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

It was good to see Gengar get some battle focus, too bad Dragonite was defeated.

I do feel that Lucario beat Duraludon quite quickly

Disappointed that Paul isn't in the Masters 8 but those who are promise to show some exciting battles
 
Ladies and gentlemen, here is your Masters Eight lineup!

EC3CB971-0016-46E3-A1BF-28F9AEDEAE08.jpg
 
Before anything else - Iris being able to enter Master Class before/higher than Ash and besting not only him, but also his rivals like Paul or Sawyer (who had the best improvement ratio) is near indigestible to me. Do not care how it is in games, I do not think she belongs there based on what Anime has shown us so far.
 
Before anything else - Iris being able to enter Master Class before/higher than Ash and besting not only him, but also his rivals like Paul or Sawyer (who had the best improvement ratio) is near indigestible to me. Do not care how it is in games, I do not think she belongs there based on what Anime has shown us so far.
Were Paul and Sawyer even in the Championships?
 
So we've got Lance as the Kanto/Johto Champion, Steven as the Hoenn Champion, Cynthia as the Sinnoh Champion, Iris as the Unova Champion, Diantha & Alain as the Kalos Champions, Ash as the Alola Champion, and Leon as the Galar Champion.

I'm kicking myself for not putting this together earlier; in hindsight, it seems kind of obvious this is how the writers would do the Master's 8. RIP Paul being there, now.
 
Also, I know the Masters Eight lineup was leaked a week ago, but I can’t believe how spoiled XY fans have been lately. I already felt fulfilled that we saw Clemont, Bonnie, Serena, and Greninja, but now that we know Alain is in the Masters Eight for sure, it really feels like Journeys somehow became the epilogue for XY. We got to see Serena undergo massive character development since her last appearance, we saw how Greninja is being independent and fighting for survival, and now we could potentially finally see Ash defeat Alain for real. Clemont and Bonnie didn’t change much, but they didn’t need to either.

This all feels like fanfiction, but I’m over the moon that XY is getting so much attention in this series. Not to mention that Diantha is in the Masters Eight as well, and the possibility of Sawyer making a cameo as Steven’s assistant if they want to do that. I watched every episode of XY, and I’ve also watched every episode of Journeys so far, so I just feel very validated right now. I haven’t been able to stop smiling for the past month.
 
Were Paul and Sawyer even in the Championships?

I do not understand the question.

When I posted my big Blueprint about how to handle PWC the best it could be in my humble opinion, I was proposing Alain in Masters 8.
There were logical questions from other debaters - Alain has not been featured, he is probably focusing on his research, he has completed his arc.
And bim-bam-boom - he is there.

Long story short - any trainer, that is powerful enough and writers deem her/him worthy - is there. In-universe, there is not single reason why especially those two would not participate. Obviously, writers could make one if they do want to feature character (we know they will Paul) and do not want him in PWC. So they will have to make him fall behind or make some (hopefully well thought) excuse why he did not participate.

That does not change my bitter feeling, that I do not deem - by what we saw - Iris be the most competent child prodigy.
Because that is what they are saying. Hell, I would stomach it better with Misty.
But they are basically telling us that the most competent 10-11 year old wunderkind in all 25 years of Anime is not Ashy-boy, is not Gary, not Paul, not Sawyer, not Gladion. It is Iris. Does anyone really feel that fits?
 
So just making sure, it's a knockout right? We ain't seeing ash battle all of them?
 
So just making sure, it's a knockout right? We ain't seeing ash battle all of them?

We know it's a tournament, but we don't know the rules or how this will develop.

I really hope Ash will fight more than 3 members.
 
We should be thanking our lucky stars that Tobias isn't in the Masters Eight.

I would think the writers added Alain in the Masters Eight in so they could have a do-over of the Kalos League, and give Ash the win he was denied back in 2016 because of the status quo. The question is whether the impending battle would actually be good, or if the writers decide to temporary add Greninja back in for this one battle. Or even if the writers actually intend to let Ash win.

If we get a Mega Lucario/Mega Charizard X showdown, the disregard against the games' rules could be flipped around in Ash's favor; this time, Blast Burn fails to knock out the Fighting/Steel Lucario, and Charizard is defeated by Aura Sphere.
 
