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

[FinnishPokéFan92]

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.

It took a bit of damage from two regular Aura Spheres too.

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.

I personally like that all the Trainers are ones Ash already knows. And Iris could get to have a battle against another Champion and show how tough she is.

 

[Shadao]

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.

The Masters Eight would be the Top 8 trainers in the world. So far, we have 8 regions explored. Thus, it makes sense if the slots are filled by Champions.

 

[BigDocFan]

Full VA list courtesy of Adamant

Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Daiki Yamashita: Go
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Megumi Hayashibara: Aceburn
Daisuke Namikawa: Lucario
Kenta Miyake: Kairyu
Yuichi Nakamura: Duraludon
Yasuhiro Mamiya: Gangar
Hana Takeda: Sarunori
Daisuke Ono: Dande
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka: Kibana
Yuji Ueda: Commentator
Yo Kitazawa: Danpei
Kenyu Horiuchi: Narration

 

[Islander Princess]

We should be thanking our lucky stars that Tobias isn't in the Masters Eight.

You know what, I was mad about Alain being in the Masters 8 (I just don't like him, sorry Alain stans) but Tobias would've 100% been worse so thank you for giving me a silver lining

Haven't watched the episode yet, just wanted to see some early reactions to the Masters 8. A little surprised (but pleasantly so) that people aren't gushing over the choices...I feel the exact same way. Pretty underwhelming group if we're being honest.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Pretty underwhelming group if we're being honest.

IMO, the Master Class looks rather impressive.

 

[ShashaR]

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

Yes . I could not see Cynthia not having that battle with Ash . I also can not see Ash not defeating all his rivals atleast once . So yeah and Leon was obvious .

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I thought we had a good battle going until Ash Gigantamaxed, with Ash using good use of his Pokemon’s utility, as well as the fight showing off Raihan’s weather tricks.
There was the slight concern of why Ash went straight for Gengar instead of Lucario, when one can actually track something’s Aura and pinpoint it’s location, but hey, we got Gigantamax Gengar out of it.
Then, boom. Goodra lasts about a minute, with Lucario using three Aura Spheres to win the battle - that ended quickly. Not the best battle, but not the worst.

However, of course the Masters Eight line-up will be the talking point.
I think it was obvious that Alain was going to return, despite it making no sense to as why he would continue to battle (unless that Chespin got sick again). That, coupled with the fact Ash-Greninja didn't appear last episode resigned it to reappear somewhere, and only fitting to do so against that Charizard. This makes Alain the only non-Champion of a region in the tournament.

Speaking of which, no real surprises with the inclusion of the Champions from Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kalos, and Kanto/Johto, except for Unova. I was not expecting Iris before the leaks, and even after them, I was still in doubt.
Of course she is a Champion, and having all the Champions from the regions there is cool. She’s obviously not an upcoming trainer, like Ash, because of her status being significantly higher than that of Alola’s Champion. So, I guess it doesn’t take away from Ash’s uniqueness of his surge to fame? A Champion doing this I suppose should be a given, but the Iris we saw made it seem as though Unova’s E4 + Champions were inferior to the other regions’. Seems like a stretch, especially when her becoming the Champion was a one to begin with. Overall, the line-up seems okay. Although, makes it clear who Ash is going to battle (Alain and Cynthia).

 

[Weddingbells]

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?
• Nice touches with Raihan's selfie with Ash, Goh falling after Gigantamax Fragilelodon falling to the ground. Leon sleeping in grass, waiting for subtitles.
• 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.
• 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

I think my issue with the Lucario thing. Is that the teammates flashback, were all off screen. So it just feels like there telling us his bond with his team even though it's non existent

 

[BlueLugger]

Every current champion is in this game. Ash will face Iris again in the rematch before getting his revenge against Alain back in XY. I‘m super shocked to see Cynthia make it to second rank before Lance and or Steven (meaning that she’s REALLY THAT GOOD), Diantha’s reasonably confirmed which means that Ash will finally keep his promises on beating said champs back in each saga.

 

[L-05308]

Dragonite wall the fall guy as I expected - it was inevitable, but I’m glad Dragonite’s fall was in favour og giving Gengar extra KOs - Gengar needed them much more than Lucario. Besides, Dragonite still has the highest win rate out of the Journeys team - though it has the least battles second to Dracovish.

Now, about the basil – this one really hurts that it wasn’t a two-parter, suffers even worse from the things that pulled down the Volkner battle - a tie (which I always hate) so that the last matchup can have two fresh Pokémon, and then that matchup is super short anyway… Lucario only using two different moves like Sirfetch’d did against Drasna and Duraladon not battling at all in its standard form - a bit lame.

The battle is good up to Gengar and Goodra being knocked out, I really like how Ash had planned to mega evolve but changed his mind midbattle as Dynamax was needed. And while I’m not blown away by the final match up, I do like The scene of Lucario charging the Aura Sphere - thinking about its supporters. Oh and hey, Greninja wasn’t just a one episode return - like when Gary made that small appearance, this gives me upmost confidence it will return for a larger role later.

