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

[Sheep]

it is Time

- Sobble patting Go's head is one of the cutest things I've seen so far. I love a boi
- I still can't believe we're seeing Chuck again. It almost feels surreal for a series like Pokémon haha.
- Ash's happy face when he saw Bea in contrast to her serious one honestly looked so goofy and made me laugh
- Her serious demeanor coupled with the fact that she's so forgetful with names is honestly cute! Definitely liking her a lot more than before she ever showed in the anime. <3
- ahhhh bayleef I miss youuuuu
- Hitmontop's one of my favorite fighting types and I'm still really happy to see it in battle after so long.
- Pikachu's dynamic forward dash to use Iron Tail looked really cool.
- Kind of surprised Ash didn't give Pikachu any commands to dodge when being hit with Triple Kick, but I guess they wanted to show off the effects of Focus Energy?
- Using Electroweb on the arena is definitely an odd way to win that I'm not a fan of, but the anime has historically done some weird stuff with battles, so I'll overlook it lol.
- Gah, Grapploct just crawling over on its tentacles to grab Pikachu with Octolock kind of put into perspective how creepy it is. And then Ash saying "don't struggle, it'll just hurt more" makes me remember how painful battles must be for the Pokémon. They don't often talk about the physical pain that comes with it. Seeing Pikachu continuously suffer as it was being squeezed made this whole scene pretty painful tbh ;_; Riolu is such a good boy though!
- Really thought Riolu would evolve here, and didn't expect the battle to be a draw either. The battle against Octolock was over sooner than I expected too. But I think I prefer this rather than a victory for Ash, since there wasn't much buildup/on-screen training to really make a win have much emotional impact.
- can I have some of those sweets plsss. And gosh, Bea is really cute with that pure smile when eating. (love)
- shy riolu when being offered sweets awww

Liked this episode quite a lot more knowing that it wasn't meant to be the episode where Ash overcomes Bea after all. Hopefully we'll have an exciting battle between them in the future, since they definitely did develop a rivalry.

Looking forward to the next one a lot though - Ash and Go working with Team Rocket + Zapdos (makes me happy with electric being my favorite type) = yes please

 

[Max1996]

- Sobble patting Go's head is one of the cutest things I've seen so far. I love a boi

- shy riolu when being offered sweets awww

1. That's an understatement if I've ever seen one.
2. Considering how Grapploct was the one to give Riolu a little push in that scene, I have to wonder if they'll be friendly rivals of sorts now.

 

[Panky..]

Since this didn't get much attention when I posted it in my review, here's a quick reminder of the absolute brilliance of Tomioka's writing in this episode.

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.

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.

 

[R1ke]

I just noticed that this Ash and Bea rivalry follows the technician vs performer trope pretty well.

Bea is a precise and calculated battler. She has had loads of practice and devised powerful techniques with her pokemon, whose moves combo well together. For example, octolock + liquidation, focus energy + triple kick, hone claws + physical fighting moves. Her pokemon's movements are incredibly precise and accurate (such as Hawlucha skilfully dodging night slash's 'waves' and landing perfectly on Farfetchd's leek pretty quickly) and it's obvious a lot of time was spent on mastery of their techniques. She's a skilful battler with deadly strategies, who's devoted her life to becoming stronger and achieve her goals. She's highly competitive and serious with battling, seeing it as a sport. Therefore, a technician.

Ash improvises way more in his battles, and uses his wit to exploit the battlefield or his opponent's weaknesses. Whilst his pokemon's moves can combo well together (like electroweb+iron tail, double team+vacuum wave, dragon dance + dragon claw), he often thinks of these on the spot, and he isn't that fussy about crafting the perfect movesets. He trains his pokemon, but also spends a lot of time travelling with Goh and doing unrelated tasks to it. He genuinely enjoys battling, and his passion for it is readily apparent. Therefore, a performer.

