Preview JN122: The Semifinals I: "Overwhelming Victory"

[Imtnt]

(The wait I'm having for this episode is actually very nearly coinciding with the start of my new job, BTW!) If there's one thing Journeys has taught me, it's that patience really is a virtue. Hah, JK! We wait weeks on weeks for these Journeys episodes sometimes, and half the time they're not even all that good. (And that's putting aside my other issues with this series in particular.) Ash vs Cynthia and then Leon better be pretty freakin' amazing is all I can say. Because if they mess up Ash vs Cynthia.......hoooo boy. If y'all thought the Ash vs Alain backlash was bad, this might be just as bad, if not worse. (Or not, this series is nowhere near as good as the XY series was overall, which made that dissapoinment extra frustrating. And of course, it was the closest Ash had ever come to winning a league, we waited so long, they dashed our hopes, blah, blah blah, I know.) The thing is, people (myself included,) have been waiting a very long time for this Ash vs Cynthia showdown too, at 12 years. If they mess it up after all those years of waiting........people will be pissed. No way around it.

In SM I had the best time regarding that issue- I was always taking a long break myself now and then, and created a situation I can bing the league and skip whatever episode Im not intrested.. I didnt skip much though, in JNs I can think of at least 4-5 episodes I would have skipped..

 

[BigDocFan]

Summary and Partial VA list courtesy of Adamant

The day of the Masters Tournament semifinals has arrived. Satoshi is training for his match alongside his Pokémon when he runs into his opponent, Sinnoh Champion Shirona, who is likewise making some final preparations before their match. And as Shirona tells Satoshi about how she first met her partner Gablias, the first semifinal match, a battle between Dande and Carne, is about to begin at Shoot Stadium... The curtain rises for the fierce semifinals!!

Voice Cast:
Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Daiki Yamashita: Go
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu

 

[Twilight-Kun]

So proud of Ash finally training his pokemon

...in the middle of the league

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

So proud of Ash finally training his pokemon

...in the middle of the league

Well, to be fair we have seen him training his Pokemon quite a bit recently, like in the Oak's lab episode and the Greninja return episode. Still, I 100% agree with you though, this is stuff we should have been seeing throughout Journeys, not mostly towards the very end of it.

 

[Eitarou]

Wow, we're really just screwing Diantha over in favor of Cynthia despite the latter already getting a multi-part battle after this. My expectations were low and I'm still disappointed.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Wow, we're really just screwing Diantha over in favor of Cynthia despite the latter already getting a multi-part battle after this. My expectations were low and I'm still disappointed.

At least Diantha's sticking around afterwards, but yeah. You can definitely tell who the more popular of the two is between Cynthia and Diantha. At least they gave Diantha the win over Lance, which is a pretty big deal when you think about it, considering all the love the Kanto region gets.

 

[Sai]

Wow, we're really just screwing Diantha over in favor of Cynthia despite the latter already getting a multi-part battle after this. My expectations were low and I'm still disappointed.

You knew beforehand Diantha's battle would be mostly off-screen. We were never going to get a full 6 on 6 of Leon beating Diantha's pokemon one after the other. It would have just been one one-hit KO after another.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

You knew beforehand Diantha's battle would be mostly off-screen. We were never going to get a full 6 on 6 of Leon beating Diantha's pokemon one after the other. It would have just been one one-hit KO after another.

Exactly. This way the sweep doesn't look so bad.

 

[Kurolegacy]

At least Diantha's sticking around afterwards, but yeah. You can definitely tell who the more popular of the two is between Cynthia and Diantha. At least they gave Diantha the win over Lance, which is a pretty big deal when you think about it, considering all the love the Kanto region gets.

Yea but at that point, is she sticking around for the rest of the tournament or doing like the others did and only staying for the round before venturing off into the ether?

 

[Eitarou]

You knew beforehand Diantha's battle would be mostly off-screen. We were never going to get a full 6 on 6 of Leon beating Diantha's pokemon one after the other. It would have just been one one-hit KO after another.

