Preview JN109: VS Kibana! Battle for Masters Eight!!

[puddleths]

Just watched the subbed version of JN107. Ash and Raihan's battle is referred to as a Promotion Match. If Ash is victorious, he and Raihan swap ranks.

Well, well, well. I'll give OLM credit for having enough sense to not have a battle between two Ultra Class trainers result in bumping down someone in the Masters 8 for no reason.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Like others have said, it would've been so cool for this to be a Double Battle as a nod to how you first fight Raihan in the games. Just add Sandaconda (for extra Galar rep that is sorely needed) to the roster and it'd be cool, especially since we've never seen any Double Battles in the anime that incorporate more than two Pokemon, so why not use this as a chance to showcase that? It's really weird how Doubles is actually the games' official competitive format, yet the vast majority of battles in the anime are Singles.

Still, I'm really looking forward to this. It looks awesome. I'm especially glad to see Flygon (one of my favorites) battle after so long. I highly doubt it'll beat Ash's Dragonite, because... it's freaking Dragonite; that thing has a history of taking a massive beating only to knock out her opponents in a few hits (though to be fair, she always powers up with DDance first), but oh well, as long as Flygon puts up a good fight I'll be satisfied.

It looks like this battle will be the payoff to Lucario's training with Greninja. I wonder Lucario will just use whatever it is Greninja helps him master to win or if he'll combine it with Mega Evolution? Though since Mega Evolution is emphasized quite a bit in the Greninja training episode, it'll likely be the latter.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Like others have said, it would've been so cool for this to be a Double Battle as a nod to how you first fight Raihan in the games. Just add Sandaconda (for extra Galar rep that is sorely needed) to the roster and it'd be cool, especially since we've never seen any Double Battles in the anime that incorporate more than two Pokemon, so why not use this as a chance to showcase that? It's really weird how Doubles is actually the games' official competitive format, yet the vast majority of battles in the anime are Singles.

Still, I'm really looking forward to this. It looks awesome. I'm especially glad to see Flygon (one of my favorites) battle after so long. I highly doubt it'll beat Ash's Dragonite, because... it's freaking Dragonite; that thing has a history of taking a massive beating only to knock out her opponents in a few hits (though to be fair, she always powers up with DDance first), but oh well, as long as Flygon puts up a good fight I'll be satisfied.

It looks like this battle will be the payoff to Lucario's training with Greninja. I wonder Lucario will just use whatever it is Greninja helps him master to win or if he'll combine it with Mega Evolution? Though since Mega Evolution is emphasized quite a bit in the Greninja training episode, it'll likely be the latter.

It is disappointing its not a double battle. I would have loved seeing Ash react to Sandaconda's ability. I saw someone on Reddit mention a few scenes and its possible Dragonite could fall to Flygon. I think there's scenes of it fighting both Gengar and Dragonite and I THINK someone spotted Dragonite's icon grayed out on the scoreboards. It seems the battle, if Ash wins, could potentially go.

Dragonite vs. Flygon- Flygon
Gengar vs. Flygon- Gengar
Gengar vs. Goodra- Goodra
Lucario vs. Goodra- Lucario
Lucario vs. Duraludon- Lucario

I wouldn't mind if it happened this way, but who knows. Dragonite hasn't lost a single battle I can recall, so I'd be okay with Dragonite losing. Gengar getting a KO would be ideal, though of course people will complain if Lucario gets 2 KO's. I'd honestly hope its only 1 just to avoid that. Ideally it would be nice if we could get a battle where everyone gets 1 KO. It could go either way here though and there could be a few switches.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

It is disappointing its not a double battle. I would have loved seeing Ash react to Sandaconda's ability. I saw someone on Reddit mention a few scenes and its possible Dragonite could fall to Flygon. I think there's scenes of it fighting both Gengar and Dragonite and I THINK someone spotted Dragonite's icon grayed out on the scoreboards. It seems the battle, if Ash wins, could potentially go.