What I really like about this that in order for either one to win, they need to implement the opposite battle style. Ash is smart enough to come up with ways to outsmart Bea, but it'll be useless if his pokemon can't keep up with her (which is why he lost in episode 34). He'll need to do fair amount of raw training, and work on his pokemon's movesets/technique (such as evolving Riolu and circumventing brutal swing's momentum). Bea will need to think outside the box and not be as predictable in her next match, as she can't rely on her signature Octolock anymore. Whether it's learning a new move, or employing a different strategy, Grapploct will need to do something different if it wants to win against Lucario, otherwise he'll just get outplayed and outmatched. This makes them both better trainers, and it's more likely to see Ash catching up in power, thus winning their next match.

 

[nickdt]

I got the impression out of this episode that Chuck knows about the PWC, but is not an active participant himself, especially after watching the episode with subs.

 

[Pulsaro23]

Well, this review was a chore to get done, especially since I'm far more excited for Squadrons coming out and for the next Living World Season packs sales (since I finally grinded enough Gems for them) and for the upcoming Smash presentation than I am for this series. Even so, considering the hype behind this episode here on the forums (with the quote-unquote "dream team" working on it and what not), I decided to still check out this episode and review it, expecting it to be great. Not perfect, not outstanding, not incredible and mind-blowing. Just great. But, while it had some strong moments, it wasn't what one would expect when they hear the term "dream team". Also, gonna put each of the review's parts in spoiler boxes, since people complained about it being wall of text.

Spoiler: Pre-opening beginning

Starting from the top, we have the 1-minute training scene between Pikachu and Riolu (who clearly are in more need of more training than any of Ash's other Pokémon) that ends with Go telling Ash to go to Johto with him. Why? Because, according to a screen of Bea's new ranking in the PWC, she's training in Johto (more precisely, at Cianwood's Gym). Interesting how he can tell all that just by looking at her profile. And just as interesting is how, apparently, the PWC app can tell other competitors your exact location any where on the globe. Am I the only one who sees that as an invasion of privacy? Now, having an option that allows you to link up with nearby trainers from the PWC and alerts you when they're are available or looking for a battle is fine, since, otherwise, trainers would end up bothering people who have nothing to do with the PWC, they'd end up wasting time searching for people to battle and would have a harder time to raise your rank and, as far as we're aware, it doesn't make your location public for everyone to see. But having the option to see where any and all participants from the PWC are and having it be available to anyone, regardless of if they are taking part in the PWC or not, it's a whole different thing. I don't know, it feels like something that should be a pretty big deal in-universe that would be considered an issue (especially with how privacy works in the real world), and yet it's treated like it's something perfectly normal. I said it once and I'll say it again: worldbuilding, thy name is not Pokémon Journeys. Anyways, the other problem with this scene (and it's a problem others have mentioned in other episodes' thread) is how contrived it is. Ash is training in Cerise's Park and then, bam, Go comes out of nowhere and is like "Let's go to Johto!", then, bam, Ash and Go are on a ferry to Johto and then, bam once more, they're in front of the Cianwood Gym. We spend 2 minutes getting Ash and Go from Kanto to Johto for the sake of starting up the plot (as well as almost half a minute on Go failing to fish up a Pokémon and feeling bummed (and no amount of cute Sobble moments is gonna improve that)), because Go, for some reason, searched up on Bea to see where she was (and learns that just by looking at her rank (no, I'm not gonna let this stupidity go)). Which feels rushed and forced. Not to mention that it wastes time that could be better spent on improving the battle. Why couldn't we have Ash and Go be already in Cianwood, maybe finishing an errand Professor Cerise asked them to do (which could be mentioned by the narrator just as the episode starts), only for Ash's Rotom Phone to alert him that a PWC opponent is nearby as he's passing Chuck's Gym, him seeing that it's Bea and deciding to challenge her. Cut down on some of Chuck and Bea's training (since its animation is pretty stiff anyways and those long shots of Bea and Chuck starring at their Pokémon sparring aren't adding anything to the episode), and we might cut the pre-opening beginning of the episode by over a minute. I know one minutes may not seem like much, but when you consider that the battle itself only takes up half of the episode (with the first quarter of the episode being dedicated to Ash challenging Bea and the final quarter being about Bea's love for sweets, Ash and Bea's desires to battle Leon and their new-formed rivalry and on Go catching his 65th Pokémon), trimming down some of the scenes would allow for more time to be spent on the rematch and on improving it (since it has a few problems here and there).

