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

That also means that Tony is actually on a higher rank than his boss, BTW.

Not necessarily.

I would assume that Visquez is still actively participating in the PWC since Episode 18 when she first appeared. So while she was in Normal Class in her first appearance, there's nothing stopping her from going up to Great Class off screen (I mean, Ash is guilty of this himself)
 
Rewatched this episode with subs, and Chuck explicitly confirmed that PWC participants can only battle trainers within the same class.
I wonder if that means being in the Master-class is really boring because you have such a small stable of opponents you need to constantly re-battle (before then facing them against in the tournament), or if it works differently and a Hyper class trainer needs to dethrone a Master class in a battle?
 
Rewatched this episode with subs, and Chuck explicitly confirmed that PWC participants can only battle trainers within the same class. While many may think Ash's drop back to Normal Class was pointless, at least it gave the writers an excuse to give us more info regarding how the PWC rankings work.

My main problem is that it doesn't make sense someone drops back a rank if he loses to someone in the same class, just like it doesn't make sense if you gain a rank if you can only challenge people from the same rank, because then it means someone from a higher rank instantly drops down a rank the moment someone gets promoted, even if they didn't lose a battle, but are still placed last in that rank because they came new in that rank. How do you enter Master Rank if only 8 participants can be in Master Rank when you cannot challenge someone in the Master Rank?
 
Either Bea was there training for a few days, or Chuck is really stubborn in terms of endurance.
Seriously, I don’t remember Chuck’s Poliwrath being THAT STRONG

From watching the VS Chuck gym battle again in the GS series, Poliwrath survived Pikachu's Thunderbolt and the fighter slapped the mouse to finish it. It's pretty enduring.

Man, where's Chuck's wife at? Don't think she'll approve of that much bakery stuff, even with guests around.
 
Just been watching a review video on youtube which brought up a good point

I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of abilities but if you look at it one way, Grapploct has Limber which would prevent it being paralyzed, perhaps why we didn't see Static used

Either that or Atsuhiro Tomioka was being a bit cheap

Either way, great work from the animation dream team
 
I thought this episode was actually really bad. First the Cianwood Gym looked completely different on the outside, then Pikachu lost to Grapploct and Ash had to rely on his baby Riolu to battle it, then the tie happened. It was just complete bs and now we have to prepare for Bea coming back in the future. :bulbaFacepalm:

Yeah this series has this weird thing where most of the places that are visited again look nothing like how they did in their first appearance. Ecruteak is probably the sole exception but even it had some differences in the Rainbow Wing episode if you compare the episode pictures to how the city looked like in the Johto saga.
 
Not sure how I feel about the rankings being unchanged after a draw. I guess it makes sense, but I was expecting a small shake-up after that match.

Also, can we just take a moment and appreciate Sobble patting Goh on the head? I'm starting to think Goh catching Sobble instead of Ash was for the best and it's because of precious moments like this:


View: https://twitter.com/DailySobble/status/1310160548449775616
 
I was also sightly disappointed by he battle. Hitmontop vs Pikachu was fine, but the Grapploct fights felt very rushed. Very few moves were used and it didn't really felt like an epic comeback after all that has happened. It might have been another marketing issue...However, I liked everything else, namely: the result which I didn't really expected given that it has been ages since the last official draw, the prospect of Ash having a female rival, her finally recognizing his strength and Chuck being a cool dude.
 
Man, where's Chuck's wife at? Don't think she'll approve of that much bakery stuff, even with guests around.
I guess this is why she gives Fly to anyone that can help his husband excercise. And now I'm picturing the poor woman hoarding those HMs to prevent herself from running out.
 
