Review JN124: The Semifinals III: "Valor"

[FinnishPokéFan92]

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/JN124

The second part of Ash vs Cynthia has aired. Feel free to discuss it here.

 

[BigDocFan]

An interesting turn of events, it was good to see Abilities being used again in the anime, something we don't see that often

Some of the Pokemon got knocked out a bit too easily I feel, Roserade and Milotic being strong examples

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Much better than part 1. Great episode. Dracovish and Sirfetch’d did awesome. Love seeing Night Slash get rid of Stealth Rock.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Much better than part 1. Great episode. Dracovish and Sirfetch’d did awesome. Love seeing Night Slash get rid of Stealth Rock.

Brutal Swing, actually. Not Night Slash.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Well, this battle is still managing to hang on as being pretty good so far.

If this keeps up, this'll end up being a huge highlight of the PWC/Masters Eight for sure.

 

[Emelie]

Awww, I guess this means Mega Garchomp will remain undefeated. Kind of a shame because it would have given Cynthia's last battle before retirement a sense of finality.

Seeing Infernape get excited watching them on TV made me a little sad. Too bad you never got to fight Cynthia during DP.

 

[BigDocFan]

Watching Infernape and Cinderace was fun in today's episode, nice to see how supportive Cinderace is of Lucario

 

[Articfoxgamez]

It's always nice to see Team Rocket cheering for Ash. That's it that's all I have to say.

 

[MimeyTheKeeper]

The Best:

• Valiant Duck Sirfetch'd - Chadfetch'd
  • Hard to give it to anyone else. He earned his nickname and proved himself worthy of Hall of Fame. What to mention first? Clearing that Stealth Rock Captian America style? Finishing off Milotic like a champ? Or having samurai-style clash with mighty Gaburias, clearing his Scale Shot Jedi-style, clashing it and dealing heavy blow with Meteor Assault (was hoping for it), even going "down" but actually not going down but freezing in absolute battle exhaustion Torracat/Incineroar style. (even loved the music during that moment) They are not showing Alola watching, but I suspect for budgetary reasons, but in-universe they are definitely watching and Incineroar must be proud. Not mentioning Wikstrom of course.

Good:

• Infernape's Fighting Spirit - oh boy, he is fired up, shame not seeing him fighting. And Prof. Oak presumably learned Agility.
  
• Cinderace Supporting Lucario - as heavy-handed as their friendship is in Journeys (well, what in Journeys isn't?), it was nice touch, bringing emotions to fight
• Team Rocket - their emotional involvement seems to be reaching DP levels
• Dracovish - although his stubbornness could realistically cost Ash such high profile match as is this, it was cute to see how he fights and gives it all. Rarely Pokémon does to call Cynthia's Roserade "that Roserade". And I was almost screaming that hopefully Ash's remembers Milotic squeeze and Iron Head combo and will at least utilize Dracovish Strong Jaw ability and proximity. Fortunately, he did.
• Cynthia's Tactics Still Top Notch - till the end - the switching, abilities, cover moves. This is TOP Cynthia. Unfortunately till the Dynamax - will adress that in "Bad".

Bad:

• Cynthia Dynamaxing - guess what, leaks were true again. Let's move past "not Mega vs Mega in battle of the eggs", I am not sure that subtitles will reveal something that explains this move enough. Maybe Cynthia is counting of Togekiss able to finish-off Lucario altogether, but still. The only explanation is that she has not studied previuos Lucario matches against G-Max Pokémon. Or let's say she had studied and was preparing some counter, which will Ash...well counter. I am not sure what exactly, that could be looking convincing enough.
• Cynthia Dynamax Pokéball - Cynthia is IMHO powerful enough to throw it with one hand
• Morpeko Eating - I think it starts to be too much and very repetitive this episode
• Ash Not Mega Evolving Straightaway - like dude, it is your last Pokémon, what are you waiting for? Diantha and Steven had no problems doing it from get-go. (To be fair, preview shows him Mega-Evolving Lucario probably right-away after seeing Dynamax Togekiss)

Ugly:

• I will leave the usual overarching problems of Journeys this time and concentrate on Ash Not Switching. OK, there was at least attempt with Dracovish, but after he refused, Ash was OK. If I remember correctly, he switched last time against Drasna! But before he had not problems doing it against Iris, Volkner or Bea. Yes, it seems that Masters 8 has Thou shall not switch implicit rule, because in every match till now, trainer who switched his Pokémon, lost. But still, it seems rather counter-intuitive, alas when Cynthia is switching like mad.