Spoiler: Post-opening beginning

Anyways, after the opening, we get a very drawn-out scene where Bea and Ash are staring at each other, followed by Go "reacting" to it by looking at Raboot. Which, thankfully, gets interrupted by Chuck commenting on how "That young man looks familiar...". Which, surprisingly, makes a lot of sense, considering that Chuck and Ash didn't have any meaningful interactions apart from their Gym battle, so, of course he wouldn't recognize Ash (at least, not right away). The we go back to Bea and Ash's stare-down, where Ash questions if Bea remembers him or not, leading to her calling him the "Riolu trainer", which, in turn, leads to Go deducing that she doesn't remember his name. Which, along with Chuck's comments, that it's so like her to remember a trainer's Pokémon but not their name, gives us some more insight into her character. Too bad that they really loved dragging this whole thing out for almost a minute, when it could've been done in less than that (heck, they could've ended the pre-opening start of the episode with Ash asking her if she remembers him and her taking a moment before saying "The Riolu trainer."), but, otherwise, it's a good scene. Which gets followed by an even better scene: Chuck remembering Ash. And they even made a flashback to their battle, complete with a Bayleef cameo. We've got some more continuity, boys! Too bad these things get soured by Ash bringing up that he climbed up to the Great Class off-screen. Effectively rendering Ash's drop to Normal Class and his slump irrelevant. This isn't an issue of the episode, considering that this was pretty much all they could do with what they were given, but more of a series-wide problem. They had Ash suffer his first significant defeat in a PWC match, followed by a filler that focused on Go catching a Pikachu (and him supposedly learning that he doesn't need to capture all members of an evolutionary family to complete his Poké Dex, which, in true Sun & Moon fashion, is forgotten by the next episode). Then we get an episode that "focuses" on Ash getting into a comical slump and getting booted all the way to Normal Class, followed by Ash suddenly acting like an idiot for the sake of turning Go into a creative battler capable of pulling Ash-style strategies that makes Ash realize the errors of his ways. Then we get two fillers: the Alola reunion that focuses more on Kiawe turning Go into a proper rival for Ash then it does on Ash reuniting with his classmates and the Fossils episode that's more about Go wanting to catch a Fossil Pokémon and Chloe becoming more interested in Pokémon than it is about Ash doing anything worthwhile. They could've replaced the Pikachu episode or the Fossils one with an episode dedicated to Ash training Farfetch'd and Riolu for a rematch with Bea and him climbing up to the Great Class and saved either of these episodes for another time. Instead, they decided that sacrificing narrative flow of the story, for the sake of focusing on Go's meaningless catches, while Ash was left to improve and prepare for his rematch with Bea completely off-screen. Also, and this is a very minor, very personal complaint, but I really wasn't a fan of them chaining Chuck's main partner from Machoke to Poliwrath. Besides Machoke being my favorite Fighting-type, he was shown throughout the episode to be the Pokémon closest to Chuck, always being right beside him, always training with him, even sharing Chuck's over-emotional tic (which is strangely absent form this episode, but, whatever). So him disappearing and being replaced with Poliwrath rubs me the wrong way, even if it's more faithful to the games.

