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Review JN046: Battle and Catch! The Revival of Mewtwo

This episode established that Mewtwo cares about abused Pokemon rather than just clones. So it makes perfect sense why Mewtwo, in theory, would go after Giovanni rather than the other way around. I'd say the only problem I had with Mewtwo Returns was that Giovanni merely forgot about Mewtwo, rather than his general ambitions.

Whether or not OLM prefer to stick to Dynamax shenanigans for villainy remains to be seen.
 
This episode was so awful. I could write a whole rant about all the things that went wrong but other people did that already. I'll just say that I almost wish this episode didn't exist since it felt totally pointless and it only made me hate Mewtwo. I hope we never see it again.

Also someone's going to have to explain to me again why Mewtwo's original voice actor gets so much praise because he sounded no more impressive than any of the other male voice actors who have worked on the show in my opinion. This Ichimura guy's tone and inflection did nothing for me.
 
This episode further reinforces my opinion that I'd have rather opted for another episode of the Galar arc in place of this.

Also someone's going to have to explain to me again why Mewtwo's original voice actor gets so much praise because he sounded no more impressive than any of the other male voice actors who have worked on the show in my opinion. This Ichimura guy's tone and inflection did nothing for me.
Nostalgia sells.
 
Also someone's going to have to explain to me again why Mewtwo's original voice actor gets so much praise because he sounded no more impressive than any of the other male voice actors who have worked on the show in my opinion. This Ichimura guy's tone and inflection did nothing for me.

It's not mine or anyone else's job to convince you "what the big deal is, anyway?" in regards to Mr. Ichimura. You either hear it or you don't. I personally think his performance in the original 1998 movie is one of the best (if not the best) vocal performances in the entire franchise, but not everyone is going to agree with me on that. And that's perfectly fine. Lots of famous, well-respected actors have their detractors.

But, the fact remains that Mr. Masachika Ichimura is still a very high profile actor whose Mewtwo performance is beloved by fans all over the world. His booking fee isn't going to go down any just because his performance doesn't do anything for you personally, y'know? Fans in Japan would not be happy with a recast, either, so it's either Masachika Ichimura as this Mewtwo or we don't get to see this Mewtwo ever again.
 
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Using Mewtwo for a remember your goals episode is in my opinion a waste of time, speciall knowing his background and his relation with Mew.
Well that's what the episode was advertised as, not as a Mewtwo vs Giovanni special. Since the episode was dealing Mewtwo challenging Ash and Go's convictions TR had no place in it.
 
Well that's what the episode was advertised as, not as a Mewtwo vs Giovanni special. Since the episode was dealing Mewtwo challenging Ash and Go's convictions TR had no place in it.

I don't care, you are not going to convince me that this was not underwhelming.
 
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Plus if they need a multi episode arc dealing with Giovanni he could just try and unseal Eternatus. At least The extraterrestrial Poison Dragon doesn't have to worry about an very expensive VA
 
No wonder the two became quick friends:
ash go mewtwo.jpg
 
So pokemon master is about being strongest not champion

While Ash has had region specific goals like the Pokemon League these have never been equated with being a Pokemon Master. It’s an undefined goal, which does suit Ash as he’s always on the lookout for a new challenge and journey when he reaches the conclusion of the one he’s on. He’s one of the only trainers known to defeat Brandon (even Paul, who Ash was unable to beat in battle until the end of his Sinnoh journey, got his ass handed to him by the Pyramid King), including knocking out his Regice, and still Ash turned down a Frontier Brain position.
 
While Ash has had region specific goals like the Pokemon League these have never been equated with being a Pokemon Master. It’s an undefined goal, which does suit Ash as he’s always on the lookout for a new challenge and journey when he reaches the conclusion of the one he’s on. He’s one of the only trainers known to defeat Brandon (even Paul, who Ash was unable to beat in battle until the end of his Sinnoh journey, got his ass handed to him by the Pyramid King), including knocking out his Regice, and still Ash turned down a Frontier Brain position.
pokemon i choose you
Ash had said is munch more then being strongest trianer
 
I'm just glad it was clear enough that this was the original Mewtwo. I also like the his hideout looks similar to the one in Detective Pikachu.
 
pokemon i choose you
Ash had said is munch more then being strongest trianer

That describes what it isn’t, rather than putting a definitive answer as to what does make one a Pokemon Master. According to the Bulbapedia page the Pokemon Company will never define exactly what makes one a Pokemon Master for the purpose of keeping fans speculating.
 
After an epic episode like the last part of the sword and shield arc no Pokemon fan would have expected such an exciting episode .
The first part of the episode though went slower it was adventure filled we could explore Gou's other Pokemon getting little screen time here and there and the improvement of Gou's physical abilities . The next part of the episode was incomparable ,Ash recognises Mewtwo which is a little treat for the older fans and even the battling with Mewtwo was epic than the battle with Bea .
The strongly recommend you to watch the episode .
 

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I was so excited for this episode, and ended up not watching it for a while because it got such a poor reception here. I'm sorry to say that I agree with everyone who's said this episode was less than subpar.

Let's start with one of the biggest problems of the episode: when it came to Mewtwo, they stuck to the absolute bare minimum of continuity references. Like, it was great Ash recognized him, but that's pretty much where it ended. Mewtwo didn't seem to have any recognition of his own in regards to Ash, Goh didn't question how Ash already knew about Mewtwo, Ash didn't explain it...if it wasn't for Mewtwo having the same VA as the movie, I would've easily assumed it was a completely different Mewtwo. Also, I call bullshit on them not being able to reference the movie at all. They've redrawn plenty of scenes from old episodes; they could've easily drawn a single still frame from the movie and used it to further establish Ash and Mewtwo's relationship.

Backtracking a little, the first half of the episode was kind of bizarre. The World of Pokémon segment was nice and unexpected, but I'm a little unclear as to why we were being reintroduced to all of the characters? That felt weird. And then I could've done without the drawn out sequence of Ash and Goh trying to get to their destination. Yes, I'd rather actually see them going there than them just magically ending up there. But it definitely didn't need to be as long as it did. Instead of the boys continually winding up in danger and Goh making a bunch of random captures that I'm not going to remember, they could've easily cut that sequence in half and devoted more time to the boys and Mewtwo. This is not the first time I've complained about this type of scene being way too long in an episode of Journeys, so that seems like an unfortunate pattern that's just going to keep repeating itself over the course of the series.

Back to Mewtwo, can we all acknowledge how lame that battle was? Obviously Mewtwo destroyed Ash and Goh; anything less would've been insulting. But nothing about the battle was interesting! It was just so bland and consisted of the same moves over and over again. I was expecting some grand and amazing showdown, and what we got was a massive letdown.

Also, did you guys know Ash wants to be a Pokémon Master and Goh wants to catch all the Pokémon so he can get to Mew?? I know this show is meant for kids, but I don't even think they need to be reminded of Ash and Goh's goals. We get it recited at the beginning of every single episode, so it's getting really old to have entire episodes dedicated to reiterating the same thing over and over again.

Journeys has had more ups and downs than any other series I can remember in the past, and unfortunately, after a period of pretty good episodes, it seems that Journeys is experiencing another down swing. It's just disappointing that the Mewtwo episode had to be part of that and not a turning point back to a more positive direction.
 
Backtracking a little, the first half of the episode was kind of bizarre. The World of Pokémon segment was nice and unexpected, but I'm a little unclear as to why we were being reintroduced to all of the characters? That felt weird.
This episode was supposed to be the first Friday slot episode before the hiatus messed up the schedule. That's probably why.
 
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