Review JN071: Let's Go! Project Mew!!

[Craiden]

Satoshi wasn't neeeded at all.

They could've made Tsurugi save Gou instead of having Satoshi's attempt dragging the scene.
It'd be more impactful.

Barring that, it was a good episode.

That's absolutely fair, and I do think some of the elements could suggest Gou...going solo later on, but people recently were complaining about Ash not being shown wanting to...travel enough for some reason, and this episode at the very least should quell those complaints for a bit (though I was largely fine with Ash here).

 

[swiftgallade46]

Satoshi wasn't neeeded at all.

They could've made Tsurugi save Gou instead of having Satoshi's attempt dragging the scene.
It'd be more impactful.

Barring that, it was a good episode.

Can I ask what’s so bad about Ash trying to save Goh?

 

[Unireon]

Can I ask what’s so bad about Ash trying to save Goh?

It's not a matter of being bad per se.
But if Tsurugi succeeds in saving Gou, then Satoshi is redundant.

Since I think that Satoshi didn't need to go.....
More of Tsurugi, despite me not liking him but understanding that it's his debut, is better.

 

[Vchanfan]

Was that blush at the end Go had after Ashahi's wink at him one of infatuation, or Go just being his usual sheepish self for the praise he got?

 

[ArlonAkai581]

Was that blush at the end Go had after Ashahi's wink at him one of infatuation, or Go just being his usual sheepish self for the praise he got?

The latter

 

[swiftgallade46]

It's not a matter of being bad per se.
But if Tsurugi succeeds in saving Gou, then Satoshi is redundant.

Since I think that Satoshi didn't need to go.....
More of Tsurugi, despite me not liking him but understanding that it's his debut, is better.

I don’t think it was redundant, it was just meant to show Ash’s bond with Goh. Just because it wasn’t successful doesn’t make it meaningless.

 

[SonansuMan]

For the most part, I think this episode was paced well and was a great introduction for the characters that will become regulars throughout this arc. They're all interesting so far, and it'll be cool to see where they take the concept of Project Mew in the future assuming more legendaries appear throughout the series. However, most of the big events in this episode were kind of just.. underwhelming? Scizor had a pretty disappointing showing, and it got rolled not even a minute after the battle started. And then having the conflict solved by just having Goh look at Ninetales for 15 seconds and instantly making it calm felt forced. Regice's appearance also felt way too random and had little bearing on the plot beyond making Tsurugi look strong and Ash weak. I think that Ash should've either just not appeared at all here or at least put up a good fight against Regice because they are progressively making it harder to establish both him and Goh as equals in this series by having him do poor in the one area where he's supposed to excel. Other than this though, like the other Project Mew episode it did a great job at setting things up for the future but struggled everywhere else, and I hope that the next episode connected to this can break this trend.

OVERALL SCORE: 5/10

 

[Unireon]

Regice wasn't that random, it's a reference from Platinum.

But yeah, why did they decide to have it wreck Pikachu......
They made him look terrible, and he had beaten another before.....
Why the writers didn't give us a flashback or callback to Jindai....

But I agree that they're mishandling Satoshi.....
In Gou's episodes: he's either just an ornament, his supporter/sidekick or a puny being.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

So the rival doesn't like Goh.....is it for a reason? Like Ash and Paul didn't have it fully fleshed but we could see their approach differences pretty clearly early on.

Tsurugi didn't dislike Go, he just doesn't like weak trainers, which is what Go is - he's put all his points into Speech and Catch rather than Skill and Battle


More interesting was the ability for poke ball return beams to pull pokemon out of ice, and the fact regice could use ice beam despite being frozen solid behind a wall of ice

 

[CyberMonsterTrainer]

Tsurugi didn't dislike Go, he just doesn't like weak trainers, which is what Go is - he's put all his points into Speech and Catch rather than Skill and Battle


More interesting was the ability for poke ball return beams to pull pokemon out of ice, and the fact regice could use ice beam despite being frozen solid behind a wall of ice

I imagine he'll just be given more points to become a jack of all trades at some point

 

[Craiden]

For the most part, I think this episode was paced well and was a great introduction for the characters that will become regulars throughout this arc. They're all interesting so far, and it'll be cool to see where they take the concept of Project Mew in the future assuming more legendaries appear throughout the series. However, most of the big events in this episode were kind of just.. underwhelming? Scizor had a pretty disappointing showing, and it got rolled not even a minute after the battle started. And then having the conflict solved by just having Goh look at Ninetales for 15 seconds and instantly making it calm felt forced. Regice's appearance also felt way too random and had little bearing on the plot beyond making Tsurugi look strong and Ash weak. I think that Ash should've either just not appeared at all here or at least put up a good fight against Regice because they are progressively making it harder to establish both him and Goh as equals in this series by having him do poor in the one area where he's supposed to excel. Other than this though, like the other Project Mew episode it did a great job at setting things up for the future but struggled everywhere else, and I hope that the next episode connected to this can break this trend.