Spoiler: Hitmontop vs Pikachu

We then get to the first battle of the rematch: Hitmontop vs... Pikachu. Why Pikachu? He's already used in almost every PWC match Ash has. Why Pikachu? Farfetch'd was the one who lost to Bea (and Ash an entire saga showing how he's always uses the same Pokémon in rematches). So, why Pikachu? Why?! Pikachu?! Other than the choice of Pokémon on Ash's part, the battle was pretty solid writing-wise. Ash manages to land a hit on one of Bea's Pokémon and quickly tries to keep the momentum by commanding attacks one after the other. Bea is unfazed and her Hitmontop seemingly unaffected, so Ash pulls a very creative move that shocks both Chuck and Bea and uses Electroweb on the field, effectively slowing Hitmontop down a lot while also dealing damage over time, allowing Pikachu to finish it off with an Iron Tail. Only problem I could see was Hitmontop being seemingly unaffected by Electroweb, even when Ash pointed out that it should've made it slower. Maybe if they would've had Bea order a Rapid Spin instead of a Gyro Ball (which, I might add, would've matched with their anime animations, since the Gyro Ball this episode doesn't look like a Gyro Ball at all), maybe this whole thing could've been solved. Or have a comment from Chuck saying that it would take more than a single Electroweb to slow Bea's Hitmontop down, since it's faster than a regular one (which would further show how strong of a trainer she is). Regardless, it's not that major of a problem, so I'll let it slide.

Spoiler: Animation

Also, speaking of Gyro Ball's downgraded animation, that brings to a special point that I was gonna bring up. And this is something that I don't bring up often (except when Pokémon moves are involved), but I decided to make an exception for because everyone was bringing up that the "dream team" was working on this episode. That point being: the animation was very underwhelming. Bea striking the same poses whenever she commands a move, Pokémon moving like they're in slow-motion when attacking or are getting hit, the underwhelming shots showing Riolu's animosity towards Grapploct where he keeps shaking, the surplus of explosions (even more so than usual). And don't even get me started on that drawn out shot of Pikachu being defeated by Grapploct. Going from BNHA back to regular Pokémon Journeys episodes was already jarring (both writing-wise/character-wise and animation-wise), but I decided to stick around specifically for this episode, hoping that the animation would be an improvement from most of the other episodes. But, seeing this episode's animation, which was partially done by someone who has worked on the anime since the OG series and someone who's considered the absolute best, my hopes have just went flushed down the drain. Putting aside MHA, even past episodes from this anime were better than this. I just checked the Wulfric rematch from all the way back in XY (since I though it would make sense, since that was animated by Iwane as well) and, animation-wise, that episode is far better than this one. Animation is more fluid, the camera is more dynamic and the Pokémon move faster than they do here. Even when it comes to reused animation, that episode comes on top. In this episode, Bea strikes the exact same pose when calling out moves 6 times (7 if you count that flashback at the beginning of the episode) and the pose she strikes when calling out Liquidation is repeated twice (and the scene where Poliwrath and Grapploct are exchanging blows gets partially recycled twice). Meanwhile, in the Wulfric episode, they only reuse the same animation for Abomasnow's Ice Shard thrice (which, personally, I'm willing to excuse it, since it's far more intense and dynamic than Bea's pose-striking) and the scene where Ash and Ash-Greninja look at Wulfric, which gets recycled twice (and there's also the scene where Ash prepares?... activates?... enlarges?... no idea what to call what it is he does to his Poké Ball to make them go form small to large, point is that scene gets partially repeated two times). So how come that an episode from two series ago, that aired over 4 years ago, manages to have better animation than an episode from the current series? Why is it that the animation of a series whose art style was more detailed and more sharp and that of an anime that's more round and less detailed and was supposedly made for the sake of making smooth, dynamic animation easier (can you tell I'm still salty about the art style change yet?)?

Spoiler: Grapploct vs Pikachu

Moving on, we have Pikachu vs Grapploct. The second shot of Grapploct standing around was unnecessary and drown out. The animation when it's using Close Combat on Pikachu was actually surprisingly fluid and fast-paced compared to the rest of the episode (so, that's a plus). It surviving a Thunderbolt to the face... I guess it makes sense, considering it's supposed to be Bea's partner and one of her stronger Pokémon. Pikachu being unable to attack Grapploct because of Octolock and him struggling to the move make sense, considering this is his first time dealing with it, meaning that he would have a hard time adapting to it, even with Ash's attempts at advising him to not struggle against it. And Pikachu being defeated by Liquidation, especially after taking both a Close Combat and a Triple Kick, is to be expected. Overall, the writing here was solid. Riolu offering to carry Pikachu, however, is somewhat weird. I know he's been getting more friendly/open as the series has progressed, but I can't help but find this change in character to be... sudden. Almost feels like I've missed some important character arc for the little guy.

