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Review JN003: Fushigisou, Isn't it Mysterious?

I'm liking how Ash and Gou's relationship is quickly growing, and I really liked Team Rocket's new intro!
I was not expecting for Gou to blush at seeing Ash right at episode 3 though lol. At the time I watched it I instantly got like 'oMg GoU hAs A cRuSh oN ASh cOnfiRmeD' but now that I'm more calm, at the time I'm typing this reply, I'm currently thinking that Gou was maybe just a little embarassed because Ash is like, his first actual friend ever in ages, besides Koharu. But if whoever makes the story decides that Gou will have romantic feelings for Ash, I'm gonna be interested if this turns out to be one-sided love (if we consider that Ash and Serena are uhhh, dating?? kind of?? idk if Ash even still remembers her lmao). But if somehow they date I'll be happy too, but I honestly think this option will never happen, because currently, pokémon tries it best to have minimal romance, and also, I bet that BL in pokémon will be quite...polemic, so eh.

Otherwise, great episode!
 
I'm curious about the new Vermilion gym. Would they show it for no real reason? If the Snorlax episode doesn't introduce Galar gyms, something is up.
I’m hoping that they don’t start popping up all over the place because if so, between that, the Raid Battles and Go traveling bathe world to catch all the Pokémon, that’ll be way too on the nose with the Pokémon Go advertisement.
 
I’m hoping that they don’t start popping up all over the place because if so, between that, the Raid Battles and Go traveling bathe world to catch all the Pokémon, that’ll be way too on the nose with the Pokémon Go advertisement.
I won't care if they find a way to make it more interesting than Dynamax battles, which shouldn't be too hard. Imagine Ash defending a gym with other trainers and/or having his reserves do something while he's gone.
 
Of course the TRio get a Gyradoes and a Tyranitar and they still lose easily...

What really gets me is that vending machine they have with them means they'll rotate random Pokemon instead of getting more partners to be close with...
Though them getting along with the two here is an encouraging sign.
 
  • It's been pretty clear each series works as a "soft reboot" now. A single shot of Ash's past trophies is just a bone they throw at us longtime fans to say "yeah, it's the same continuity, don't worry".
  • There's no mention of Ash's Bulbasaur.
So what I gathered is that the most we will get would be episodes that are similarly plotted out, and maybe a nod and a wink somewhere. But straight up references or returns probably won't be the norm.
 
I'm liking how Ash and Gou's relationship is quickly growing, and I really liked Team Rocket's new intro!
I was not expecting for Gou to blush at seeing Ash right at episode 3 though lol. At the time I watched it I instantly got like 'oMg GoU hAs A cRuSh oN ASh cOnfiRmeD' but now that I'm more calm, at the time I'm typing this reply, I'm currently thinking that Gou was maybe just a little embarassed because Ash is like, his first actual friend ever in ages, besides Koharu. But if whoever makes the story decides that Gou will have romantic feelings for Ash, I'm gonna be interested if this turns out to be one-sided love (if we consider that Ash and Serena are uhhh, dating?? kind of?? idk if Ash even still remembers her lmao). But if somehow they date I'll be happy too, but I honestly think this option will never happen, because currently, pokémon tries it best to have minimal romance, and also, I bet that BL in pokémon will be quite...polemic, so eh.

Otherwise, great episode!
I can see why. It just looks like Gou admires Ash's courage to stand up against Team Rocket and his strong partnership with Pikachu that he really wants to be his friend. I'm reminded of Wally in ORAS when he asks the player character to be his rival but immediately blushes and says it was nothing.

Though, it looks like the anime team seems to enjoy dropping shipping hints (the shipping buzz created hype with Serena). I don't think they are going to support this ship as explicitly as they did with Serena but I can see them creating subtle bromance for the sake of stirring buzz within the fandom.
 
  • Digging that TR music with the sax.
  • Mimey with the invisible vacuum cleaner hahahaha!!
  • Breakfast scene was great, I loved how Ash was recounting one of his battles.
  • Don't cut yourself on that edge, Go. I wasn't expecting that kind of coldness from him, I was getting Paul vibes for a minute there. Also really fucking weird to hear that crap from Deku.
  • Will that be Lt. Surge's gym or someone else's? Is every Kanto gym getting a renovation? Will we eventually see a battle there?
  • Ash has more climbing experience than Go. Nice that Go accepted help rather than insisting on "strength to live", hope he learned something there.
  • TR's music sounds a lot more Miyazaki-esque than most of the other tracks we've heard so far.
  • Gacha Pokemon dispenser? I guess that's good for variety but I hope we get some traditional TR captures too.
  • Really not feeling those speedlines.
  • Did Koharu have some kind of falling out with Go? She seems like she's trying to avoid him.

