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

[Orchid]

Okay, I've watched it again with subtitles a good couple of times now, so I'm just going to drop a bunch of specific thoughts I had about stuff:

Spoiler

1. I realized that the Moltres cry they used here sounds really similar to the cry that was used for it in the original Pokemon Snap. I don't know if they've used this same sound in the anime on another occasion in the past, but after wracking my brain as to where I'd heard it before, that was what finally came to mind.

Also... Burn Up. The depiction of Burn Up was downright beautiful, you could really feel the impact of it.

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2. I was wondering when (or if) they'd ever address that Ash was late for the same Pokemon Camp that Gou went to. Lo and behold, 68 episodes in, there it is! I do wonder why they weren't more... surprised, though. If I found out that I almost could have met one of my friends years ago, I'd be at least a little bit shocked.

Seeing Ash's Pokemon so excited to see him is always a delight. Amazingly, this is the first time that Ash has reunited with Charizard where it didn't burn him to a crisp!!! My favorite of the old Kanto reserves is Muk, so the obligatory goop hug never fails to make me smile.

And holy crap, Tracey is alive?! Sure, he was just mentioned in passing, with a brief little picture of him accompanying it... but that's still more than he's gotten in YEARS! I do hope this means we'll actually get to see him in person at some point in this series, because... well, I really like the guy. You go Tracey!

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3. Gary says that he remembered seeing Infernape battle in the Sinnoh League. Does that imply he watched all of Ash's other League matches, too?? Plus he heard that he made friends with Gou... so I guess he must still check in on him pretty often. (Maybe that's why he seemingly immediately decided "nope, sorry Gou, I'm the best friend around here"...)

It's also made pretty clear how far he's progressed as a researcher too. When you see how well he handled this, compared to something like the Aerodactyl in his Chronicles episode, back when he was just starting out... you can really tell he's developed in that regard.

Silver Conference flashbacks? YES.

It's way too funny that everyone picked up on his snark as just being his way of expressing stuff, at the end. Especially Ash then saying "he can never be honest about how he feels..." which makes him flinch LOL. I think his character had a really good balance between being serious and being goofy here - he kind of lacked that in his DP appearances. I felt he was a bit too grave all the time back then.

With him spurring Gou to join Project Mew alongside him, I don't think this will be the last we see of him this series. (They've gotta show Umbreon sometime, after all...)

Overall, this episode was pretty amazing. There's really not much I would change about it (other than maybe making the Moltres battle play out a little differently, as some people have said... but to be honest, it doesn't bother me much the way it is).

It's very easily my favorite JN episode so far, and it might even be up there as one of my favorite episodes in general, which... in the past, I wouldn't have thought that could ever happen with this saga, even despite me being one of its fans. But something recently has changed for the better, I think - the past few weeks of Journeys have mostly been really, really quite good, and this was no exception. I hope this marks the start of something great here!

 

[KrspaceT]

So um....from what I'm hearing did the episode imply that Ash's Pokemon training when Ash is gone is a rare occurrence?!

The whole 'Infernape training after Ash left for Unova' thing. Because plenty shows otherwise.....

Or is Professor Oak saying the obvious again.

Also on Project Mew I don't mind the idea of Goh having his own WCS type build up. Main question is....um.....how does it work in universe exactly and if it will hit the whole 'Goh overexposure' problem of his catches.

 

[SonansuMan]

Came into this episode with low expectations, and ended up pleasantly surprised how well Journeys actually handled Gary's return! It felt like so much of his character remained and changed at the same time

Most of the episode was pretty average, but seeing the callbacks with Paul, episode one, etc. gave me goosebumps and I'm happy that they're not shying away from referencing old characters this series, and especially doing so in a way that doesn't feel too forced. It also setup the future arc for Project Mew which not only leaves us with more to expect in the future but will also hopefully make watching Goh's goal more interesting and add conflict. It was sick to see roughly half of Ash's old lineup return though it is weird how many were just randomly absent without any explanation (RIP Torkoal), and I would've prefer this episode have redeemed someone like Torterra instead by having it be the one fight Moltres rather than a character that already received closure. The battle was solid and actually animated well for JN's standards, though Infernape's presence in it was super underwhelming and I felt that it should've at least been allowed to get a hit in. Either way, seeing it in action was great and I hope that it gets the chance to have future appearances. This episode felt like something that Journeys should've been from the get-go, and I'm excited to see where they take the rest of Project Mew.

