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Review SM141: Final Battle! Satoshi VS Kukui!!

I know that there is no trophy at stake here. I just thought it was funny how Blast Burn and Blaze always has to play an important role during the final league battles. :LOL: Can't they come up with something different?

But why did they chose to give Satoshi a trophy before he defeated Kukui? It would probably have been more tension if something was at stake during the final battle. It feels a little weird to be honest since all of the other final league battles had a sense of finality even (in my opinion) bad leagues like the BW league.
 
Certainly surprised that no one went down yet, but given the showing of Incineroar so far the bount against both Torracat and Lycanroc was nice to see.
 
I womder if Ash recalling Torracat’s gonna have any consequence to their relationship.

As everyone’s been saying, Ash let Rowlet and Lycanroc battle their rivals undisturbed and Torracat saw that.

That recalling moment seemed quite serious.
 
I womder if Ash recalling Torracat’s gonna have any consequence to their relationship.

As everyone’s been saying, Ash let Rowlet and Lycanroc battle their rivals undisturbed and Torracat saw that.

That recalling moment seemed quite serious.

Wasn't Torracat literally smoking at that point?
 
I womder if Ash recalling Torracat’s gonna have any consequence to their relationship.

As everyone’s been saying, Ash let Rowlet and Lycanroc battle their rivals undisturbed and Torracat saw that.

That recalling moment seemed quite serious.
Wasn't Torracat literally smoking at that point?
Yup. And Ash even waited for Torracat's approval before recalling it.
 
I seriously thought from the preview Lugarugan was either going to learn a new move or that Bite had a new visual effect. Can't believe it didn't occur to me it was carrying a Stone Edge fragment.

Anyway, the battle was nicely hyped up even if it did kick off slowly. Nyaheat is definitely wanting to evolve, which is how I see it ending the battle against Gaogaen. Speaking of which, it just occured to me that Satoshi's main two Pokemon opponents in this league were Cross' Pokemon in I Choose You.
 
That last Blast Burn (used by Alain's Charizard) was so instense. It re-used again (this time with Kukui's Incineroar), but Ash's Torracat absorbed the firey necklace, but it was burned, which Ash was forced to recall.

I give this episode a B.
 
Geez, what a boring first episode to a full battle. I think there was more talking going on between Ash and Kukui than actual battling. I'm disappointing that the majority of this part was just Torracat vs. his evolution, both of which got recalled, and no one has gone down yet. It feels like they're going to really drag this battle out. Hopefully we get some K.O.s in the next episode. Honestly, Burnet was the most entertaining part of this episode.

6/10. Not horrid, but could have been much better.
 
Geez, what a boring first episode to a full battle. I think there was more talking going on between Ash and Kukui than actual battling. I'm disappointing that the majority of this part was just Torracat vs. his evolution, both of which got recalled, and no one has gone down yet. It feels like they're going to really drag this battle out. Hopefully we get some K.O.s in the next episode. Honestly, Burnet was the most entertaining part of this episode.

6/10. Not horrid, but could have been much better.
It's buildup. Have patience and understanding.
 
Finally saw the episode with subs, it was build up as expected, but I think what made it 'boring' was the well...lack of excitement. True, the Torracat bell "ringing" displaying its heat levels and desire to fight I think is truly foreshadowing for evolution.

Next up, I think it was a dull battle because Ash just kept spamming Flame Charge like every other battle between the firey kitties. Why was there no Revenge? Super effective damage would've been a perk considering how easily Incineroar was tanking/blocking Fire Blast, Fire Fang and Flame Charge.

I've seen a few comments that made me go "At least I wasn't the only thing thinking this..." there was far more talking than actual battling during the fight. Geez...why didn't Ash go for Stone Edge on a recharging Incineroar instead of Accelorock?

Oh well, it was cool to see the pooch inflict some damage leading to Tony to Tiger going back into its Poke ball for now.

Curious why Ash didn't just switch to Pikachu vs. Braviary...not to mention I'm shocked Kukui would call it out against a rock type.

Haha do you think one of the reasons Ash didn't get a water type this region was because it would allow too much of an advantage against some of his main Pokemon from rivals like Lycanroc, Incineroar, etc. lol just saying
 
Alright, review time!

Pros:
Some of the reactions to the Masked Royal reveal were flat out hilarious with notable examples being Burnet fainting (of course), Faba's jaw drop and Lana's PikaSurprise. I'm very very VERY glad that Team Rocket and Bewear didn't appear at all, considering how much they wasted screentime during the entire League with a poor payoff for all of it. Or any filler scenes for that matter.
Thankfully, the full battle suggestion came before the battle itself and after the League. It would've been insulting to the Manalo finals if it was planned from the start. We also finally have visual evidence of Ash retaining the balls of his unofficially released Pokemon so he can recall them when they wish to return (Greninja pls).
Despite some people saying otherwise in the Preview thread, Ash does acknowledge Torracat's rivalry with Incineroar and it's given a lot of focus in this episode. I hope those little clues with the bell and attempting to absorb the Fire energy means an evolution is around the corner. Torracat seemed to be struggling from holding the power in.
Overall, the animation was pretty spot on except a few instances involving recycled animation for Stone Edge and Flame Charge, though the repetition of the latter move itself is a good idea to increase Torracat's speed for later bouts, especially the one against the slow moving Venusaur according to the preview.

