Review SM145: The Sun, the Moon, and Everyone's Dreams!

[KennyC222]

so sad when Alolan journey is about to be ended. I wish I could see more when Ash returns to Alola again (Also Kalos!) in the next anime series!

 

[KenzeyEevee]

I guess Kiawe's Charizard isn't as strong as the Charizards if Ash and Alain.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I guess Kiawe's Charizard isn't as strong as the Charizards if Ash and Alain.

That's understandable. It's mainly a Ride Pokémon, not a battler.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Not really... Kiawe's Charizard previously belonged to his grandfather, who was a Kahuna.

Yeah. But Kiawe personally hasn't used it in battles as much as his two other Pokémon.

 

[BigDocFan]

Not really... Kiawe's Charizard previously belonged to his grandfather, who was a Kahuna.

True but that indicates that Charizard is older than most Charizard and as with humans, the older you become, the less strong you are (For the most part)

 

[BigDocFan]

Fair enough, but I was merely correcting that point about Finnish stating that Charizard is mainly a ride Pokemon.

True, I attribute Charizard's loss to three things

1: Lack of recent battle experience
2: Age
3: Type disadvantage

 

[Gligarman]

In terms of hitting emotional points, I’m surprised the fact that Kukui is the closet thing Satoshi has had to a father aside from Okido hasn’t been directly addressed. That’s why I always liked their interactions. It’s a dynamic I would have liked to have seen more. I’m hoping we get a bit of that in the next episode.

 

[DarkraiKnight]

In terms of hitting emotional points, I’m surprised the fact that Kukui is the closet thing Satoshi has had to a father aside from Okido hasn’t been directly addressed. That’s why I always liked their interactions. It’s a dynamic I would have liked to have seen more. I’m hoping we get a bit of that in the next episode.

Well, Lana kind of addressed it...

 

[Pulsaro23]

One day, I'm gonna write my reviews on time and not a few days before the next episode's premier. Unfortunately, that day ain't this week.

Okay, so the episode starts off with Ash and his party of Pokémon enjoying their first post-league breakfast (with the camera also zooming in on Ash's Manalo Conference trophy, as well as what I assume is his trophy for defeating Kukui in their exhibition match), when suddenly, an Ultra Wormhole appears and Nagarnadal decides to leave through it. Because of course it does. Can't have Ash own to many powerful Pokémon now, so, instead, we're gonna quickly get rid of Negenadil in a very rushed goodbye scene, further solidifying its status as a plot device.

Moving on, we then go to the Pokémon School, where, thanks to Kukui asking his class about their future plans, we learn about their new goals and dreams. Sophocles is going to visit Mossdeep City and the space center there with Molayne, Lana plans on helping her father with an ocean survey about Manaphy of all things ('cause we haven't had enough mythicals and legendaries in this series already), Mallow plans on revamping her family's restaurant so that both people and Pokémon could go there (finally, a goal that she actually has to work hard towards to accomplish) and Lillie plans on reawakening Magearna. Nice to see that they've finally given some of the classmates some better and more tangible goals... in the second to kriffing last episode of the series. Seriously, what is wrong with the writing in this series? Why couldn't we have had these be their goals to begin with, instead of having half of them be either aimless or already very good at their goals for most of the series?

Moving on once more, we get some scenes of Ash not knowing what his plans for the future are and wondering what he should do now which, in theory, could've been very interesting, but practically, fall very short and ended up being very annoying. Really, moments like Pikachu being very happy and smiley as Ash is visibly dreary, Rotom being shocked at the idea of Ash thinking (seriously, kriff you, you stupid, annoying and unlikable piece of garbage) and Ash and Pikachu pulling some funny faces just dragged down what was supposed to be a key scene of the episode. Thankfully things get a little better, as we then get some nice scenes of the classmates preparing to follow their dreams, as well as a nice moment where all of Ash and the gang's Pokémon are enjoying Mallow's first Pokémon menu. And we also got some scenes of Lillie trying (and failing) to activate Magearna, getting encouraged by her classmates to not give up, trying to fix her Soul Heart and finding the sketch of Zoroark sleeping next to Magearna in Mohn's journal, which were all nice to see.

