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Review JN116: Champions' Pride! Wataru VS Carne!!

That was genuinely good imo, so glad Alain is staying back and interacting with the rest of the champions. Love to see Sawyer, Ritchie and the kalos/johto rivals back too. Loved Lance and Diantha’s strategies from both ends, especially Lance stalling out Mega Gardevoir with hail to try and hyper beam it after. But since we know how agile it is, once it missed Diantha could get a free hit cause Dragonite is immobile after (which they established earlier). Nice to see that consistency with the games, gyarados taking a back seat is good too since he used it already against Leon

Also love the continuity with Ash and TR’a reactions to Diantha. Keen for next week’s for sure
 
Great battle overall. The animation was not very dynamic (I literally sighed in relief when I saw the camera moving a bit for Gardevoir's Psychokinesis) but the strategies were pretty unique and very well thought-out. No wonder the staff decided to show these battles in full after seeing the script's potential. I also loved how confident Diantha was throughout the whole thing, I don't recall XY showing us a lot of that since she had a bigger role outside of battling.

The big issue though was how a lot of the attacks connected with the Pokémon just standing there. Hydreigon could've been flying around when the Moonblast hit it and Lance could've at least have told Dragonite to block that very last Moonblast too. Instead it played out like a game battle in the wrong way. Everything aside of that was perfect though, and I liked how you could pick up on their plans as the battle went on, like Lance trying to use Dynamax in a more defensive manner to withstand Gardevoir as Hail dealt damage.

The cameos and Jessie fangirling over Gourgeist were great continuity tidbits and felt pretty natural too (maybe Sawyer would've fit Ash vs. Steven better instead of being grouped with those other three, but that's a nitpick). I'm fully expecting Georgia to appear next episode now, they showed us right off the bat that all bets are off with these cameos.
 
Hyper Offense is not an unvalid strategum. Also XY Ash had stuff like Double Team Greninja and Bide Goodra.

Now that I found subs not calling trainers 'soldiers', urg the badfics, to the episode

  • Hey, continuity right away. Honestly Ash, hard to say. I feel like you knew Diantha more, but Lance is a homeland favorite.
  • Yes, Ash has a 'knack' for champions.
  • Play up the nationalism....do they do that in RL World Cup Soccer? Is that safe?
  • Sawyer, you are Hoennese.
  • Well if you are going to boast about Dragons, the ice and rock type comes up Lance. That's how it works.
  • 4X hits back to back. Going all in with anime level endurance blows
  • So Lance...why Twister? IDK....kind of odd old move of his to bring back. Makes more sense in motion, as it is a bit of a defensive, offensive combo move.
  • A bit too passive but I can see what some people mean by the motion lack
  • The choice to use Gourgeist with Jessie around was good on the anime's part. Good to them, good to them.
  • Lance and walls....must have some interesting records in his spy ledger. Also Hop, you don't remember the red Gyarados from last year(?)
  • Hey, they actually counted the moves for the barriers. Kind of like with the Dynamax. I...don't know how I feel about that.
  • I wonder if the commercial break was in universe too, the announcer talks a bit like it.
  • I like how Lance specifically thanked Gyarados in ball for the knock out. Good for him
  • Howdeee! The Gen 6 champion theme.
  • Offense being the best defense is, again, not invalid. Also yeah, the lack of dodges is odd. IDK, that's probably the one thing the Alain fight has over this one.
  • Having the tracks on Hydregion charge up for Luster Cannon was a good idea, whoever thought of it deserves a pat.
  • First time I've seen Psychic used as a wave attack in...possibly since Tyson at Hoenn League. Wow....that takes me back a ways.
  • So is Lance the Dynamax guy to Leon's Gigantamax guy to Diantha/Alain/Steven/Cynthia's Mega guy to Ash's all the things guy to Iris's....Iris?
  • Wooloo is scared out of its mind.
  • Yay! They remembered the effects of Max Moves!
  • With that last roar before shrinking, was that a reference to the lighthouse giant Dragonite of early Indigo you thinks?
  • Oh hey, a dodge! And of course it would be Hyper Beam....
  • You know, Lance and Diantha have a nice contrasting color palette.....I think.
  • Battles versus performances....reference to Serena and crew perhaps?
  • Oh hey, Lance didn't chat with Ash a ton but still showed familiarity. Time to bash him like Alain last time! (Kidding)
  • That hallway animation....
 
