Review JN068: A Rival for Go!? The Road to Mew!!

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Professor Oak said at the Johto League that Blastoise was Gary's strongest Pokemon. And to be fair that makes perfect sense, since it was Gary's starter, and unlike Ash's Pikachu is fully evolved, so it doesn't have as many limitations in the power and endurance department.

 

[Gengarzilla]

This Project Mew stuff looks like it'll be great thing for Goh's development. Thanks to the "Gotta Catch 'em All" malarkey, he's just been aimlessly wandering around like a fairy on Ash's adventures while trying to catch whatever wild Pokémon they find, with no actual way of possibly hooking up with Mew beyond random tipoffs/dumb luck. Now, just like May, Dawn, and Serena, he's getting his own type of progression-based goal that Ash isn't regularly partaking in; it's much better than the idea of yanking him towards Ash's World Coronation stuff.

Plus he'll have Gary for company, who I've never been a fan of but would be a good rival going forward. Let's not forget how Gary had caught a whopping 200 Pokémon within 65 episodes from up to just 60 of the first gen's 146 non-legendary species (that's 41.1% with rounding). Heck, Goh is basically just early days Gary without that trainer's interest for battling.

I don't care if the comparison between an unpopular companion and a popular rival is received badly. When it comes to Goh, I've practiced deliberate apathy enough to not feel intense anger at the mere thought of him. Salt is an overproduced commodity over here as it is.

 

[ii kanji]

Honestly, I was 1 more bad TRio outing away from just completely abandoning this series, but I watched this one live just for Shigeru and I'm SO glad I did! Shigeru's bite is what makes him a fun character and I was worried we wouldn't get to see it due to him having mellowed (as in DP) but actually, him poking at Go was so much fun and I really hope he gets to recur for further rivalry shenanigans with this project.

But oh yeah, Shigeru is not what has given me more hope in this series. It's Go! Finally he's about to take on a tangible goal with challenges and some upcoming difficult human interactions. Go makes for boring tv when he is just with other characters who are easy going or who like him, but when he is on the back foot he is such a compelling character to watch! I appreciate the writers haven't spelt out that he was hesitant to take up Project Mew because of his own insecurities, but tbh it only required a tiny amount of reading between the lines to see that in this episode. Usually his cockiness has nothing pushing back against it, like Shigeru did here.

I can understand why some of you are disappointed by Goukazaru/the reserves. Having faced so many similar disappointments prior to this, my expectations were genuinely zero, and therefore every little thing was a pleasant surprise. Really though, they couldn't have done more without making this a 2-parter... which... maybe they should have done?

Still though, I think this has opened the door for lots of interesting things to come.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Really though, they couldn't have done more without making this a 2-parter... which... maybe they should have done?

Apparently an obligatory cute Pokémon having fun episode (that could literally be placed anywhere after Grookey's capture) is more important than a character and reserves reappearing in god knows how many years.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The main focuses of the episode were Gary and establishing Project Mew. Meeting reserves was just a cherry on top, as great as it was.