I was also sightly disappointed by he battle. Hitmontop vs Pikachu was fine, but the Grapploct fights felt very rushed. Very few moves were used and it didn't really felt like an epic comeback after all that has happened. It might have been another marketing issue...However, I liked everything else, namely: the result which I didn't really expected given that it has been ages since the last official draw, the prospect of Ash having a female rival, her finally recognizing his strength and Chuck being a cool dude.
I think the problem is the lack of 2 parters. They build up the suspense and action till the very end and realize they only have 20 minutes. So they have both pokemon use their strongest attacks at the same time. This exact thing happened to korrina as well. Hopefully this problem is fixed with the episode time switch
 
Except for the overabundance of explosions. This episode kind of felt like the animators were channeling their inner Michael Bay.
Yeah especially during that last quick attack against hitmontop, that seemed pretty overkill. Like woah Pikachu, didn’t know you were cloaked in gunpowder there buddy.

Also when Grapploct punched Riolu in the face at the end. Got some Saitama vibes from that.
 
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Comparing this to the previous match against Bea, this is a good example of slow pacing done right. When the Pokémon actually have a reason to wait, or when there actually needs to be rising tension. Not just making a move and then exchanging looks for 20 seconds before the next one. You could also tell how much pressure Ash was putting at the beginning before Chuck even mentions it. It was a pretty well written battle.
 
Yeah this series has this weird thing where most of the places that are visited again look nothing like how they did in their first appearance. Ecruteak is probably the sole exception but even it had some differences in the Rainbow Wing episode if you compare the episode pictures to how the city looked like in the Johto saga.
It's not just this series though, in SM Cerulean Gym looked completely different on the outside. Similiarily in Battle Frontier where for example the Cycling Road looked nothing like it originally did.

I think the reason why thet generally look different from their orginial appearences is because they want to show that alot of time has passed between so things have changed.

Ecreuteak probably looks pretty much the same because it's supposed to be a traditional city where things don't change.
 
I'm still surprised to see Bea's ranking as 193 this episode. That's insane given her last appearance. If I were Ash, I'd be patting myself on the back for even managing to draw with someone of that caliber. I did read on twitter that the number 193 is referencing her gym uniform number though.

If their next battle will be at hyper class (it most likely will) it'll take a Ash a while to get there. Can't wait to see how he develops until then. That is unless they rush him climbing up the ranks of course, but hopefully that doesn't happen.
 
I wanted to re-watch and write this yesterday as I had originally planned, but I got hooked up with and lost track of time thanks to Among Us. This one is also relatively long (somewhat longer than JN034, making it the second longest I’ve written), though nowhere compared to the monstrous one I wrote for JN037.

