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Review S19 EP04: A Fiery Rite of Passage!

For an episode focusing on my favorite Pokemon family introduced in Gen 6, this one was kinda meh for me.

Litleo was cute and all and it was great seeing him grow from being afraid to leave his pride to saving Pyroar and going off on his own, but the execution was a bit odd. Seeing Ash and co. just following Litleo around for half the episode was a bit boring. I also found it weird that Pyroar just let Ash and co. give Litleo assistance while he was traveling. Don't get me wrong, I know Litleo possibly could have gotten seriously hurt if they didn't intervene, but I thought Pyroar would want him to get through everything on his own; especially since he had been watching too.

And can TR just try to catch Pokemon normally for once? Seriously, why the damn fishing rod? Just go battle the thing and throw a PokeBall like normal people. Litleo was wild for pete's sake, it's not like it would be a crime to catch it (not that they'd care either way). I sure as heck didn't want them to actually catch it, but if they want to make the attempt, at least go about it normally.

I was seriously caught off guard when Clemont called Litleo a "he" when they realized he was searching for food. With how much everyone stringently refers to their own Pokemon as "it", even those with confirmed genders, I wouldn't have expected them to mention the gender of something wild. But then of course 5 seconds later he becomes "it" again. Did the dubbers seriously not notice that? They already started off the conversation saying "he", they could have at least let him remain "he" for that one scene. Or just not say "he" at all and just stick with "it", as annoying as that would have been.

Anyway, the episode picked up at the second half. But I really could not believe that scene of Pikachu getting pulled back by TR's machine and Ash just standing there telling him to hang in there. I would have expected him to run over and grab Pikachu or send out another Pokemon for assistance or SOMETHING. Whatever.

Nice ending I suppose. Overall, a somewhat enjoyable episode. Slow beginning, but nice middle to end. I'd say 7/10.
 
I waited so long for this! This episode was just adorable! I'm surprised that Pyroar just let Ash and co help that Litleo, but he was lucky they did. That poor little Litleo could have gotten seriously injured if they never did. I'm still disappointed though that nobody caught this Litleo. It would've besn nice even for James to catch Litleo.

As for the music, I thought those xylophoninc sounds??? fit the episode well through the lion cub's journey. Litleo's voice was so adorable also, though he sounded like a child throwing a tantrum at some points. It was adorable though and those sounds were just so cute! The dub did not disapppoint me!

Very cute filler episode! Slow start, but it was very inspiring to see this cute Litleo try his best on his journey.
7.5/10
 
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I was seriously caught off guard when Clemont called Litleo a "he" when they realized he was searching for food. With how much everyone stringently refers to their own Pokemon as "it", even those with confirmed genders, I wouldn't have expected them to mention the gender of something wild. But then of course 5 seconds later he becomes "it" again. Did the dubbers seriously not notice that? They already started off the conversation saying "he", they could have at least let him remain "he" for that one scene. Or just not say "he" at all and just stick with "it", as annoying as that would have been.
And I though I was the only one who noticed that. Yeah, pretty jarring mistake.

Loved the episode, though I agree it started off pretty slow. Litleo's dub voice was weird at first, but it definitely grew on me.
 
As for the music, I thought those xylophoninc sounds??? fit the episode well through the lion cub's journey.

The dub music seemed very "Lion Guard"-like (or anything having to do with The Lion King spinoffs, really; and no, I haven't seen "The Lion Guard", but I heard it sucked.) to me. This was one of Ed Goldfarb's better works.

Last week's episode was awful, so it was great to have an episode this good be right on its heels. Even though I thought Litleo's journey would be more difficult, I still was pleased by it.
 
I loved this episode :) So cute and the dub did a pretty good job. Litleo's voice sounded weird at first but I got used to it. Team Rocket made me laugh.

Very Pokemon. Very Lion King/Kimba. I give it an 8/10. The dream episode is next and should be beautifull.
 
Boy, oh boy, people certainly had a knack for stating the obvious in this one. "It's trying to get to Pyroar! ...Pyroar finally listened to Litleo!" ...Thank you for that, Clemont. Either way, this episode started off kind of boring but rapidly got more interesting as it went along. I really loved both Litleo and Pyroar's characters, and the overall premise of this story is a lot better than some of the other XY filler episodes.

