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

[Eclipsical]

Ever since JN024, Goh has been battling some of the Pokémon that are strong enough to resist.

 

[Daren]

And then there's the whole Flygon "song", which barely makes any sense. The sand that rubs on Flygon's wings is creating a peculiar sound that sounds like a song. ...okay, interesting fact, I guess?

That's actually from the games; Flygon's dex mentioned it in Sapphire, and Sun mentions it using this to lure prey.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

That's actually from the games; Flygon's dex mentioned it in Sapphire, and Sun mentions it using this to lure prey.

And it was also mentioned in Flygon's anime Pokédex entry in Generation III.

 

[Islander Princess]

This episode was a bit better than I was expecting, but still relatively mediocre.

I'll start with Ash's slump: I'm glad they didn't play it for a gag like it seemed they were going to do in the preview, and actually do like the way they portrayed it in the episode, especially with him unable to defeat two other tentacle based Pokemon. But I think Ash got over it a little too quickly, and to be quite honest, I'm not really thrilled it was Goh who got him out of it. Don't get me wrong, I like that Goh was showing what he's learned from Ash, but it was a little hard to believe. He rarely ever battles, and has outright said he doesn't really enjoy it, but then goes and has this incredible, near perfect battle with Flygon that snaps Ash out of it? It kind of took me out of the conflict a bit, and I would've rather Ash used the trip to Alola next episode to fully sort himself out (but no, they go so Goh can see an Alolan Exeggutor...okay )

Like I said, Goh's battle with Flygon was great, but a little hard to believe, especially after his first two captures were way too easy. Also, what was the difference between Trapinch/Vibrava and Flygon? I don't understand how after failing to catch the first two, Goh's immediate thought is "curve ball throw" but when he fails to catch Flygon the first time, it's "oh I'm not gonna catch this one easily, better battle it." This also kind of took me out of the episode, because it just came across as kind of ridiculous. I am glad Goh seems to be battling his captures more, the power levels just seem really off.

Also, the actual plot of the episode was kind of weird. Maybe it was more a personal thing, but I was more interested in Ash's struggles than why this random desert popped out of nowhere. Also, Ash and Goh were surprisingly calm about the fact that people were getting lured in and not coming out. Was it more than just those three people we saw? I'm assuming so, but it felt like they put in the bare minimum effort to explain that aspect of the episode, so ultimately it wasn't very interesting to me.

There were some really great visuals in here though, like Riolu side eyeing Ash when he told him to fight from a distance for the second time, Sobble being invisible with the goggles on, Riolu kicking at the sand like a little kid, and the end scene with Pikachu and Riolu snuggling up to Ash.

So-so episode overall. Definitely much more excited for next week's.

 

[Pulsaro23]

Ever since JN024, Goh has been battling any of the Pokémon that are strong enough to resist.

Really? Huh, funny how I don't remember there being a mini-arc during that episode or any of the prior ones that led to Go deciding to battle Pokémon that are to strong to be caught by just chucking a normal Poké Ball at them (making his sudden desire to battle be just as out of the blue in that episode as it is here). And doubly funny is how that gets contradicted in this very episode twice (since he never battled Trapinch or Vibrava after the first ball failed and, instead, proceeded to throw more balls at them (except, the second time, they were curveballs)).

That's actually from the games; Flygon's dex mentioned it in Sapphire, and Sun mentions it using this to lure prey.

Again: "...okay?". Cool detail and all, but it still doesn't makes sense how it hypnotizes those three extras in the beginning, but doesn't affect anyone else throughout the rest of the episode (not to mention that luring prey =/= hypnotizing it, so that part's still random af).

 

[P_S_B]

On the topic of the whole Ash being out of character and not recognising his own strategy thing, turns out this episode was written by Michihiro Tsuchiya, one of the writers who started with this series, providing further evidence to the theory that the new writers were not adequately brought up to speed on Ash, his character or his history. Mr. Tsuchiya could have done a bit of research into the character of Ash, but Pokémon probably isn't the only show he writes for and it's unreasonable to expect him to sift through over 1000 episodes looking for key details of Ash when they should have been provided to him and the other new writers, yet we're getting an ever clearer picture that this did not happen.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

What a great episode was that! I'm giving this 12 stars out of 10.

 

[Max1996]

What a great episode was that! I'm giving this 12 stars out of 10.

Your thoughts?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I don't understand how after failing to catch the first two, Goh's immediate thought is "curve ball throw" but when he fails to catch Flygon the first time, it's "oh I'm not gonna catch this one easily, better battle it."

My guess is that he understood that Flygon would be too strong to capture without a battle, and he tried the first throw just out of habit.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Your thoughts?

Satoshi's fall into despair is pretty well thought of: We see that at first he was seeing the tentacled opponent as a chance to practice against Saito, in a sense that was a rematch in his head. But after his failure yet again, he felt like he's defeated by Saito all over again. His growing anxiety leads to his poor performance and the second defeat against another tentacled opponent, which made him feel like defeated by Saito all over again. Hence his despairing over his chronic unability to defeat her.

 

[SKYRYAN]

I noticed that when Ash is lying on the ground it reminds me of SM144 whre Ash is lying on the ground after he won. It's like poetry..sort of...they rhyme.

 

[Gligarman]

Lol. When I heard the sound coming from the sand hell I thought it was a Mushi. Now I have to rewatch Mushishi!

 

[BugCatcherinVF]

Gotta be honest, i watch this show more or less weekly but there are so many captures that i am having trouble remembering who caught who. Some episodes ago I was like "Satoshi caught farfetch???" and today i was like "Who the hell does sobble belong to???"

As for Gou and Satoshi not being lured, I think it would have been nice to show that they had actually been lured, but from their perspective it didn't look like that.