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Review JN112: A Triumphant Return! The Alola Champion!!

Honestly was a pretty fantastic love letter to Alola.

So many returning faces,
(Faba ,Wicke, Hala, Hau, Team freaking Skull and Tapu Koko)
callbacks, nice moments and character interactions.

You name it, this episode has it.

I do like how the battle's ending was kept ambiguous too.

Pikachu probably won it anyway but still...


Since this is probably the last Alola focused episode for Journeys and maybe the last we'll see of these characters for a while (unless we see them watching some of Ash's battles) this was a great way to end it on.


Poor Team Rocket losing their announcing jobs though, this series really is just a lost cause for them.
 
Would you believe it when I say that I - a 28-year-old man - teared up when everyone was cheering for Ash?

Every bit of Alola that has made its way into this series has been superb - I love that they don’t hold back whatsoever on returning characters, it’s not like Samson Oak, Hala and Mallow’s family did a whole lot but they were there because it just makes sense for them to be there - episode feels like it was a Sun and Moon episode, once again.

The Battle Royale really was the focus of this episode though and I was very pleased - it’s just great that Gladion got to use Nihilego; seeing Ash overcome Kiawe’s Z move and Pikachu being a match for Kukui’s Incenaror was all so great. I’m not sure weather they outright confirmed the victor in the last scene but I can hardly doubt that it was Ash.

I’m also appreciative that while the episode was focused on building up the battle and then the battle, it took the time for a conversation between Lana and Chloe about Eevee - can’t wait to hear what was said. I think it’s so great to see so many characters I’ve grown to love in the past validate their own growth my adding Chloe and even if Lana didn’t spent a whole episode doing it, like Dawn and Serena, it just gives Lana this air of wisdom.

Okay… so I know everyone is going to be disappointed we didn’t get to see Ash’s Alola Pokémon do anything but eat and watch the battle. Yeah, it’s disappointing but it doesn’t detract from this episode.
 
Full VA list courtesy of Adamant

Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Daiki Yamashita: Go
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Kana Hanazawa: Koharu
Megumi Yahashibara: Mokuroh
Shinichiro Miki: Lugarugan
Mika Kanai: Togedemaru
Rikako Aikawa: Kapu-Kokeko
Kenta Miyake: Kairyu
Toru Sakurai: Gaogaen (Kukui)
Hana Takeda: Sarunori
Wakana Minami: Shore
Ryota Iwasaki: Zoroark
Kei Shindo: Lilie
Kaito Ishikawa: Kaki
Reina Ueda: Mao
Hitomi Kikuchi: Suiren
Fumiko Takekuma: Māmane
Keiichi Nakagawa: Professor Kukui
Nobuyuki Hiyama: Hala
Jiro Saito: Mohn
Mitsuaki Madono: Sauboh
Sayaka Kinoshita: Lusamine
Sachi Kokuryu: Burnet
Chika Fujimura: Wicke
Nobuhiko Okamoto: Gladio
Shinya Fukumatsu: James
Daisuke Namikawa: Rotom Zukan
Kenyu Horiuchi: Principal Okido
 
So, Ash's Alola team didn't get to watch the battle? That made me a little sad. I do hope they were in the audience and I just missed them.

Otherwise an episode with a lot happening, but a good one. I liked it.
 
Overall a good episode, but...

Did they straight up reuse SM footage for the flashback? It looked so jarring with Ash in his SM design... How does that even work?
 
Alola, final Alola episode. This was a great swansong for the Alola gang, since I'm pretty sure we're not going to see them again this series (and possibly never again). The animation was top-notch again, the music was used very well and we got some nice character moments and cameos. It wasn't perfect; it seems we're forever destined to not see Satoshi battle with his Gaogaen while Shiron and Nagisa will be eternally unevolved but otherwise I have no complaints.

Farewell, Alola. Thanks for everything.
 
This episode was a blast, especially with everybody else welcome Mohn come back after the search by his family after the Sun and Moon ended. In order to organize a celebration they have a battle royal with Kukuki, Gladion, Kiawe and Ash battle with everybody else chanting to Ash being Champion is very dramatic as in the conclusion was not showed the result. But it was a great episode by far and even the Guardian Deity of Tapu Koko with a dancing sign to wish Ash won in World Championship.

Overall rating: A
 
I was going to have a hard time accepting Pikachu winning 1v3, so it ended up fine in the end.

The beach scene threw me for a loop. At first, I thought Ash was going to catch Tapu Koko, then I was wondering if he asked for its help in the Masters 8, but I guess not. That's a relief.
 
Even though she isn't much of a battler I would have liked to see Nihilego go to Lillie instead. I feel like there is a greater connection there. Could have been cool to see her battle Ash especially if she had caught some more Pokémon and evolved Vulpix off-screen. Alolan Ninetales is such a beautiful Pokémon so I have no idea why the writer to didn't want Lillie to have one.

Hearing Gladion call his Nihilego Lillie during the battle reminded me of when my brother randomly named his Sandslash after me when we were kids playing through the Gen 1 games lol.

It also seems like Eevee was just there for Let's Go promotion. Kind of lame but predictable. I guess it's time to put the theory that Chole's Eevee will evolve into a new evolution to rest.
 
Even though she isn't much of a battler I would have liked to see Nihilego go to Lillie instead. I feel like there is a greater connection there. Could have been cool to see her battle Ash especially if she had caught some more Pokémon and evolved Vulpix off-screen. Alolan Ninetales is such a beautiful Pokémon so I have no idea why the writer to didn't want Lillie to have one.

Hearing Gladion call his Nihilego Lillie during the battle reminded me of when my brother randomly named his Sandslash after me when we were kids playing through the Gen 1 games lol.

It also seems like Eevee was just there for Let's Go promotion. Kind of lame but predictable. I guess it's time to put the theory that Chole's Eevee will evolve into a new evolution to rest.
Apparently she said there is a 9th path, not evolve like ash Pikachu. Which was predictable tbh, evee is more popular as itself than any eveelution
 
As someone who’s been playing many (many) battle royales in Showdown, I can safely say the battle was ridiculously accurate lmao. Three battlers gang on one guy until he almost ragequits, one randomly sucker punches another and it basically becomes a 2v2, and once any of them falls two of the remaining battlers gang up on another again.

Man, the emotions… Ash finally getting the glory he deserves from his peers and being recognized as champion so enthusiastically made me choke up. It really feels like the climax of the whole anime is coming… and I don’t know how to feel about it.
 
So we got thr Ash scene from that old theory about the pedestal and isolation from being the brst?
 
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