Spoiler: Grapploct vs Riolu

And, finally, the last battle of the rematch: Riolu vs Grapploct. Which starts out with a scene where Riolu is staring at Grapploct right after bringing Pikachu back to Ash, where they loop the exact same animations for Grapploct four times. Jeez, at this point, it really feels like they're trying to draw this battle out for as much as possible. Won't focus to much on this, but there are just so many moments where the Pokémon are moving so slowly. They're not making the battle feel more dramatic or dynamic, especially with how often they're doing it this episode. Anyways, back to the writing, it's actually very solid. Ash starts out with a double Vacuum Wave combo to disperse Grapploct's Liquidation, while also dealing some damage and allowing Riolu to retreat before getting too close to Grapploct (effectively allowing it to avoid another Close Combat frenzy like the one Pikachu just endured). Then, once Bea sees Riolu preparing for something, she orders Grapploct to use its infamous Octolock. To which Ash smiles, surprising Bea, as that signifies that he has a plan. A plan that we never saw him come up with, as all his preparations for this rematch happened off-screen. The plan being not to fight against the Octolock, since that would hurt and tire Riolu out (as shown when Pikachu got caught), and to, instead, match your movements with that of Grapploct's tentacles and store up your energy while looking for an opening to attack and break free from the Octolock. Interesting detail is how Bea even noticed Riolu's free hand and, yet, she still allowed Ash to go trough with the plan. I guess she was either curious what their plan actually was or she wanted to test Ash's plan and see if that would actually work. Either way, it show that she's slowly starting to be more wary of Ash, which, in turn, show that he's starting to gain some respect from her. Also, the Aura effect when Riolu was concentrating looked pretty dope. Anyways, Riolu unleashes a powerful Force Palm at point blank, dealing some significant damage to Grapploct, leading to Bea and her partner "answering in turn with their full power" and ordering a Close Combat. Which leads to a clash between it and Riolu that ends in both of them knocking each other out. While, while it's perfectly fine for Grapploct to go down, considering it just endured a Thunderbolt, a double Vacuum Wave and a powered-up Force Palm, Riolu getting defeated by a single punch from Grapploct's Close Combat doesn't make sense. Octolock didn't affect Riolu much this time and Grapploct didn't manage to attack the little guy at all prior to this clash, so for it to go down to a single punch, especially when we've seen it tank some hits before, is bizarre. I know a win here would've been unearned, considering the lack of on-screen training, and a defeat would've made Ash's climb in ranks following his nonsensical drop irrelevant, but couldn't they have had Grapploct actually hurt Riolu with one of its moves before their final clash? The rest of the battle is great writing-wise, so why not focus on the ending being as well written as the rest of it?

Spoiler: Final scene(s)

Then we have the sweets scene, that shows Bea's softer side. Nice seeing her smile and sharing her sweets with Ash's Pokémon and being more friendly towards them. And, a cool detail I noticed is that, whenever she would start talking to Ash about their battle and their goal, she would start wiping her smile and going back to her usual, more serious self. We also see her starting to respect Ash some more, calling his strategies remarkable, and here even acknowledging him as a rival (since they both share the same goal), with her declaring that they will battle again. Plus, we also get a small peak at Bea's backstory and how Chuck came to know her. Overall, a great ending for the episode... is what I would say if this was the episode's actual ending. But, of course, since Go is the protagonist this series, we just need to have one last one-minute scene showing him making another irrelevant catch. Sigh, one minute that could've been used to expand on the battle and make Riolu's defeat more believable. But no, we just have to have Go catch a Pokémon in an Ash-centric episode, or else the world would implode.

