Review JN048: A Close Call with Practically Pikachu!

[FinnishPokéFan92]

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Discuss the episode here.

 

[Panky..]

Okay, this was surprisingly fun(ny) episode with a core focus on TRio and Lucario/Cinderace, and the shenanigans at attempts to ironically rescue a fake Pikachu (and not being YET another Pikachu, or worse, a Goh episode). The thing I love the most about this episode is finally putting to rest the claims that Lucario would have a more stereotypical/cliche personality like others of its species (or worse, devoid of any like Greninja, I just can't picture it getting baffled/flustered/abashed/embarassed like Lucario did here), how it's at odds with Cinderace's return to its Scorbunny attitude. The end battle kinda reminded me of a doubles WWE match with mismatched partners.

EDIT: Forgot to paste my negative points earlier, just noticed it. Negative parts are the Deko Akao OOC Ash writing (like usual) and the horribly choppy low-budget animation. And the poor world building with the deserted NYC/Castelia.

 

[Singaporean]

What a funny and fun episode for Aceburn and Lucario hard work for getting that fake mech pikachu wasted. While at the same time for them to get along with each other. Only question is Aceburn is female or not? We may never know.

Overall rating: B

 

[Schemer99]

An average episode for me, even for filler.

-It looks like Lucario and Cinderace will be outside Pokemon more often than we thought.

-Lucario is a brat and tsudere.

-The food in this episode looked really good. I wonder what food could be based off of Lucario and Cinderace.

-It was kinda messed up Goh didn't bring Greedent here. He's the only reason they're enjoying this feast anyway.

-Finally got that Pyro Ball + Aura Sphere combo.

 

[BigDocFan]

Compete waste of time episode

No Unova Pokemon caught by Goh, very few actually seen

Lucario and Cinderace fighting each other and trying to protect the fake Pikachu

 

[empoemperor]

I'm surprised on how Ash and Goh never noticed their aces were gone, unless I missed something.

 

[Schemer99]

I'm surprised on how Ash and Goh never noticed their aces were gone, unless I missed something.

They noticed several times but were too preoccupied eating.

 

[BigDocFan]

They noticed several times but were too preoccupied eating.

What great trainers they are

Goh: Er Ash, Cinderace appears to be missing.
Ash: Strange so is Lucario. Never mind, lets eat
Goh: Yeah!!!

 

[Rocket Messiah]

It was fine.

Team Rocket is good when they're allowed to have an explanation and screentime in his appearences.

Team Rocket is no good when they depend on random Pokémon to do their bidding.

Eliminate the gatcha and this Team Rocket is slighty better than XY Rockets.

 

[empoemperor]

Imagine Cilan's Crustle seeing the Crustle cakes.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[L-05308]

This was really boring.

One of the most populated cities in the Pokemon world and we didn’t see a single other person or wild Pokémon, despite the fact Goh won a competition to try all this food - for some reason him and Ash have to eat the food on a park bench far away from any food vendors... did they over spend on the Darkest day arc?

I’llgive it this, there were some cool shots of Lucario and Cinderace towards the end.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

This was a fun and entertaining filler episode, starring two Pokémon I really like.

 

[ii kanji]

It's an episode about sticky hands. On paper I should have really enjoyed it, but for various reasons I couldn't get fully immersed.

To my astonishment, the aspect I liked most was the Aceburn and Lucario chemistry. Actually, for the two "cool" Pokemon of the series, they're a pair of dorks, and I love that! I also love the enemies to lovers thing they've got going on. Funny that they're almost opposing matching pairs to their trainers, with Aceburn being a bubbly mess-maker and Lucario being a faux-stoic. It was silly though that they had so much time to fight with each other when they were battling the TRio - what were you guys doing just standing there, not ordering your mons to move or making any attempts to steal Pikachu?!

As others have mentioned, the absence of other humans and Pokemon in their world's New York City was absurd. Are they also in a covid lockdown? If so, then how come Satoshi and Go were allowed to fly there and wander around without masks, eating street food and not maintaining a social distance 'huh?! Anyway, I digress. It's not like you need to splash out on the animation budget, even still background characters in just a few shots would have made the place come to life a bit.

