Review S19 EP07: A Festival of Decisions!

[Neo Blaze]

XY100 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Please keep future events in spoiler tags. Thanks.

 

[Max1996]

I've seen it. I was hyped to see how the dub would handle the first appearance of Ash-Greninja, though I was somewhat let down. Overall, it's pretty good.

 

[Sakuraa]

Well...Serena and Shinobu being trapped was utterly pointless. Same with TR's entire appearance (not that I wanted them to stick around). I did lol at them getting blasted though. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see Saizo since he lives there and everything, but I sure didn't expect him to show up out of nowhere like that to save Ash and Sanpei.

Damn, this village is pretty epic if most of the villagers are also skilled enough to go on rescue missions. Why can't more people in other towns be like this? Having to constantly rely on Ash to handle everything everywhere he goes gets annoying.

I'm glad Serena and Clemont joined in on the battle, but I wish they would have done more than just commanding the same attack over and over. Once again Frogadier does something special through an act of saving Pikachu. Nice that he's evolved, too bad his evolution is hideous. Alright, I know the the anime has the tendency of having most Pokemon know/learn their signature move and that the Pokedex mentioned that Greninja as a species can use Water Shuriken, but I was still surprised that Ash just knew Greninja had learned it without Greninja using it first. Man, after Greninja evolved and Serena was talking about "next time it'll be our turn" I thought she was talking about Braxien evolving instead of just attacking during the battle. Why would they use that line right after Greninja evolved, that was so weird? I still hope Braxien evolves though. The Ash-Greninja transformation was epic, but I was surprised that it didn't last very long. I thought they'd show off more of it in its first appearance. I guess that just leaves more to see later.

My only one real nitpick with this episode is that once again, several dark-types were using ghost-type moves while ghost-types where using dark-type moves (Yeah, it was just Gengar, but still). I think Sanpei's Greninja and Heidayu's Bisharp were the only dark-type that actually used a dark-type move. That just annoys me so much.

But overall, a pretty cool episode. I don't like Greninja as a species, but I am looking forward to seeing how Ash does with this new transformation with his Greninja. 8/10.

 

[Aggron989]

Ash-Greninja is finally here!!! Yay!!!

Last week's setup episode was fantastic, and this one certainly did not disappoint. I really enjoyed this episode a lot.

Let's start with the battles. All of them were great - although one Bisharp against three Pokémon resistant to Steel and having the three Pokémon unable to do anything to the Bisharp was a little disappointing. Pikachu is stronger than that, and I think Sanpei's Greninja is, too. Also, Clemont and Serena FINALLY got in on the action! Would've liked to have seen more from Chespin, Bunnelby, and Pancham, though. The village chief's been kidnapped, and nobody except Ash thinks to use more than one Pokémon? I'm glad Shinobu and Nihei were in on that battle as well.

Also, Ash-Greninja is ridiculously cool. I wish I could think of a better word for it, but I really can't. Ash-Greninja creamed Heidayu's Bisharp (as it should have), and Ash's reaction was great. I love his genuine confusion, but what I love even more is that he saved it for after the battle - he was in the middle of a high-stress situation and in the middle of the battle was definitely not the time to ask questions. Unfortunately, that was the ONLY time during that battle when people actually seemed to realize that. Literally everyone stopped battling when Frogadier started to evolve - I'll forgive Bisharp, Greninja, and Pikachu, but Luxray, Braixen, Liepard, Venusaur, and all of the nameless foes they were battling should have kept on going. You do NOT stop a big, massive battle just to watch one Pokémon evolve. If I had been Kagetomo's underlings, I'd have seen that as an opportunity to take advantage of Clemont and Serena's distraction. Also, Ash, for real? You are battling a really powerful Bisharp to try and rescue someone who has been kidnapped, and you stop to check Greninja on the Pokédex? No. No, you don't. You've seen Sanpei's Greninja, you know exactly what a Greninja is. Now get going with the battle again. There is a time and place to use the Pokédex, and in the middle of a battle where you're trying to save someone's life is not it. It really bothers me every time this happens - the problem isn't unique to this episode, I'm just bringing it up now because this is a really good example of it. The Pokédex slows the action down. Use it after the battle, but it's so awkward to interrupt a really fast-paced battle scene just to let the viewers know what a Greninja is - especially because they already know because Sanpei's Greninja has been one of the stars of this entire episode!

One more battle-related thing: the showdown between Ippei and Kagetomo was fun to watch. Another great example of how different a ninja battle is from a regular Pokémon battle.

Okay, so last week I said that nothing that happened was a waste of screen time, even Team Rocket's appearance... yeah, I think I have to take that back. TR got blasted off at the very beginning of this episode and then didn't appear at all for the rest of it, and literally the only thing they did between these two episodes was trap Shinobu and Serena for all of about two seconds. If they're gonna appear, at least make it somehow relevant to the plot.

I really do appreciate how much the villagers of Ninja Village do in all of this. Last week, they helped fend of the Skarmory, and this week, they helped locate Hanzo while Sanpei and the others filled Ash and co. in on Kagetomo's backstory. It wasn't all left up to the main characters, and it felt so much more realistic because of that. And speaking of Kagetomo, he is a really good villain. His goals are believable - it's not just a simple "conquer the world", it's "conquer my hometown so that I can then work on conquering the world". I'm glad that Hanzo and Ippei invited him to stay in Ninja Village after he learned his lesson, although his decision to leave wasn't surprising. There are some villains for whom it is more satisfying to see them completely and thoroughly defeated, but Kagetomo isn't one of them. I would have been disappointed if the episode had not let Kagetomo learn from his mistakes, so I'm glad it ended the way it did.

All in all, great episode. The Ninja Village two-parter is the best thing about XY&Z to me so far, and I can't wait to see more of Ash-Greninja. 9/10.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

I've been waiting for this episode and it didn't disappoint me in the least bit. Everything was just fanatastic and I dare say it was one of the best Kalos-epissodes so far, if not the best.
We got action-packed, long and intense fighting scenes, such an interesting story, great characters, a very profound message to think about and last but not least, a Pokemon evolution that was even more than an "ordinary" evolution . What else can you wish for?

Now let's come to Greninja: I'm really curious to see more of Ash-Greninja and the reasons for his transformation. In my eyes it's the Kalos -version of Infernape who was also unique. Back then, it was Infernape's Blaze-ability that set him apart from anybody else and underlined his uniquenss. This time , of course, Greninja needed a different reason to go beyond itself and I think the writers solved this very elegantly by introducing this "becoming one with Ash"-concept. Two extraordinary Pokemon with the same intentions but two different ways of showing it. Fantastic!
To be honest, I expected Ash-Greninja to save the village at first, given how everybody was in awe of that ancient hero-Greninja who already saved the people in those days. But then, I was happy that Ash-Greninja's plot seems to be developing step by step. And after all, Ippei deserved to prove himself worthy of being the next chief.

As a side note: What do you think might Seisou's role in the village be? (I hope I spelled him correctly.. I'm talking about the cool guy with the Barbaracle) Is he as strong as Ippei?

To sum up, it was simply a fantastic episode from the beginning to the end. An episode that you could truly enjoy!

 

[Poke Trey]

I watched it and it was perfect love Ash-Greninja, love the action, and the end scene with the flashback with that music being played was it from the mega evolution series because it definitely feels like it. For now great job Dub you are continuing to impress me seriously this is so fine

 

[Muur]

Was a pretty cool two parter