I am legitimately shocked and pleased that Diantha actually beat Lance. I was so certain she was just going to be fodder so Lance could have his rematch with Leon.

Am I the only one not happy to see Richie? Did everyone forget how much of an obnoxiously perfect character he was back in the Kanto league?
 
I kinda wish they gave Lance Dragalge instead of Dragonite, it would help with the Dragonite over-representation and he would actually have a Pokemon that would threaten her ace. To be honest as a Dragon Master that thing should be on his team period.

Yeah its weak to Gardevoir too but at least he would not have looked like a cornered rat in the final stretch of the match up and it would have made her work for the victory a little more. Don’t mind the loss, just don’t like the line up they gave him.
 
What an intense battle episode to the end to show how both Champion. We knew the answer that Diantha will won since having advantage and speed.

Overall rating: B+
 
Looking at the battle again, its almost as if they trying way too hard to keep things closer to the games. I mean, its more obvious to me than I originally thought when it was mentioned. Dodging attacks was so rare, and counter attacks even rarely happened. I saw Diantha's Gourgeist dodge an attack with Shadow Sneak and Mega Gardevior did use Shadow Ball to counter Tri Attack, but most of the time both sides just took attacks without moving from their spot.
 
Last edited:
Explain.
Oh because Ash-Greninja didn’t dodge Blast Burn. But Lances Dragonite literally standing there in the middle of a moonblast looked like he was trying to loose.
You... do what what the downside of Hyper Beam is, yes?
 
Finally, after a break that felt way too long, we got another Masters Tournament episode. And what an episode it was! Wonderful!
(To whoever wrote that Leon vs. Alain disaster, I wanna say the following: THIS is what a battle between champions should look like and I hope you paid close attention!)

What I really liked and enjoyed about this episode was the awesome display of those two different trainer characters and fighting styles: While Lance is the trainer who goes into battle head-on and mainly relies on brute force, Diantha is the defensive type who battles tactically. I also loved the constant back and forth so that each battling style with its pros and cons could be shown the best way possible. And although it often looked like Lance would eventually be victorious with his powerful attacks, it was Diantha having the upper hand. And you know what's best? That's exactly what the wonderful Cynthia, our Queen, predicted right at the beginning. Oh Cynthia, not only are you perfect, you're also so clever! :giggle:

The only thing that kind of surpised me was Hydreigon just standing there for no obvious reason, not making any effort to dodge that Moonblast. But that's a minor negligible point considering how great the whole battle was.
Poor Lance! You could clearly see and feel his disappointment when he hardly wanted to talk to Ash. And congratulations to Diantha who deserved that victory!

As if that battle wasn't great enough already, do you want to know what even topped everything else? It's only one single line, but to me that's one of the greatest and most perfect things that was ever said in the show:
Cynthia was called "the dignified Queen of Sinnoh":notworthy::love:
I still can't describe my endless joy when hearing that. It certainly is the greatest line in the Anime ever!
You see, many years ago I called myself "Queen Cynthia" here on these forums because I've always known that Cynthia is the true and greatest Queen. Now, after so many years what I've always been hoping for was finally officially confirmed by the show. Thank you God for that perfect day!
 
(To whoever wrote that Leon vs. Alain disaster, I wanna say the following: THIS is what a battle between champions should look like and I hope you paid close attention!)
They were actually both written by Atsuhiro Tomioka--in fact it seems likely from a recent interview that he's writing every episode in the Master Eight.
Alain may have went by so fast because he's against the top trainer, isn't a regional champ himself like the others, and likely has the smallest fanbase.
 
Alain may have went by so fast because he's against the top trainer, isn't a regional champ himself like the others, and likely has the smallest fanbase.
Or simply because Tomioka wasted too much time on that unnecessary battle vs. Hop. The built-up for the Masters Tournament should definitely have been done in an additonal episode. Today's episode proves what a difference it makes if you have the whole 20 minutes for such important battles
 
Truth be told, I think Chesnaught vs. G-Max Rillaboom was more exciting than a majority of this battle. I think it boils down to that battle having a lot of movement as opposed to two Pokemon just staying in one spot attacking one after the other...
 
Please note: The thread is from 2 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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