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Review S20 EP25: A Team-on-Team Tussle!

Not a bad episode, at least Team Rocket were more competent this episode and not their usual boring annoying selves who are out to steal the Pokemon featured

Also nice to see some proper characterisation from Team Skull, not keen on their dub names if I'm honest, well Rapp's at least
 
Not a bad episode, at least Team Rocket were more competent this episode and not their usual boring annoying selves who are out to steal the Pokemon featured

Also nice to see some proper characterisation from Team Skull, not keen on their dub names if I'm honest, well Rapp's at least

Well it was either that or changing the subbed names, which to many is a mortal sin
 
The dub has been on a 4 pieces kept in a row streak for the last 4 dub eps, this one included, so there's that. Ironically, TPCi replaced Team Skull's OST theme in this episode but kept it last episode, and one out of two instances of TR motto got replaced as well as TR lurking theme with what we like to call rejected Batman music in the fandom. Dub logic is so illogical by now it's hard to even fathom it regarding the music, really.

Voice acting, James still sounds like a nasally doofus who sounds 35 years too old, Meowth still sounds like a deep-voiced gravelly gangster, and Jessie still has a voice so high pitched when she yells that her squealing is hard to take seriously altogether, all three of whom overact and scream many of their lines. Protagonists, Sarah Natochenny still can't laugh as Ash after 11 years believably but other than that it was the usual stuff we've come to expect there, since they got such little screen time.

As for the newcomers, Tupp has a gangster voice which fits since he's part of Team Skull and I laughed at his, Rapp sounds like your stock female voice that's generic so I don't really see how it fits a member of Team Skull all that well, and Zipp has a nasally voice I don't much care for, so that's that.

Script writing, well, it's a TPCi dub era Team Rocket based episode, so what do you think happened? Awful rhymes outside of the motto (e.g. "And close to BOOT! Alright then, let's SCOOT!"), random alliterations (e.g. "Lackey lugs," "Move marauder," "big brain"), internet slang (e.g. "for the win," because TPCi's dub hasn't had enough Internet slang in the scripts as is) and cringe-worthy dialogue (e.g. "that schnook," "Bang zoom," "how scary amazing we are") were very much present. Even Team Skull got to chime in with a cringe-worthy "Meowthie Wowthie" line from Rapp, which is just embarrassing, and even they got in a rhyme too (e.g. "Mess with the rest, and mess with the best"). Oh, and Meowth still has "Dig it" in his dub only TR motto for SM, such a stupid decision by the "writer" (and I use the term very loosely here).

Oh, and TPCi for some reason changed Lana saying "Super Aqua Tornado" in the Japanese Version to "Hydro Vortex" because why? Because TPCi, that's why.

Oh! I had no idea!
TPCi also renamed them from the Japanese Version: Tupp's Japanese name was Tupper, Rapp's Japanese name was Wrap, and Zipp's Japanese name was Zip- just some trivia for you.
 
Hydro Vortex is the English name of the move
I'll give them a pass then for that: I thought it was just JCC being JCC, glad it's not.

I should also mention at this time TPCi had to have Team Rocket rhyme constantly in the English dub at the end of the episode with "Viola, ta da, cis boom ba, hoorah, yah!" and of course Meowth has to say "Let 'er rip" because why not?
 
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I was very concerned with the TS Grunt's names. Fortunately, two of them are the same with alt spelling, while I can live with shorting "Tupper" to "Tupp".

Though I wished TPCI had gone all out had them speak pimp speak & street slang, yo.

*TR recites the motto*
TS: Dat was total whack, yo...

*Totem Raticate is about to attack*
"Chillax, bro!"
"Stay cool, stay cool!"
"Why ya gotta be a hatuh?!"

Of course, a lot of what I have in mind wouldn't make it pass the censors (dirty bishes)... :p
 
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I was pretty mad when I saw they removed most of the Musashi and Nyasu moments from the dub! The main theme is friendship and unity so can't TPCI have Jessie take Meowth away because they are friends and teammates,not because she is annoyed by Rapps "squees". Still Jessie and James going back to save Meowth was really well handled.

Meowthie Wowthie" line from Rapp
In the Japanese version,she calls him Nyasu-chan which I think translates to Meowth-dear so it's not too bad. At least she's still expressing she thinks he's cute.
 