Ash has somewhat of a maturity discrepancy between the beginning of the episode and the end. At the beginning, he runs down a cliff face to confront Pyroar, very in line with his character, but later on, he's the one holding back Bonnie and letting Litleo do its own thing. I guess it's the difference between a Pokémon beating up on a Pokémon and nature beating up on a Pokémon? Anyway, I refuse to believe that not one of those trees we saw in the fields at the episode's beginning had berries or food of any kind in it. Litleo's entire trek during this episode was just to get at some berries to regain its strength, so that it could then leave on its journey?

I love Pyroar. Team Rocket's reaction to it was great, and Pyroar stayed consistently the tough but caring (parent?) Pokémon throughout the episode. When Team Rocket hurt Litleo, Pyroar's reaction was... kind of terrifying in its own way but also very believable. The whole thing about Pyroar using Overheat and Team Rocket spewing it out at Ash and company made for some pretty good suspense, and Litleo's fight to get into the machine and get through to Pyroar was great. I'm especially glad that Litleo didn't evolve during that scene. I knew it wasn't going to, because I'd seen the Japanese version of the episode first, but if I had been seeing this for the first time I'd have truly thought Litleo was going to evolve. But I like how at the end of the episode, Litleo's journey is just beginning and it still has so much more growing to do.

Also, how in the name of creation did Pikachu avoid getting sucked into the machine when Pyroar, who's about fifteen times heavier, couldn't? There was practically no handhold of any kind, but they managed to drag it out so Litleo could save Pikachu anyway.

Honestly, Serena and Bonnie did absolutely nothing in this episode. But I'll forgive that, since it really was Litleo's story far more than it was about Ash and his friends this time around. On the whole, the voice acting was a bit awkward at the beginning of the episode but I definitely think it was much better than it was last week. Let's say 8/10 for this one.
 
Kinda late to watching this episode but I was curious to what the dub sounded like (I only saw the original). Holy smokes! I can't stand Litleo's dubbed voice. It was nothing what I expected and just sounded so, un-Litleo like. =( The original voice was a million times better.

Regardless, it was nice to see my favorite 6th generation mons in action. Still wish the female Pyroar had more of a role, but I've seen the original so it was not like it was a surprise there.
 
I was seriously caught off guard when Clemont called Litleo a "he" when they realized he was searching for food. With how much everyone stringently refers to their own Pokemon as "it", even those with confirmed genders, I wouldn't have expected them to mention the gender of something wild. But then of course 5 seconds later he becomes "it" again. Did the dubbers seriously not notice that? They already started off the conversation saying "he", they could have at least let him remain "he" for that one scene. Or just not say "he" at all and just stick with "it", as annoying as that would have been.

Has this error been "retro-fixed"?? I couldn't find this error when I watched the episode today on Pokémon TV.

(Litleo gets to the top of the mountain where the food is)
Clemont: Of course! Litleo's been looking for food! It's being independent! That's why it's looking for food on its own.
Ash: I see! So that's why it wouldn't eat Serena's Poké Puff!
Clemont: Ah! Litleo was heading here to find berries so it could regain its strength.
(Litleo and Pyroar share a moment...)
Ash: Do you think it knew that Pyroar was keeping an eye on it?
Clemont: Yes, I think it did!
Serena: So that's why Litleo was trying so hard! To re-assure Pyroar!
Bonnie: Litleo is amazing!
(after this, Team Rocket's mecha arrives)

Has it changed since the original airing??
 
Has this error been "retro-fixed"?? I couldn't find this error when I watched the episode today on Pokémon TV.

(Litleo gets to the top of the mountain where the food is)
Clemont: Of course! Litleo's been looking for food! It's being independent! That's why it's looking for food on its own.
Ash: I see! So that's why it wouldn't eat Serena's Poké Puff!
Clemont: Ah! Litleo was heading here to find berries so it could regain its strength.
(Litleo and Pyroar share a moment...)
Ash: Do you think it knew that Pyroar was keeping an eye on it?
Clemont: Yes, I think it did!
Serena: So that's why Litleo was trying so hard! To re-assure Pyroar!
Bonnie: Litleo is amazing!
(after this, Team Rocket's mecha arrives)

Has it changed since the original airing??

I haven't seen it on TV since, but if that's what they said on Pokemon TV, I guess that's what it is now. I'm kind of surprised. I wouldn't have imagined they'd change it since it's not really an "error".
 
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