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Review JN125: The Semifinals IV: "Impact"

I'm really glad she didn't Mega evolve Garchomp now, it basically battles the same way and is basically only a visible change unlike say Steven's Metagross which gains the ability to float/fly in the air after transforming. Likewise Lucario beating a Mega Garchomp would have made its win a little less believable.

I also thought it was a nice touch the powered up Aura Sphere wasn't an instant victory, and Togekiss actually survived it to be finished off with a punch in the face after.
 
Personally I am mostly disappointed. We didn't get to see Mega Garchomp vs Mega Lucario or Infernape. Would have felt more epic. The plot of Cynthia retiring was pointless if she changed her mind. Would have been nice to see Cynthia get emotional since she almost came across as a little bit cold during the Iris battle.

The backstory is interesting since it seems to imply that Palmer either was the champion before her or her rival. In Pokémon Masters Trainer Lodge you get 5 points for talking about "Cynthia's rival" and that made me curious who said rival was. Would have been nice if the backstory episode had focused on Cynthia's battle with Palmer (?) instead of those two random kids.
 
It was just as I speculated; All Cynthia needed to reawaken her spark is a battle with a worthy opponent. Much like with Volkner's subplot in DPPt.

I was anticipating a victory for Cynthia due to this series' infamous overuse of baiting; boy, I'm glad I was wrong for once. But I'm still convinced Leon vs. Ash would go either way, with my odds suggesting 2/1. And we've got the third clip episode in the span of two months next week, which nobody will be looking forward to (again, I mainly blame COVID).

At the very least, I got Ash's entire party from these airing codes in spite of being from Australia.
 
My thoughts on the episode.
I didn’t like this. The Dynamax portion was just Togekiss spamming the same move over and over with Lucario somehow running up the Airstream, second one Lucario punches Togekiss repeatedly, third one Lucario, Ash and Greninja transform into Ash Lucario and a giant Aura Sphere is able to knock back the third. Greninja’s appearance and it helping out Lucario was completely unnecessary, and what Ash and Lucario did while surround in Aura was a copy and paste of not just the Raihan battle, but of the bond phenomenon. I’m sick. Notice how Ash and Lucario both kneel down like they are in sync? Aura doesn’t make Ash able to feel Lucario’s pain, it’s completely different. Thank god that’s the last time aura is used in this battle. Togekiss, for having 3x speed, gets bodied by Lucario and faints. Wtf. Garchomp vs Lucario was nice (and props for Reversal finishing it off) but it should have been longer and more flashier because Garchomp and Lucario punching each other was boring as heck.
Cynthia flashbacks were cool (Bertha?) and Lucario helping Garchomp up off the ground was awesome. I like Lucario outside of battle but when it’s battling… it’s such a shame because I like the Lucario species. All in all, the battle section of this episode was not good.
 
I hate the aura bond phenomenon shit so much. Trying to force a connection between Lucario and Greninja when there is none.
It’s a slap in the face to Ash-Greninja. Aura is now essentially a copy of the bond phenomenon, which is why I hate it. It wasn’t like this in AG and DP! Be original. Every other ace was original.
Sai said:
Seriously everything Lucario does is not some slight toward Greninja.
Click to expand...
well it’s doing what Greninja did but better which is absolutely a slight towards Greninja, especially when Greninja’s arc had much greater expectations that were no were close to being met while Lucario exceeded expectations
 
Anyway all those kid/teenager Cynthia flashbacks were great. So glad we got more of them. I think the writers realized how popular showing Cynthia in her youth was.
 
Funnylion said:
Did anyone else have a feeling that it would end up being a draw when Garchomp and Lucario were both on the ground? Anyway, not a bad episode.
Click to expand...
To me, I thought that they would judge the fainting on which Pokémon went down first.
 
cricketlaxwolvesbandy said:
I hate the aura bond phenomenon shit so much. Trying to force a connection between Lucario and Greninja when there is none.
It’s a slap in the face to Ash-Greninja. Aura is now essentially a copy of the bond phenomenon, which is why I hate it. It wasn’t like this in AG and DP! Be original. Every other ace was original.

well it’s doing what Greninja did but better which is absolutely a slight towards Greninja, especially when Greninja’s arc had much greater expectations that were no were close to being met while Lucario exceeded expectations
Click to expand...
I don't think Journeys is trying to bring any sort of bad light over Greninja. If anything, they're respecting it by having it act as a mentor figure to a new character. It's really no different than bringing Clemont back to help Sirfetch'd master Meteor Assault.

