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Review SM108: Inside Kapu-Rehire's Mist

On the subject of the English Dub, I highly doubt it would censor death as its never been afraid of the subject. Unlike Digimon (in both original and worse in English) and Sailor Moon's 90's dub, Pokemon hasn't shyed away from the subject as if its taboo.

This season has dealt with loss on more than one occasion and the dub (from what I saw) handled it pretty well.

I'll watch the episode probably tonight or tomorrow.
 
Dub smacking aside, a point I noticed.

Bounsweet/Steenee/Tsareena's been with Mallow a lot longer than we thought. Some have raised issue about the fact that the fairly unactive grass-type evolved so quickly, but if she's been around for a while that means she has been slowly but steadily getting to that point. A 'slowly training for a long time' argument to why said mon got to the point of evolving twice.

Or at least that's something I might jot down on TV tropes at some point.
 
Teared up while watching live and then cried when watching with translation... Good episode. I'm also happy with Hapu's development.
 
Of all the dumb things... why the hell did I watch this on the train coming home from work?! (Picture a grown woman trying to be secret about bawling her eyes out surrounded by a bunch of teenage girls on their way back from a concert...)

Fantastic episode for Mao and star mention Hapu'u. No doubt about it the tear-inducing episode mystery is officially solved, especially because it was beautifully scored in addition to the outstanding voice performances.

The Shaymin thing is just weird though.
 
WOW, what a powerful episode. Showing once again how radically Gen 7, both the games and the anime, can veer wildly between very lighthearted and super dark and touching! (sniff)

Up until the synopsis teaser of this episode was revealed, I never foresaw this whole power of Tapu Fini's fog allowing people to meet their deceased loved ones actually being a part of the Poni Island arc, because in the games this is never mentioned as being one of its powers - rather, Lillie initially seeks it out because she believes its healing waters can heal Nebby. I was kind of expecting there'd be something similar, like maybe Hapu wanting to use its healing water to save her grandfather, but in the end he dies and she becomes Kahuna in his place. But I'm not complaining, this was an excellent way to dramatically reveal Mallow's troubled past with her mother as well as confirm that Mohn is not in fact dead and that probably he will be reappearing later on and reunite with Lusamine, Gladion and Lillie towards the end of this series.

A major theme of the Harry Potter series was death. Sesame Street brought death up several times. Many Disney movies and animated shows had good-aligned characters die, including ones that are preschooler-oriented.

The deaths of Latios in M05, Lucario in M08, Luxray in M20, and Snubbull in M21 were not altered to fake deaths in the English dub, and it is directly stated that Arceus was dying in M12.

If TPCI changes it so that Stoutland and Mallow's mother are "merely trapped in another dimension awaiting rescue", or some other nonsense, or just bans the episode if it means keeping preschoolers from being traumatized despite the other shows, films, and games they watch/play being open on the topic, I would not know what to say.

In M11, when Giratina gets caught in Zero's machine that absorbs its energy, the English dub dances around the idea of it possibly dying as a result while the Japanese version says it outright. Oh, and speaking of which...

I wonder what the odds are that this Shaymin will be able to talk through telepathy and will actually be kind of a jerk who nevertheless manages to get Mallow to love her, just like the Shaymin in M11? Not very good, I know...but M11 has always been one of my favorite movies and I think it would be cool if they had some sort of shoutout(s) to it in the episodes to come.
 
I know this thread is for SM108 alone but... I actually hadn't taken the time to watch anything past the Misty/Brock episodes (I guess I was just that salty about them), so I only now caught up. And by golly these have been some of the best SM episodes we've gotten, definetly my favorite arc so far in this series.

I'm not feeling like reviewing much, but I just love how the arc has focused on all the characters on such personal levels. Each time I was afraid they'd shove some characters aside but they really went all-out and made it 6-episodes long, and on top of that they never dropped them altogether when some episode wasn't focusing on them, and ON TOP OF THAT they've also made enough room to strongly establish Hapu (yes I liked the Poni Radish filler scenes we had last episode).

As for this one in particular... it was really good, but a bit of foreshadowing on Mallow's mom throughout the series would've been nice too. Death is kind of a difficult topic to take on, and it seems like the amount of deceased characters featured, plus the set-up and exposition needed, was a bit too much to work properly within 20 minutes. It's weird because the episode wasn't particularly fast-paced (except for the Flash Cannon part, on second thought).
 
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Geez I think this is the saddest episode of the Pokemon anime I've ever seen. And I've cried a lot at the Pokemon anime over the years, but holy HELL this was heart-wrenching. Mallow's one of my favorite characters so naturally it hit me pretty hard, but even with that bias aside I still think this episode would have ruined my life if it had been anyone else. Just...wow.
 
Another Pokemon Sun and Moon episode that tackles the subject of death. Watching the episode made me tear up. I am in awe how Mallow and her mother finally be able to reconnect and make up. I do think Shaymin is a form of gratitude from Mallow's mother and when it changes into its Sky-forme that means Mallow was able to really reciprocate her gratitude to her mother.
 
Glad to see some much deserved character growth for Mallow. Definitely one of the stronger episodes of the series (even if they had to take some STRONG liberties). It left me with a better impression of her. Would've liked something like this sooner, but better late than never. Still do not care one bit about Hapu.
 
Who could be lillie's father?

Could it tbe that guzma her father? Hope not because I love her and hate him
 
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Having now seen the subtitled version I think the episode is even more powerful. Mallow's mother was in and out of hospital at least once before, which combined with her short hair leads one to infer that she may have been being treated for cancer. By the time we saw her her hair was starting to grow out again, indicating that she might have been told that there was nothing more they could do for her and to spend as much time as she could with her family.

If this is indeed the case then it's likely that she caught Bounsweet specifically as a final gift to her daughter knowing that she was going to die soon. When she went into hospital she was most likely aware that she wouldn't be coming out this time. Without understanding the dialogue I initially thought Mallow simply didn't understand why her mother wouldn't come home and was angry that she was away from her family, not realizing that her mother was about to die at the time. Having now seen the episode subtitled Mallow's outburst becomes more clear and much more tragic.

Assuming her parents didn't tell Mallow that her mother was about to die, probably because they wanted her final memories of her mother to be happy without the devastating knowledge that she was going to die looming over them, Mallow may have figured out on her own that something was wrong and simply not known how to handle the emotion that was building because of it, so when her mother gave yet another unwanted apology the dam broke and she had an outburst of raw emotion she never wanted to have.

Alternatively she did know that her mother was going to die but was not able to process this at such a young age, again resulting in the dam suppressing her emotions breaking under the weight of her mother apologizing to her one too many times.

Either way I'm sure that she did not intend nor mean to tell her mother that she hated her. The pain she must have suffered when she calmed down and realized what she had said only to find that her mother was gone before she could say sorry and tell her how she really felt is something that no-one should ever have to go through, let alone a child. If watching this happen to Mallow in the episode has successfully taught even one viewer to be careful what they say to people then it already ranks as one of the most important episodes in the series.

I don't know if Aya Matsui had any of that in mind when writing the episode, but either way she, Reina Ueda and the other staff at OLM have created some extremely powerful television, rivaling some of the most heavy-hitting adult dramas. I sincerely hope that the dub manages to create the same level of emotional weight when it tackles this episode in the coming months. It has a reasonable chance of being decent; TPCi have been respectful regarding depictions of death in the past and Jessica Paquet has proven that she can convincingly cry back in Tasting the Bitter with the Sweet!. Provided Ed Goldfarb manages to come through with a suitably poignant score we might be looking at a good watch even in English.
 
Thanks for the answer. I really did not know him at all. I don't know that there is one called Mohn and you can challenge him
 
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