And the alternative we're getting is supposed to be better? I'd rather have the one-hit KOs because then the episode would still focus on her and Leon. Instead, the summary makes it sound like she'll be an afterthought in favor of someone who's already had more screentime in JN and will continue to get more.

 

[Sai]

And the alternative we're getting is supposed to be better? I'd rather have the one-hit KOs because then the episode would still focus on her and Leon. Instead, the summary makes it sound like she'll be an afterthought in favor of someone who's already had more screentime in JN and will continue to get more.

I feel like we knew they would never do a full 6 on 6 on-screen for a non-Ash battle. And since most of Leon's battles tend to be curbstomps, seeing 6 Diantha pokemon go down on-screen one after the other would hurt her reputation far more. This way we can see what they show, the Rillaboom vs Goodra and I assume Charizard vs Gardevoir, while the rest of it is either off-screen or we catch glimpses of. I think it's the best way to handle it since Diantha is also not that important to the narrative of this series either.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Yea but at that point, is she sticking around for the rest of the tournament or doing like the others did and only staying for the round before venturing off into the ether?

I really hope it's the former. I would very much like to see all the other Masters Eight members watching Ash's final battle against Leon alongside everyone else.

 

[KrspaceT]

Are we really giving Ash crud for not training? We've seen him doing that since, at the latest in series, episode 27! I can probably find it earlier if I looked for it, and frankly its been done regularly enough. Why can no one just accept that off screen work happens on top of the onscreen and not act like this is One Piece where the cast virtually never practices onscreen?

Frankly I tire of Vinyl's desire to make everything sound worse than it actually is. It got old several Pokemon generations ago and it should just frankly stop. Vinyl. Just. Stop.

 

[HiroHunter]

Are we really giving Ash crud for not training? We've seen him doing that since, at the latest in series, episode 27! I can probably find it earlier if I looked for it, and frankly its been done regularly enough. Why can no one just accept that off screen work happens on top of the onscreen and not act like this is One Piece where the cast virtually never practices onscreen?

Its a thing called balance. Their hasn't been enough onscreen training in JN compared to how much off screen training their was. Older series had is balance of both onscreen and off screen training.

 

[Handy Man]

Anyone else feeling fatigued from this long, one month break? It feels like a barren wasteland with nothing to talk about for a month. I’m hoping this episode can draw me back into the Masters Eight, because I feel like I just want Journeys to wrap up at this point.

 

[Sai]

Sounds like most of Leon/Diantha will be off-screen besides the bits we see in the preview. The writers were probably aware another Leon curbstomp wouldn't be fun to watch, so at least this way we don't have to see the whole damage. The child Cynthia scenes likely happen while this is all going on.

 

[PokeFan2005]

https://twitter.com/pokeaninews/status/1561958158620192768

Leon vs Diantha
2 Pokemon Leon vs 5 Pokemon Diantha and Charizard vs Mega Gardevoir

 

[Imtnt]

I hope we wont actually see Leon trashing 5 pokemon in 3 minuets...too overwhelming for us to see...

 

[Sai]

I think we're only seeing 2 battles, Goodra vs Rillaboom and Gmax Charizard vs Gardevoir. It's going to feel like a 2 vs 2 battle.

As I said, showing 6 of Diantha's pokemon go down on-screen in half an episode was never going to work so I'm glad we won't have to see that. It would just be a one-hit KO after another.

 

[Handy Man]

I feel like I’m in a minority, but I just want the Masters Eight to end already. I didn’t think this arc would last from June all the way to October; that’s five months! We all know that it would just lead up to Ash vs. Leon anyway, and we also know that Ash is going to do some BS Deux Ex Machina with Mega Lucario to beat Cynthia. Plus, the animation for the battles has been disappointing. It’s crazy how much better the Kalos League battles look compared to the Masters Eight battles. I’m mad that this arc alone essentially took up half of this year’s episodes, and that one month break having the nerve to include two clip shows still ticks me off. I’m hoping that Journeys has enough time to give us a satisfying wrap up before it moves on to the Scarlet and Violet series. I just want Ash’s friends to meet each other at this point, that’s all I care about.