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Review JN048: A Close Call with Practically Pikachu!

I do like how Lucario tries to act like the “too cool for school” badass stereotype associated with the species but is, in reality, a petulant hothead. In a way, Cinderace and Lucario’s dynamic reminds me of Sonic and Knuckles, only the color schemes are switched around.
 
In my heart, there was going to be a scene where Ash and Goh were scolded by an Officer Jenny for breaching lockdown, which got cut out for being too real.
That's the only acceptable reason for Castelia City of all places to be so barren this time. It's Castelia City, guys. Not Pallet Town. In terms of scale we're talking about what's supposed to be one of the largest known settlements in the Pokémon world.
 
I remember when Bonnie and Meowth got stuck together in XYZ, and that episode was pretty enjoyable, because it utilised the scenery around the two (wild Pokemon, the nature of trees and streams, etc.) and kept the episode moving.
Not going to lie here, this had some promise, but after witnessing the same gag of the flubber/gum catching on the lampposts several times, it lost that potential.
As many people have said, where was everyone? What was there to interact off of apart from the lamppost? That’s what made the Meowth and Bonnie episode funny, as there were different obstacles, it made them more miserable as they ploughed on.
I really wish this was placed in Striaton City instead, so that way, at least, they could have had a cameo from Cress or Chili running into Lucario & Cinderace. But, nope.
Why is it that the episodes where you expect nothing, like last week’s, is fun, whilst the one that’s supposed to fun isn’t?
 
I remember when Bonnie and Meowth got stuck together in XYZ, and that episode was pretty enjoyable, because it utilised the scenery around the two (wild Pokemon, the nature of trees and streams, etc.) and kept the episode moving.
Not going to lie here, this had some promise, but after witnessing the same gag of the flubber/gum catching on the lampposts several times, it lost that potential.
As many people have said, where was everyone? What was there to interact off of apart from the lamppost? That’s what made the Meowth and Bonnie episode funny, as there were different obstacles, it made them more miserable as they ploughed on.
I really wish this was placed in Striaton City instead, so that way, at least, they could have had a cameo from Cress or Chili running into Lucario & Cinderace. But, nope.
Why is it that the episodes where you expect nothing, like last week’s, is fun, whilst the one that’s supposed to fun isn’t?

I probably am in the minority, but I did think last week's episode would be more "fun" (and I was proven correct, though this episode had it's moments). There's a lot of potential in eating competitions, so that wasn't hard to spot. Lucario/Cinderace being stuck was actually solid-good, it's just the "flinging" gag got old after a bit (but then recovered later somehow). And now people cannot complain about their "lack of dynamic" which works real well for me. Ultimately though, I don't know all the factors into how people "judge" episode concepts, but I would guess at least for the last two, it would be expectation based (though this was literally a normal "stuck together" episode, so I don't know how people were off the mark there).
 
POKEMON MESSIAH SERMON

The ties that bond


What the hell is going on in Castelia? Did everybody die? To be fair if I was in a Deko akao episode I would lock myself on home too.

Castelia looks like every big city of the anime (Lazy...)

Foodporn (Yeah is called like that) tires me a lot. I cannot stand it. This ruined Dragon Ball Super and ruined this episode too.

Remember when Ash was worried for his Pokémon instead of thinking of food?(Lazy...) I do. Thank you Deko Akao for writting such amazing charactes. I hope you're not writting for anipoke when Gen 9 comes.

And you can take with you the guy who thought that the Gatcha is a good idea.

Team Rocket got somewhat better. Still the gatcha ruins everything it touches. I hope it burns in robothell.

Troh and Sawk HAHAHAHHAH Next...

The battle was not that bad. However is not intelligent to have a 2 on 2 battle. YOU'RE THE VILLAINS FOR GOOD SAKE.

So we got the sticky trap cliche. No one will ever beat the Bonnie and Meowth episode. We even got a movie about that trend. Can you be original for once?

This was a rather dull Pokémon get lost episode. The one with the Alolan trio was awesome. It's still slighty better than Pikachu Adventure from Alola (Vade Retro Satan!!)

I hear Jessies voice in Cinderace. This did not happen with Scorbunny or Raboot.

I hate Lucario as a species. So no interest for me.

I'm starting to dislike Cinderace too. I still have Inteleon. They are not ruining that one for me.

Also Sabble, Sibble,Sibbling? What's his face? Whatever, that water starter must be really cursing the day he got caught.

Can this year end already?

Simpsons Quote of the day

NnpIQSq.jpg

"Sticking Together is what good Waffles do"
 
I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I thought I would. Lucario's and Cinderace's interactions and dynamic was both funny and fun. It also makes Lucario gaining a run-of-the-mill "srs bsns" personality much more enjoyable, since it's constantly contrasted with Cinderace's much jollier and outgoing one in a really neat way. It also does help that this episode demonstrates that just because Lucario is "cool and stoic" now it doesn't mean he'll be immune to slapstick and silly moments from now on. That said, I would have liked for Ash and Goh to share their sweets with their other Pokemon, namely Greedent, since that is who won this whole thing in the first place.
 
