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Review JN012: Daimax Battle! Dande, The Greatest of Them All!!

Well to be fair, it has happened before that Ash meets someone it looks like he's supposed to defeat despite losing constantly, only to never win against him. *ahem* Alain *cough*.
Alain is why I said "almost certainly". ;)

There are some big differences, though. As Panky mentioned it's always been anime-exclusive characters who stop Ash from achieving his main goal.
Things have also changed since XY in regards to them letting Ash's story line actually progress. He won a league, hasn't reset (as a trainer, at least) and is catching stuff like Dragonite out of the box.
Sure, it's possible an anime-only character will knock Ash out of the tournament then beat Leon, but it seems unlikely and it would be a waste of the momentum letting him win Alola brought to the character.
Edit: I want to go into a bit more detail on what I mean by "momentum". Ash got trending on twitter twice in the last half year (winning Alola and then capturing Dragonite) with the former even getting articles on mainstream news like Forbes. The talk about wanting episode 1 to go viral shows they're tracking that sort of thing. Ash's "stock" as a character is at a peak; he's getting positive attention en masse for the first time in a very long while.

Ash may be a good trainer, and the protagonist, but this is the World Champion we're talking here. If Ash beats him, that might as well be the equivalent of Pokemon master right there.
Honestly, I'm still not convinced they aren't planning to have Ash dip out of focus in favor of Gou after this series. Maybe keep him around in more of a Brock role with Gou getting the main attention?
 
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Alain is why I said "almost certainly". ;)

There are some big differences, though. As Panky mentioned it's always been anime-exclusive characters who stop Ash from achieving his main goal.
Things have also changed since XY in regards to them letting Ash's story line actually progress. He won a league, hasn't reset (as a trainer, at least) and is catching stuff like Dragonite out of the box.
Sure, it's possible an anime-only character will knock Ash out of the tournament then beat Leon, but it seems unlikely and it would be a waste of the momentum letting him win Alola brought to the character.
Edit: I want to go into a bit more detail on what I mean by "momentum". Ash got trending on twitter twice in the last half year (winning Alola and then capturing Dragonite) with the former even getting articles on mainstream news like Forbes. The talk about wanting episode 1 to go viral shows they're tracking that sort of thing. Ash's "stock" as a character is at a peak; he's getting positive attention en masse for the first time in a very long while.


Honestly, I'm still not convinced they aren't planning to have Ash dip out of focus in favor of Gou after this series. Maybe keep him around in more of a Brock role with Gou getting the main attention?

I honestly cannot understand why anyone believes Gou will be replacing Ash here. Ash is a mainstay in the anime and will always will be that. Ash is also the sole protagonist in the newest movie while Gou isn't even there at all. Scorbunny will have no relevance in generation 9 as it isn't a Pikachu and his goals cannot carry itself far enough to warrant a continuation. If ash is ever going to be replaced by anyone, it will be another trainer with a Pikachu.
 
That's because the newest movies, starting from M20, are not canon with the main anime.

Movie 22 proves that isn't entirely the case and shouldn't ash being featured in the non canon movies serve as further proof that he won't be replaced? If they were going to replace him in the anime, they wouldn't just give him further roles. They would reduce them. Likewise, if they wanted Gou to replace him, they would be making films where he is featured in. And again, no Pikachu. Do I need to remind everyone how Ash will always be here because of Pikachu?
 
Movie 22 proves that isn't entirely the case and shouldn't ash being featured in the non canon movies serve as further proof that he won't be replaced? If they were going to replace him in the anime, they wouldn't just give him further roles. They would reduce them. Likewise, if they wanted Gou to replace him, they would be making films where he is featured in. And again, no Pikachu. Do I need to remind everyone how Ash will always be here because of Pikachu?
Movie 22 was a remake (and imo, one that didn’t need to exist). It really doesn’t prove much of anything.
 
Movie 22 proves that isn't entirely the case and shouldn't ash being featured in the non canon movies serve as further proof that he won't be replaced? If they were going to replace him in the anime, they wouldn't just give him further roles. They would reduce them. Likewise, if they wanted Gou to replace him, they would be making films where he is featured in. And again, no Pikachu. Do I need to remind everyone how Ash will always be here because of Pikachu?
Movie 22 was a remake (and imo, one that didn’t need to exist). It really doesn’t prove much of anything.
It could also be argued that M22 is not canon, since it's not exactly like M01.
 
I think you mean "instead of the GSC one". He wore the same outfit in both Johto and Hoenn.
Interesting, we never got decent artwork for GSC characters so, going with the games, I always associated that outfit with FRLG.
I wonder if FRLG borrowed it from the anime or the anime borrowed it from some GSC unreleased concept art or something.
 
