Review S06 EP24: The Lotad Lowdown

[Dogasu]

Japanese Episode 012: "Lotad and the Three Sisters of the Flower Shop!"
American Episode 012: "The Lotad Lowdown"

Today, Ed from Cowboy Bebop shows Satoshi-tachi her sisters' Flower Shop while the Rocket-Dan treat us to another Sakaki fantasy sequence (there are never enough of those as far as I'm concerned :-D ). This is also the first episode in a rather long string of non-filler episodes, so those of you bummed out about the recent cluster of filler episodes should be happy now.

Post your thoughts about the episodes here. Also, please avoid posting spoilers for events that happen in future episodes since this isn't the Anime Spoilers forum.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

My Gio-obsessed friend wants to know if the daydream sequence is SD or not.

 

[Shiksa ♥]

What do you mean by SD?

Just so everyone knows, Pokémon is still on at 11:30 (AM EST), it's just an AG repeat.

*sees Brock do a dance like TR in the Rocketo-Dan song* :-D Yay! *does a dance like Brock and the Rocketo-Dan*...... ^^;;

Their swimsuits were cool. Did anyone else notice the little heart on May's? Brock's was funny. I can't wait til the next epi they have swimsuits. *knows what it is but won't say anything*

The Gio daydream was hilarious. It's funny how Meowth talks instead of Gio when he's fanatsizing about the boss's congrats. If he only needs one Lotad in the morning, why was TR trying to steal them all? I loved how his face was all foamy when he was "brushing his teeth." :lol:

I think they did the sisters really well. They never fixed the pipe, though, I was sure Brock was going to help them with that. Does anyone remember the other sister's name (not Nicole or Natalie)? I know they mentioned it, it's just hard to hear Pokémon at my house an weekends... :embarass: I think the berries were really well done aswell. I could tell what they were before they said the name. I think the ripe Sitrus tree was really pretty.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

SD--super-deformed. Basically chibi. He was disturbingly halfway there today. *shudder* THANK YOU for the timely reply, Dogasu. (I know you were on for a while after I posted that question last night...*cough* Now my friend is probably traumatized for life.)

Saaaaaaay, did they cut something? One second Brock is about to eat the pie, in the next shot when they're outside, he's bloated and holding his stomach. But we never actually *saw* him have a bad reaction to it...

They also seem to have cut something about Pikachu's 'land sufing' on Lotad.

Rita is the other sister's name, and she seems to have stolen Kouichi's outfit from Digimon 04. Turning it into a jumpsuit isn't fooling anyone, Rita babe.

And James has another 'death scene'. He's so melodramatic...gotta love it.

Love also how Ash goes "A Lotad? Really?" like he knows exactly what it is, and then proceeds to whip out his 'Dex.

Say...what the HECK is Meowth on? And why does Fantasy Boss appear to be living in a shotgun shack? What happened to the mansion? I think when he was Top Cat, Meowth must have had too many tests done on him or something, and now it's all caught up with him, causing him to hallucinate about the center of it all. That and he has a massive crush on the Boss. But we knew that. (and I swear there's a hugely Freudian image regarding that in the Polka O'Dolka video...) I'd love to see Gio's reaction to these daydreams...he'd probably smirk, resisting the urge to pistol-whip all three of them. But I get the feeling he does that with *anything* regarding them.

Say, Magby had a different voice today. Why can't they have that voice variation with the Lotad?

Natalie has purple eyes. Usually that means a Legendary will show up, but no luck today.

The trees grow one berry at a time, just like in the games. But yet...the apricorn trees we've seen are *sagging* with apricorns!

And yet more evil Beedrill. Have there been any neutral Beedrill? I know there's been a neutral Fearow once (the one that was yawning and accidently nabbed Togepi in "Battle for the Badge")

Saaaay, do my eyes decieve me, or is that a CGI 'throw-the-pokeball' sequence?

Jesse's hair seems to be back to red, or at least redder than it's been recently. But James still has violet hair rather than blue...

Say, where does the Trio's rush for executive positions come from? It's like the moment they set foot in Houen they got all "Oh, we're going to be future leaders/vice presidents/branch division officers/etc", and they never had that before. Sure they wanted to be promoted, but have they ever shown that much of a drive to be in a position of responsibility?

And damn it! If they're going to talk about power, give us *SOME* insight into the inner workings of the Rockets! Fanfic writers demand to know! Give us information or suffer the wrath of plot devices! (and in most fanfics, Wildly OOC Gio--even more so than in Meowth's daydreams! Ack!)

And on the subject of disturbing things...Max is toned. I think *that* was the most disturbing image in the entire episode, even worse than Foaming Afro Gio...

 

[Masato]

same episode review from SPPF

Another great episode. Pokemon Advanced is sure getting better. Brock finally catches his first Pokemon in Hoenn which is a Lotad. I really like the part where Pikachu is riding on Lotad. Jessie and Meowth breathing out fire after taking a taste of a Tomato Berry was funny. Lotad was pretty funny to. I gotta say May looked pretty hot in that bathing suit and pretty to. Man that girl Natelie sure likes Brock. Man this is sure my favorite episode so far. Overall a great episode.

Overall Rating: 10/10

 

[Rocketshipper]

Its time to begin the long parade of Semi-plot episodes, or episodes that would be filler if not for the writers throwing in one teensy little plot point. The lotad were really cute, I love their vacant expressions and they had a pretty good dub voice. I thought the three sisters had GREAT dub voices! They didn't just sound like copies of all the previous "girl of the day" voices we've heard, they actully sounded new and unique. I wonder who played them. I really liked all the information about the berries and the whole youngest sister gets a crush on Brock sub-plot was cool. TR had some great scenes, and they didn't ruin the episode by sticking around for too long. Is this the first episode where they introduce their "promotion" catch-phrase that the've been using in almost all of AG? I was wondering what it would sound like dubbed. Still, I thought the way that Brock recruits Lotad was a little weak. Why couldn't he battle it? It feels to me like the creators wrote this episode and at the end they were like "Lets make Lotad follow Brock, that way the episode won't be filler. Yeah!" overall, 3 stars.