Also, may I request that you stop bringing up Greninja every time Lucario is brought up?
 
FinnishPokéFan92 said:
I don't think Journeys is trying to bring any sort of bad light over Greninja. If anything, they're respecting it by having it act as a mentor figure to a new character. It's really no different than bringing Clemont back to help Sirfetch'd master Meteor Assault.

Also, may I request that you stop bringing up Greninja every time Lucario is brought up?
Click to expand...
If this was XY art style and Greninja beat Alain I’d be different.
The last episode of XY was the last episode of the anime.
 
I'm not sure if this was the best episode out of the three, but it was still a really solid conclusion all around.

The moves in the Garchomp vs. Lucario segment were pretty straightforward (especially compared to all the strategies from the previous two episodes), and as usual there wasn't as much physical movement as the best of XY/SM, but! The music, voice acting and shot composition all made the tension really palpable and the attacks feeling as powerful as they should. Plus a lot of quick decision-making from the Trainers without dwelling too much on exposition. The battle had a lot of oomph thanks to all that. The way Cynthia got all pumped-up at the end was pretty badass and helped to convey that too. Really happy to see flashbacks to her teenage(?) years and a bit of her archeology work as well.

I'm glad Ash took that victory a bit different too (Ash vs. Kukui vibes), since this is a battle he's been thinking of since the DP days. This may not feel like a follow-up or conclusion to anything DP set up, but at least they're still aknowledging Cynthia as more than just another barrier towards Leon.
 
I really wish we had gotten a full or at least half episode of flashbacks of Cynthia's path to Champion. All of this BEFORE the match with Ash would've made her statement to Diantha about retiring actually have more weight to it. This episode had her going, "Nah, I'm gonna stay in the game." It felt like the diet version of Ash reigniting Volkner's passion for battle during the DP series. At least that had a great intro episode for the character and Flint gave excellent exposition (along with the bartender; I think he was a Pokemon poacher back in the day that Flint and Volkner defeated) making Volkner's desire to battle again feel worthwhile.

As for the battle, it was good. However, I wish Togekiss used more than Max Airstream. Even the Max...Mindstorm? The Psychic Max move via Zen Headbutt (look I wasn't really big in using Dynamax in Gen 8 games so forgive me if I don't know all the moves by heart). Would've shaken things up a bit. Kind of a waste for Togekiss to get a great speed boost, but then go down so quickly lol NOT going down to the powerful Aura Sphere made sense haha it was a Dynamax Pokemon with boosted stamina and Togekiss is 4x resistant to the attack.

Disappointed to see Steel Beam go. It was used on Paul's Gyarados and Bea's Machamp only if I remember correctly.

Over the course of these three episodes that covered the battle, I would've taken two or even just one cameo scene(s) for Sinnoh characters instead of Morepeko eating.

I was annoyed at first that Garchomp only used two attacks. However, my second viewing made me understand WHY it didn't use Draco Meteor. I think Cynthia figured how Sirfetch'd went for Garchomp in the last episode during its vulnerable moment after launching the attack could cost her the match if she did the same against Mega Lucario.

All I'm saying is that this battle might've turned out differently if Cynthia had Brick Break instead of Scale Shot on Garchomp's moveset lol

Off to the final round! Probably next month some time...I guess...
 
"Brute force won't work on Cynthia" Leon says right after Lucario brute-forces its way past Cynthia's dynamax strategy and punches Togekiss in the face

Good to know Pokemon hasn't completely lost its sense of humor

(Also what was the point of the speed boosts if they didn't actually raise its speed?)
 