OVERALL SCORE: 5/10

Most of this is fair, however, I do think one thing that won't necessarily help people's outlook on this, but should (and does add context) Ash and Pikachu were battling Regice for a bit (not too long, but long enough for Gou to appeal to Ninetales) and Tsurugi didn't interrupt their battle, so at the very least, Ash/Pikachu can be thought to have been doing fine until that.

 

[Silktree]

But I agree that they're mishandling Satoshi.....
In Gou's episodes: he's either just an ornament, his supporter/sidekick or a puny being.

Payback for dozens of episodes where his companions just watched him from the sidelines, except he isn't just giving commentary. This isn't even new for him if you remember BF/DP contests and XY showcases. If he had a prominent role in Go-centric episodes, people would complain about it (remember the Golurk episode?) and at least that would make sense.

 

[Unireon]

Payback for dozens of episodes where his companions just watched him from the sidelines, except he isn't just giving commentary. This isn't even new for him if you remember BF/DP contests and XY showcases. If he had a prominent role in Go-centric episodes, people would complain about it (remember the Golurk episode?) and at least that would make sense.

Just a reminder that he did something relevant during some of Hikari's contests.
Related to her, I admit that, but still that was more than what he did today.

And I'm actually with those who think that Satoshi shouldn't have tagged along this time.

 

[Keith]

Payback for dozens of episodes where his companions just watched him from the sidelines, except he isn't just giving commentary. This isn't even new for him if you remember BF/DP contests and XY showcases. If he had a prominent role in Go-centric episodes, people would complain about it (remember the Golurk episode?) and at least that would make sense.

Why would it be considered payback when Ash has always been the main character? Of course he would get most of the focus. When deciding to bring a second one to the series, the showrunners and writers should’ve thought things out better.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Idk about payback, but personally a big reason why I don’t mind Ash taking a backseat lately is because he has had years and years in the spotlight. I don’t want him to be gone altogether but having the spotlight often be on someone else is refreshing imo.

 

[KenzeyEevee]

Gou gets it too easy lol.
I loved Gary, the best part of the episode. And Satoshi knowing about type advantages! Guess the lessons in the pokemon school helped! Satoshi is Gous personal cheerleader, what a surprise. And that Island BS, meh idk. Poor introduction for Urshifu, I must say 5/10

 

[swiftgallade46]

Gou gets it too easy lol.
I loved Gary, the best part of the episode. And Satoshi knowing about type advantages! Guess the lessons in the pokemon school helped! Satoshi is Gous personal cheerleader, what a surprise. And that Island BS, meh idk. Poor introduction for Urshifu, I must say 5/10

Didn’t you already rate the episode here ? Let’s try not to get repetitive, please.

 

[KenzeyEevee]

Didn’t you already rate the episode here ? Let’s try not to get repetitive, please.

Oh I just watch it subbed now. Sorry

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Regice wasn't wasted. I feel it's setup for something, same with Urshifu.

Well, people do like to talk about how things aren’t objective... but what I saw here was one person saying something like it was objective fact, replied to by someone else who phrased their statement like objective facts. Whether or not a character is wasted can be subjective, no?

Payback for dozens of episodes where his companions just watched him from the sidelines, except he isn't just giving commentary. This isn't even new for him if you remember BF/DP contests and XY showcases. If he had a prominent role in Go-centric episodes, people would complain about it (remember the Golurk episode?) and at least that would make sense.

"Payback?" Are the writers keeping scores of what character needs payback given to them for their excessive focus in previous sagas like primary school children?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Regice's appearance also felt way too random and had little bearing on the plot beyond making Tsurugi look strong and Ash weak.

It was not. Tsurugi's dialogue clearly implies that it'll be important later on.

I loved Gary, the best part of the episode.

He was on-screen for less than a minute and wasn't really involved in the plot in any way.

Well, people do like to talk about how things aren’t objective... but what I saw here was one person saying something like it was objective fact, replied to by someone else who phrased their statement like objective facts. Whether or not a character is wasted can be subjective, no?

Not necessarily. The fact that Regice is set up as important and Tsurugi saying he'll be coming back for it means it'll be relevant to the plot, which hardly makes it wasted in my book.