• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Review JN046: Battle and Catch! The Revival of Mewtwo

This was solid in my opinion. That presentation at the start was great. Although the first half was basically filler, I loved that they actually showed Goh using his previous captures to help traverse the jungle. It's really been something I've wanted to see for a while and it gave me Legend of Zelda vibes, where you need to use various items to explore the dungeons. His insta-ball captures were fine as they were low-level pokemon and it was relieving to see him fail to catch that Gyarados as well. Anyways, I'm very surprised they actually brought up and questioned Goh's goal here, felt like Mewtwo was representing the fanbase there haha. His explanation was alright I guess, but I want to see him actually follow through with the research/understanding angle more in the future. That being said, I don't see him catching every pokemon (legendaries excluded) so I hope he gets more development there. Chole was a nice surprise here too.

The battle itself had some great animation (particularly at the end) and I loved the music that played during Mewtwo's introduction. Seeing Pikachu go down to a psychic and shadow ball is kinda sus, but I'll let it slide cause it's coming from Mewtwo and he's not really a bulky pokemon to begin with. Seeing Lucario and Cinderace in action was good too, but they took way too much damage (especially when they were completely fine after being hit dead-on by shadow ball). Also is it just me, or is having force palm+reversal on Lucario feeling redundant? They have their differences, but I feel like they should replace force palm with close combat sometime. I didn't find the battle that redundant, since they really should be struggling against Mewtwo and Mewtwo still used various tricks (like shadow ball, force field, melee attacks and the finisher shadow ball). There wasn't as much continuity as I was expecting however.

I liked it, but I feel like my expectations are getting a little too high for this show. I can't put my finger on why just yet, but something about Journeys feels kinda off right now. Anyways I'll give this a 7.5/10 for now.
 
This episode looked good and the battle was well animated. Unfortunately though there wasn't much else to offer there, with the first half being almost nothing but Ash and Gou dicking around in Pokémon Go and the second half being a curbstomping with lots of repetition, Ash and Gou launch attacks, Mewtwo blocks them, rinse and repeat for 10 minutes. Sure, it was a visual treat, but ultimately it didn't seem to serve any purpose other than another crappy ratings trap unless they plan to do more with Mewtwo later, which I'm not convinced they will given Journeys penchant for flipping their overarching plotlines on and off as required with seemingly zero forward planning.

Also, why is Mewtwo on some random island probably within swimming distance of Vermillion and not at Mt. Quena? Even Evolution showed that he went to Mt. Quena after the first movie's events. And why is he hanging out with a bunch of Route 1 fodder and not the clones from the movie/special? What happened to the clones? Did he just abandon them at Mt. Quena and fly off to do his own thing or what? It's another of those episodes that works as its own bubble but completely shreds itself apart as soon as you apply even the slightest bit of continuity to it. Journeys seems to like episodes like that. The Pokémon he had with him were cute and all, but the complete absence of the clones he was clearly shown to be looking after last time we saw him is a glaring hole. Now I remember he was in some random city, so maybe he left the clones at Mt. Quena and got the new Pokes from that city after humans abused them. But still, most of the audience probably won't remember that and so the question of what happened to Mt. Quena and the clones is still something the episode should have mentioned, at least in passing, especially so given its appearance at the end of Evolution.

It wasn't all bad; there was some genuinely good stuff in there like the Koharu scenes, some of the Pokémon bonding stuff, the M01 music and the movie-style World of Pokémon intro, but overall it was far from their best work and Journeys has far too many episodes that they want to create hype in long-term fans only for them to end up being not great when they come out.

C-, only saved from a D by the Koharu screentime and the animation.
 
and Ash yet again not using Pokémon other than Pikachu and Lucario, which was especially irksome when the boys had to cross over the swamp. Dragonite flying them over? Nah, let's have Caterpie make a rope.
Or hell, Ash could've used Dragonite when about to fall down the waterfall... And Goh could've used Heracross, he used it in the swamp scene just seconds before using Caterpie.

Basically no continuity
IKR? Particularly bothersome since Ash recognized Mewtwo, and yet, Goh doesn't question how Ash knows Mewtwo when he doesn't.
 
