Preview JN039: Satoshi VS Saitou! Conquer the Octopus Hold!!

[Reborn Talonflame]

Torracat/Infernape had a really unique evolution, and I definitely don't expect (or want) to see that copy/pasted here with Riolu.

A mid-battle evolution would feel incredibly cheap and would undermine Ash's victory, but at the same time it's pretty unbelievable that a Riolu could succeed where Mega Lucario failed without evolving. I don't know, it really seems like they've written themselves into a corner. Unless they have some massive surprise up their sleeves, I think the only way to salvage this it for Ash to lose again, which is extremely unlikely at this point.

We still don’t really know the specifics of that Bea v Korrina battle, wether Lucario was knocked out by just Grapploct, a different Pokemon that is actually Bea’s ace, or if Lucario had to deal with two/three Pokemon by itself.
If Pikachu does enough damage, then I guess it would be believable. I mean, Pikachu was getting destroyed by Mega Lucario in XY, then a few episodes later beat it without much help from Hawlucha and Fletchinder.

 

[Johtohfiller]

I dunno man. I had some hopes for this series but a lot of the decisions they’ve made thus far (creating a character that’s the embodiment of a mobile game, promoting them as co-protagonist and giving them more focus than the main character, throwing in a gacha element, going to an episodic format with little cohesion between episodes aside from bare bones continuity, jumping all over the place near instantly making the world feel small, the list goes on) really have made the series feel more corporate and cold compared to previous series. It’s kinda like a McPokemon series in which episodes are just rapidly churned out without the sense of soul and feeling that they used to have. Like looking at the series thus far and comparing it to say DP, the difference in quality feels pretty jarring.

I'm less negative - I find it more weirdly inconsistent than cold and corporate (well, that does describe the Gachat perfectly...) - but the "self contained episodes" format really does hurt the show. A majority of its weaknesses are symptoms of that IMO. I've been wondering if that's something the network demanded rather than a staff decision - at any rate, I hope they'll be able to move away from it.

As for this episode, I'm not too thrilled about Pikaspam. I'm hoping Galarfetch'd evolves soon, they might give him more screentime then.

 

[Daren]

A mid-battle evolution would feel incredibly cheap and would undermine Ash's victory, but at the same time it's pretty unbelievable that a Riolu could succeed where Mega Lucario failed without evolving.

I think that depends on how much damage Pikachu does to Grappoloct before going down, since Riolu's previous match was "fairer" (depending on how much/any damage he took from the Dojo master); if he gets in a good blast (considering how hard Pikachu hits nowadays) and Ash has a way to counter Riolu getting grabbed I could see a win.
Edit: Oops, missed Reborn Talonflame saying the same thing.

 

[Kurolegacy]

They are. They announced a four-part arc starting on the 23rd October based on the Darkest Day, and said they’d be returning to a story-arc format, hence the show airing on Fridays now.

Where did they say they were returning to a story arc format?

 

[Beatsy Ray]

We still don’t really know the specifics of that Bea v Korrina battle, wether Lucario was knocked out by just Grapploct, a different Pokemon that is actually Bea’s ace, or if Lucario had to deal with two/three Pokemon by itself.
If Pikachu does enough damage, then I guess it would be believable. I mean, Pikachu was getting destroyed by Mega Lucario in XY, then a few episodes later beat it without much help from Hawlucha and Fletchinder.

I don't think the Pokemon she used against Korrina is too important. Riolu and Mega Lucario both fought at full strength and got pummeled by Bea, who we have no reason to believe is holding back against Ash. We can infer based on the wins and losses we've seen so far that Korrina would not be able to defeat Grapploct because she is a little lower in skill than Ash. After all, Ash wasn't just struggling to win with Riolu, he was completely unable to think of a counter to Octolock to the point that he fell into a deep depression.

They are. They announced a four-part arc starting on the 23rd October based on the Darkest Day, and said they’d be returning to a story-arc format, hence the show airing on Fridays now.

They didn't confirm a "return to story-arc format", it's just fan speculation for now. While the 4-parter is good sign, given the subject matter it probably would have been the one exception to the "episodic format" regardless of the timeslot change.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

Where did they say they were returning to a story arc format?

I honestly can’t remember and can’t find it, so I guess I can’t confirm it. My bad.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Actually, I don't really mind the Go focused episodes. He's got some notable development recently (reuniting with his first friend, actually battling/bonding with his captures) which I think he really needs. It's still early to say how much this will impact his character moving forward (I'm real uneasy about Zapdos), but if was on the sidelines the whole time he'd feel pretty reduntant to Ash in my opinion. Remember is the same Ash from Alola (as he literally revisted his old friends there), so his development transitions directly into this season. Goh is a completely new character on the other hand, so they're trying to balance him out with Ash and put them on more equal footing. And I definitely don't want to sacrifice Chloe focus to give Ash a training episode.

