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Review JN099: Mary of Spike Town!

PRECIOUS!

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Full VA list courtesy of Adamant

Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Daiki Yamashita: Go
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Yasuhiro Mamiya: Gangar
Hana Takeda: Sarunori
Shogo Sakata. Ohlonge
Hiro Shimono: Nezu
Yui Ogura: Marie
Yuji Ueda: Commentator
Akihiro Tajima: Yell Gang Member
Riho Sugiyama: Yell Gang Member
Kosuke Tanabe: Yell Gang Member
Marina Aicholtz: Go's Smartphone Rotom
Maxwell Powers: Drone Rotom
Kenyu Horiuchi: Narration
 
I think it was a good battle between the two. Circumstances aside, such as us randomly going back to 1v1s (Pikachu Vs. Morpeko would have been fun to see) or Gengar learning two brand new moves off-screen, my favorite thing about the episode was how Dynamax was applied. Firstly, Ash didn't immediately react to Marnie's Dynamax with his own - he depended on Gengar's levitation, physiology, and Dark-type coverage in Dazzling Gleam to get by as far as he could (i.e. consuming two of Marnie's turns) until he activated his own on the tail end of Marnie's. Whereas I thought it was to be a kaiju battle of sorts, that wasn't the main focus and I felt it made the match more interesting; between this and Lucario Vs. Machamp, outside of unlikely tanking of super-effective hits, I feel assured that the writers can craft engaging Dynamax fights when they want to. One thing Journeys is getting right is not using Dynamax as a wincon crutch. Which leads to my second point of how both base-form Gengar and Grimmsnarl interacted with and attacked their transformed opponent's; again, I think it makes for a more interesting fight given the relative sizes of the combatants.

We also got to see a full, diverse array of moves, be they Max and non-Max Moves - both Gengar and Grimmsnarl used their entire movesets! I certainly wasn't expecting a Max Hailstorm or Max Ooze! And then to get not just one but both of Grimmsnarl's signature moves along with Poison-STAB for Gengar... And Dazzling Gleam looked simply radiant in its applications. Admittedly, I'll miss Gengar being able to fling Pokémon halfway across the arena with Psychic, but its current moveset is quite good; Sludge Bomb was a surprise, but a welcome one.

And to top it all off, we got the famous forced Marnie smile at the end.

Overall, I liked the episode and Marnie's characterization (she had some nice animation shots too). It's just a shame that Marnie is being introduced so late though, nearly into the series' third quarter; she should have taken Bea's place as a recurring female rival powerhouse. Despite her parting words, I'm unsure if she'll get another battle with Ash within the PWT as things seem to be streamlining towards Raihan, Cynthia, and finally Leon; which is a shame; perhaps a friendly fight outside of it though.

And oh. Most importantly...

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OUR BOY FINALLY GOT A CLEAN WIN!
 
I was thinking before the battle a poison type move could help Gengar in this battle. And suddenly, he used one.

It was a nice battle. A lot of the good points about it are already said. I also agree with the way the Dynamax portion was handled.

Gengar got a new win. :)

So those 3 goons did give Ash and Goh misdirections so Marnie would win by forfeit... Tsk. :p

Although, I thought how higher Ash was ranked how slower the climb would become, but he jumped from place 36 to 15 with 1 battle. It's a huge jump in my opinion. Percentagewise it is huge.
 
The battle was average, Gengar didn't get to finish with the new form he got, and the final hit was fairly underwhelming. Ash using Gengar's mouth to capture Grimmsnarl was creative, I'll give 'em that. It just sucks that Marnie, Piers, Team Yell, and Spikemuth all had to be so haphazardly smushed into one ep. The end result was horridly rushed with little proper focus for any of them.
 
One of the most surprising win for Ash and his Gengar. Never thought and believe, that Ash might win this especially for his first time against his new rival in first meeting. Nonetheless, using tactical to wading down the dynamax is a smart move. Before, unleash it with his one. Miracle truly occurs. Despite, the episode being a bit rush. Great episode indeed.

Overall rating: B+
 
The battle was average, Gengar didn't get to finish with the new form he got, and the final hit was fairly underwhelming. Ash using Gengar's mouth to capture Grimmsnarl was creative, I'll give 'em that. It just sucks that Marnie, Piers, Team Yell, and Spikemuth all had to be so haphazardly smushed into one ep. The end result was horridly rushed with little proper focus for any of them.
Given the promotion their VA's got on the official Twitter, this is probably not going to be Piers and Marnie's only episode. So far each Galar Gym leader has gotten 2 episodes so I think they'll show up again.

Also who cares that Dynamax are not the delivering blow? The form sticking to the 3 turn rules is actually interesting because it proves neither Ash nor his opponent can rely on it.
 
This episode was great. The best part, by far, is how the anime treated Dynamax as not just the wincon,merely it's a more strategic move (which I also noticed), and the fact that we also get to see a diverse range of moves used by Gengar. And of course, we can't not mention this episode without mentioning the cinnamon roll that is Marnie. I loved her appearance throughout the episode which was similar to her in game depiction and of course, the precious smile at the and of the Episode.
Honestly, while I was hoping Ash would lose this episode (since I'm honestly beginning to get tired of Ash winning literally every single PWC match ever since he beat Iris) this episode subverted my hopes and made Ash win in a way that I can actually accept.
The only unfortunate thing is that Marnie is introduced so late into the series, when she should have been introduced much earlier like other game characters in their own generational anime, but if her depiction here was great, I can deal with it, which it is.
While this episode isn't the poster-boy for what I feel the PWC should be (look at JN065 for that) it's still one of the best PWC battles so far. Also no little shit shenanigans so that's an automatic plus.
Definitely recommending watch this episode.
9/10.
 
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