So we've got Lance as the Kanto/Johto Champion, Steven as the Hoenn Champion, Cynthia as the Sinnoh Champion, Iris as the Unova Champion, Diantha & Alain as the Kalos Champions, Ash as the Alola Champion, and Leon as the Galar Champion.

I'm kicking myself for not putting this together earlier; in hindsight, it seems kind of obvious this is how the writers would do the Master's 8. RIP Paul being there, now.
Nah, I'll give you a better representation of the Master 8. All of them represent the 8 Generations. One Champion for Each Generation.

Gen I: The Champion is Your Rival, no exception. It's always your rival. The one rival that is always ahead of you. And who better to represent the rival that is ahead of Ash than Alain?
Gen II: The Champion is Lance
Gen III: The Champion is Steven Stone
Gen IV: The Champion is Cynthia, nuff said
Gen V: The Champion is Iris, the actual Champion you fight in the endgame of Black 2 and White 2 as opposed to N
Gen VI: The Champion is Diantha
Gen VII: The Champion is You, the Player. Ash is an adaptation of the Player Protagonist Red... plus he won the Alola League
Gen VIII: The Champion is Leon.
 
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Wouldn't put it past them. We all know Grookey's not leaving anyway (unfortunately :cautious:.)

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your Masters Eight lineup!

View attachment 159483
The countdown begins...

Also, this episode is another dramatic fight that is similarity to Episode 99 except it is an important match and headed to Master 8. It is great to see Lucario have become more stronger after learning the pseudo-bond from Greninja. Only hope, it will be enough to defeat Alain in which Greninja have failed, where Lucario success or the studio hired back that notorious writer to do the script then it will be travesty of anime 2022. Nonetheless, this episode is great and the funny part is Leon sleeping at bushes.

Overall rating: A-
 
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God, I hear Cynthia's theme playing loudly in my head. It makes sense that they made her number 2.
The only thing I don't like about the lineup is Alain being there, but let's see how to do this.
 
OK, on more positive note (before subtitles)
  • Battle seemed quite well handled - tactics, movement - enjoyed it
  • Although I would not straight call it ingenious writing - having Lucario channel aura to this Mega Aura Sphere remembering his friends and all the effort - is viable storytelling. Making Ash beat the best by his unparalleled feeling and connection with his Pokémon fits story-wise and simply works. Far better than "tanking 5 moves and one lucky shot".
    • Still - the most important thing remains - is this move more powerful than Mega Charizard X's Blast Burn?:sneaky:
  • Nice touches with Raihan's selfie with Ash, Goh falling after Gigantamax Fragilelodon falling to the ground. Leon sleeping in grass, waiting for subtitles. :D
  • Kukui and Lusamine should fire anyone they put in charge of PR immediately after PWC fails to mention Ash as Alola Champion. They should put some promotion out there, otherwise those mamoth investments in stadium and new league would not pay off. Hopefully the plan is not for Kukui's one class to make almost half of TOP 16 indefinitely. :cool:
  • Glad they did not tease us with Master 8 and put it right there - aside Iris, which I already covered - nice selection
    • In case of tournament tree and only 3 matches, I stand by my opinion that Cynthia - Alain - Leon is the best route for Ash and could not see anything that comes close
 
Man, Duraludon went down way too easily. I don't care how gigantic it was, a single Aura Sphere should not have been enough to defeat it. I'd been hoping for a protracted battle between the final two Pokemon. Shame really, because I was enjoying the battle up to that point; Kairyu getting defeated sucked but considering this is it's first knock out in 100 episodes I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed. Gangar being a powerhouse in this match and sucking away the sandstorm in his G-Max form was pretty good. I love it when our resident ghost gets to kick butt.

The fact that Satoshi decided to Gigantamax Gangar as opposed to Mega Evolving Lucario would have been a nice surprise if the freakin' ad bumper hadn't spoiled it. Considering this hadn't been in any previews or scans, the fact the show went and revealed it at the final hurdle really irked.

So we've got the Masters Eight... and they're all people Satoshi has met before. Couldn't the producers have put in a couple of game characters that never not introduced... there's a ton of Elite Four members who didn't get to appear int the show not to mention all the Sinnoh Frontier Brains. I don't even understand the point of putting Iris in there since Satoshi has already defeated her recently, so clearly he's not actually going to battle her. And what's Alan doing competing in this? I thought he was a research assistant now... although Satoshi is too I guess.
 
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