Honestly, I think Ash only would've needed 1 training episode to get back on his feet. A lot of his rematch episodes happen pretty close to the initial gym badge, and if we got any more than that, it would feel a bit unnecessary in my opinion. Here we'd see his slump, him regaining his confidence and him devising a strategy against Octolock/tentacle based pokemon. This was split up into episode 36 (slump) and 39 (training). They've still got all the components for his arc but they just spread it out rather than doing in a single episode (which is ironic given the format).

Now, I am still bitter about farfetch'd being shafted, and the writers should've given it screentime, but given the backbone of the Ash-Bea 'rivalry' is almost fully focused on Riolu (due to the connection with Korrina and all), he still has a complete arc in here. So I don't his story will feel rushed, since this episode will likely end in Ash winning, Riolu evolving and Ash gaining Bea's respect and all.

The problem isn’t that Go gets so much focus, it’s that it’s so skewed in the direction of Go. While people tend to use the excuse that Go is a new character, it doesn’t work as an excuse as, literally every new friend that Ash has met has been a new character and we have never seen the attention shifted so far in one direction. Just to put it into perspective @Panky.. took a comparison last week of the focus between Ash and Go in Journeys under their duel protagonist format in which Go has had 62% focus to Ash’s 48%. Meanwhile with DP at the same number of episodes the focus was Ash at 60% to Dawn’s 56%. We will literally have a string of Go focused episodes while Ash will get 1 before either going back to filler or more Go focused episodes. For them claiming this is a duel protagonist format and reducing the cast to 2, they’re doing a very poor job of actually balancing things out. Quite a bit of the time, if you aren’t here for Go or aren’t interested in his goal, the series has basically nothing for you.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I don't think the Pokemon she used against Korrina is too important. Riolu and Mega Lucario both fought at full strength and got pummeled by Bea, who we have no reason to believe is holding back against Ash.

But if Grapploct wasn’t even the Pokemon Lucario fought, or not the only one, then Lucario probably had a more difficult challenge than Riolu, since it had the chance of facing a stronger Pokemon than Grapploct. So, you can’t really say that Riolu succeeded where Lucario failed.

For example, if Bea is using Hitmontop instead of Hawlucha, maybe Bea is holding back now, or maybe Hitmontop is stronger and she was holding back in terms of strength when they first met.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

But if Grapploct wasn’t even the Pokemon Lucario fought, or not the only one, then Lucario probably had a more difficult challenge than Riolu, since it had the chance of facing a stronger Pokemon than Grapploct. So, you can’t really say that Riolu succeeded where Lucario failed.

For example, if Bea is using Hitmontop instead of Hawlucha, maybe Bea is holding back now, or maybe Hitmontop is stronger and she was holding back in terms of strength when they first met.

That's quite a lot of qualifiers and I doubt they would have put so much thought into it. I'm pretty sure the message they intended us to take is away is that Korrina and Mega Lucario were overpowered by Bea, which in turn makes us question how Riolu could stand a chance. But you're correct, there are many hypothetical scenarios that could result in Korrina losing while Mega Lucario still managed to put up a decent fight.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

That's quite a lot of qualifiers and I doubt they would have put so much thought into it. I'm pretty sure the message the intended us to take is away is that Korrina and Mega Lucario were overpowered by Bea, which in turn makes us question how Riolu could stand a chance. But you're correct, there are many hypothetical scenarios that could result in Korrina losing while Mega Lucario still managed to put up a decent fight.

Yeah. Guessing I’m reading too much into it, otherwise Bea wouldn’t have called her soft.

 

[Schemer99]

When Ash wins, I hope this isn't the last time we see Bea.

 

[R1ke]

The problem isn’t that Go gets so much focus, it’s that it’s so skewed in the direction of Go. While people tend to use the excuse that Go is a new character, it doesn’t work as an excuse as, literally every new friend that Ash has met has been a new character and we have never seen the attention shifted so far in one direction. Just to put it into perspective @Panky.. took a comparison last week of the focus between Ash and Go in Journeys under their duel protagonist format in which Go has had 62% focus to Ash’s 48%. Meanwhile with DP at the same number of episodes the focus was Ash at 60% to Dawn’s 56%. We will literally have a string of Go focused episodes while Ash will get 1 before either going back to filler or more Go focused episodes. For them claiming this is a duel protagonist format and reducing the cast to 2, they’re doing a very poor job of actually balancing things out. Quite a bit of the time, if you aren’t here for Go or aren’t interested in his goal, the series has basically nothing for you.

