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Review SM036: Lychee's Grand Trial! The Hardest Pokemon Match!!

What a shocker.
Rowlett's the one to get knocked out amazingly enough by Rockruff himself.
And as expected,
Ash won it.

Really good battle, probably the best of the lot we have so far though it could be trumped by the later ones if they're good, we'll see.

After next week's ep it's bye bye Akala and hello Melemele... again.
But not before Gladion returns with Type:Null, yaaaay!
 
Okay, Ash having his Pokemon avoid Lycanroc's Z-move was ridiculously cheap and anticlimactic. Also, the whole Stealth Rock issue lost any air of challenge since Rowlet was easily able to fly through the rocks.

That being said, the battle did have a highlight or two-Rockruff knocking out Rowlet was unexpected (slightly disappointed no one scolded the puppy for that afterwards) and that final Rockruff vs Lycanroc fight was beautiful.
 
A bit disappointing- Bloom Doom was underwhelming and Lycanroc was boring.

Probopass was the only interesting combatant in the battle.
 
Honestly the only good parts were the parts that Aito Ohashi animated - the Bloom Doom taking out Probopass and the battle of dogs fight at the end. But that was only like 1 minute of screentime. The rest of the fight was slow and boring (much due to the garbage animation). I enjoyed Marowak vs Turtonator more. Probably won't bother rewatching this.
 
You can say whatever you want about Sun & Moon Ash but don't dare to tell me he didn't learn to be as badass as Alain!
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Well, this episode already starts out bad with the rock dog biting the hand that feeds him. Man I can't stand that thing. As for one positive, at least Ash's classmates watch his battle here, unlike with Hala. Anyway, initially, I actually liked that that made this a double battle as I felt that it added something interesting to differentiate it from Hala's battle. That said, unfortunately, the double battle status did nothing to make this battle stronger. In fact, I'd almost say it made it more boring and that a single battle may have been better. I mean honestly, most of the match was just the owl flying around with the dog. The only interesting bits were when they weren't clinging together. But even still, overall the battle felt really messy. Sometimes it almost felt like 2 separate battles going on at the same time rather than a cohesive double battle. I also just have to say that Probopass's noses talking was a bit creepy to me.

I hated that they actually used Stealth Rocks in the double battle where no new Pokemon would be entering said battle and thus had to change the way it worked to compensate for that. Another reason why they may as well have just made it a single battle. Continental Crush was incredibly disappointing in that it was effortlessly dodged by Ash's Pokemon. I hated that they didn't have Ash do the entire Bloom Doom pose, and cut out the beginning where Ash was supposed to mimic a growing tree. And worst of all, Rockruff KOing Rowlet was so damn unnecessary it's not even funny (and this is coming from someone who hates the bird. Aside from the stupidity that a single Bite from Rockruff was able to KO Rowlet when it withstood attacks from Oliva's fully evolved Pokemon, it was totally pointless. If they wanted a final 1-on-1 battle between the dogs, they could have just had Ash call the bird back. Or idk, maybe let it get knocked out by OLIVA'S Pokemon. I think the thing that annoyed me the most was that Ash didn't even scold the dog on knocking out it's teammate and instead just did his stupid little twerking thing to cheer him up. Then the huge match between the two dogs was a rushed, less-than-a-minute attack spam. Ugh...this battle was just all around bad and Rockruff continues to rival Rowlet as one of Ash's worst Pokemon. At least Ash got Rockium-Z here and not some random other Z-Crystal.

5/10. The only positive thing that came from this episode was seeing more of Oliva (her clumsiness never gets old), seeing a new Z-Move, and Ash getting a new Z-Crystal.
 