Good episode overall, minus points for the speedlines and lack of a shoutout to Ash's Bulbasaur. Best/worst part is Go's edge, I hope this is going to be another case of Ash rescuing someone from the edgelord path like Alan and Guzma and not another "Paul is just different".

I'm getting the impression that the early episodes are going to be about cementing Ash and Go's friendship (and hopefully Koharu too); might be a slow burner until we find out more about the main plot (I'm really curious about the "wants to be the best battler due to a certain encounter" thing). I hope it doesn't take as long to get going as early SM did.
 
First time since its introduction that they remembered Mime's magical powers.
Is it just me, or Koharu actively ignores everyone other than Gou?
Gou seems to have a weird understanding of friendship.
RIP Matori and Alolan Nyasu. They're probably scapegoated for TR's failures in Alola.
It's weird how similar yet dissimilar this episode's handling of the evolution is to the mysterious garden episode (night vs day, moon vs sun, etc.)
If those pokémon from the Gatcha mecha is suppose to be from HQ, should we expect to see TR trio's old pokémon as well?
Gou needs to check out his blood pressure levels, it seems unusually high based on how much his face get red. Nice yaoi subtext though.
I don't want Go to use his smartphone ever again. We lost Rotom Dex for this?
Why? It was the most hilarious part of the episode.
I didn’t understand very well how all the flowers blooming at the same time caused that Kaharu arrived late. Maybe someone who understands japanese can explain this one.
Students on japanese schools have cleaning duties. There was too much pollen flying around, so it took an unusually long time for her to clean them all.
 
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This seems a weird decision in general.
My only guess is this was introduced to use Team Rocket as way to cycle through lots of old Pokémon (based off them wanting to show old Pokémon in this series).
I was curious will team rocket page be updated for gyardos and tyrantor
 
So the series starts off with an underwhelming episode. Which was then followed by a great one. And, now, we're following that one with another disappointing episode? Really hope this isn't gonna be a recurring trend, cause if it is, then this is gonna be quite the series (and not in a good way).

Okay, let's start off with some positives first. The interactions between Ash and Go are really interesting and I really like that moment when, after the two of them got into an argument and Ash said "I don't need you to be my friend!" and Go responded with "So you're one of those guys, too...", which implies that Go has made some friends other than Koharu before, but, because of the way he acts, they got tired of putting up with his stubbornness and pompousness, which in turn led to him having a harder time making friends. I know most of this is just my interpretation of just one line, but, if that's the case, then I hope that they'll explore it more down the line, since that's something very interesting and could even be used to show some of Go's growth and development the he will (hopefully) get. Team Rocket's motto was also pretty neat and I'm glad that they're back to reciting their old, iconic (and best) motto. Speaking of the TRio, they were definitely the most entertaining thing about the episode. And... that's about it. As for the rest of the episode, weeeeeeell...

So, first things first, Mimey's being able to mime objects into reality. While it makes sense (since it's a Psychic-type based on a mime and all) and I did enjoy that bit where it used an imaginary broom to wake up the guys, I think they went overboard with it. It cleaning the lab up using an imaginary broom contradicts past episodes where we've seen it using a proper broom to tidy up a place. And it pretending to eat invisible food... do I even need to explain why that's stupid? It, like any other living being (outside of those capable of photosynthesis, which Mr. Mime clearly isn't capable of), needs to eat actual food, since that's the only thing that will provide the nutritional value that it needs to survive, otherwise it will starve, no matter how many imaginary bananas it's gonna eat. Next up is Jenny's randomly new outfit that doesn't resemble her original looks whatsoever (which I've already said my piece on it in the preview thread). Then there's the fact that we have a new, Pokémon GO-inspired Gym in Vermilion for no apparent reason (other than shoehorning an apparent environmentalist message that goes nowhere in the episode), despite the fact that there's already an official gym in that city, so why would they need to build another one? Did something happen to the old one? Are they gonna have two gyms in one city so as to avoid showing Lt. Surge? Is it just a passing reference to Pokémon GO and nothing more? All that and more... will not be answered by this episode. Moving on, there's the whole thing regarding the Team Rocket gacha machine and it being Giovanni's ultimate weapon of evil (and, speaking of Giovanni, am I the only one who thinks they've turned him into a Saturday morning cartoon-type of villain, who's now over-the-top evil and has a bunch of whacky, goofy and kind of stupid gadgets?). Again, do I even need to point out how stupid this all sounds? "We are gonna take over the world... by giving our operatives vending machines for which they have to pay in order to use and hope that they're lucky enough to get a strong Pokémon when they need it". As if it wasn't bad enough that loot boxes are infecting video games, now they're gonna make them a key item in an anime as well? Does Giovanni even realize how stupid of an idea this is? Doesn't he realize that this could backfire horrendously? What if his grunts don't have any kind of coins on them (like Jessie and James did in this very episode) or a substitute? Or what if the Pokémon they get have a x4 weakness to the opponent's types? What if the Pelipper/Delibird can't bring it to his agents in time? And that's not even addressing the Copperajah in the room: are the loot box Pokémon gonna replace Jessie and James's captures this series? Because that would be one of the stupidest things to do in the history of this anime. Them catching and bonding with Pokémon on a personal level, their interactions and caring for them (coupled with their backstories) is what made the TRio such interesting and pretty complex villains and showed that they're more than just a bunch of comical stupid bad guys, but rather partially good-hearted people that do have some sense of morality, who are more than just a bunch of selfish despicable idiots, who do care about their Pokémon and who are doing evil deeds in order to survive. Their caught Pokémon, with whom they forged personal bonds and relationships (sometimes in more ways than one), did a good job at showcasing the good in Team Rocket and even gave them some interesting development. And to take all that away and replace it with a loot box, to get rid of some potential development for them, to get rid of their more personal interactions with Pokémon that they actually cared about and to make Team Rocket as a whole seem like a bunch of morons by having their leader state taht their greatest weapon of evil is a vending machine... who the hell came up with this s***? Who approved of all of this?! Also, on a side note, interesting how neither Giovanni, nor the TRio bring up their Alola operation and their failure to accomplish something for Team Rocket in that region.