Pros:
  • + Just like many others here, I was initially disappointed that Galarfetch’d was shafted in this match but given how things played out, I was okay with it. Pikachu’s usage here made sense since Ash used his strongest partner to soften up Bea’s team by one and a half, and it did tank quite a lot of damage to help pave the way for Riolu to set up a finisher (as expected of someone who went up toe to toe against legendaries). And it does seem like Galarfetch’d may get time to shine, Sirfetch’d is one of the more popular Galar Pokemon and one of the first to be revealed for Gen 8 after all, it would be criminal not to do something interesting with it.
  • ++ I’m glad that the match didn’t end up with Riolu evolving or learning a move (Aura Sphere like the preview implied) mid-battle, much less outright winning, since that would have been a cheap deus-ex machina. A tie makes the most sense given how things played out since JN034, and it sets up Bea as a long term recurring rival for Ash, and a female rival at that since it’s rarely happened in the past. I was worried that having Bea be a long term rival would make the series feel centralized since Korrina and Raihan are also aiming for the same endgame, but Bea was handled very well so it's not a problem. Ash going up and tying against a trainer who’s 800 ranks above him without even using his big guns actually bodes very well as he climbs up the ranks. I hope the next match (that will obviously happen) between Ash and Bea is a 4v4 at the least, much less a full battle, with no holds barred at all.
  • +++ Speaking of the battle itself, it’s a stark difference of how Ash behaved here compared to how he was back in JN034. Here he was clever and collected, and was always keeping Bea on her toes whereas last time, he was emotional and panicked (even if he was still quite competent) with Bea dominating him in the battle as well as a test of wills and minds. I don't believe Hitmontop was weaker or Bea was holding back, that’s somewhat disrespectful to either. It felt weaker because it went up against Pikachu and Ash helped him dominate that particular match-up. Then, there were the strategies to hit Hitmontop at its spinning tip to imbalance it and using Electroweb on the ground to make sure it would take damage, slow it down and counter its species’ singular gimmick. Pikachu being beaten completely mirrored Riolu in JN034, which is something Ash brings up.
  • +++ Even the battle between Riolu and Grapploct was quite strategic and well portrayed. To start off with, there was the Vacuum Wave Kamehameha that was shown in the preview, using it as a concentrated beam was a smart idea instead of just sending it as individual blasts which was followed up with a sudden retreat to keep Bea unaware. And then we get to that infamous Octolock, not struggling during any hold or grapple scenario actually translates well from real life as well and not just in fights, since you end up exhausting yourself much faster and end up getting the grip on you tightened much more. Ash himself brought this up when Pikachu got grappled and started struggling, and effectively countered well when Riolu got into the same scenario by having it relax and letting it adjust to Grapploct’s body before having it use an aura powered (pseudo Bulk Up or Meditate?) Force Palm at point blank range. One really interesting segment I noticed that no one else caught onto, is when Riolu stretches its legs and pulls Bea’s attention to it in this particular frame.
    a933a4121262d4e9e5890d2c538ca5ac.png
    This effectively draws her into a trap and distracts her from Ash’s actual plan by focusing on the wrong body part, especially when you consider what happened the last time Riolu’s legs were free. Judging from Ash’s smirk, it was definitely a premeditated plan between him and Riolu. This was very intelligent and subtle by Tomioka, fantastic writing with such attention to detail. I really wish this match-up was extended a bit more since it seemed to end a bit too quickly compared to the first one. They could have just removed the scenes at the lab and the pier since those were useless and didn't add anything to the episode or characters, and cut the episode off with Ash and Bea reaffirming their ambitions since that would have been a decent ending point.
  • +++ Easily the strongest point of this episode isn’t the intense and excellent battle, but the characterization and development that was involved within it. First off, Riolu being quite focused and not at all hasty and headstrong is a big difference from how it was when it first hatched. Riolu rushing out and picking up Pikachu to carry him back was also very precious, usually a task that Ash himself did every time in the past, which shows you how much they care about each other (Reiko-san, you did not do right with JN030). And speaking of which, Ash himself had a decent amount of characterization within this episode which pretty much proves the recently brought up strawman that “he doesn’t need focus because he’s been the protagonist for 23 years” completely wrong. You can learn and grow all the time, the balanced focus would only have helped in not making the entire thing feel rushed and disconnected. We finally get to see Bea drop her intense and stoic attitude and actually expose her softer sides and secret love of sweets, to the confusion of every human present. I like how she was also portrayed as somewhat aloof (not in a Koharu way though) and somewhat forgetful, and the scenes with her sharing her sweets were a sight. Chuck talking about how Bea would feel about the loss is also an interesting line and I wonder if it factors into the future, good to see that with him knowing Bea from childhood it makes the world feel more alive, active and not revolve around the protagonists all the time (JN036, how do you feel now?).
  • + The music in this episode was just as good as the one in JN034 with the occasional silences to build up tension, the flaring of music and sudden cutting. The animation was also spectacular like always by Iwane, though I really wish they start using the 3D camera in a more prominent way instead of in a half-done manner (even SM didn't shirk away from it during major battles at the least). And maybe tone down the explosions for ridiculous reasons like Quick Attack and Karate Chop connecting. Finally, that callback. I’m glad that Chuck didn’t instantly recognize Ash since they only met in one episode, but eventually did after some recollection. Seeing Bayleef after so long made me warm inside. We NEED an episode at Oak’s Labs with all the older Pokemon, ASAP.
Cons:
  • - - This was definitely one of those episodes that could have infinitely benefited from being a two parter (and ended up including Galarfetch'd). The entire thing with the rank drop and slump back in JN036 was rendered pointless with an off-screen climb back to the Super Class. What was even the reason for doing it all in the first place? Ash could have been depressed because he got Riolu hurt badly at the time (akin to being hospitalized like Greninja), instead of losing against two no-name and irrelevant characters. It also makes JN036 overall stand out badly in retrospect, I’m starting to believe that @Kurolegacy wasn’t wrong when he said that Ash’s slump was only done to make Goh look like a big hero and half-heartedly justify him getting a powerful Dragon type. I went ahead and dropped JN036’s review from 6 to 4.5 with the new information in light.
  • - Speaking of ranks, it’s stupid that they confirmed that you can only battle people in your own class. While it may work for the first three classes due to the large pool of opponent, it would be nonsense if it applied to the Master Class as well. For starters, the pool of opponents is tiny there so it would get quite boring if the same people competed among themselves, and just imagine how weak it would be to displace a Top 8 person by defeating someone in a lower class instead of the Top 8 trainer themselves. The world building is also somewhat bad here due to the ‘jumping’ between the locations similar to JN036 (though unlike JN036 which was an active crisis, it could be excused that Bea was staying with Chuck for a whole since the backstory implies that they know each other).
Additional:
  • It’s funny how every time Hitmontop landed a hit on Pikachu, it sounded like it said “Ka-POW!” and made the scenes feel somewhat humorous. And it also reminded me of “Come on…”, I guess it’s just one of those things.
  • Chuck has definitely gained some weight since the last time we saw him, and happily endorses snacking on a whole lot of sweets. I wonder what his wife would have to say about that given how she teased him about it back then.

