Review JN047: Pokémon Champion! The Battle of Big Eaters!!

[Eclipsical]

The subs confirm that the prize for winning is a trip to Unova and all you can eat Unova food.

 

[TRNatalie]

Knowing this series and how they treat them with Pokemon they'll probably get it once from the gacha machine, do Cramorant things that Cramorant do and afterwards it'll be punched out of existence like all the other Gacha mons and most likely never brought up again.

Sadly yes

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

The subs confirm that the prize for winning is a trip to Unova and all you can eat Unova food.

So the next episode is connected to this one

That's interesting also a bit unusual

 

[nickdt]

The subs confirm that the prize for winning is a trip to Unova and all you can eat Unova food.

All you can eat Unova Food. CILAN INCOMING!!!!

 

[Rocket Messiah]

And the reason they don't put Morpeko in a Pokeball is?

 

[Max1996]

Mostly filler, save for the Skwovet evolution.

Also, neat reference to a detail from the core series games: Just like in Pokémon Amie/Refresh, Hydreigon eats with all three heads.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

And the reason they don't put Morpeko in a Pokeball is?

I mean Pokémon can still pop right back out of their Pokeballs and Morpeko is very aggressive so even if they tried to catch it that still may not work.

Also TR aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed

 

[Craiden]

Ok, don't know about the rest of you guys, but I enjoyed that episode a good bit (it does make me want to watch an episode "Big Eaters.") Very fun (with some surprising "dark" elements, in TRio fasting for this competition, and Blaziken potentially being forced to face his species). The competiton seemed put together well enough (even with the TRio sabotaging it). Kikuna's/Koharu's audience dynamic worked well, and made the audience portion solid (as did Ash's Blaziken thought process at the end). Just a really fun, light episode (and the Lucario/Cinderace checking out was a nice "meta" shoutout). And props to Dragonite for trying (and showing that indeed he just likes competing, though doesn't mind losing).

 

[Beary]

I honestly liked this episode even thought goh was the star of the show. Next episode will even be connected hopefully more arcs in the future. It really brings me back to the days of OS ash where he could just enter any contest and win lol. For a filler i would give a high rating

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

TRio fasting for this competition

@Max1996 actually pointed out to me that fasting isn't a good way to build up appetite, since your stomach will shrink if you don't eat.

 

[KrspaceT]

....I can't remember Bonnie, Cilan, or anyone getting as much disdain for staring in an episode instead of Ash. Journeys huh....makes new Ash defenders.

Honestly I am just happy to see Dragonite get some stuff outside of the lab that isn't battle. Like if this sort of stuff happened more often I think we'd get a lot less complaints about Ash's mons in the series.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

I mean Pokémon can still pop right back out of their Pokeballs and Morpeko is very aggressive so even if they tried to catch it that still may not work.

So was Mimmikyu. And it was convinced by Team Rocket to join them so he could destroy Pikachu anytime he wanted. Meowth can talk, also Jessie has character with unfriendly Pokémon (Seviper, Mimmikyu)

Also TR aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed

This depends on who is writting the episode. Specially this season.

After this episode and after reading some comments I'm officially jumping out the Morpeko train. He is abussive and I hate that kind of behaviour on a Pokémon. He can rot.

Can this season end please?


View: https://twitter.com/TRCheerSquad/status/1332447232738488320

 

[Craiden]

Can this season end please?


View: https://twitter.com/TRCheerSquad/status/1332447232738488320

This is inaccurate, as the episode clearly has Team Rocket instigating the fasting because they thought it gave Morpeko the best chance to win the competition (that being said, interpret that however you like).

 

[Queen Cynthia]

As I pointed out in the preview episode, I'm against eating contests because first, they're a waste of food while other people are starving and second, what's the point of forcing yourself or your Pokemon to keep eating at all costs if they're full? So frankly, I didn't expect too much from this episode. After watching it, I must say it wasn't that bad after all though.

Most notably, the episode had a lot of strategical thinking elements that I didn't expect. Those moments were the thing I liked most about the episode and so, I'd like to concentrate on them:
- Go having Skwovet spit out the seeds to help it empty its belly
- Go realizing that Muk doesn't like sweet food and choosing the cake as a consequence (well, actually he had no other choice because he had to take what the other competitors had left over, but still)
- James tricking Glalie into using an Ice-type attack on the food which then became impossible to eat. Very clever indeed!
- Trio serving cookies that swelled up in their opponents' Pokemon's bellies. Yes, it was outright betrayal and I was hoping they would get disqualified. But still, not a bad idea per se!
- Go having his Pokemon use a berry to neutralize the sweet taste of the cake. Clever thinking!

The rest of the episode wasn't that interesting because I see no reason in having such a competiton. But the scenes with some strategical thinking I mentioned above were both surprising and enjoyable.