Spoiler: Conclusion

And with that, my review is finally over. Maaaaan, this took a while to get done. Might even have to do some edits here and there, since I don't have time to look over it right now. Writing-wise, the story was for, the most part, pretty great, outside of that rocky start, Riolu's defeat and a few other hiccups here and there. Animation, however, was just not good at all. It wasn't terrible, but certainly not something to be praised, especially compared to some of Iwane's other episodes. On a scale from one to ten, I'd say this episode is somewhere around a 7. Good enough, but, as I said in the beginning, not what you'd expect when you hear the words "dream team". Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some grinding to do in the Heart of Maguuma, Squadrons videos to watch to see if the game is worth getting, a Smash presentation to get ready for, a certain podcast to catch up on, a few season of BNHA to binge watch again and a some IRL stuff to take care of.

 

[Max1996]

It surviving a super-effective Thunderbolt to the face...

...? Grapploct is pure Fighting.

Octolock didn't affect Riolu much this time and Grapploct didn't manage to attack the little guy at all prior to this clash, so for it to go down to a single punch,

Maybe Octolock did wear Riolu down a bit, just not as much as from when Riolu struggled in episode 34?

Also, that wall of text is hard to read.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Interesting how he can tell all that just by looking at her profile. And just as interesting is how, apparently, the PWC app can tell other competitors your exact location any where on the globe. Am I the only one who sees that as an invasion of privacy?

Well Snapchat exists and has a map...

By the way, a drop down spoiler would be appreciated since the text took up more than my entire screen on even an iPad, can’t imagine the pain of mobile users.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

can’t imagine the pain of mobile users.

I'm a mobile user, and I can say that that's a big block of text to read through.

 

[LazySpy]

By the way, a drop down spoiler would be appreciated since the text took up more than my entire screen on even an iPad, can’t imagine the pain of mobile users.

This is actually even longer than my first 'review' ever...
(and probably the longest review ever written on this website)

Spoiler

His:

Mine:

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Also, and this is a very minor, very personal complaint, but I really wasn't a fan of them chaining Chuck's main partner from Machoke to Poliwrath. Besides Machoke being my favorite Fighting-type, he was shown throughout the episode to be the Pokémon closest to Chuck, always being right beside him, always training with him, even sharing Chuck's over-emotional tic (which is strangely absent form this episode, but, whatever). So him disappearing and being replaced with Poliwrath rubs me the wrong way, even if it's more faithful to the games.

Chuck used Poliwrath in his debut appearance too. And he never called Poliwrath his favorite here. A Gym Leader needs to train all of their Pokémon.

the Gyro Ball this episode doesn't look like a Gyro Ball at all

Move animations change between series.

Riolu offering to carry Pikachu, however, is somewhat weird. I know he's been getting more friendly/open as the series has progressed, but I can't help but find this change in character to be... sudden. Almost feels like I've missed some important character arc for the little guy.

They've been together for a good while now. It's only natural they grow to respect each other more as time goes on. I actually recall them being in perfectly good terms as soon as in episode 23.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Bea will need to think outside the box and not be as predictable in her next match, as she can't rely on her signature Octolock anymore

I like to think that her less aggressive approach to Riolu was a way to test Grapploct’s flaws against an opponent that knew what to expect. Now she knows where to improve.

 

[nickdt]

I like to think that her less aggressive approach to Riolu was a way to test Grapploct’s flaws against an opponent that knew what to expect. Now she knows where to improve.

Yeah, but the next time they battle, Ash has Lucario and not Riolu anymore and Lucario is much taller and bigger than Riolu and Grapploct.

 

[Pulsaro23]

...? Grapploct is pure Fighting.

Yeah, I feel like an idiot for saying that. In my mind, I was like: "A blue Pokémon, based on an octopus, that knows Water-type moves and can be found while bike-surfing in the games. Clearly, it's part Water."

Maybe Octolock did wear Riolu down a bit, just not as much as from when Riolu struggled in episode 34?