OVERALL SCORE:
9/10

 

[Silktree]

The episode was good other than the forced Infernape shilling. Some foreshadowing about Ash using reserves in general would have been better.

If the writers want people to hate Goh even more, they should do this.

Hmm, what? Ash expressed no interest in Project Mew. Sure, he's likely to help in raid battles, but the main challenge is arguably to pin down legendaries. Gary had to figure out where Moltres would be. If the writers have any sense, they will have Go gradually use that kind of reasoning instead of relying on others. The Absol episode proved that he's capable of that.

 

[Unireon]

True. That's not Satoshi's style/thing.

But still; getting episodes with Cardboard Cutout Satoshi, or no Satoshi at all....
Many people will be angry and hate Gou for being overexposed.

It sucks, but flames will fly.

 

[Silktree]

I'm sorry, but people have to let go of the hate. Go getting a more concrete goal is by no means a bad thing, and Gary being involved is a great decision. Hell, I wanted him to be Go's rival early on and changed my mind because the opening made me expect he'd be a PWC participant like Iris, but this turned out for the best. Ash still needs an actual rival rather than the likes of Bea and Leon that don't really care about him, though.

Also, Ash is going to get battle screentime in Project Mew episodes, which is a bigger deal than Go getting 30-60 seconds of capture screentime in Ash-centric episodes. Why that is still a reason to complain about Go is beyond me. Ash doesn't need more tokens.

 

[Unireon]

Because Satoshi has made clear that he'll only cheer on Gou.

I agree there's so much anger and it gets tiring.

Really? I stopped caring about Satoshi's rivals since BW.

 

[Eitarou]

I feel so bad for Torkoal. Even in the event of showing off Ash’s fire-types, it still doesn’t get time to shine. That, or even Infernape realised how weak it was...poor thing.

We all know if Torkoal fought, Infernape would be the one crying in the end. Monkey was smart for staying away.

 

[Alola]

• Uh, excuse me Infernape, but Torkoal has also held its own against a Legendary Pokémon. Where was its invitation to the cookout?
• Yet another Journeys episode that should have been a two-parter. An episode featuring Ash spending the day with his reserves would be so nice to watch. This several minute cameo was not enough; they couldn't even feature all of his Pokémon for the group shot.
  • Also, the focus on Infernape was interesting. I think it would have been neat if it debuted a new move during its fight. That aside, I'm glad to know it's been keeping itself busy training on the chance Ash ever calls it back to battle.
• I love how much Gary respects Ash; I know they already hashed things out back in Johto, but the juxtaposition of his old-snarkiness now with the present-day Go but his kind advances towards Ash made the interactions stand out that much more. Gary being a rival to Go? Sign me up. Also, did anyone else find it cute how he keeps tabs on Ash's Pokémon at the lab and appears to watch his televised battles?
• At first I thought the inclusion of Moltres was a random thing, but seeing as how its purpose revolved around Gary needing its feather for the Trial Mission, I don't mind how the whole event played out.
  • Speaking of Moltres, this marks the second time Ash and his Fire-type have battled the thing. I was expecting a comment regarding that (as he nearly died...) or some notable reaction from Talonflame, but it's whatever.
  • Gary battling Moltres was pretty cool - we got to see some splendid animation for Blastoise, and the animators certainly made it feel more nimble than its heavy appearance would indicate otherwise. Rapid Spin negating Fire Spin was a nice touch, too.
  • While I liked the Gary part, it didn't sit right with me how the boys kind of ganged up on Moltres at the end with their electrical attacks. If I were Moltres, I would have been fed up and left too.
• More Go social anxiety! I am super eager for what his eventual Trial Mission will be, especially if it involves more Legendary Pokémon. An elite research team that only takes members who have achieved special feats is actually one of the more interesting anime-specific aspects they have done.
• I loved Gary's reverse psychology insult at Go towards the end - it's about time we've had some animosity between main characters!