Verdict: This was my most favorite episode in the series so far and I enjoyed it far more for the characterization heavy nature of it rather than the battle. Not to say that the battle wasn’t good (it was excellent), it’s just the character development was far more appealing and won out, so it’s a 10/10 from me. Riolu carrying Pikachu, Bea dropping her guard and acknowledging Ash, were the highlights in this episode for me.
 
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When Ash talked to Bea and all music and motion stops for a couple of seconds, I originally thought my stream had frozen. But no, instead it was a "Who are you again?" moment, which was amusing and yet not over the top. And even at the end, Bea has trouble remembering Ash's name. That's smile-worthy.
 
This is how you handle pacing! I'm so pleased with this episode and how everything was handled.

First of all, my biggest fears leading up to this episode were a rushed Riolu evolution and/or Ash easily winning the battle after struggling so badly last time. I'm really glad they avoided both of these things! It was great to see that Ash had a new strategy, and a better idea of how to go about battling Bea, but the battle still ended in a tie. I initially had wanted Ash to lose because, as silly as it might sound, I wasn't sure if they would implement ties into the World Championships. Now that I know they are, however, I'm very happy with a tie ending! I'm also glad they explained that a battle ending in a tie results in no rankings change for the participants.

It was great to see Chuck again...even though I didn't remember him when his appearance was first announced, lol. I loved that he remembered Ash, and that we got to see another flashback redone in the current art style! It didn't take up much time at all, but I really feel like it added to the episode and gave me those nice nostalgia feels.

The sweets scene at the end was adorable! I love how they didn't expect Bea to be into that kind of stuff, and she's just stuffing her face. It's nice that they're showing her different sides and not just having her act tough all the time. And baby Bea was so cute, too! I actually quite like the idea of her being a rival to Ash, so hopefully we'll be seeing more of that in the future!

I also thought I'd dislike Goh's offscreen capture, but they handled it quite well! It's nice that we did get a short little scene related to Goh catching it. The way this was handled was awesome because it didn't take up much episode time, didn't take the focus off of Ash, and left the actual capture up to our imaginations! So I'm just going to pretend Goh actually battled Chinchou in order to catch it, lol.

One (minor) complaint I had: there was no reason for Ash's class ranking to change prior to this, nor was there really a good enough reason for his "slump" if we want to call it that. I love how determined he was to go up against Bea again, but there wasn't even much of a callback to the struggles he had after the first one. And what was the point of moving him down a class if he was just gonna move back up offscreen? I'm hoping they avoid useless details like this in the future unless they actually plan on expanding upon them.

Really good episode! This, just like the first Bea episode, is definitely one of the best ones out of Journeys so far.
 
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