I won't be joining that Bewear vs. Morpeko discussion because I'm convinced you just can't compare them: They're two totally different characters with their respective strengths and weaknesses.

There's one quote that summarizes the episode pretty well and so, I totally agree with @L-05308 :

The real winner here is Dragonite who made its own decision to stop when it was full.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I have mixed feelings about this episode, though this is a case of those mixed feelings being more of a me problem than any fault of the episode itself. I overall found it to be actually pretty cute and fun with some pretty clever (if a bit contrived) strategies, with the Bullet Seed one being my personal favorite. That said, the episode was also uncomfortable for me to watch because the very concept of eating contests is one that I'm kinda against because I feel like it's outright dangerous: eating that much food in one go could cause serious damage to your stomach and intestines. And it doesn't help that I learned that one of my brother's ex-classmates was hospitalized precisely due to overeating at around the same time the episode aired...

The subs confirm that the prize for winning is a trip to Unova and all you can eat Unova food.

The region based in mainland USA? ...well I'm sure that's just a coincidence

 

[ehh123]

It was good to see Chrysa finally get some attention after being a background character for so long. Yeah, being enthusiastic about an eating contest isn’t much but at least it’s something.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

A decent filler. TRio were definitely the highlight (I'm glad to see Morpeko again), and surprisingly Kikuna got some decent spotlight, even if it was just for a gag. While not an amazing episode by any means, it made me realize the potential for having individual episodes like this to develop Gou's Pokemon. Going forward, I hope we start to see episodes dedicated to showcasing just one his Pokemon at a time. It would really do wonders in making his ever-expanding team feel like actual creatures with their own personalities, rather than a bunch of dex entries. It also offers some fun continuity when a seemingly throwaway capture turns out to have an important role 20 episodes later.

The episode had it's funny moments for sure. Blaziken having an existential crisis when faced with the Torchic pastries absolutely killed me. My main gripe is Gou, who as usual is a natural at everything he tries, and easily outclassed seasoned veterans despite only having learned of this competition 4 hours prior. Will this boy ever be stopped?

 

[Daren]

My main gripe is Gou, who as usual is a natural at everything he tries, and easily outclassed seasoned veterans despite only having learned of this competition 4 hours prior.

Ash was doing that for years too, let's be fair. Pokéringer, Rapidash race, Balloon race...

Will this boy ever be stopped?

Ultimately the inevitability of this series' protagonists always failing in the end will reach up with it's cold, bony hand and grab him by the ankle as he reaches for Mew as it floats out of his reach forever.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Ash was doing that for years too, let's be fair. Pokéringer, Rapidash race, Balloon race...

At least with Ash we got a sense of the struggle, and in many case we watched him come up with strategies and work to improve. Gou literally never faltered, he just wowed the audience with that smug look on his face with genius idea after genius idea. Ultimately, that's my problem with how Gou's has been handled so far, as viewers, we aren't being shown the presumed behind-the-scenes where Gou works hard and struggles (you know, the things that allow us to connect with him as a character), we just get to see him do amazing things with no preamble. I suppose they figure we already saw Ash do all that, so they they might as well skip over it with Gou, however the end result just makes Gou look like an untouchable god that Ash couldn't hope to measure up against.

 

[R1ke]

My goodness I actually enjoyed this more than the DD finale. What on Earth is happening?

For real, I want to see more filler episodes like this. TR, Chloe and even Chrysa of all people got some much needed screentime and focus. It was really fun seeing the different strategies employed by the likes of Hydreigon (its Smash 4 trophy even alludes to being it in an eating contest), Bisharp, Glalie, Muk, etc and how everything backfired on them. That bit with Blaziken refusing to eat the Torchic-shaped cookies was absolutely hilarious - I was legit thinking how messed up it would be for Blaziken to eat them beforehand. TR rigging the competition as always was pretty fun and they actually used Morpeko here. Seeing them up to their antics is always entertaining, though their relationship with Morpeko (and Chewtle honestly) is pretty weird/inconsistent. Honestly just throw a pokeball at the two at this point. Ash finally using Dragonite again is worth celebrating, though it didn't do as much as I'd hoped. Goh bringing back Skwovet from the shadow realm of Cerise labs is cool too, though its evolution was rather predictable.

Can we just talk about the music? Jesus that got surprisingly intense, like they used a lot of tracks from episode 39. Hell, they even went with the opening. Can't tell if they went with serious music ironically or not, but if so well played cause that was great. They're also directly following up on this next episode, that's so good to see. On a side note, the updated opening presentation looks gorgeous.

8/10 from me. Yeah, I was not expecting it to be that good. Episodes like this help fix some of my problems with Journeys at the moment, most of which are screentime related. In that Mewtwo review I said how Journeys felt off, but this helps rejuvenate it for me. This show has once again shown me that it's completely unpredictable, for better or for worse.