Simply not good enough as a whole. A 3-parter Ash vs Cynthia champion tier fight and I wouldn't even rank it in top 15 best battles in this show.

First part was slow and boring with that Hypnosis stuff that we've seen a million times already. Fights that rely on a status condition that doesn't let the opponents fight back are not fun to watch. And the animation was crap.

Second part was better with good animation, but it still felt... off. Mainly as the individual matches felt too short... Once you get worked up with excitement one of the combatants either get knocked out, swapped out or the focus cuts out of the fight to that of one the spectators. Was there really a need to show TR's mon eating food four times?

This final part was okay to start with, with the DBZ-esque beam struggle and callback to Greninja and such. However there's always the issue of Dynamaxing causing a very static fight as a mon as huge as that cannot move around much, causing the fight to lose pace and intensity. And that was felt a bit here too.

Once we got to the Lucario vs Garchomp part it was let down by the animation quality. Sure, some of it looked okay but that Dragon Claw and Bullet Punch clash needed the same level of amazing animation that we got with for example, Greninja vs Sceptile in the Kalos league. Now we got some average, at times jerky movements and that was an instant excitement killer. Not a single cut from one of the talented freelance animators (the likes of Oshida, Ohashi, Maenami...) in a champion fight with Cynthia is actually pathetic.

Overall, for being the Ash and Cynthia clash some of us have waited and longed over a decade for, this was just one big, fat disappointment. Props to the writers for daring to let Ash win though.
 
I thought the animation in the first two episodes was actually really good (only Togekiss' air slash against Pikachu looked off), and the Hypnosis strategy literally goes by very quickly (also we don't see Dream Eater much in the show at all). And like the bulk of the first episode was Cynthia's constant switching Roserade/Togekiss to wear down Gengar/Pikachu, the Gastrodon/Pikachu fight, and then Pikachu's countershield and ending with Destiny Bond. Why do people only focus on one part of the episode when there's literally 5+ other things that happen in the same episode? You're basically claiming a sequence that lasted only the very beginning of the episode made the whole ep "slow."

I also think people need to rewatch some older battles, Ash vs. Paul in Sinnoh literally has individual fights go on the same length as say Dracovish/Roserade or Sirfetch'd/Milotic, Torterra lost quickly without doing much similar to Dragonite, and there was constant cuts to Dawn/Brock commenting from the stands, Dawn using her Pokedex on everything, Piplup cheering from the stands like Grookey/Cinderace, TR selling stuff, etc. Literally the same thing in these episodes happened 10+ years ago too or any league for that matter.
 
This was a solid conclusion to Ash vs Cynthia, though I do have some gripes with it making it the weakest out of the three-parter IMO, but it has a lot of highlights. The Cynthia and Garchomp flashback was really cute, it kinda hit me in the feels a bit. A lot of creative strats as usual, such as running through Max Airstream. Lucario vs Garchomp was a really great battle, it was a nice exchange of blows. This episode was a good conclusion to Ash vs Cynthia, though I do have some gripes with the episode.

Like, I think the second half felt a little too rushed to me, Lucario vs Garchomp didn't have any one-shots or anything, however, for a battle that was built up for three episodes, it felt like it should have lasted a lot longer than it actually did. It doesen't detracted too much from the battle as it is still a great match, though I think it could have lasted a bit longer, also I think it would have made the battle more epic if they both mega evolved their pokemon. Cynthia also changes her mind about retiring making the whole plotline kinda pointless, it would've given the battle more stakes for Cynthia if they kept her retiring from battling, and it would have made the battle a great send-off to her. The Dynamax Togakiss part wasn't great...it was just sorta spamming Air Maxstream and that was it, it had its stats upped but that didn't really change much of anything.

Overall this episode was pretty good, it's a solid conclusion to the battle and I can't wait for Ash vs Leon, the M8 has certainly improved it'll give it that.

Score:
8.9/10, Can't wait for Ash vs Leon...well after the third pointless clip show with Goh, yaaaaaaaaaaaay. Well, at least it's a clipshow for a character I actually kind of care about unlike Chloe's clip show lol.
 
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