 

[CyberMonsterTrainer]

I'm sorry, but people have to let go of the hate. Go getting a more concrete goal is by no means a bad thing, and Gary being involved is a great decision. Hell, I wanted him to be Go's rival early on and changed my mind because the opening made me expect he'd be a PWC participant like Iris, but this turned out for the best. Ash still needs an actual rival rather than the likes of Bea and Leon that don't really care about him, though.

Also, Ash is going to get battle screentime in Project Mew episodes, which is a bigger deal than Go getting 30-60 seconds of capture screentime in Ash-centric episodes. Why that is still a reason to complain about Go is beyond me. Ash doesn't need more tokens.

As long as Goh is around, I'm going to have to keep comparing him and Ash and feeling angry in the process.

 

[Beary]

I’m completely fine with goh joining project Mew. We all knew that he wouldn’t catch every pokemon in the pokédex so this seems a lot more possible. We saw how much work gary did to get one moltres feather. If goh does that same kind of preparation then i’m fine with him being in the spotlight. Seeing Paul again makes me super happy and i hope that we see him again in the top 100. If paul come back though, I want his personality to still be cold like 100% from DP days. I don’t like journeys humour really as i find it overdone

Anyways, the amount of screentime for ash pokemon was a joke. Why not do three episodes where ask hangs out with his old pokemon. Not some dumb morphology filler

 

[KenzeyEevee]

I’m completely fine with goh joining project Mew. We all knew that he wouldn’t catch every pokemon in the pokédex so this seems a lot more possible. We saw how much work gary did to get one moltres feather. If goh does that same kind of preparation then i’m fine with him being in the spotlight. Seeing Paul again makes me super happy and i hope that we see him again in the top 100. If paul come back though, I want his personality to still be cold like 100% from DP days. I don’t like journeys humour really as i find it overdone

Anyways, the amount of screentime for ash pokemon was a joke. Why not do three episodes where ask hangs out with his old pokemon. Not some dumb morphology filler

Project Mew should have happend sooner. Maybe we would have liked Gous goal more?

 

[nickdt]

So... with Talonflame being able to land a hit on a Mega and on a Moltres, does this mean Talonflame is officially stronger than Infernape, since it failed to land a hit on the Moltres.

Also, Gary seems to have sparked something else in Goh as well, based on the subtitles and that is becoming a researcher.

Gary thrashing Goh was also quite funny and it seems it made Goh realize he needs to train his Pokemon, rather than relying on sheer luck. Maybe his failed captures in the episode are a reflection of that.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Project Mew should have happend sooner. Maybe we would have liked Gous goal more?

I think it was important to give Goh some time to grow and get experience first. Now he feels more ready for the Trial Missions.

 

[jbmasta]

Hopefully Tracey gets an actual appearance with some kind of involvement with Project Mew.

The Project itself is a good development because not only does it give Goh a more tangible goal than Goh To Catch 'em All, but it can explore his developing skills as a researcher, finally putting what Sonia said back during the Darkest Day arc to good narrative use. It also starts a new arc, and narrative direction is what this series desperately needs.

 

[Mijzelffan]

Spoiler: img

This exchange made me think of this forum

 

[Enzo]

I saw this yesterday and forgot to post it here:

The fandom:

Spoiler

 

[Daren]

So... with Talonflame being able to land a hit on a Mega and on a Moltres, does this mean Talonflame is officially stronger than Infernape, since it failed to land a hit on the Moltres.

During the marketing for the Kalos league I think I recall a magazine article claiming the XY team was Ash's strongest...so maybe?

 

[Twilight-Kun]

...Seriously, what was the point of bringing back the Oakmons if Ash didn't spend any time with them before the plot dragged him off by the ear to go fight moltres (BUT FIRST LET'S TAKE HALF THE EPISODE TO SAY THAT A WHOLE MOLTRES IS GOING TO APPEAR IN THIS VALLEY. THAT'S RIGHT, LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN THIS VALLEY. OH YOU WANT TO SEE IT? HM...NO. NOT YET ANYWAY. BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW THAT MOLTRES IS GOING TO APPEAR IN THIS VALLEY?)

Even moltres got bored and wandered off

 

[Eitarou]

So... with Talonflame being able to land a hit on a Mega and on a Moltres, does this mean Talonflame is officially stronger than Infernape, since it failed to land a hit on the Moltres.

Well, considering one has the advantage of being able to fly, no. Also, Infernape did land a hit.