 

[Max1996]

The animation was wonderful this episode.

 

[legendz1985]

I love that part where Cinderace came out of it's pokeball and then start cheering Lucario.

 

[puddleths]

Someone last week mentioned this being a modern Ash vs Paul. When Sirfetch'd got hit by the rocks, I actually figured it would take them out just like Infernape removed Toxic Spikes. An interesting, somewhat subtle callback.

 

[BigDocFan]

Full VA list courtesy of Adamant

Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Daiki Yamashita: Go
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Kenyu Horiuchi: Professor Okido
Megumi Hayashibara: Musashi
Shinichiro Miki: Kojiro
Inuko Inuyama: Nyarth
Yuji Ueda: Sonansu
Daisuke Namikawa: Lucario
Kei Shindo: Roserade
Hana Takeda: Sarunori
Shogo Sakata: Gablias
Daisuke Ono: Dande
Tomo Sakurai: Shirona
Fumiko Orikasa: Carne
Yo Kitazawa: Danpei
Takuto Yoshinaga: Hop

 

[JinksChow]

As a side note, I miss the halftime recesses/battlefield changes that used to happen whenever one side lost three Pokemon. (Ala Orange Islands, Johto, Hoenn, and Kalos)

I feel like this would have been a good opportunity to show Ash taking a bit of time to regain his composure starting this episode, thus allowing him to fight better with Dracovish, Sirfetch'd, and Lucario. Because let's face it, Ash was not at his best last episode.

Heck, they could have even had Goh swing by and give him a pep talk, giving him more involvement in the episode.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Turns out there might've been a solid hint towards Togekiss Dynamaxing in front of us for the last week.

 

[Audino1008]

DRACOVISH W LET'S GO
Did Sirfetch'd actually faint? I don't think they greyed him out in the scoreboard, maybe I missed it.
Lucario saves the day again. Yay. Woo-hoo. Hooray, even. I'd go as far as to say Yipee. Okay, enough of that.
Hey Oak, probably not a good idea to let Tracey out of the basement for that long. He might get used to it if you're not careful.

Probably the best battle animation in the Master 8 so far.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Would love to know what’s with the writers and being terrible with following through. First, they brought back Alain in the Masters 8 only to not have him battle Ash and now they randomly gave Cynthia a Mega Garchomp against Iris and then build up a clash between Lucario and Garchomp only for her to randomly Dynamax Togekiss of all things. At that point, what was even the point of giving her Mega Evolution in the first place?

 

[LeonMagnus]

It's always nice to see Team Rocket cheering for Ash. That's it that's all I have to say.

Speaking of which they probably could have squeezed a bit more animation time into something more important than what they did where after they showed team rocket it shows morpeko eating candy bars and chugging milk.

Its fine if they do it once, but what did they do it like 2-4 times? That crap adds up. Particularly when it could have been added off to the side in a group shot sitting on the balcony edge doing that.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Would love to know what’s with the writers and being terrible with following through. First, they brought back Alain in the Masters 8 only to not have him battle Ash and now they randomly gave Cynthia a Mega Garchomp against Iris and then build up a clash between Lucario and Garchomp only for her to randomly Dynamax Togekiss of all things. At that point, what was even the point of giving her Mega Evolution in the first place?

It was to give her a power-up, and here, it was used as a mislead to make the gimmick she was actually using a surprise.

 

[KrspaceT]

So saw this unsubbed and I like what I see. I do get the feel that Cynthia's disruption strat worked the best with the odd ball that is Spiritomb, and with the battles they've had so far I can believe what I see (Drasna, for example, helps me with Sirfetch'd), I don't see a problem with the fights. Roserade healed from the burn, not from the damage, and Dracovish hits like a truck, and Milotic took a big hit before Sirfetch'd could land the Fury Cutters and Meteor Assault. Also nice to see Detect again.

I do wonder if Meteor Assault left enough damage on Garchomp that Cynthia decided it was a better gamble to use Dynamax to wear down Mega Lucario before aiming to finish with Garchomp?