Cons:
Pre-battle segments could have used a bit of cropping given how much time they consumed. And for such a huge unmasking/reveal of the Masked Royal, there was barely any fanfare outside the initial reactions and people close to Kukui. What was the point of him being masked at all, much less being unmasked outside of general comical reactions? Near sick of ninja clash tropes, they could have showed Lycanroc actually ducking under Incineroar's arm and slicing it instead of that ninja trope.

Bonus:
For some reason, the previous episode's animation looked better in this episode's recap segment. Dunno if it's just me though.
How can Ash rotate like that? I tried it and the floor enjoyed my faceplant.
I do hope that little segment about Melmetal specifically training pays off in the end (same applies to Naganadel), don't want another Goodra/Noivern.
Why did they change Blast Burn's animation? It looked like a generic overpowered Flamethrower/Fire Blast now whereas it looked unique back in XY. Also, Lycanroc imitates Zacian, Gen 8 tease?

Verdict: Episode gets a 9.5/10 for being nearly perfect especially after last week's boring "bridge".

Finally saw the episode with subs, it was build up as expected, but I think what made it 'boring' was the well...lack of excitement. True, the Torracat bell "ringing" displaying its heat levels and desire to fight I think is truly foreshadowing for evolution.

Next up, I think it was a dull battle because Ash just kept spamming Flame Charge like every other battle between the firey kitties. Why was there no Revenge? Super effective damage would've been a perk considering how easily Incineroar was tanking/blocking Fire Blast, Fire Fang and Flame Charge.

I've seen a few comments that made me go "At least I wasn't the only thing thinking this..." there was far more talking than actual battling during the fight. Geez...why didn't Ash go for Stone Edge on a recharging Incineroar instead of Accelorock?

Oh well, it was cool to see the pooch inflict some damage leading to Tony to Tiger going back into its Poke ball for now.

Curious why Ash didn't just switch to Pikachu vs. Braviary...not to mention I'm shocked Kukui would call it out against a rock type.

Haha do you think one of the reasons Ash didn't get a water type this region was because it would allow too much of an advantage against some of his main Pokemon from rivals like Lycanroc, Incineroar, etc. lol just saying
How the hell do you have 1k+ messages but just 6 reaction score?
 
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This episode had very little action so there’s really not much to praise here. However, since the episode has such little action there also isn’t much to ridicule. It was a fine opening of a (hopefully) 3 episode battle. Happy to see that Ash does care about Torracat and Incineroar’s rivalry (I didn’t watch with subs but I imagine that’s what Ash was talking to Torracat about). We got a “best of both worlds” with Ash letting Torracat battle Incineroar and calling it back when it was in trouble, substituting for a Pokémon better suited for the battle. Since Incineroar was also recalled I imagine the two fire cats will get a chance to battle again. Overall Score: 6/10

Edit: watched the episode again (watching it once at 5 am probably wasn’t the best idea). I enjoyed this episode much more than I initially realized. With all the speaking it was helpful to understand what was actually being said. Anyway, the battle actually looks very clean and Ash is coming up with some great strategies. I Can’t wait to see “Blast Nyaheat” again! New Overall Score: 8/10
 
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I love how Masafumi Mima put the "Battle at the Summit!" OST when the battle started. Very fitting, though it ended abruptly and unnecessarily (no need to stop it and then play the XY Rival theme. Just keep the first one going!) Also, the battle had consistent animation quality, something none of the previous League battles had IMO.

By the way, is it just me or have the Dare Da segments been missing in the latest episodes? The music just cuts off before the commercial break for me. What's up with that?

After "absorbing" that Blast Burn, why didn't Ash go for a full power Fire Blast or something? I mean seems like Torracat was wanting to release the absorbed flames into an even bigger attack or something...
I found tragically hilarious how they spent so much time talking about it, that it just ended up running out of power before Ash could do anything.
 
By the way, is it just me or have the Dare Da segments been missing in the latest episodes? The music just cuts off before the commercial break for me. What's up with that?
I've been watching the episode streams, and I can confirm that's the case. The pre- and post-reveal pictures in the segment have been replaced with Pokémon GO photographs for I believe throughout the entire League arc. They seem to pop up in later airings, though, based on the fact that Bulbapedia is still able to get screenshots from them eventually.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 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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