Does anyone remember the thread about whether Satoshi could carry a series alone? For me this series has proven that he, Go and the TRio combined cannot carry a series alone! It's sincerely boring to watch. The bit when he went to wash his hands and left Go with his melting ice-cream was cute, but that's 1 moment in 20 minutes. I'm also starting to board the 'Deko Akao doesn't know how to write Satoshi' train. Lucario was missing for like half a day, and he was just eating, seriously dude wtf?! If the TRio were behaving like this with one of theirs I'd be frothing at the mouth and they're the villains, so what gives? Also, Go is a dick for not bringing Hoshigarisu who won him this stupid trip.

As for the TRio, yeah ok you've planned this scheme, plotted to ambush Pikachu, built a (pretty dope tbh) mecha, but why tf are you in Isshu? How did you get there, where are you staying, what is your purpose? Actually, what is your purpose is a question I have for them wrt this series as a whole. (My heart almost burst seeing them in that ice-cream van at the beginning Take me back to Alola!)

The episode was just ok. Pretty much sums up PM.

 

[WatcherMark]

Let's start with the good stuff... the Aceburn and Lucario pairing is proving to be a pretty fertile ground for the writers. They're a very good pairing both humour and battling wise, and their combo battle at the end was pretty good. There's also something pretty humorous about Satoshi and Go totally failing to notice anything strange was going on as they were too busy stuffing their faces.

Now let's get on to the main problem with this episode... where the hell was everyone? We're in Hiun City, one of the largest cities in the Pokemon world, and it's completely empty. No people, no wild Pokemon, nothing. I think we saw a couple of people in the far distance right at the beginning but that was it. Apart from Satoshi, Go, Team Rocket and their Pokemon we had a ghost city. Was the background animator off sick the week this was made? Did the computer animation glitch and wipe out all the NPCs and no-one noticed? It can't be a cost-cutting measure, not to just have people stand there.

And what was even the point of setting this episode in Isshu anyway? Because I totally forgot we were meant to be there until Nageki and Dageki appeared. For a series that promised to showcase all the older regions all we saw was an empty park, a bench and an empty alley. Nothing was shown off at all. This episode could easily have been set anywhere Still, at least it's consistent... I thought the anime did a terrible job at portraying Hiun City back in Best Wishes so at least they're consistent.

Finally, I'd love to know what kind of Grand Food Tour the kids are meant to be on since all it seems to involve them doing is buying stuff from random vans. And screw Go for not bringing Yokubarisu with him since it won him the damn prize.

 

[Daren]

I'm also starting to board the 'Deko Akao doesn't know how to write Satoshi' train. Lucario was missing for like half a day, and he was just eating, seriously dude wtf?! If the TRio were behaving like this with one of theirs I'd be frothing at the mouth and they're the villains, so what gives?

It's funny to realize there are people for whom this will be the first Pokémon/Pocket Monsters episode they ever see, and this will colour how they view Ash forever.

 

[Eclipsical]

To be fair, it sounded like Goh asked Ash about Lucario and Ash said something to him, so Lucario going off on his own is seemingly not uncommon. It seems like Lucario isn’t interested in participating during fun and casual events.

When they’re not training, it looks like Ash mostly leaves them to themselves.

Cinderace and Lucario are easily the highlights. They showed off their new personalities well and they had their first bit of one-on-one interactions. I do hope that Cinderace rubs off on Lucario eventually since we have plenty of stoic Lucarios.

This episode didn’t have to be in Unova. Goh not catching a single Pokémon is a bit disappointing, I’d much rather him not catch a Pokémon in a Kanto episode considering another Unova episode probably won’t be for awhile. I had the same problem with Sinnoh when he only caught Kanto Pokémon. His Kanto Pokémon probably outweigh almost all of his other Pokémon combined. Could’ve just caught a Pidove sitting on a bench right at the beginning before sitting down.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Was Jessie quoting the Jari Boy Jari Girl song?

I really liked this other than the streets being vacant.

Lucario is edgy.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Listening closely, I figured out how they were able to distinguishing the fake Pikachu: Meowth couldn't apparently perfect its voice or something, so it says "Hikachu" instead of "Pikachu".

 

[Black&White]

Great episode. Was nice seeing TR use Sawk and Throh. I wanted Ash to catch one of them in BW but I'll settle for them.beinf Gatcha Pokemon

 

[A Wild Luxray]

I think I actually liked this episode thanks to Lucario and Cinderace's dynamic, plus the whole mismatched pair battle was actually kinda interesting. My one complaint though is why is it that the animation crew has suddenly stopped filling cities with actual people and Pokemon? It makes these cities feel so dead. Overall a pretty decent episode.