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Review S19 EP33: Valuable Experience for All!

Awesome battle. And glad to see Goodra again. I know Ash's decision to use it over previous-region Pokémon is controversial, but I think it really shows their bond.

Some minor observations:
-Really? They used the "secret weapon" thing twice in a row? It was so predictable they could've said it up front.
-None of the characters seem to agree on how to pronounce Ludicolo.
-There was some really awesome dub-only music in this episode. Not sure why the majority thinks it's poorly-scored.

-Why didn't Tierno get to Mega Evolve his Blastoise?
-Clemont's "mental toughness...or maybe it's just because that they're both male" quote was so hilariously awkward.
 
I love the moment when Sceptile megaevolves into Mega Sceptile... Aww really love
 
Of course my TV would not be working on the morning of this episode:/ Oh well. Better late than never.

Ok, ignoring that blatant error of Astrid's Absol appearing as a regular Absol one second, then becoming a Mega Absol the next, I'm pretty miffed that we didn't get to see more of this battle. I wish we would have seen it happening at the same time as Sawyer vs. Tierno. That means the only female we got to see in the league was only shown for less than a minute...and losing at that. But really Sawyer, you don't tell your opponent that you have a super secret weapon lying in wait.

Shuana showing up to watch Tierno's battle was nice, though it would have been nice if she'd shown up to watch Trevor as well. Then again, I guess it is better not to have seen him get swept in person:/ Anyway, on to the battle itself. Man, I will never get tired of Tierno and his Pokemon's synchronized dancing. But geez Trevor, cool it with the photos. The match hasn't even started yet. I feel like this is the first time I don't really mind move spamming. Honestly, I'd try to make the most of rain boosted Hydro Pumps myself. I was actually surprised that Tierno actually switched to Solar Beam instead of trying to get in that last bit of boosted power before the rain stopped. Regardless, I'd say the first match was good overall. I did like how they showed how frail the sword is in attack mode.

Raichu is so cute. I loved seeing him break dancing again. Also glad that he got a win against the ugly sword. I'm glad that Slurpuff got to incapacitate Raichu and do some damage here since last time we saw her, she pretty much did nothing. I'm also glad she was confirmed female. And speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with Clemont? I thought he as the electric-type genius. Does he really not know about Raichu's gender differences. Because how on Earth could he think both Slurpuff an Blastoise are male if Slurpuff attracted a male Raichu? I hope that was an error and it was meant to say both female, because otherwise...IDK. Mini rant aside, damn, infatuated Raichu was hilarious. I liked Blastoise using his dance strategy to avoid getting infatuated, but of course, that leaves Slurpuff relegated to getting one shot once again.

Sceptile was amazing as usual. I love the scarf that holds the Sceptileite. But lol, how does Tierno anything know about his "amazing moves" if he didn't attack yet? I do like how Tierno had Blastoise use Rain Dance right before it was defeated to aid with Raichu's Thunder. That seemed like a strategy a person playing the games would do. But once again Clemont seems to be failing as an electric-type gym leader. I mean, could he really not put 2 and 2 together and at least guess that the Rain Dance was set up to help Raichu in some way. And damn, that Mega evolution into MSceptile was powerful. Sucks that it pretty much left Raichu powerless to do anything to it. Oh well, good match overall. And really Serena? I'm pretty sure you all were told that Sceptile was able to Mega Evolve when you first met Sawyer.

Lastly, finally, Goodra is back and ready to battle in the league! This is great! I can't wait for Ash vs. Sawyer. 7.8/10.
 
It was a poor battle IMO. 6/10
Can't wait for the most awesome battle of the league.
 
And speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with Clemont? I thought he as the electric-type genius. Does he really not know about Raichu's gender differences. Because how on Earth could he think both Slurpuff an Blastoise are male if Slurpuff attracted a male Raichu? I hope that was an error and it was meant to say both female, because otherwise...IDK.
There definitely was an error there, though I think it's actually Raichu being drawn as male rather than Clemont confirming it female.
 