 

[YumeHeart]

The voices did sound unique. I did notice the heart on May's swimsuit. Meowth's visions of Giovanni are making me wonder if were missing something in the dub. ~! I liked James' "I'm dying~!" thing. Looks like while Brock goes after the older women, if he were to just settle for the 10-year-olds, he would have better luck. All in all, I really liked this episode. ^_^

 

[Geodude]

Originally posted by Blackjack Gabbiani
And yet more evil Beedrill. Have there been any neutral Beedrill? I know there's been a neutral Fearow once (the one that was yawning and accidently nabbed Togepi in "Battle for the Badge")

Say, where does the Trio's rush for executive positions come from? It's like the moment they set foot in Houen they got all "Oh, we're going to be future leaders/vice presidents/branch division officers/etc", and they never had that before. Sure they wanted to be promoted, but have they ever shown that much of a drive to be in a position of responsibility?

1. Yeah, Ash battled a trainer with one at the beginning of "In the Knicker of Time!" Also, there's the Beedrill Ash caught and gave to Casey.

2. In one of the first Hoenn eps, Gio gives JJ&M the "job" of establishing a TR branch in Hoenn, but his real reason was to find out what he could about TA & TM, not caring about what happened to JJ&M in the process. He knew it was dangerous so he sent the "expendable" group, but they got it in their heads that this is a big promotion. After Gio hung up the phone from talking to them, he said something to the effect of:

"Losing those clowns will be worth it if I can find out about the operations of Team Aqua and Team Magma."

 

[Kauri]

The Berry farmer in me is very happy now.

Fairly nice episode. The Lotad were very cute, although I wasn't too sure about the use of GRE at the beginning, there. ;; They're -Lotad-, for goodness sakes. Maybe it's just because I've KO-ed so many of them on my quest for a Ralts in the games, but I totally can't picture Lotad as being 'threatening'. They're just too squishy-cute to be that way.

... my mother actually watched the episode with me, today. Surfing Pikachu = winnar. She thought it was the best thing EVER XD;; I have to admit, I liked it quite a bit, myself, but man...

Nice timing on the Berry Exposition, too. So... berries are fit for human consumption, just as much as they're for Pokemon to eat. I don't think the games ever mentioned anything about that, but it's a neat fact ta know. XD;; Now, I wonder about PokeBlocks...

 

[Shiksa ♥]

Originally posted by Rocketshipper
It feels to me like the creators wrote this episode and at the end they were like "Lets make Lotad follow Brock, that way the episode won't be filler. Yeah!"

Another way to consider this epi a non-filler would be the Flower Shop Sisters themselves. They're in R/S and play a fairly important role. As I mentioned it my previous post, they were done very well, in proportion with the games. There was the little sister who gives you a berry (at random, it could be Sitrus). There was a Wailmer Pail (it's not red :-() and the interior of the shop looked similar. There's a lake near but far off from the shop, even though there's bridges across it in the game. And it's just outside the forest. Pretty good if you ask me.

Yeah, James's fake death was hilarious. I half-expected snow to start falling and a Growlithe to appear.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

LOL, Hitchi. ^_^

And I loved this episode too! It was so good! And I loved the beginning when everyone was swimming and we got to see their swimsuits. That was cool! :-D Anyway, I also loved seeing the Flower Shop Sisters, the Wailmer Pail, and the berries from the games. That was cool too. And it was funny how Natalie fell in love with Brock. Hehe, lol. Of course, the part when Meowth had another fantasy about the Boss was funny too. And I cracked up when he was brushing his teeth and his mouth was all foamy. XD And the part where James acted like he was dying was really funny! Oh, and the Lotad were really cute. And I really loved the part when Pikachu was surfing on top of Lotad! That was really cool!! And they even played that instrumental version of Advance Adventure again! Yay!!! I love that song! And now Brock has a Lotad. That's cool. And the way he caught it kinda reminds me of how Ash got some of his Pokemon in the first season. LOL. Overall, I really loved this episode, so I'll also give it a 10 out of 10. :-D

Rating: 10 out of 10

 

[wayc]

I loved it! James was so funny! I've come across many Lotad in Ruby, but didn't know they were that cute until I saw an episode with them. That happens a lot. And then some pokemon I like on the game, that I don't like when I see the show because their sound is annoying, or something.

Anyway, yeah, great episode! I finally got to see what a Wailmer Pail looks like! I wish it was a Wailord pail. Hahaha. (Not actual size please.)

I can't remember what thread I said this in, but I said something about agreeing with someone that it was cool to see an episode where someonehas a crush on Brock, that isn't psycho.

 

[TK n Happy Ness]

I'm wondering how May's swimsuit got past the American censors, especially in some of those front shots. Not even a normal 10 year old girl would wear bikini bottoms that just barely cover her southern region. They'd wear a one-piece (actually their parents would make them wear one).

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Are you kidding me? Have you been to a pool lately? What she had on was about average...

 

[InfiniteBlue]

Good thing everyone loved the death scene; I'm not alone! XD And Lotad was just adorable, despite my general bias against most dubbed Pokemon voices, so this really should say something.

....

Wait a minute...now that I remember the little girl's crush on Brock, it makes me remember his (enthusiastic) obsession for older girls. Makes me wonder if he's holding back any secrets, like a Lolita complex... >D