Which, that's actually something that's weird in regards to this episode: nobody makes any references to anything that happened prior to the series. At all. When Jenny show Ash and Go a picture of the TRio, he doesn't comment that "These guys, again?" or something among this line. When Go says that Team Rocket's Meowth being able to talk sounds made up, he doesn't tell Go that that's true, even if it's hard to believe (since he's met him so many times). Heck, the lack of references Ash makes to him having encountered the TRio even leads to Go being confused as to why they're calling Ash a twerp as if they've met him before. When Ash sees the new Gym, he doesn't ask about the Vermilion Gym that he's already been in before and what this new building has to do with the old Gym. Team Rocket's Delibird, who's supposed to be in charge of delivering stuff, doesn't deliver the vending machine to the TRio and has instead been replaced by a random Pelipper. Matori has apparently been Thanos snapped out of existence, since she's nowhere to be seen, despite being Giovanni's secretary and Jessie's rival. Heck, the entire episode is basically a rehash of Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden, yet Ash never makes a reference to that episode. He doesn't say taht this feels familiar to him (since he's witnessing a marsh of the Bulbasaur line again), he never mentions the garden in which his Bulbasaur nearly evolved (despite the fact that we've seen that scene in Alola, Kanto!, so clearly they remember it), nor do the writers even attempt to connect Venusaur's ability to make flowers bloom with how the garden from that episode suddenly appeared and then vanished.

Overall... bad episode. Just... bad. Going out of their way to avoid references to and to contradict preestablished elements of the past sagas (which, based on future titles, might turn into a trend), introducing new elements that diminish the characters and make it hard for development between them and their Pokémon to happen, rehashing entire plots from the previous series without even alluding to the previous episodes, the Pokémon's moves' animations feeling pretty stiff... This episode just felt like a massive downgrade from last week's episode in so many areas, with barely anything interesting happening in this episode. And, if the lack of continuity and the contradiction of previous series is gonna be their mondus operandi this saga, then what was the point of stating that this series will be for older fans as well? Was that just nothing more than a kriffing lie? I'm gonna wait and see (this is just the third episode after all), but this question really has me worried about the new series. After SM and all of its constant issues, I just... I just want to watch a new Pokémon series that I can also enjoy again. Please don't let this be the way things will be.

On another side note, it's gonna be interesting to see how the dub will approach Sakuragi's line about Ivysaur are quite mysterious, which is true to the "fushi" in their name.
 
I'm also in the 'meh' camp here. Most of my :confused_emoji: feels have been explored by the rest of you in some detail so I'm gonna keep it brief.

@Pulsaro23 discussed the precedent that is being set that meaningful inter-series continuity is essentially dead. I'd prefer it not to be like this, but I could live with it if we had good world building within the series, which was exactly the setup for SM.

However, where is the world building in this saga? Where did Satoshi, Pikachu & Go's breakfast come from and who laid it out? Why is Kuchiba City deserted on a working day? Why did Prof. Sakuragi have a room with unoccupied bunk beds at his house/lab? Just what is wrong with Sakaki? (He has lost his Persian, his secretary and his marbles based on how he was talking.) Not even a hinted retribution for the TRio for achieving less than nothing in Alola? No??

Oh, and another thing: Go's Rotom phone is horrible. Why the fuck.