Dragonite vs. Flygon- Flygon
Gengar vs. Flygon- Gengar
Gengar vs. Goodra- Goodra
Lucario vs. Goodra- Lucario
Lucario vs. Duraludon- Lucario

I wouldn't mind if it happened this way, but who knows. Dragonite hasn't lost a single battle I can recall, so I'd be okay with Dragonite losing. Gengar getting a KO would be ideal, though of course people will complain if Lucario gets 2 KO's. I'd honestly hope its only 1 just to avoid that. Ideally it would be nice if we could get a battle where everyone gets 1 KO. It could go either way here though and there could be a few switches.

I like that setup. Though if we want to avoid Lucario getting two KOs, then we could have Gengar either beat both Flygon and Goodra and lose to Duraludon or tie against Goodra after beating Flygon so that Lucario only has to fight and defeat Duraludon.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I like that setup. Though if we want to avoid Lucario getting two KOs, then we could have Gengar either beat both Flygon and Goodra and lose to Duraludon or tie against Goodra after beating Flygon so that Lucario only has to fight and defeat Duraludon.

Definitely the most ideal scenario if Ash wins here, and the one that will get the least amount of complaints possibly. But there still is the possibility he can lose. I think it would make the training with Greninja a waste though.

 

[swampertus]

According to trailer I think Ash will lose one match. The question is would it be against Kibara or another Master Class trainer. Maybe some exhibition or Master Class match against Iris. I suspect he should beat Kibana but lose after that as he will be too cocky to think that he can beat Leon after Kibana. So, this loss against maybe Iris will prove that he needs to train and look for Paul and go to Alola after that.

P.S. I suspect Iris is already in Master Class

 

[nickdt]

According to trailer I think Ash will lose one match. The question is would it be against Kibara or another Master Class trainer. Maybe some exhibition or Master Class match against Iris. I suspect he should beat Kibana but lose after that as he will be too cocky to think that he can beat Leon after Kibana. So, this loss against maybe Iris will prove that he needs to train and look for Paul and go to Alola after that.

P.S. I suspect Iris is already in Master Class

What if: Iris knocked out Flint (Going into seventh, knocking down Raihan to 8th) and Ash is knocking out Raihan and its all champions from there on out.

Ash probably goes to rank 8 after this battle and then prolly wins one match (Maybe against Iris, rising to rank 7 and then losing to maybe Cynthia, dropping down to 8th, which leads to a training arc with Paul and then the rematch is Ash winning).

It would also be awesome if the Masters Eight is 6v6 matches going forward (If its a three vs three, that means Iris is just gonna use Dragonite and Haxorus again, alongside most likely Excadrill).

 

[feelithard23]

It is disappointing its not a double battle. I would have loved seeing Ash react to Sandaconda's ability. I saw someone on Reddit mention a few scenes and its possible Dragonite could fall to Flygon. I think there's scenes of it fighting both Gengar and Dragonite and I THINK someone spotted Dragonite's icon grayed out on the scoreboards. It seems the battle, if Ash wins, could potentially go.

Dragonite vs. Flygon- Flygon
Gengar vs. Flygon- Gengar
Gengar vs. Goodra- Goodra
Lucario vs. Goodra- Lucario
Lucario vs. Duraludon- Lucario

I wouldn't mind if it happened this way, but who knows. Dragonite hasn't lost a single battle I can recall, so I'd be okay with Dragonite losing. Gengar getting a KO would be ideal, though of course people will complain if Lucario gets 2 KO's. I'd honestly hope its only 1 just to avoid that. Ideally it would be nice if we could get a battle where everyone gets 1 KO. It could go either way here though and there could be a few switches.

Dragonite is the ace of the series, so highly unlikely it would lose

It is disappointing its not a double battle. I would have loved seeing Ash react to Sandaconda's ability. I saw someone on Reddit mention a few scenes and its possible Dragonite could fall to Flygon. I think there's scenes of it fighting both Gengar and Dragonite and I THINK someone spotted Dragonite's icon grayed out on the scoreboards. It seems the battle, if Ash wins, could potentially go.