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It also does help that this episode demonstrates that just because Lucario is "cool and stoic" now it doesn't mean he'll be immune to slapstick and silly moments from now on.

I was also relieved to see that, especially after that character description we received a while ago. Lucario is technically still the youngest Pokémon in Ash's current roster, so I would expect that mentality to still shine through its evolution from time to time.

That said, I would have liked for Ash and Goh to share their sweets with their other Pokemon, namely Greedent, since that is who won this whole thing in the first place.

Something that bothered me in the episode; it didn't seem fair the true reason why they were in Unova didn't get to partake in the desserts. I suppose they specifically let out Cinderace and Lucario since the pair missed out in the previous episode, but so too did Sobble, Gengar, and Farfetch'd. It was also pretty uncharacteristic of Ash, and to a lesser extent Go, to be so nonchalant that their Pokémon were missing in one of the world's largest cities; if not for the plot of this episode, they'd be pulling search & rescue as they typically do. And didn't Koharu just chew you about this with Pikachu, Ash? Sigh, writers....

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit as well; lost party member episodes have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Seeing Cinderace and Lucario being forced to work together Naruto-Sasuke style made me chuckle several times, surprisingly. I love how much personality Cinderace has; is there a cuter fully-evolved Starter? Didn't think so. He's a tall jellybean who I just want to hug whenever he's on-screen; his gag of getting food in Lucario's face was adorable. Speaking of Lucario, I thought its no-nonense attitude paired off of Cinderace's jolly nature quite well; he literally growled for a whopping five seconds at the end-Cinderace inching away was priceless.

Also, can we appreciate the badass bash brothers nature of this scene?

aceburn 2.png
 
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 :cry: Take me back to Alola!)

I thought that too, but then remembered they worked at the contest that Go won in the last episode. Thus, they probably knew about the prize in advance, assumed Go won by process of elimination thanks to Morpeko, and ascertained that Go would come along with Ash (and thus Pikachu) to Unova to cash that reward in. From there, it was just the waiting game, which Jessie insinuated with her exasperation in the episode's beginning. Outlandish, but TR has done similar scams and anticipations before.

Also...this was Wobbuffet's first time in Castelia City! :D As it wasn't present during the dark days of BW TR.
 
This was really a funny episode .
The main thing I wanted to share is :Lucario gives lycanroc vibes as it gets creamed in its face like lycanroc if it's mane gets dirty
 
The Lucario and Cinderace interactions were amazing! Funny how Lucario is basically a Lycanroc-Dusk 2.0 with its disliking of getting dirty.

The animation of this episode felt a bit choppy at times. Almost like COVID really limited the amount of animation work they could've done on this episode, is what I thought while watching it.
 
I'll give this episode credit for making me interested in the Lucario-Cinderace dynamic. But that's pretty much the only thing worth noticing in this episode.
 
Ay i think you guys are all giving credit to the wrong things. The most important part of this episode is FAT PIKACHU!!! I think this episode had some flaws though with no one being in the city. Plus, Ash isn’t one to let his pokemon roam out and about. That seems really out of place here when in DP whenever a pokemon goes missing he would send out star raptor. Now, I live for Lucario and cinderace dynamic. If cinderace was a girl i would honestly ship them and i’m not one to ship pokemon characters. Their dynamic in this was badass with the pyro ball and aura sphere combo. Plus at the end where lucario wipes off cinderace food off his cheek was cute as well. I would say this episode is decent, but i much rather have episodic episodes for non-fillers
 
Not gonna lie I’m kind of surprised of the relatively positive reception to this episode here; I was expecting it to be grilled left, right and center (or at least more than now). Quite the weird episode this was.

The Lucario+Cinderace team up was bound to happen, but I’m liking how well their personalities mesh together. Cinderace going back to its hyperactive/prankster type personality contrasts really well with Lucario’s no-nonsense and stoic attitude. It can be a jerk sometimes and seeing it completely lose it whilst Cinderace cheekily runs away was hilarious. Pretty good to see that they’ve actually got chemistry with esch other, which I didn’t see developing with Riolu and Raboot anyway. That being said, oh my god, I do not like Cinderace’s cry (or even the pokemon as a whole) at all. Hearing it say ‘BAS BAS BAS’ got pretty tiring. I do like that Lucario’s cry isn’t just its name, I never got that why that’s a thing in the first place.

TR shenanigans were entertaining as always, and it was rather nostalgic seeing them work in a van again. This Pikachu switching concept was actually good intheory, but it took the back seat to the Lucario+Cinderace plot. The ending where Wobuffet snagged the wrong Pikachu got a good chuckle out of me. A lot of the slapstick stuff (with the pole swinging especially) felt repetitive and ridiculous after a while. It gave me Spiderman vibes at least. My main question in this whole episode was what on Earth Ash and Goh were doing; their most important pokemon had disappeared and they were out here eating Crustle shaped sweets. That and the gatcha pokemon both being knocked out in one hit.

Decent filler overall, enjoyed what it’s setting up with the two aces but the actual episode was alright. I’m liking that we got both a two parter and a trip to another region, but Castelia city felt off there. I’ll give it a 6/10 right now.
 
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