I was pleased to see the TRio. The new motto animation is marvellous, Nyasu's language being highlighted again is good, Musashi and Kojiro patting their defeated rental mons is good. But it is not enough. Especially if they are going to appear only once every 3 episodes!
 
Geez, Gou joins Serena, Citron, Lillie, and Kaki in the “failing miserably at hiding your crush on Satoshi” club! I don’t really get shipping the kids in this show but I’ll admit their dynamic is cute. It seems like it could be one of the highlights of this series.

The continuity stuff is disappointing, yeah. Between no Fushigidane, no Matori/follow-up to Alola with the Rockets, the biggest disappointment is Delibird’s absence. It would have taken exactly no more effort to use it here, so it really shows that a lot of the continuity they’ve been alluding to is all just lip-service. I’m also really not a fan of the new Gacha thing for the Rocket trio’s Pokemon, especially if they don’t end up catching their own Pokémon and bonding with them.

Im gonna be honest here, the new Rocket motto music is the worst yet. Between all of the game music relating to the organization as well as their anime themes I’m really bummed out they went for such a nothing medley. I don’t hate the new composer’s music but this is really lacking. The new motto animation is cool enough but I’m gonna be sick of it in a handful of episodes. It definitely won’t flow well when a scene will cut to it.
 
In the minority, but I actually kind of liked this one. Since I already ditched most of my hopes of inter & intra - series continuity, I'm just going to try to enjoy each week as much as possible, and this one was actually fun for me. I am a filler fan though, so I can see why those who aren't may not prefer this (or what the entire series is looking like for that matter).

Go was much better to me this week, I'm very happy he and Ash are distinguishably different, and that Ash's skills are highlighted and Go appreciates them. They are showing Go as having a lot to learn, and being willing to learn, which shows he grew up a lot from the know-it-all he was at 6. I enjoy the emphasis of Ash having the more Pokemon understanding type skills, and Go having the book skills, just hopefully Ash doesn't have to get attacked by random Pokemon of the week every week, but at least this week's wasn't that cringey.

Oh I forgot to mention the Mr. Mime jokes. Like some others, I think this is pretty strange, considering how Mr. Mime was shown in the past, but it isn't that bad, and can be funny. I personally feel that if they really want these types of jokes to be prevalent, bring back James' Mime Jr instead, because it wouldn't be out of character to start these types of jokes, since Mime Jr did hilariously mimic James in the past.

The trio stuff was the best part to me. Since this is my first time watching subs, I don't know the old mottos that well, but I have seen them some, and I'm pretty sure this is the original motto (or at least very close), is that right? Bonus points for Go actually not buying Meowth talking, and being surprised by it, this happens way too infrequently. I'm really glad they are using the balloon, pretty much everything seems right on...except, of course, this bizarre machine.

On its face, the machine seems pretty interesting, new Pokemon every week could be fun to see, but there are some big buts here. First of all, if Giovanni has a massive vending machine full of powerful Pokemon he can send to this pair of agents (and then one would assume some other agents as well - so maybe multiple vending machines with many, many Pokemon), then why do the agents spend their time catching Pokemon that are less powerful than the ones in the machine? If they already have so many powerful Pokemon, then go ahead with the vague goal Team Rocket has. Maybe this is the series something significant actually happens with the organization as a whole, but I doubt it. Having all these Pokemon stuck in a random machine just seems counterintuitive to the goals of the organization, and makes a lot of the trio's attempts seem unnecessary.

Obviously the bigger issue here, as others have mentioned, is that the trio may not have their own Pokemon. I don't want to despair too much yet, because I think this machine can co-exist with Trio Pokemon, at least to some extent. Trio had rental Pokemon before (although just for single episodes), so I don't think it would be impossible for this machine to just show up some of the time, show up after their own Pokemon were defeated, etc. The thing is, I think it will get old pretty fast, especially if the battles with the trio now have multiple rounds and wind up taking up too much of episodes. Anyway, much of the best trio moments in the past are bonding with their own Pokemon and doing stuff that isn't stealing (such as competitions with their Pokemon or just normal life stuff), so it would be a pretty big hole if they don't get their own Pokemon. The fact that they reaffirmed their goal of chasing Pikachu at the end of the episode, something Giovanni has pretty much never specifically endorsed, tells me they are going off "on their on" again, at least in a sense, so maybe that means less support from HQ, and this vending machine will be temporary. It may be looking bad, but I do think there is still hope, more hope than some other things people hoped we would get out of this series (like old characters returning). I still really wonder why the Trio will just happen to be in the same region as Ash and Go on the same specific days, that will be pretty hard to explain and make sense of, also maybe this machine doesn't reach other regions, who knows? Still so many questions.
 
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