anyone else catch that this episode showed that Sobble can randomly turn Invisible even without the need for touching Water? Cause I noticed that...)



Also Raboot was awesome it really stole the show. I kinda predicted that it would reflect Flygon's Dracometer right back at it.

Also did anyone noticed that Raboot combining Ember with Flygon's Meteorite looked a LOT like G-Max Pyroball?

The Flygon Battle gave me some serious Kingdom Hearts vibes/Videogame Vibes where the Final Boss sends out the minions first then it comes out itself to attack.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Horde and SOS battles.

I don't think the anime has really gone into depth (if at all) about these concepts from the games,

We did see a couple of SOS Battles in Sun & Moon, but those were both Totem battles.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

Don't forget that Mauville had a complete redesign in ORAS, so this is probably just the anime doing something similar!

That could've explained any changes in the buildings around the city, but the city's structure that we saw looked nothing like how Mauville City looked in ORAS because all the buildings were still separate instead of being under one big roof. Also it wouldn't explain why the city is suddenly no longer located right on the coast, unlike how it was in AG.

 

[Eclipsical]

I feel like there was a good amount of Pyro Ball set up this episode.

Goh: “Besides, I really wanted to settle the match with Ember. Because that’s the move Raboot and I made together!”

Goh: “If we use Ember and still lose, we’ll just have to think of a way to use Ember that’ll let us win next time! The same move’s power can double, even triple depending on the trainer’s creativity! Battling sure is complex, isn’t it, Ash?”

 

[Kurolegacy]

I feel like there was a good amount of Pyro Ball set up this episode.

Goh: “Besides, I really wanted to settle the match with Ember. Because that’s the move Raboot and I made together!”

Goh: “If we use Ember and still lose, we’ll just have to think of a way to use Ember that’ll let us win next time! The same move’s power can double, even triple depending on the trainer’s creativity! Battling sure is complex, isn’t it, Ash?”

The move that they made together? Did Go just completely forget about the entire experience of Raboot learning Ember where he basically refuted its desire to grow stronger?

 

[Alola]

The move that they made together? Did Go just completely forget about the entire experience of Raboot learning Ember where he basically refuted its desire to grow stronger?

While Scorbunny supplied the drive to learn the technique on its own, and Goh was adversarial/unhelpful for most of the episode, he did ultimately help the firestarter to cement the move through building heat via Quick Attack and supplying the pebble that would inspire Raboot to reliably execute the move as it does now. So, yes-Ember is a meaningful move for both Goh and Raboot that they both contributed to developing.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Very good episode. Ash going all the way back down to Normal Class is understandably disheartening, and you can see this is occupying so much space in is head that he can't even think creatively about battling anymore, or even participate in research for that matter. Enter Gou, who is able to shine in Ash's moment of weakness by applying the valuable lessons he has learned from him. The Flygon battle was too good, as many have said it was akin to a multi-stage boss battle in an action game. To start with, it's great that Sobble is finally taking part in battles, and between last week's episode and this one I am loving the brotherly Raboot-Sobble tag team. I feel like Raboot was finally able to prove itself, holding its own against Flygon's barrage of attacks with ease. They even call back to Raboot's extra-sensitive hearing by it being able to predict when and where its opponent would emerge from the ground. And it finishes off with Gou's own brand of Draco Meteor Climb, which Gou invented just because he thought it was something Ash would probably do. Gou absolutely earned that catch.

The elephant in the room is arguably OOC Ash. After losing to just one opponent, he should not be shaken up to the extent that he loses to middle-of-the-road challengers. Ash has a ton of experience in losing, and even if it hasn't happened in a while it should not effect him to this degree. If anything, Ash lowering in rank is a more believable cause of his trauma than just losing to Bea, but as we see, he starts sucking even before he drops back down to Normal Class. It wouldn't fix everything, but if Ash lost a battle in last weeks episode and dropped to Normal Rank there, his behavior here would be more justified.

I see what they were going for, a sort of PTSD where Ash is so afraid of getting close to his opponent that he completely loses his rhythm, opting to rely on a ranged strategy that Riolu can't pull off due to lack of power. From this, we can gather that the solution to defeating Octolock involves getting close and personal, rather than keeping your distance. Gou's comment on "wanting to win with Ember" suggest that Ash will feel the same and insist on winning with Riolu and Farfetch'd, using his existing battle style. My suggestion for a strategy is Zen Headbutt, as it's a super-effective close range attack that can be used even if your arms and legs are bound, but whatever it is I'm quite excited to see what Ash comes up with.

That music in the sandstorm was legitimately haunting, and the thought of Trapinch pulling in unsuspecting people just makes me wonder how many people have already parished to these three.