I think it's important to take a step back and think about what this episode actually is.

Basically, it was designed to kick off the show's move to Friday nights. And that's it. That's why the episode started with a World of Pokémon segment, that's why they were so heavy-handed with the opening narration, that's why they spent so much time telling us what Satoshi's and Gou's goals are, that's why they got a special guest celebrity to come in to be in the show, etc. It's just supposed to be a re-introduction to the series, for all intents and purposes.

But unfortunately COVID-19 happened, forcing the show to go into reruns for those six weeks back in the spring. Everything ended up getting pushed back as a result, and TV-Tokyo's schedule was already set in stone by that point so OLM had no choice but to air Episodes 40 - 45 during the new Friday night timeslot instead of the old Sunday evenings one.

So that's all this episode is; a special "we changed timeslots!" celebration. I don't see it as an introduction to some grand Mewtwo story arc, or the start of anything big with Sakaki or the rest of the Rocket organization; this episode, to me, was a one-off to kick off the show's new timeslot. Nothing more, nothing less.

It still could have been a better episode, and I agree with basically every criticism brought up in this thread. But I also think I can understand why this episode turned out the way that it did.
 
I'd rather see Shadow Ball spam over Psychic spam any day of the decade, thank you very much. I've long had issues with the fact that this boring ass move gets portrayed as "completely unblockable telekinesis" 99.9% of the time. Mewtwo was obviously going to wipe the floor with Ash and Goh's most marketable Pokémon but I didn't want it being that literal.

My problem? There is literally a move called Telekinesis. It has existed since the fifth generation. Why can't Psychic (and Confusion, now that I'm on the topic) start being its own thing now?
 
I think it's important to take a step back and think about what this episode actually is.

Basically, it was designed to kick off the show's move to Friday nights. And that's it. That's why the episode started with a World of Pokémon segment, that's why they were so heavy-handed with the opening narration, that's why they spent so much time telling us what Satoshi's and Gou's goals are, that's why they got a special guest celebrity to come in to be in the show, etc. It's just supposed to be a re-introduction to the series, for all intents and purposes.

But unfortunately COVID-19 happened, forcing the show to go into reruns for those six weeks back in the spring. Everything ended up getting pushed back as a result, and TV-Tokyo's schedule was already set in stone by that point so OLM had no choice but to air Episodes 40 - 45 during the new Friday night timeslot instead of the old Sunday evenings one.

So that's all this episode is; a special "we changed timeslots!" celebration. I don't see it as an introduction to some grand Mewtwo story arc, or the start of anything big with Sakaki or the rest of the Rocket organization; this episode, to me, was a one-off to kick off the show's new timeslot. Nothing more, nothing less.

It still could have been a better episode, and I agree with basically every criticism brought up in this thread. But I also think I can understand why this episode turned out the way that it did.
Any reason you think that way?
 
It's just basic math. There were six Friday episodes before this, which just so happens to be exactly the same number of weeks the show took off in April / May due to COVID. Push the airdate of every post-hiatus episode up by six weeks and everything suddenly makes a lot more sense.
 
So that's all this episode is; a special "we changed timeslots!" celebration. I don't see it as an introduction to some grand Mewtwo story arc, or the start of anything big with Sakaki or the rest of the Rocket organization; this episode, to me, was a one-off to kick off the show's new timeslot. Nothing more, nothing less.
That's their choice I guess, but they've just concluded the main SwSh storyline and the post-game and DLC don't exactly offer a lot to work with. Their excuse for the lack of arcs was the Sunday time slot, but that's history now and this episode was supposed to highlight that. I don't get the sense of "wow, this new time slot has really made a difference!"

Their minimalism, even regarding Mewtwo who is connected to Go's goal, is honestly a little baffling. I suppose they just want to showcase as many Pokemon as possible and call it a day, aside from the PWC battles.

That said, the episode did draw a connection between Mewtwo and Mew and made Ash and Go want to see the former again, so that's something.
 