I'll never stop wondering why the heck we needed to skip Ash's battles... if you wanna showcase Sawyer's Mega Sceptile, just skip to the end of the battle. Last week did this very same stunt and I sure as heck didn't need to be reminded of Alain's capabilities.

Battle-wise, still confused about Slurpuff and Attract, but whatever... One sided battle was pretty one sided the minute Tierno decided to bring a very lopsided team to a Tournament. Grass types are his mortal enemy after all.

I'm also glad she was confirmed female. And speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with Clemont? I thought he as the electric-type genius. Does he really not know about Raichu's gender differences. Because how on Earth could he think both Slurpuff an Blastoise are male if Slurpuff attracted a male Raichu? I hope that was an error and it was meant to say both female, because otherwise...
This was in the original airing too... it's either an error on Raichu's tail or it's tough to gauge Slurpluff and Blastoise since neither have gender differences
 
Kalos League, episode two:
The episode started in a terrible way if you ask me. Before that we only had one episode, we didn't even get to see one of Ash's battles in full and now we're supposed to believe that they've already reached the semi-finals...This is all so rushed, it feels terrible! As far as I'm concerned I feel as part of the audience, but not of the league itself if you know what I mean. I want to fully enjoy what is supposed to be the highlight of Ash's journey but instead it all feels so "ordinary" because it's so rushed. Basically limiting the league to the necessary and inevitable matches of Ash against Sawyer and Alain (as good though as they might be) just doesn't feel right. As I already said last week, why didn't the writers skip a few of the unnecessary filler episodes and give us more league action instead? I'm disappointed!

Apart from that, the battle Tierno vs. Sawyer sure was exciting. First, I really liked those surprising twist and turns and the strategic thinking on both sides, espcially Tierno preparing Rain Dance for Raichu's Thunder and Sawyer striking back with Lightningrod. And second, the probably best aspect of this battle was Sceptile megaevolving. It looked great and was fantastically supported by the music.
All in all, another awesome league episode. If only it weren't so terribly rushed and we were given more episodes...

And by the way, I was excited to find out that MegaGarchomp-man Remo made it to the semi-finals as well. Garchomp is my all-time favorite Pokemon and the best thing there is, so I hope they wil lbe able to cause Alain some trouble.
 
There definitely was an error there, though I think it's actually Raichu being drawn as male rather than Clemont confirming it female.

Oh no, I didn't mean Clemont confirmed Slurpuff a female, I meant that it was confirmed female in general due to attract working on the male Raichu.

Or at least that's what I thought until that "both males" comment showed up, which I'm quite surprised was in the original as well. With Raichu being one of the few Pokemon with such blatant gender differences it's beyond me how they could have messed that up. Not a huge deal, but it does have me wondering...
 
So after watching last week's episode and this one, I went back and rewatched the Hoenn League episodes and the Sinnoh League episodes and boy what a difference. Both those League arcs had really nice intro eps; talking about and also showing some of the preliminary rounds. Showing Ash giving his Pokies a pep talk to get them psyched up. Scenes where he is practice battling with them in order to get them prepped for the competition. For this, we didn't even get the torch being lit. I know Diantha giving the opening speech was nice, but still...

They just jump in to the main competition, and we don't get any of the lead up stuff, which I actually enjoy watching. But my feelings about that are nowhere near my disappointment with the fact that Ash's battles just get barely skimmed over. Sure it's nice to see some of his rival's battles. We got that in both the Hoenn, and Sinnoh Leagues, too. But Ash just, more or less, gets totally shafted here. I mean, hey writers, Ash is supposedly your main protag.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Ash battle Sawyer next ep. I hope they don't just skip over stuff for that battle.

For me this episode, and the previous one, were just so-so.
 
Tierno's Raichu is suddenly female now? With that tail? What? How? Why? Huh?

I literally have no words. This surely can't be an animation error, that Raichu had a male's tail last time we saw it.
 
