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Review SM077: Kuchinashi's Grand Trial! Lugarugan Awakens!!

I'm fairly neutral on this episode because of how anticlimactic most of the showdowns were; how Lycanroc managed to take at least 20 Shadow Claws and still come out unscathed while in return one shotting Sableye with Stone Edge bewildered me. Krokorok and Persian also felt fairly frail.

Even though I wasn't too big of a fan of the battles, I loved most of the animation, though how Ash managed to know how to directly counter Black Hole Eclipse without even seeing it at any point before this episode surprised me. Ash's Lycanroc learning Counter was great though since half of its moveset consists of its species' signature moves. Looking forward to see how it's Z-Move plays out later in the series.

FINAL SCORE:
7/10
 
I know I'm no battle aficionada, but these last 2 episodes have fallen flat IMO due to Satoshi's Pokemon withstanding a ridiculous number of direct hits and then KO'ing their opponent with minimal return attacks. It was nice to see a little more strategy tried to be incorporated here (and I loved Kuchinashi trying to psych Satoshi out) but overall... meh.

Hope we're done with Lugarugan development for the foreseeable. It's time for a little birb action (MOKUROH I MEAN YOU - WAKE THE F UP!)
 
I know I'm no battle aficionada, but these last 2 episodes have fallen flat IMO due to Satoshi's Pokemon withstanding a ridiculous number of direct hits and then KO'ing their opponent with minimal return attacks. It was nice to see a little more strategy tried to be incorporated here (and I loved Kuchinashi trying to psych Satoshi out) but overall... meh.

Hope we're done with Lugarugan development for the foreseeable. It's time for a little birb action (MOKUROH I MEAN YOU - WAKE THE F UP!)
At least Lycanroc can now perform its exclusive Z-move. Actually giving Ash a Darknium-Z would be good too, but he didn't want it.
 
Awfully written battle? Check
Crappy animation team, episode full of stiff motions? Check

SM battles in a nutshell. Todays shitshow was no different. Not a single one of the three trial battles have been any good.

And to rub it in next episode looks awesome since it has Iwane and Tomioka working on it. One would think that a battle episode which requires good animation and writing to be good should be handed to them instead...
 
Awfully written battle? Check
Crappy animation team, episode full of stiff motions? Check

SM battles in a nutshell. Todays shitshow was no different. Not a single one of the three trial battles have been any good.

And to rub it in next episode looks awesome since it has Iwane and Tomioka working on it. One would think that a battle episode which requires good animation and writing to be good should be handed to them instead...
The Olivia battle was great in terms of animation, idk what you're talking about.
 
At least Lycanroc can now perform its exclusive Z-move. Actually giving Ash a Darknium-Z would be good too, but he didn't want it.
Ash was actually quite excited at the prospect of getting a Darkinium Z, but Nanu wanted to give him a Lycanium Z instead.
IMG_7028.jpg
But yeah, I'm kinda surprised/disappointed that Ash didn't get a Darkinium Z, I can understand them not wanting to overuse it as the TRio has one, but I also expected Ash's to become an Incinium Z along with his Rockium Z becoming a Lycanium Z like how his Electrium Z transforms, sort of a way of signifying how close Ash is to Lycanroc and Torracat, but there goes those ideas and I guess Ash having 3 Z-Crystals transform would be a whole new level of gimmicky.
 
I wonder what's the point of the Rockium-Z now, though. It would be cool if Satoshi could exchange it for a different one somehow.

the animation was atrocious
I'm sorry but I can't take you seriously after saying that. Even at its worst it was serviceable, some reused shots were annoying, but they were short enough and not badly animated, not particularly "incredible" either but fairly decent. The intermissions were the most mediocre part, but I don't remember any battle beside's the Kanto ones in Sun & Moon where they were beyond just okay. It's definitely not the best battle ever, but it was definitely good, and it had a lot of great and outright impressive shots in it.
 
Can we just talk about how amazing the art and animation was on Satoshi when he started to lose his cool?

My favourite one has to be the details on Satoshi's scared face when he's yelling at Lugarugan to calm down.

Yes there was average animation too, but it was never stiff and shows how much it's improved in Sun & Moon.
 
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I wonder what's the point of the Rockium-Z now, though. It would be cool if Satoshi could exchange it for a different one somehow.


I'm sorry but I can't take you seriously after saying that. Even at its worst it was serviceable, some reused shots were annoying, but they were short enough and not badly animated, not particularly "incredible" either but fairly decent. The intermissions were the most mediocre part, but I don't remember any battle beside's the Kanto ones in Sun & Moon where they were beyond just okay. It's definitely not the best battle ever, but it was definitely good, and it had a lot of great and outright impressive shots in it.