The battle definitely had substance. It led to Ash wanting to battle Leon, which will in turn lead to Ash wanting to surpass him one day. That'll likely be Ash's goal to the series.

The Pokemon literally just stood there and shot beams at each other. Compare that to before they Dynamaxed, where they were moving around, dodging and countering each other's attacks.

The lack of movement highlights the problem with Dynamax in the anime; they're too big to do any of the stuff that Pokemon normally do in battles. They can't dodge normally, they have to rely on Max Guard, or in Charizard's case, the recoil from their attacks pushing them back.
 
TRio were fun this episode with their misunderstandings about Daimax. Getting a Madatsubomi from their gatcha vending and it turning out to be beast was pretty innovative, did seem weird that apparently an attack could damage a power spot enough to cause the energy to trigger a Kyodaimax. Seems a little dangerous and immersion-breaking since any trainer battling even a little aggressively would unleash a kaiju onto Shoot City by accident. I also dig their Rotom Smartphone, the voice is actually really cute and childish. It also seemed to have a bit of snark to it simply listing basic info on Kajirigame...then informing them of it violence after it was too late.

Satoshi’s “sensing” Eternatus was good detailing, similar to how he felt Lugia. Wataru v. Dande, had low expectations due to the idea of kaiju fights sounding not so interesting (little strategy, not much mobility, etc.) Using Daimax moves to dodge along with the effect it would have on the field held my attention. Kyodai Hell Fire looked pretty cool in the anime. The regular base fight was meh, kept bugging me why Champions are literally standing still and letting their Pokémon get hit. SwSh game tracks were A+. I mainly enjoyed the fight for the charm and theatrics using Daimax on a battle formatted level if anything.

Satoshi recognizing Wataru was about what I expected, inexplicit at best. They kept the same character intact by mentioning his heroics through the G-Men. Dande’s voice was great but the actual character himself I find not so interesting. I do like how theatrical he can be with his movements, poses and phrases. Gives his character a certain charisma and pop, not unlike Dent or a character from a show like Ouran Host Club. On a base character level though I hope the anime expands on him more beyond flashiness. Mostly a setup episode, hoping next week offers more of substance.
 
Great battle, as everyone says. It was more leveled than we thought it would be as both Gyarados and Charizard landed many hits on their opponents and used great strategies, and Dynamax had a good use (much better than those unreliable Z-moves). It reminded me of SM043 on many aspects as it's clear the animators gave their all and the music was top-notch. Perhaps its only flaw was that it didn't seem to be the end of a 6vs6 (anything less would be insulting for such an important tournament), and that Ash's champion status wasn't brought up (through that may change next episode).

Seeing Eternatus was hype, while he could have appeared because he was Galar's only flying legendary I have hope that he's related to the random Dynamaxing.

I agree that TR's appareance was great and made up a funny ending. I would have liked to see more of their reactions to Galar though.
 
I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't a one-sided match (really wanted to see Lance get crushed in five minutes) but I guess they gotta give the audience a show.

Lance is supposed to be the Champion of the Kanto AND Johto Regions, he trained with other powerful Dragon-type trainers from Johto (in the games, at least) and was revealed to have trained at the strongest Gym in Galar and to have won the PWT in this episode, he is a member of a supposedly incredible international police force and his two known Pokémon are known to be very powerful (one of them even being a fricking pseudo-legendary). So to throw all that away and turn him into a jobber for Leon to defeat in less then half of the episode would be horrendous writing and a kriffing insult to both his fans and fans of the Pokémon in general (not to mention that it would make for a very underwhelming battle) and I really don't understand how someone would even want something like that.
 
The lack of movement highlights the problem with Dynamax in the anime; they're too big to do any of the stuff that Pokemon normally do in battles. They can't dodge normally, they have to rely on Max Guard, or in Charizard's case, the recoil from their attacks pushing them back.
That's just basic strategy. Using moves to work around slight hindrance in movement. And even then No max moves involve fight up close and personal. But even then the moves themselves were well thought out with how they're used, you can't down that.
 
Great episode, everyone's said everything already except... did y'all catch Sonansu trying to say "socks" after Musashi called Daimax Dai-socks? He is so precious!! :wynaut:

I saw a suggestion on Twitter that TRio's Dex is voiced by Ikue Ohtani, anyone know if this is true?
 
So, apparently the tournament had eight participants, with Lance and Leon being the finalists. Hmm... Even if Wallace participated, that leaves us with at least one Champion too short. Interesting...
The Kanto and Johto Leagues are separate in the show, right? So it's possible this unknown Champion of Johto, whoever that is, also took part.
 
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