I think they didn't show us Ash's battles because we already know that he is powerful enough to destroy trainers just like Alain. I assume he won his first battle with greninja only. He is showcased as Alain over here, both have a level of power way higher than those of other trainers in the league. Sawyer is also more powerful than them but not that powerful. If they really showed the battles, I'm sure people would still complain a as to why Ash is wining so easily. They didn't want to put effort in battles that Ash can win easily instead they have put their effort in the great 2 parter battles.
this league arc had 7 episodes and every one league except BW had 7-8 episodes, I think they wanted to keep the arc of this length only but since Ash reached the finals, the number could be like 11 if they showed all the battles.
 
It's bullshit we're skipping right to the semi finals, unlike when Ash got there in Sinnoh, there's literally no build up and no feeling behind it at all, like ugh.

Good battle between Sawyer and Tierno, though. Would've been better to see Ash take out Tierno though because otherwise he wound up being pretty pointless, then.

The Thunder/Rain Dance was cool, of course could call it the second that Sceptile was there. No one questioned why Sceptile had a scarf on with a mega stone? maybe that was just for us and wasn't actually there for the crowd to see...

still, way too rushed, basically skipping two rounds bar the 4 seconds of Ash killing Absol.
 
I think they didn't show us Ash's battles because we already know that he is powerful enough to destroy trainers just like Alain. I assume he won his first battle with greninja only. He is showcased as Alain over here, both have a level of power way higher than those of other trainers in the league. Sawyer is also more powerful than them but not that powerful. If they really showed the battles, I'm sure people would still complain a as to why Ash is wining so easily. They didn't want to put effort in battles that Ash can win easily instead they have put their effort in the great 2 parter battles.
Maybe that would have made sense... if they didn't already showcase that Alain was a powerhouse to begin with and we had absolutely no reason to see him in battle anyway. And for that matter, why should I care to see all of Sawyers battle when we know the kid knows how to battle after his school of hard knocks beginnings? I don't care how badly Ash stomps, I think his Kalos team deserves to show they can shine. Wanna show Charizard X vs Charizard Y? Go ahead, just skip to that part before Ash's battle or after it, show's Alain's strength and set's up tension. Wanna show Mega Sceptile? Go ahead, but do it after showing Ash's full match, same with as before, set's up tension and gives Ash full time. That's how that would fix what was easily a mess these first two episodes.

Besides we all know only Pikachu fails to get shafted, Greninja and Hawlucha are the only other Pokemon who got clean onscreen victories (and 2 mostly off screen). Talonflame plays sloppy seconds, Goodra comes back to choke, and Noivern proves yet again that Ash became way too reliant on Greninja's power late in the season. Also, even though Sawyer brought counters, how does Ash with all his skill just barely get past a rookie? For as strong as they claimed him to be, the Semi's sure didn't help him, nor did Pikachu doing most of the work vs Alain either
 
Sawyer and Tierno's battle is up next. But first things first, LOL at Astrid's Absol appearing as Absol in one shot and Mega Absol in another. I don't know if Astrid can Mega Evolve her Pokémon within the blink of an eye; if she can't, can you explain what just happened, writers?

Sawyer and Tierno's battle was quite intriguing and entertaining. It had tactics characteristic of how someone would battle in the games, such as Blastoise using Rain Dance just before fainting, to guarantee perfect accuracy for Thunder. But I felt bad for Tierno and Raichu when Sawyer Mega Evolved his Sceptile, just because the tactic they decided to invest on, would just fail from that moment on, and they could not anything about it. :(

There is a thing of particular interest that got me mad when I watched the episode. And that is....
(Harryghost's Rant Mode: Harryghost started to rant!)
Raichu's gender. I know it is not a very big deal, but I am not a big fan of Pokémon genders being messed up in the anime, and do not intend to take the non-sense about gender differences in this episode gladly without speaking about it. The writers showed Raichu as a having a tail characteristic of a male in both Good Friends, Great Training! as well as in this episode, and then outright mention her to be a female here. WHAT??? But, guess, we'll just have to accept things as they are. Writers, you should have at least done your research before plotting the episode, and confirmed the three genders like they should have been, but whatever, I guess!

All in all, I would say this episode is quite entertaining and I give it a 9/10, especially for that subtle nod for gamers. I could have easily given this episode a 10/10, had the writers not messed things up, and had they correctly mentioned Raichu as a male, and not the other way around.
 
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