Review S16 EP14: There's a New Gym Leader in Town!

[PockyAddict]

Kinda wish they'd made this a two parter. Part 1 could've been about the loose Pokémon & getting to know Cheren & part 2 could've been about the battle.

Though Cilan, you shouldn't be so surprised about the gym doubling as a school...

And lo, an episode with little kids whose voices didn't suck!

I agree with you on that, they sounded pretty tolerable.

 

[Sneazy Sneasel]

Shitty Episode of a season of a shitty saga based the shittyest games in the series.

 

[WatcherMark]

This episode is... meh. Cheren is treated just fine, and he's got a decent voice. But this feels like some 'Same old, same old'. Axew runs off again, there's a Pokemon search plot again, Ash is made to lose AGAIN. Nothing special.

My biggest complaint with this episode actually can only apply to the Japanese episode, since the opening titles of Episode N showed the battle in this episode taking place within a huge, castle-like Gym with stained-glass windows that were pretty cool looking... only for the writers to set the actual battle in some bog-standard outdoor field. Since that shot doesn't appear in the Adventures in Unova opening, I can't hold it against the dub. Hell, I'd like to think that's why it was removed... doubt it though.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

My feelings on this episode? A big...meh.

A lot of what WatcherMark said basically describes my feelings on the episode.

As for Cheren's voice...it wasn't bad or good, tbh. Average, standard voice-over for the role. Sure, it's Todd Haberkorn (I really love him in Sgt. Frog as Keroro, and Hetalia as Italy...the latter is just hilarious, IMO)), but I didn't feel he was at his A-game, or at his worst, with the role of Cheren.

Jason Griffith sounded too forced in the BW2 trailer, yet I slightly prefer his voice to Todd Haberkorn's on this one (as a VA, Haberkorn is overall better to me, though). Both are standard/par for the course as Cheren, though.

The episode's shining moment to me was when Ash called Iris a little kid! Nice job, TPCi, that's what I like to see. It's about time we tried making things more interesting sometimes, you know?

When you actually take initative to add your own quirks into the mix-- in a good way, too. Liked that moment very much. What goes around, comes around, I guess. ;D

Other than that, nothing really stood out. The battle between Ash and Cheren was a bit disappointing, but all-in-all, decent dub episode. Could be better or worse, really.

Really, I think the episode itself was so insipid and boring as is, that the dub actually IMPROVED it in a few facets, tbh.

My rating: 7/10 (Average)

Kinda wish they'd made this a two parter. Part 1 could've been about the loose Pokémon & getting to know Cheren & part 2 could've been about the battle.

Though Cilan, you shouldn't be so surprised about the gym doubling as a school...

And lo, an episode with little kids whose voices didn't suck!

I agree with you on that, they sounded pretty tolerable.

True, very much in sharp contrast to those kids from DP040: "Top Down Training."

"Hey, no brains, remember! *snort, crappy sneer*" --- Kids talking in background about Paul challenging Cynthia =

Man, the voice acting was probily the worst since 4kids... CHeren was the worst... he had a bit of a rasp in his voice but he was all MONOTONE for the entire episode... from him saying pikachu was forgiven to scolding him, Cherens voice didnt change tone at all. CIlan was a bit annoying with his Reminisnig about the old days. Oh and YA DONT NEED AN OFFICAL STADIUM FOR A GYM BATTLE!!!!! Skyla had her battles on an AIRCRAFT LANDING STRIP! Herdier, the Ducklett and Minchinno are the only saving graces for this episode. Waiting for the Exibition battle the only thing going through my mind was "GET ON WITH IT". I think that poor Shinx is going to be scared for life after having to deal with the two kids. I knew Cheren was one of my favorite characters to Poke fun at with signs and this episode just inspired me to kick that into overtime... 3/10

Weird, I always felt 4Kids was far superior on the voice acting side of things, when compared to TPCi (with the voices for the main characters --and the additional voices they used over PUSA's first two seasons-- since the talent pool is the same for additional chars from Seasons 11 onwards, anyway). Hey, to each their own, though.

 

[97SaturnSL1]

Man, the voice acting was probily the worst since 4kids... CHeren was the worst... he had a bit of a rasp in his voice but he was all MONOTONE for the entire episode... from him saying pikachu was forgiven to scolding him, Cherens voice didnt change tone at all. CIlan was a bit annoying with his Reminisnig about the old days. Oh and YA DONT NEED AN OFFICAL STADIUM FOR A GYM BATTLE!!!!! Skyla had her battles on an AIRCRAFT LANDING STRIP! Herdier, the Ducklett and Minchinno are the only saving graces for this episode. Waiting for the Exibition battle the only thing going through my mind was "GET ON WITH IT". I think that poor Shinx is going to be scared for life after having to deal with the two kids. I knew Cheren was one of my favorite characters to Poke fun at with signs and this episode just inspired me to kick that into overtime... 3/10

Weird, I always felt 4Kids was far superior on the voice acting side of things, when compared to TPCi (with the voices for the main characters --and the additional voices they used over PUSA's first two seasons-- since the talent pool is the same for additional chars from Seasons 11 onwards, anyway). Hey, to each their own, though.

4kids had some great actors such as Dan Green but the scripting in 4kids dubbing was bad. I say the episode was just awful because Cheren is just emotionless and monotone the entire time. im sorry but Death the Kid had a heck of a lot more emotion and voice tones. I mean Cheren scolds pikachu and axew in the same voice he talks to the students. i also noticed when Cheren tried to pick up shinx, it got real mad. i wonder if that shinx saw the pokemon Black and blue parody game. i wouldnt blame shinx for frying Cheren then...

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Man, the voice acting was probily the worst since 4kids... CHeren was the worst... he had a bit of a rasp in his voice but he was all MONOTONE for the entire episode... from him saying pikachu was forgiven to scolding him, Cherens voice didnt change tone at all. CIlan was a bit annoying with his Reminisnig about the old days. Oh and YA DONT NEED AN OFFICAL STADIUM FOR A GYM BATTLE!!!!! Skyla had her battles on an AIRCRAFT LANDING STRIP! Herdier, the Ducklett and Minchinno are the only saving graces for this episode. Waiting for the Exibition battle the only thing going through my mind was "GET ON WITH IT". I think that poor Shinx is going to be scared for life after having to deal with the two kids. I knew Cheren was one of my favorite characters to Poke fun at with signs and this episode just inspired me to kick that into overtime... 3/10

Weird, I always felt 4Kids was far superior on the voice acting side of things, when compared to TPCi (with the voices for the main characters --and the additional voices they used over PUSA's first two seasons-- since the talent pool is the same for additional chars from Seasons 11 onwards, anyway). Hey, to each their own, though.

4kids had some great actors such as Dan Green but the scripting in 4kids dubbing was bad. I say the episode was just awful because Cheren is just emotionless and monotone the entire time. im sorry but Death the Kid had a heck of a lot more emotion and voice tones. I mean Cheren scolds pikachu and axew in the same voice he talks to the students. i also noticed when Cheren tried to pick up shinx, it got real mad. i wonder if that shinx saw the pokemon Black and blue parody game. i wouldnt blame shinx for frying Cheren then...

Oh, no problem. I get where you're coming from. I do agree Todd wasn't at his best, either. I didn't think he was bad myself, but certainly not as his peak, either.

I did think Cheren was kinda monotone and his inflections didn't really change throughout the episode...yeah, I definitely think Tom Wayland's voice direction is what's at fault in his case.

 

[Yash]

One of those two kids sounded like he was voiced by a real little boy. I'm curious if that was a thing.