We then suddenly and without a transition switch to Ash's battle with Kiawe, which a match between Charizard and... Lycanroc. Lycanroc? LYCNAROC?! Seriously, why it? Don't get me wrong, I love the Rock puppy as much as the next guy, but hasn't it gotten a lot of focus already, since it basically is Ash's regional ace? Didn't it have an entire story that focused on it overcoming an internal struggle and it gaining control of a strong power-up? Couldn't it have been Incineroar that was battling Charizard (and don't give me the "they were on a budget and had to recycle animations" excuse; they could've recycled Kukui's Incineroar's animations, since the two share the exact same design)? Anyways, the battle was pretty underwhelming. The animations was a huge downgrade from the previous episodes and, while it was nice to see Kiawe's Charizard perform Inferno Overdrive for the first time, its animation was very unexciting. And the battle even ended in a lackluster Z-move clash, from which Lycanroc obviously came victorious. Then we learn the Kiawe plans on continuing his Island Challenge and dreams of becoming the Kahuna of Akala Island, which is a fitting dream for him and great way of honouring his grandfather's memory (and it's something that, again, should've been there since episode 1). And we also had an interesting lecture from Olivia about how important it is to travel around the world and learn from such a journey in order to become stronger (hmm, is that foreshadowing I smell?).

And, finally, we reach what is probably the best part of this episode. Gladion arrives the Aether Mansion, having been called by Hobbes. He then sends out Zoroark, per Lillie's request, who, after recognizing Magearna, creates an Illusion of one of Lillie's interactions with it while Mohn was still there, as well as very heartwarming moment of when baby Lillie learned to walk for the very first time as she was trying to reach Magearna, with all of her family being incredibly happy for her and her father congratulating her. This leads to her crying, as she starts to miss her father even more, which, in turn, leads to Magearna being reactivated because of the sudden burst of emotions from Lillie (I guess? They never actually make it clear) and then proceeds to have a bouquet of flowers pop out of one of its arms à la Movie 19 Magearna (except the animation was more wooden), which was a pretty cool reference. And, just like that, Lillie completed her goal. Again. Makes me wonder what she's gonna do next (idk... maybe go help her family search for Mohn? Well, that would explain why her and her family are leaving in the next episode).

And so, we reach the end of the episode, with Ash thinking back to Olivia's words after his battle with Kiawe as his Pokémon are sleeping, which inspire him to go on a journey around the world, leading to him deciding to return home in Pallet Town before starting his visit of the past regions, thus setting up the premise for the new series (while also pretty much confirming that the SS series is a continuation of the current anime and not a reboot (not that's stopping people from claiming otherwise)).

So, overall, this episode was kind of a mixed bag. Some moments, like Lillie reactivating Magearna and Olivia inspiring Ash to travel the world (thus setting up the grounds for the SS series) were pretty great moments, but the rest were either bland, boring or downright infuriating and annoying. And all the jump cuts from one scene to another, most of them with a very noticeable lack of a proper transition, as well as the underwhelming and very poor animation, really made this episode jarring to watch. Thank Arceus that the new series' animation is looking far superior (not to mention more fluid, dynamic and intense) than Sun & Moon's (now here's hoping that it will actually be constantly good and not get worse as the series progresses).

 

[BigDocFan]

I'll be glad to be rid of Rotom and Rowlet at the end of this series, both have been too comedic for my liking

 

[BigDocFan]

I doubt Rotom is going anywhere, though I'll be happy if Rowlet is used less often when Ash decides to rotate his reserves.

Whilst part of me would love to see Ash use his underused reserves, I reckon he'll start fresh and catch new older Pokemon along the way

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

I disagree. Despite of its absurdity, creating bubbles for underwater expedition was a more interesting goal than some out of nowhere expedition to catch Manaphy

 

[SwadloonBoy]

Binging these last 2 episodes together
Farewell Sun & Moon series, this is gonna be rough

• we already have to say goodbye to Naganadel one minute into the ep ;(
• I wonder if the rest of Ash’s team will be let go in this ep or if they’ll just be forced to live with Kukui/Oak for eternity :0
• Sophocles is going to Hoenn :0 Astronaut King
• everyone has really cool goals except Kiawe who just wants to battle with Ash...like, give it up, come up with something else...
• Hopefully Sophocles gets a cameo in the Gen 8 anime when they visit Hoenn :0
• Mallow’s Pokemon food has Brock SHAKING
• seriously can Kiawe come up with a goal already that doesn’t involve battling Ash...he’s about to leave you behind ;(
• oh look more Z-moves...one thing I won’t miss about this series
• I swear Ash’s Lycanroc wins like 90% of its battles
• yay Kiawe came up with his own goal I can rest easy now
• this flashback scene Zoroark conjured up is really sweet/well done
• OMG FLASHBACK LUSIMINE IS SERVING
• lol all it took all this time for Magearna to wake up was the magic power of tears
• Lillie finally gets a 2nd Pokemon in the 2nd-to-last ep
• Olivia being the one to inspire Ash’s new dream is kinda a serve
• Ash’s airplane tee <3

- the preview for next ep made me realize TR wasn’t even in this ep :0