Brand new/inexperienced characters will always get more focus than more familiar/experienced characters - that's just to be expected in storytelling. Unlike all of Ash's other companions, Goh himself has zero representation in the games. So I think it's a little unfair to compare him to previous companions like that. Goh also has the most ambitious goal we've seen so far, thus he'll need a fair amount of screentime to actively work towards it. Otherwise, if the majority of his captures happen offscreen, that'll come across as really cheap. Keep in mind that Goh is promoting pokemon go, which is a huge deal. So I don't think the writers are solely responsible for this.

However, I'll agree that they could manage the episode order to spread out the Goh focus. Then again, I think this is something that'll improve in later seasons anyway. As we've seen with XY/SM, the 1st season tends to be the weakest one, so I'm sure that things will only go up from here. Once again, I hope Zapdos doesn't make me eat my words later.

Btw, 62 and 48%? That's 110%? Did you mean 38% instead? 60/40 isn't that bad given how familiar we are with each character.

When Ash wins, I hope this isn't the last time we see Bea.

G-max machamp is definitely coming down the line.

 

[JinksChow]

Btw, 62 and 48%? That's 110%? Did you mean 38% instead? 60/40 isn't that bad given how familiar we are with each character.

Because there are also times in both the DP and the current series where Ash and Dawn/Ash and Go received focus in the same episode, so the percentages can add up to over 100% without contradiction.

 

[R1ke]

Because there are also times in both the DP and the current series where Ash and Dawn/Ash and Go received focus in the same episode, so the percentages can add up to over 100% without contradiction.

Ohh that explains it thanks. So 60/50, even better than I thought.

 

[VetProf]

I'm a bit disappointed that G. Farfetch'd won't get a chance to redeem itself, but at the same time, it's nice to see Bea using a slightly different team than before. Anyway, that's not what I wanna talk about right now.

The new poster that was released recently showcases a bunch of Legendary Pokemon, including Suicune. Interestingly, this episode takes place in Cianwood City, which is where Suicune (and Eusine) can be found in Crystal/HGSS, so it's possible that Suicune might make an early cameo here. Then again, there's also that recent planetarium-special-thingy that featured Suicune, so... who knows?

 

[Dogasu]

"That recent planetarium-special-thingy" has nothing to do with the new poster released yesterday.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Brand new/inexperienced characters will always get more focus than more familiar/experienced characters - that's just to be expected in storytelling. Unlike all of Ash's other companions, Goh himself has zero representation in the games. So I think it's a little unfair to compare him to previous companions like that. Goh also has the most ambitious goal we've seen so far, thus he'll need a fair amount of screentime to actively work towards it. Otherwise, if the majority of his captures happen offscreen, that'll come across as really cheap. Keep in mind that Goh is promoting pokemon go, which is a huge deal. So I don't think the writers are solely responsible for this.

However, I'll agree that they could manage the episode order to spread out the Goh focus. Then again, I think this is something that'll improve in later seasons anyway. As we've seen with XY/SM, the 1st season tends to be the weakest one, so I'm sure that things will only go up from here. Once again, I hope Zapdos doesn't make me eat my words later.

Btw, 62 and 48%? That's 110%? Did you mean 38% instead? 60/40 isn't that bad given how familiar we are with each character.

I disagree there with the prospect that Go somehow is entitled to essentially overshadow Ash simply because he doesn’t have a game representative. Each of the companions that have a game counterpart is a blank slate only sharing the appearance and name of their game counterpart. In that regard, we only know of them but not who it is that they are given that their game self is merely a self insert devoid of any actual personality (unless you choose the opposite gender and even then, their personalities are totally different). Each time that a player character is introduced, they’re also a new character. And really, given that Go is basically just an avatar of Pokémon Go, he fulfills the same role of existing simply to advertise a game. If anything, Go getting so much of the attention in such rapid succession makes him feel more like a writer’s pet and a corporate mandate.

As for the ambition that he strives for, the problem with the excuse that he requires more screentime for it is that, all it really ends up doing is causes the goal to feel all the more hollow and boring to watch especially given that the majority of his captures are essentially just the same scenario on repeat. While he has started to battle and bond with some Pokémon, it still doesn’t compare to the sheer amount of captures that are just him flicking a ball at his target and perfectly capturing them which over time becomes increasingly monotonous especially when most of these Pokémon don’t actually matter towards anything more than a glorified scoreboard.

They claim that this is a duel protagonist series yet make very poor usage of both to create a balance that can prevent the monotony of basically just viewing the same key points with Go on repeat week in and out. One could hope that they improve soon especially with the Darkest Day story coming up but with each new batch of episodes released, that hope gets dashed again and again.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Preview with subtitles:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQHQX_NEDd4

 

[KenzeyEevee]

So Ash got back in the super class again

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

So Ash got back in the super class again

Seems like it. Or he is shown getting in at the beginning of the episode. Either or.