Review SM030: Lilie, Take Good Care of Pikachu

[Gard81]

Well, this episode to me is reflective of what I like most and, at the same time, what I dislike most about SM in general. I like the character progression, Lillie in particular. So far I love how she and Shiron are treated, and I have come to eagerly await episodes which focus on her. Same can be said about the other characters, except for Sophocles, whose opinion of him I can only describe as lukewarm at best and Satoshi. And with that comes the first dislike, in regards to Satoshi, it's not that I dislike him personally (in regards to that, he's leaps and bounds above his BW self - low bar as that may be),it's just that, how can I put it, the setting, progression of events and relationship with the other characters doesn't do him much favors. It's like the show shines more on the non-Satoshi characters, at his partial expense. Take this episode for example, at the end of the day, it feels like Lillie and Shiron have noticeably progressed , while there's little tangible trade-off for Satoshi and Pikachu.
Liked: characters making bonds with the Pokemon of the other trainers' Pokemon. Disliked: the Pokemon swap and more generally, other events, having to be used to validate the Pokeschool's existence, when it could be easily done without it.
Liked: the voice acting, dislike: art style is still jarring.

 

[Islander Princess]

This was a really nice episode! I was super interested in the partner swap concept from the get go, and I really think it was executed well in the episode. I wasn't crazy about the pairings when I first saw them, but watching them actually play out in the episode I think it worked really well!

Mallow and Togedemaru were a good match personality wise. I like how Mallow would get frustrated with Togedemaru's energy for a split second before going back to her usual cheerful self. It was a great portrayal of Mallow's character. I still find Sophocles to be very sweet and I thought his interactions with Steenee were really cute. It was great to see Sarah and Harper again, especially with how involved they got with Tortunator. I love when the young characters are shown as loving any and all Pokémon, especially when Kiawe was worried about scaring them! He and Popplio were also good together. At first I found it pretty funny that he was seemingly pawning all the work with Popplio off to Mimo, but then they threw in the nice twist with the Tauros. They are the pair I would've liked to see a bit more out of.

Of course, the main reason for this episode was for Lillie to bond with Pikachu and be able to touch a Pokémon outside of Snowy. I'm really appreciating the progression with her fear. I think it's going at a nice pace still, and I love that her confidence in overcoming the fear is very clearly growing. I also love that she battled again! I just mentioned in the latest dub episode review that I really feel like allowing the female companions to battle, especially without Ash's assistance, is something the writers have seriously been dropping the ball on recently. Lillie has been a great reversal of that. I really appreciate them using Lillie, who is shown as more timid and delicate, especially with her fear in place, to battle more often than we've seen female companions do over the past few years. It's really refreshing and I enjoy that Lillie doesn't feel limited to a very specific and immobile role.

I do have to say I was a little surprised with how cool Ash was about switching partners and not seeing Pikachu for 2 days. I know he's become extremely easy going, and I guess this is just an example of how I'm not a big fan of that. I wasn't looking for him to throw a temper tantrum or anything like that, but a little bit more trepidation about being separated from his best friend would've been nice. I was also pretty surprised at the end when he suggested battling Lillie with each other's Pokémon. It was cool, but still just felt a little off for Ash.