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Have Team Rocket really not seen a Z move? huh, weird.

Lmao at Ash blasting off again.

How exactly did James make that Crystal? surely he'd need something for the machine to search for? weird.

Wasn't hard to name them all... lol. see, Team Rocket knew that was a Dark type one!

Ultimate evil candy store sounds... quite niche. Ps, since when do grunts have names!?

Why do Ash and friends not already know this Z Crystal info? what exactly have they been learning? surely Rowlet, Rockruff and Pikachu using the Normal stone... made it obvious?

The girl Skull grunt is pretty cute.

Team Rocket getting a crystal/winning the totem battle is impressive. I guess Meowth will use Bite for it. I wanna see Mewoth do it.

Good episode.

Hydro Vortex is the English name of the move

Now I'm interested in if he has ever actually played the games.
 
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Another episode that's more uneventful than the previews make it look like, but still managed to be entertaining regardless. We've been waiting for this episode since the series was announced, and in many ways, it didn't disappoint.

So we kind of had a general idea on what the Skull Grunts were like before now, but they didn't get concrete names or personalities until now. As for the names, I liked how they kept the tupperware theme from the original Japanese, but spelled them in a more "gang-esque" way.

And, as we could sort of tell from previous episodes, Tupp is the leader , while the others have a "what he said" mentality. Quite a different dynamic from the TRio. Rapp definitely shares Jessie's cuteness proximity, though, and I've noticed their actual designs echo those of the TRio (Tupp for James, Rapp for Jessie and Zipp for Meowth).

The actual plot was pretty predictable, but hey! Team Rocket actually wins. That's something you only see once in a blue moon.
 
Just like the last TR-focused episode, I loved this one in Japanese and really felt nothing towards the dub.

Team Rocket's dub dialogue is as atrocious as always, so no need to rehash those complaints. But outside of the lousy dialogue, the dub once again goes out of its way to make Jessie come across as a heartless, perpetually angry narcissist. I loved how she was protective over Meowth in the original. But of course, the dub just had to change it to her doing nothing but insulting Rapp. Why change her entire character? It makes zero sense and actually makes the episode worse.

I did like the intercuts of the class learning about Z-Moves. It kept the episode interesting and was never carried on for long before switching back to Team Rocket. Again, the dialogue was eh, but at this point it pretty much always is.

I also liked Team Skull. I feel like the dub has done well with their voices. They sound like how I imagined them in the games. It was cool too to see more of their personalities as individuals and not just as one group. Their interactions with Team Rocket were good, despite the bad dialogue on Team Rocket's side of things.
 
I also liked Team Skull. I feel like the dub has done well with their voices. They sound like how I imagined them in the games. It was cool too to see more of their personalities as individuals and not just as one group. Their interactions with Team Rocket were good, despite the bad dialogue on Team Rocket's side of things.

Billy Bob Thompson, Jake Paque and Lori Phillips certainly do a good job
 
Err... So Team Rocket manages to sneak into Pokémon School so easily. That school needs more security.

No Meowth... I am pretty sure that charm of yours doesn't work that way...

Wow! So Darkinium Z appears in this episode. And so does, Totem Raticate! What awesome surprises! :eek::cool::X3::love:

Umm... You know, Team Skull, standing in front of a Totem Raticate about to use Hyper Beam is not a good idea. (n)

Tupp, your Z-Move priorities in life are not straight, boy. Also, Rapp marveling over Meowth annoyed me real quick. :mad:(n)

Woah, so this turns into a Team Rocket versus Team Skull after all.

Team Rocket's trap was pretty smart actually; I'll give them that. (y)

Tupp, you sneaky brat!

Umm... yeah! I kinda expected both the Teams to be beat up by the Totem Pokémon, and I was not disappointed. :p:D

Damn! That Mimikyu! :eek:

So Tupp sneaking up secretly was Team Skull's plan all along. I guess I hate him less now. :p

So, Team Rocket gets to keep the Z-Crystal after all. Now for Team Skull grunts to change their uniforms... :D

The Z-Ring-cardboard-thingy cracked me up TBH. :LOL:

A pretty decent, interesting episode. I wonder who will use Black Hole Eclipse eventually, though. Maybe, Bewear... (y)
 
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