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Review SM034: Battle of Fire! Garagara Appears!!

I have two things to say about this episode... Too many Hiker Davids and Kiawe capturing an Alolan Marowak which makes his team better! And, there was a lot of fire-type Pokemon today! Overall, I'd rate it 8/10. Can anyone list how many fire-type Pokemon appeared in this episode?
 
Not my usual cup of tea, but I enjoyed this episode. The battle scenes were animated really nicely and always +1 for usage of one of my fave movie tracks!

For those missing serious boy Kaki, this is your episode. Even I enjoyed him brooding... Am I allowed to say I was glad to see a couple of proper battles? I'm a fan of the tank Pokemon so I'm glad Kaki's ace Bakugames is one - it's nice to see them overpowering the fast little rat class from time to time. Garagara is good fun and I'm glad it's joined his team.
 
What was the point of adding Garagara to the opening if he's not a totem pokemon? How and when will Satoshi get Firium-Z?
 
What was the point of adding Garagara to the opening if he's not a totem pokemon? How and when will Satoshi get Firium-Z?
To show off its importance? Like how Wishiwashi was important for Lana to get the Waterium Z and Lurantis might be the reason for Ash to get a Grassium Z.
 
What was the point of adding Garagara to the opening if he's not a totem pokemon?

Because it's still important - it was a capture for Kiawe. I do find it odd they placed it between two Totem Pokemon, though.

Kiawe has already a Firium-Z, so it isn't needed...

So? It doesn't matter if Kiawe has a Firium Z. Ash needs one for Litten and they're not going to pass up on the starters using Z-Moves.

Besides, multiple of the same Z-Crystals can exist.
 
Great one, a big improvement on the previous episode. And Kiawe gets himself a Alolan Marowak.
 
This Marowak already has a great deal of personality. I definitely see it and Turtonator becoming Vitrolic Best Buds as time rolls on...or maybe even BST if it proves that Marowak is female. (The Marowak faced first in the Fire Trial in the games has a random gender, so we can't look to the games for a clue.)

EDIT: Before you scoff at the latter possibility, both Turtonator and Marowak are in the Monster Egg Group.
 
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For what this episode wanted to be, it was fine. Hiker David was the best part with his (or their, I guess) photobombing. However, as a whole, I didn't like this episode.

I didn't like it because it didn't need to exist, or at least not now. This episode should have been the Fire Trial. They were at Wela Volcano Park and Hiker David was here. The previous episode was about Totem Wishiwashi being battled and Lana obtaining a Waterium-Z while the following will be about Totem Lurantis. This episode should have been Ash battling Totem Salazzle. It makes no sense to have the Water Trial in the previous episode, the Grass Trial in the next episode, while this one is just Kiawe catching a Pokemon that he could have already had. They could have easily just given Kiawe his Alolan Marowak from the start of the series instead of Turtonator, as it really makes no sense that he just caught his main Pokemon from the games and manga. If they really needed him to catch his main mon, it could have happened at some other time before or after this episode. Now moving forward, things are getting even weirder with the Island Challenge since there was not even anything suggesting the existence of Totem Salazzle or a Fire Trial. That was where this episode disappointed me.

I give it a 5/10.
 
Chiisaki Mono aside, had they ever recycled music from such old movies after the BW music reboot? I thought the Zoroark movie was the oldest they would use.
I'm really not the person to answer this (@kantoskies might know?) but could it be that Sortie! was remixed for M20 and that is the version which appeared today?
 
Hmm, I remember they used the title screen theme that originated in the AG(?) movies in XY006, but I think it's been used in most movies since so I'm not sure it counts. And I can't be sure but I think they used older DP movie tracks throughout Best Wishes?

Was that Movie 05 track used in Movie 18? If not this could be a sign that older music is slowly returning.....

Do they ever use music from the newest movie this soon after it premiering?
 
I doubt this could be a result of it being used in M20; it's way too soon. Reading the comments from that link though, there are two people saying an arrangement was used for the 18th movie, so it could be that. Kind of like what happened with "Tsuzuku ttara, tsuzuku", which was arranged for that movie too under the name "Let's Go", which has been used in some episodes recently.

Some XY and SM episodes actually used music from the Arceus movie.
Whoops, my bad. I'm not actually very familiarized with the OST for the movies.
 
They typically wait at least a year after a film has been out before they start using its OST in the anime. The only exceptions that I know of are M01 and one random instance where a piece from M06 was used in AG036 which aired a few weeks after that movie came out. M19 music has yet to be used in the anime afaik.
 
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Yeah, I had a feeling it was too soon for M20 music. I know that "Let's Go" track and the Team Rocket piece from movie 18 didn't show up until Sun&Moon, for instance.
 
Please note: The thread is from 7 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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