You could say the same about Normalium Z too, but who knows it might still have a use somewhere or when. We have no idea on Mon#5's moves after all, or Mon#6 is Poipole leaves and Ash has time to get a Alolan equiv. of Gible.
 
Awfully written battle? Check
Crappy animation team, episode full of stiff motions? Check

SM battles in a nutshell. Todays shitshow was no different. Not a single one of the three trial battles have been any good.

And to rub it in next episode looks awesome since it has Iwane and Tomioka working on it. One would think that a battle episode which requires good animation and writing to be good should be handed to them instead...
I’m actually somewhat surprised we haven’t seen a trial battle episode from Iwane yet.

Maybe they’re doing a Wulfric and keeping him for the last one.
 
You could say the same about Normalium Z too, but who knows it might still have a use somewhere or when. We have no idea on Mon#5's moves after all, or Mon#6 is Poipole leaves and Ash has time to get a Alolan equiv. of Gible.
I don't think it's the same, since he can still use it with Pikachu, Nyaheat and Mokuroh. It's his only normal-type Z-Move as well and he could use it to overcome some type disadvantage, where as with Lugarugan-Z and Rock-Z, both could only be used by Lugarugan, and assuming the former is stronger than the latter (like in the games) then there's no point in using the Rock Z-crystal.

Also, Normal-Z is the only Z-crystal Satoshi has that is compatible with Nyaheat right now.
 
I like how Tapu Bulu sort of implied Nanu was a dick (or at least subtly berating him) for forcing Ash to use 1 Pokemon against 3 of his Pokemon by giving Ash a Sitrus berry after Sableye to use to restore Lycanroc's energy.

Tapu Bulu basically "Okay Nanu, you can make up whatever rules you want, but that doesn't mean its going to be as simple as you think it will be. Ash's Lycanroc is going to eat this sitrus berry so the Grand Trial is more fair to Ash. I saw what you were trying to do, but I'm putting a stop to that.

You could say the same about Normalium Z too,
How, when every Pokemon can at least use Normalium-Z, while the Lycanroc Z-move is a direct upgrade to the rock type Z-move and even requires a rock type move (Stone Edge) as a base.

As annoying as it would be, I feel as if it would be better if Ash's Rock type Z-move permanently upgraded to Lycanroc Z-move, because otherwise its redundant, since I highly doubt anyone else is going to have a rock type move.
 
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Why everyone want rock z crystal transform into lycanium z crystal??? That Pikachu z crystal is exclusive to Ash only.. that's why it transform ... But other crystal are not exclusive one...

During the arc, I hope Ash could get 2 crystal like previous one.. but I disappointed, he got only one crystal .
I hope he got incireum z crystal from professor kukui after defeating him.
When he going to get steelium z crystal? I am waiting for that....
 
Why everyone want rock z crystal transform into lycanium z crystal??? That Pikachu z crystal is exclusive to Ash only.. that's why it transform ... But other crystal are not exclusive one...
.

It's not so much that I wanted it to, but if they're just going to make up random bullcrap rules about giving Z-crystals, and basically argued that hey Torracat will have to evolve to get its own Z-crystal (not counting the one for every Pokemon), it's very poor taste for Nanu to give Ash a Z-crystal which in turn makes the Z-crystal Ash got from Olivia completely useless and redundant.

With no other Pokemon having a rock type move, it literally makes no sense that the immediate Grand Trial right after the previous one, completely replaces the Z-crystal Ash got especially since Ash didn't get anything in between.

That has to be one of the worst writing examples they have ever done in the anime.

Not counting the Solgaleo Z crystal because Ash can't use it, if he even still has it. The z-crystals obtained sort of went as followed (just the last few):

Grass Type Z Crystal (Right before Olivia)
Rock Type Z-crystal (Upon defeating Olivia)
Lycanroc Z-crystal (Upon defeating Nanu)

There's no buffer, and Ash is robbed of a Z-crystal since he didn't even have a proper trial in Ula'Ula, as such he didn't get either the Ghost or anime wise the Steel Z-crystal (since Ash already has the Electric Z-crystal).

So having the rock type Z-crystal transform into the Lycanroc Z-crystal, and Nanu giving Ash a different Z-crystal would've made FAR more sense, than Ash receiving a Z-crystal making the precise last legitimate Z-crystal he got completely useless and redundant.
 
Actually saw the episode raw, I don't see the issue with the battle flow myself. I mean the only one that really took only a single hit to defeat after delivering multiple ones was Sableye, and that is pretty fitting given Sableye's stats.
 
I think, during alola Pokemon league, Ash may be use his old Pokemon corresponding to his z crystal.. because still not confirmed about last two slots Pokemon of Ash..( poipole will return to ultra world before Pokemon league)
 
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