Last edited:
Its such a shame Mewtwo didn't acknowledge Ash or seemed to recognize him, but i think that was on purpose, because if Mewtwo would have recognized Ash, they kinda had to namedrop Misty, Brock and the Pokemon involved that got clones as well, which also meant namedropping the movie rando's. If they only made Mewtwo recognize Ash without namedropping all of that, it would be really out of context, especially for the kids who might not have seen the first movie or its remake.

So in essence, it was better for them not to have Mewtwo recognize Ash.
 
Its such a shame Mewtwo didn't acknowledge Ash or seemed to recognize him, but i think that was on purpose, because if Mewtwo would have recognized Ash, they kinda had to namedrop Misty, Brock and the Pokemon involved that got clones as well, which also meant namedropping the movie rando's (Else it would have felt really out of place).
I respectfully disagree. Mewtwo could've namedropped Ash without the need to namedrop the others involved in their previous meeting.
 
I am flummoxed that an Iwane battle episode had mediocre animation

They somehow made Mewtwo boring

I understand that subverting expectations is the hip new thing, PM19, but you didn't have to go THAT far

Although Mewtwo dissing Go was great

It's too big to stay outside all the time.
Meanwhile SM had Ash, Lillie, Lana, Mallow, Kiawe and Sophocles, all with their pokemon outside of their poke balls, without issue

They should be able to have Cinderace and Lucario as Walking Pokemon without issue
 
Last edited:
Its such a shame Mewtwo didn't acknowledge Ash or seemed to recognize him, but i think that was on purpose, because if Mewtwo would have recognized Ash, they kinda had to namedrop Misty, Brock and the Pokemon involved that got clones as well, which also meant namedropping the movie rando's. If they only made Mewtwo recognize Ash without namedropping all of that, it would be really out of context, especially for the kids who might not have seen the first movie or its remake.

So in essence, it was better for them not to have Mewtwo recognize Ash.
Same logic could've been applied for Lt Surge in Visquez episode but he got acknowledged.

—-

I did have a feeling that there were too high expectations for mewtwo. I guess I’m jaded already.
 
Yes it did


Was rather disappointed by Chloe's lack of screentime, there were seconds when I thought she might join Ash and Goh but no, she had to go to school
Please don’t ingored me
Anyone please can answer
So mewtwo and ash have history but they didn’t seem to talk about at all. I’m curious why hopefully the next meet they could?
Also does anyone the music that’s plays on secrets of jungle movie of trailer name like where can I find it on YouTube or anywhere
 
Same logic could've been applied for Lt Surge in Visquez episode but he got acknowledged.

Well.. the battle between Pikachu and Raichu got mentioned, not only Lt Surge. There was context. Just like there was context when Chuck returned by even showing a flashback and even Korrina and Gurrkin got context, since they acknowledgde and recognized Ash and mentioned that they fought eachother for a badge before. The only one that didn't get context was Lance, but he was also the one not in direct contact with Ash.

So it seems that when Ash is in direct contact with a previous character, a context is being applied when he is recognized or acknowledged.

The only returning characters that don't need context are Brock, Misty and the Alola Gang, since they are all recent.
 
Well.. the battle between Pikachu and Raichu got mentioned, not only Lt Surge. There was context. Just like there was context when Chuck returned by even showing a flashback and even Korrina and Gurrkin got context, since they acknowledgde and recognized Ash and mentioned that they fought eachother for a badge before. The only one that didn't get context was Lance, but he was also the one not in direct contact with Ash.

So it seems that when Ash is in direct contact with a previous character, a context is being applied when he is recognized or acknowledged.

The only returning characters that don't need context are Brock, Misty and the Alola Gang, since they are all recent.
Yes, and they didn’t hesitate to provide context there. They were fully capable of doing the same here as well.
 
Correction: they would have been if Atsuhiro Tomioka had been writing. AT wrote the Vermilion Gym episode, which explains all the callbacks it had.
What did you even want to correct? Because it “corrects” literally nothing I said. Your claim contradicts nothing there. In fact you exactly highlight how they were capable of including context but deliberately decided not to.

Anyways we don’t know for certain. The fact is that Tomioka did NOT write the episode and there’s no draft lying around about that. There’s absolutely no way to verify this claim. Anyways, blind faith (or lack of) on writers is never a good idea. Fujisaku managed not to butcher the Alola league final.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom