Preview SM128: The Curtain Rises! The Alola Pokémon League!!

[BigDocFan]

Since Ash and his classmates will be competing in this league, the only problem is the full team of six Pokemon. I mean, Ash has 5 Pokemon, Kiawe has 2, not counting his Charizard, Sophocles two, Lana 2, Mallow 1, and also taking care of Shaymin, and Lillie with just one Pokemon. A trainer must have a full team in order to compete to the league.

Which makes me suspect full battles won't be a thing, other characters can get away as they can catch them off screen

 

[Silktree]

One of the more enjoyable Pokèmon rivals in the game and yet anime-wise, he has had ONE, just one single episode with no time whatsoever to give him some extra appearances (Cameron, Sawyer, even Gladion).

I can think of three better rivals that didn't appear at all. His inclusion in the poster and opening was kind of misleading, though.

 

[radek.tadajewski.7]

Which makes me suspect full battles won't be a thing, other characters can get away as they can catch them off screen

Yeah, after all, 3 against 3 Pokemon battle is still good enough.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Since Ash and his classmates will be competing in this league, the only problem is the full team of six Pokemon. I mean, Ash has 5 Pokemon, Kiawe has 2, not counting his Charizard, Sophocles two, Lana 2, Mallow 1, and also taking care of Shaymin, and Lillie with just one Pokemon. A trainer must have a full team in order to compete to the league.

At this point its pretty obvious that the rule's getting thrown out of the window.
I’m preparing myself for Mallow and Lillie throwing Shaymin and Magearna into battle in spite of not catching them.

 

[Daenerys]

It still hurts to know just how awful this League is bound to be. It's becoming a circus since everyone and their mom is competing, and now that Team Rocket and Team Skull are hanging around there's probably going to be some hilarious hijinx happening that we don't really need.

 

[BigDocFan]

I'm hoping Team Skull's presence may indicate Guzma will take part, hopefully Plumeria too

 

[Gligarman]

I can think of three better rivals that didn't appear at all. His inclusion in the poster and opening was kind of misleading, though.

I know right! I was so disappointed that he didn't have more appearances. I would have thought he'd be a main character at the start of the show.

 

[Pulsaro23]

So the Alola "League" is starting in almost a month? Huh. Well, can't wait to see how much of a train wreck this is gonna be.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

What pains me the most is that we’ll likely see all the cute first stages beating up fully evolved pokemon and then someone in the crowd saying “hmm, X has surely grown stronger during these weeks of training.”

 

[mehmeh1]

Heh, you know what would be funny for this ep? That when the main cast gets to the stadium, as TR and TS are there, for the main cast to be like "what are you doing here?" and TR says "we're joing too, twerps" and TS says "and we're going to destroy you all"

 

[Twilight-Kun]

The League kicks off right after Lillie gets Megearna

Can't wait to see her instantly become a good battler with it despite knowing nothing about it

"I read a book about Megearna and now know how to use it properly!"

 

[Galactic_V]

FINALLY! Right on my birthday xD

I'll be able to watch SM again.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I'll be in Chile when this and the next episode air. Something to look forward to when I'm on the other side of the planet.

 

[Daenerys]

What pains me the most is that we’ll likely see all the cute first stages beating up fully evolved pokemon and then someone in the crowd saying “hmm, X has surely grown stronger during these weeks of training.”

And I'll laugh at the anime's audacity to treat us viewers like fools by attempting to make us think that some [mostly] off screen training actually made this much of a difference.

 

[ii kanji]

Hey you know what would be interesting?... If the TRio participate as themselves. That would be weird and awesome.

 

[BigDocFan]

Hey you know what would be interesting?... If the TRio participate as themselves. That would be weird and awesome.

How long before an Officer Jenny comes along and arrests them I wonder lol
Wonder if Giovanni and/or Matori will watch them in action and be unimpressed

 

[JFrombaugh]

Predictions:
-Even with two mythicals on their side, Lillie and Mallow will end up being defeated in the first round (it’ll be explained in-universe as Magearna wasn’t properly fixed in SM127 after all, while Shaymin will chicken out of the battle forcing Mallow to forfeit because she doesn’t have that Gracidea flower that turns it into its powerful and brave Sky Forme)
-Z-Moves will be spammed like crazy, and in most cases will effectively function as an Instant Win attack.
-Kiawe will lose to Lana, causing him to sink into his worst depressive episode ever.
-Ash will lose to Hau and his ultra powerful team that we don’t even know yet apart from presumably Decidueye.
-Hau will in turn lose to Masked Royal, and Professor Kukui will become Champion of the League he built himself, although naturally, nobody will be any the wiser. Thereby confirming that he is a Creators Pet just like in the games.

 

[Kurolegacy]

On the other hand, this league will probably feature the most known characters participating on the league at once. I would not be surprised if it actually turned out to be the longest league by a significant margin.

Considering most of the people we’ve seen in SM just own Pokémon and aren’t battle oriented trainers, I doubt this league is any longer than the usual length. Hell they’ll probably skip battles or show us super short battles where the recurring characters are concerned.

 

[KyseL]

Considering most of the people we’ve seen in SM just own Pokémon and aren’t battle oriented trainers, I doubt this league is any longer than the usual length. Hell they’ll probably skip battles or show us super short battles where the recurring characters are concerned.

Even if they decided to skip some battles, I'm pretty confident at least 1 battle per classmate is guaranteed, I seriously doubt they'd skip the battles where they'd be kicked out of the league. Then there's Ash vs Masked Royal and Ash vs Gladion which I seriously doubt won't happen. Then there's whatever they decide to do with the TRio and Team Skull, and on top of that there's still Ilima and Hau, which will most likely still be featured in at least one battle. Even if they decided to have three 1 on 1 battles per episodes for the classmates, and 3v3 for later stages and 1 or 2 6v6 for semifinals/finals, there's a lot of material for the league.

 

[SammyW27]

Also, if SM ends at 138, the League will last for about 7-8 episodes.

Oh please. It'll be tied with the Isshu League for the shortest. If not shorter.

I predict 5 episodes. Hell, maybe 4. I predict a lot of one hit KOs from Z-Moves, and/or not showing full battles like something out of BW.
Sure, there are a lot of characters here, but there were a bunch of people in the Junior Cup and Isshu League and look what happened there...
Especially since NO ONE has a full team. Hell, most of the classmates only have 2 Pokemon each...and half of each one's "team" hasn't done fuck shit...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I can't even believe they bothered with a League when there's barely even been any battling at all in this saga.