The rear view of the masters eight was incredibly hype, kind of surprised they went with Alain over Paul - but I see Journeys is all about fan service so i’ve got a feeling they knew they had to correct a previous wrong.

Exciting stuff ahead!

 

[puddleths]

What can I say? I'm disappointed. The battle was pretty mixed. Dragonite getting ousted and Gengar Gigantamaxing were good for, if nothing else, subverting expectations... somewhat. But then there's Gengar getting pummeled and one-shotting Goodra (someone doesn't like that 'mon on staff). A JN staple that doesn't get better with age. Followed by Lucario powering up its Spirit Bomb while Raihan... just watched.

Then the big reveal, and to my chagrin, the leak was accurate. Iris in, Paul out. Can't say I'm counting on a good explanation for Paul's absence in a few weeks.

 

[R1ke]

So against Korrina Gengar jobbed so Dragonite could do well

Now it’s the other way around lol

Congrats Gengar you deserve it buddy

 

[Kurolegacy]

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.

Poor Hop basically went entirely I acknowledged this entire series and he’s the champion’s younger brother. You’d think that, given that we didn’t get a Galar League to have him be in the final tournament for, they’d put him back in this probably at least have made him a major Hyper class rival.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Battle was trash but idc because
ALAIN IS IN MASTERS EIGHT LETS GOOOOOO
GIVE ME ASH GRENINJA VS MEGA CHARIZARD X OR GIVE ME DEATH

 

[WatcherMark]

The Masters Eight would be the Top 8 trainers in the world. So far, we have 8 regions explored. Thus, it makes sense if the slots are filled by Champions.

It's not so much the top 8 in the world, just the top 8 who chose to enter this competition.

It still makes no sense for Iris to be there. Satoshi beat her getting into the Ultra Class and now she's ahead of him?! That makes no sense when you consider that every Ultra Class battle is scheduled, so really she should have not had a chance to make it into the Master Class at least this season. The only explanation is that Iris was allowed to have more battles than Satoshi, and that is really unfair considering this was his only chance to make it into the Masters Eight this season.

 

[Sai]

It's not so much the top 8 in the world, just the top 8 who chose to enter this competition.

It still makes no sense for Iris to be there. Satoshi beat her getting into the Ultra Class and now she's ahead of him?! That makes no sense when you consider that every Ultra Class battle is scheduled, so really she should have not had a chance to make it into the Master Class at least this season. The only explanation is that Iris was allowed to have more battles than Satoshi, and that is really unfair considering this was his only chance to make it into the Masters Eight this season.

Why is it so hard to believe Iris could get ahead of him? Ash is distracted by his own adventures, Go's stuff, etc. Iris could have simply ranked up in Super Class and Hyper Class faster off screen. She probably got hyper class battled scheduled before Ash did if she made it there before him .

I also find your first post odd. Of course the top 8 are going to be mostly filled with champions (besides alan), who did you expect the top trainers of the world to be? Most Elite 4 were likely in the top 10-15s like Drasna was or Flint got knocked back to

 

[R1ke]

Also I just realised that neither Goodra or Noivern got a win these last 2 PWC battles

Those species are cursed hahaha

 

[UxieLover1994]

You know what, I was mad about Alain being in the Masters 8 (I just don't like him, sorry Alain stans) but Tobias would've 100% been worse so thank you for giving me a silver lining

No problem. If it had been Tobias instead of Alain, and the writers continued to portray him as a status quo sue, we'd be seeing a repeat of the Sinnoh League instead of a rematch of the Kalos League.

GIVE ME ASH GRENINJA VS MEGA CHARIZARD X OR GIVE ME DEATH

Maybe. It depends on if Greninja is willing to rejoin Ash for this rematch against Alain. I'm expecting more of a Mega Lucario vs. Mega Charizard X showdown.

It still makes no sense for Iris to be there. Satoshi beat her getting into the Ultra Class and now she's ahead of him?! That makes no sense when you consider that every Ultra Class battle is scheduled, so really she should have not had a chance to make it into the Master Class at least this season. The only explanation is that Iris was allowed to have more battles than Satoshi, and that is really unfair considering this was his only chance to make it into the Masters Eight this season.

Don't forget that Iris is the Unova League Champion, so she may have had to defend her title a lot of times. Some of those challengers might have been in the PWC, which helped her ranking. We just don't see or know about them because she's no longer travelling with Ash, and we don't get many side-series episodes nowadays.

 

[Keith]

I have a feeling Greninja is going to use aura/battle bond to sense what’s going on, and use instant transmission its ninja teleportation to arrive on the battlefield when Ash faces Alain. Charizard, you will get your ass whooped this time!

 

[Keith]

Also, shoutout to Gengar!