Dragonite vs. Flygon- Flygon
Gengar vs. Flygon- Gengar
Gengar vs. Goodra- Goodra
Lucario vs. Goodra- Lucario
Lucario vs. Duraludon- Lucario

I wouldn't mind if it happened this way, but who knows. Dragonite hasn't lost a single battle I can recall, so I'd be okay with Dragonite losing. Gengar getting a KO would be ideal, though of course people will complain if Lucario gets 2 KO's. I'd honestly hope its only 1 just to avoid that. Ideally it would be nice if we could get a battle where everyone gets 1 KO. It could go either way here though and there could be a few switches.

dragonite along with lucario and pikachu are the aces of the series.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Dragonite is the ace of the series, so highly unlikely it would lose

dragonite along with lucario and pikachu are the aces of the series.

Being the ace doesn't automatically mean you can never lose a battle ever: Charizard was the ace of the Original Series, but that didn't stop it from being the jobber against Harrison or Brandon. Similarly, Lycanroc was the ace of the Alola team and jobbed against Kukui.

Dragonite currently has an undefeated record, so I don't see any harm in letting her take a winless L here. It'd at the very least do a decent job at establishing Raihan as a threat and demonstrate why he's Leon's chief rival.

 

[feelithard23]

what i mean is dragonite would probably get at least 1 win, the writers favor lucario, dragonite, and pikachu you can’t expect any of those 3 to go down first without taking down one opponent

 

[Silktree]

Raihan is overrated and there already was a training episode. Toast him, Ash.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Why can't I help thinking this episode will be another "easy" victory for Ash?
Judging by the fact the battle will only be one episode instead of two (which such a highly important battle would normally deserve), I bet the writers will once again have Ash sweep the floor with another ace-trainer, Raihan in this case, just to get him into the Masters Eight as quickly as possible, which would be pretty frustrating.
For the show's sake, I do hope I'm NOT right...

 

[Eclipsical]

Raihan being in 8th place now and punching the wall in that special preview, I think he’s mad that he is falling behind. He is upset with himself that Leon can remain unbeatable but he can’t be, and here comes a kid who practically swept his way up to 9th place, is about to boot him from the Masters 8 entirely, and possibly be the one who ends up in the finals with Leon, instead of him. Ash is a threat to everything Raihan desires and holds dear. His status, his rivalry with Leon, his place in the best-of-the-best group of trainers.

 

[Daren]

I could see Dragonite being the fall guy here but Lucario will probably get two KOs if so and I think they've gotten enough of those with Rose, Volkner, and Bea.
Better than Gengar being the fall guy, though...

 

[Eclipsical]

Dragonite hasn’t taken a loss yet, so it can afford one at the moment. Plus, Ash’s Dragonite is so extremely resilient that Raihan defeating it shows how powerful he and his team is. I just hope he doesn’t get obliterated early on to make room for Lucario.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I could see Dragonite being the fall guy here but Lucario will probably get two KOs if so and I think they've gotten enough of those with Rose, Volkner, and Bea.
Better than Gengar being the fall guy, though...

What if Gengar is the one who gets the two KOs here instead? He does still need to catch up in wins, after all.

 

[Unireon]

What if Gengar is the one who gets the two KOs here instead?

A Darkhorse Victory.....

Totally love it!

Why not making it even more awesome by having Gengar defeat Kibana's Durarudon in a Kyodaimax battle?

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Why not making it even more awesome by having Gengar defeat Kibana's Durarudon in a Kyodaimax battle?

Well, the previews already let us know that the final match is gonna be Lucario vs Duraludon, so unfortunately no.

 

[Unireon]

Well, the previews already let us know that the final match is gonna be Lucario vs Duraludon, so unfortunately no.

I haven't watched that, and won't do it.

What a letdown, Gengar and Kairyuu are my favourites.
Unless Durarudon beats Lucario.

Sometimes, I avoid previews due to my weird ability to see what would happen just by watching them. It spoiled me a series that I was really deeply invested in.
And, in Anipoke's case, due to the misleading Special Preview that I am unable to forgive the staff for.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Unless Durarudon beats Lucario.

I believe the preview said that this Promotion Match will be the last one in the season. Which basically means that after this match, the Masters Eight will not change until the end of the series. So yeah. Seems very likely Ash will win, if this translation I've heard is correct.