Well, this episode already starts out bad with the rock dog biting the hand that feeds him. Man I can't stand that thing. As for one positive, at least Ash's classmates watch his battle here, unlike with Hala. Anyway, initially, I actually liked that that made this a double battle as I felt that it added something interesting to differentiate it from Hala's battle. That said, unfortunately, the double battle status did nothing to make this battle stronger. In fact, I'd almost say it made it more boring and that a single battle may have been better. I mean honestly, most of the match was just the owl flying around with the dog. The only interesting bits were when they weren't clinging together. But even still, overall the battle felt really messy. Sometimes it almost felt like 2 separate battles going on at the same time rather than a cohesive double battle. I also just have to say that Probopass's noses talking was a bit creepy to me.

I hated that they actually used Stealth Rocks in the double battle where no new Pokemon would be entering said battle and thus had to change the way it worked to compensate for that. Another reason why they may as well have just made it a single battle. Continental Crush was incredibly disappointing in that it was effortlessly dodged by Ash's Pokemon. I hated that they didn't have Ash do the entire Bloom Doom pose, and cut out the beginning where Ash was supposed to mimic a growing tree. And worst of all, Rockruff KOing Rowlet was so damn unnecessary it's not even funny (and this is coming from someone who hates the bird. Aside from the stupidity that a single Bite from Rockruff was able to KO Rowlet when it withstood attacks from Oliva's fully evolved Pokemon, it was totally pointless. If they wanted a final 1-on-1 battle between the dogs, they could have just had Ash call the bird back. Or idk, maybe let it get knocked out by OLIVA'S Pokemon. I think the thing that annoyed me the most was that Ash didn't even scold the dog on knocking out it's teammate and instead just did his stupid little twerking thing to cheer him up. Then the huge match between the two dogs was a rushed, less-than-a-minute attack spam. Ugh...this battle was just all around bad and Rockruff continues to rival Rowlet as one of Ash's worst Pokemon. At least Ash got Rockium-Z here and not some random other Z-Crystal.

5/10. The only positive thing that came from this episode was seeing more of Olivia (her clumsiness never gets old), seeing a new Z-Move, and Ash getting a new Z-Crystal.
I know the same feeling when it comes to a filler episode. But next week is going to be less boring, I think. I know everyone is disappointed at filler episodes, but tell me what episodes were great in this series so far? And tell those that were boring. At least some filler episodes get to 6/10 to 7/10 in some way. Review is about discussing everything after watching the show and give a good impression. When someone is disappointed, that means the episode sucks, and when someone's happy, that means the episode was great. There's no reason to go against this episode, you have right to say anything about. I'm giving this episode just 5.5/10, really. No less to say about it. At least we are about to leave those boring filler Akala island episodes and go back to Melemele island episodes where everything might change to good.
 
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I think Olivia's clumsiness in this episode was ill-fitting. It kinda spoiled the mood of the victory celebration. I think Bloom Doom would've probably worked better if seen from above like in the games. Speaking of moves, I don't mind if the anime takes liberties with Pokemon moves, provided it's put to good use. Stealth Rock was not. The way Roark used it in Sinnoh was far better (heck even the way it was portrayed in the Volcanion movie was also good, at least the mine-like characteristic there was in keeping with its mechanic). And of course, the most egregious liberty-taking of all: the fact that you can avoid Z-moves, it kinda demeans their status as ultimate moves and just makes them look like regular moves, but flashier.
That said I did like the confrontation between Lycanroc and Rockruff (short as it was), and I'm glad to hear Rockruff is nearing evolution. BUT THEY BETTER NOT PULL A BULBASAUR/PIPLUP OVER US!
 
This episode was okay and the animation was actually very good at some points throughout, but I absolutely hated the fact Rockruff got away with KO'ing Rowlet for its own sake. There were so many different ways they could've taken it out of the battle instead of having it get pathetically one-shot by a Bite attack. They also brought back that unnecessary movement from SM015. Yay. I preferred Hala's battle better. The magnets being utilized by Probopass did make this episode a little more interesting though. :love:

6/10

On a side note, aren't Z-Moves supposed to never miss?
 
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