If that were the case, you'd think Riolu would show signs of being exhausted or weakened. Maybe show it having some bruises and scratches or show it panting and being tired because of the Octolock. But, instead of any of that, Riolu's shown to be perfectly fine once it breaks away from Grapploct's tentacles. Which makes it being KO'd from a single punch strange.

Well Snapchat exists and has a map...

Never used Snapchat, so I can't comment on how they handle user privacy (though, based on some of the articles I've just seen, they're not to good at it). But, from what I've read, the only locations you can get from it are those of your friends, and only after they've accepted a location request from you. Not the same as anyone being able to see any PWC participant's location, regardless of whether they themselves are taking part in the PWC or not.

Chuck used Poliwrath in his debut appearance too.

And I didn't claim otherwise, so I don't know what your point is.

And he never called Poliwrath his favorite here.

No idea where this comment came from, since I didn't claim he considers Poliwrath his favorite, nor do I remember Chuck calling Machoke his favorite either.

A Gym Leader needs to train all of their Pokémon.

And my point was that I like Machoke, who was supposed to be Chuck's ace and his closest Pokémon, and that I was disappointed they had him use Poliwrath and had him remember Poliwrath's fight against Bayleef, making it seem like they Poliwrath is now Chuck's ace, so as to be more consistent with the games (since Chuck never used a Machoke in the games and his ace in them is Poliwrath).

Move animations change between series.

And, while I'd prefer some consistency between the move's animations, that's not the problem here. The problem is how Gyro Ball's animation has regressed, to the point that it looks like a Rapid Spin.

I actually recall them being in perfectly good terms as soon as in episode 23.

That makes this even worse, since Riolu's debut showed it to be very impulsive and somewhat aggressive, with the only reason it started respecting Ash being because of their connection through Aura. So for it to mellow out and become more friendly by the second episode it appeared in... do I even need to point out how nonsensical that is? If they wanted Riolu to get along with Pikachu more for the sake of having cute moments like these, why not have at least one episode dedicated to it becoming more friendly and open to Pikachu and Ash's other Pokémon?

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

That makes this even worse, since Riolu's debut showed it to be very impulsive and somewhat aggressive, with the only reason it started respecting Ash being because of their connection through Aura. So for it to mellow out and become more friendly by the second episode it appeared in... do I even need to point out how nonsensical that is? If they wanted Riolu to get along with Pikachu more for the sake of having cute moments like these, why not have at least one episode dedicated to it becoming more friendly and open to Pikachu and Ash's other Pokémon?

I haven’t watched that episode, but I think that they tried to make Pikachu Jealously episode that... though I repeat I may be wrong since I skipped that episode.
But it skipped Riolu bonding with the other Pokemon.

 

[Pulsaro23]

I haven’t watched that episode, but I think that they tried to make Pikachu Jealously episode that... though I repeat I may be wrong since I skipped that episode.

I haven't watched it either (nor do I intend to, ever), but from what I've read and seen, I got the impression that the episode was about Pikachu having to get used to Ash giving Riolu more attention. Not Riolu learning to get along with Pikachu (or it becoming more calm or it accepting that it is not Ash's only Pokémon).

 

[thomaswiencek]

Say, did you think that Mika Kanai reprised her original Japanese-language voice role of Satoshi's Bayleaf, the one had appeared in a flashback of her battle against Chuck's Poliwhirl in this episode, or did you think that her original Japanese-language voice recording has been archived for Satoshi's Bayleaf's voice, or did you think that Satoshi's Bayleaf's voice had been excluded from this episode? Which do you think?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Say, did you think that Mika Kanai reprised her original Japanese-language voice role of Satoshi's Bayleaf, the one had appeared in a flashback of her battle against Chuck's Poliwhirl in this episode, or did you think that her original Japanese-language voice recording has been archived for Satoshi's Bayleaf's voice, or did you think that Satoshi's Bayleaf's voice had been excluded from this episode? Which do you think?

The flashback was voiceless...

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Great battle dis ep had

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

Is it sad that aside from Chairman Rose, this was Pikachu’s last battle? Half a year...and Pikachu has had one battle since...