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

[Twilight-Kun]

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.

That's not substance, that's an outcome of the battle

The battle itself was "Spam Particle Effects At Each Other Until Someone Has A Seizure"

 

[90'sPokéfan]

I'm wondering... Will the Pokéball Jessie left at the entrance play a part in the next episode or do I hope too much details are foreshadowing in this series?

 

[Johtohfiller]

+ The scene in the clouds at sunset looked amazing. I'm not too familiar with Eternatus since I haven't played the game but it definitely looks menacing.
+ Ash feeling Eternatus's approach is reminiscent of him hearing Lugia speak, I'm thinking that might be a plot point.
+ Good characterization for the Champions. Lance seems very solemn and honorable, I like him better of the two.
+ Lance looks a bit like Giovanni and now I semi-want to come up with weird headcanons.
+ Ash fanboying over the red Gyarados.
+ Forcefield is a nice touch.
+ First truly impressive battle of the series, hopefully we'll start getting more of that now.
+ TEAM ROCKET TRIED TO CATCH A POKEMON!!
+ TR were handled right in general, more please.
+ Love that scratchy Osamu Dezaki-esque art on Bellsprout, as you might guess from my avatar I'm a big fan of that look.
+ A Pokemon goes berserk because of Team Rocket, stadium gets wrecked. Reminds me of both the beginning and end of XY.

- Leon being undefeated is pretty Stu but that's apparently from the game.
- I really do miss the moving backgrounds from XY's battles. I wish they'd kept those, even if only for important battles like this one.
- Daimax part of the battle was less exciting due to lowered mobility.
- Techno battle theme wasn't really my cuppa.

I found it slightly weird that Ash was cheering for Leon despite knowing Lance on a personal level and him being from the same region, but whatever.

Was he? He seemed disappointed that Lance lost.

One thing I wish we had seen before hand were the 8 other contestants that competed, at least know who they were. Then we'd be able to scale how strong Lance and Leon really are compared to everyone else.

One of them was Tobias because I say so.

 

[RK9]

Nice to see Lance and Leon in the anime and while it was a dope fight, I'm not a fan of tying battles like these to stuff with weight like Leon now being the Pokemon World CHampion. Just an exhibition match or something would have been fine now wouldn't it.

Hopefully Nessa will make an appearance one day so I have a reason to watch the anime.

 

[Panky..]

Like Erik Lehnsherr originally said, Perfection... or very close to it anyway.

Pros:

• Galar has finally been represented properly after the dull ghost town outing from first time around. Wyndon actually felt like the game variant what with its backgrounds, the stadium, the crowd etc. Not to mention the entire atmosphere in the stadium itself which is representative of Galar's battling culture.
• I guess we'll be seeing Ash's goal start taking shape sooner or later and it will most likely be connected to a major PWT as well as being the strongest trainer on the planet, if this episode is any evidence of that. The "undefeated" Leon? Check. World Championships? Check. What I am curious about is how they'll handle it all, and what will happen once Ash defeats Leon. Nice touch with the totally unexpected Eternatus cameo and only having Ash & Pikachu feeling its presence.
• The battle itself was holy shit. I did have some concerns about it being a mere 1v1 for a supposed World Championship finals as well as Lance just being there to job, but both of these concerns were mitigated. The battle was filled with strategy and intense action, even if it became a bit slow due to the D/G-Max, and took up a good majority of the episode.
• Animation was spot on in this episode and anyone can clearly see how much effort Iwane put into making the episode as spectacular as possible. Though I do have my gripes about some stuff which are detailed in the not-a-con. Also am I dreaming or did the composer actually not use the hillybilly track and instead went one positive step further and gave us back-to-back game tracks? Rave time! Now we just need to hear soundtracks from previous generations.
• Finally, a TRio appearance that's more or less similar to what we loved in the past few series, and one not involving chasing after Ash and company. Even their lootbox+Pokemon wasn't that bad, and hey, they'll actually be attempting to catch their own Pokemon (hopefully for themselves instead of Giovanni).

Cons:

• Not exactly a real con, more like a complaint per se that's been on my mind since the start of SM... but I really wished they'd kept the 3D camera and dynamic backgrounds from XY. This battle (and any future ones in a similar vein to this) would have been much, much, much more exciting to watch if that quality was retained. You'd think a billion dollar company like TPC can afford to bump up the animations after how much they must have saved from the lowered quality during SM, not to mention that they earn in general?

Additional thoughts:

• I immediately took a liking to the TRio's Rotom Phone and the snarky attitude it displays, as well as the inappropriate timing of actually giving information. Also, that voice actress (Ikue?) is already a hundred times better than Aicholtz, what with the latter's pretentious/annoying way of voicing her lines (thankfully, this is another episode without the latter).
• Speaking of annoying Dex voices, there's absolutely no mindless and boring Gou captures for another episode in a row (though I don't know how long it'll hold up given SS014's summary). And for the first time, it's Ash who "nope's" Gou out, I do hope he does so in the future as well albeit for different reasons (like Gou pulling out a Pokemon from its habitat despite its reluctance).

Verdict: A 9.5/10 without any doubt. Almost everything needed to make a Pokemon episode great, and I hope this streak continues.

 

[Islander Princess]

So excited I finally got to watch this episode...and it was everything I had hoped for!

Seriously, as someone who doesn't love battle heavy episodes, this one was near perfect. The battle between Lance and Leon was very well done, well animated, entertaining to watch...it was great. The announcer was so into it, they really made it feel like a real sports match. And the crowd in the stadium was just perfect. This was a much better representation of Galar and what makes it unique than the first time around! Also, as someone who doesn't really care about the music, hearing the remix of the dynamax theme got me so hyped! I was literally bopping along as I watched the battle.

It was so cute how excited Ash was the whole battle! And his declaration that he wants to battle Leon...really raising my hopes that we'll soon have a more concrete goal for him!

I also have to say, I really liked when Ash and Gou first arrived at the stadium, and Ash was so excited to go in to watch the battle, and Gou's response was "no, I'm gonna go catch Pokemon" before Ash dragged him away (which was also perfection). When I first saw that, I thought "that was kind of jerkish" but then I realized...good! It's like the writers are slowly getting back to Gou's whole issue: that he's bad at socializing and making friends. That's exactly what I want to see out of him, and not just a Pokemon catching machine.

Really like that this episode is going to carry into the next one. This is definitely not one I think would be totally satisfying if it was all crammed into one episode, so I appreciate that they chose to stretch it out and fit everything in at an appropriate pace!

After the last couple of episodes, I feel like this series is slowly starting to improve. I'm a bit more excited now about where it might be headed.

 

[Alola]

Was he? He seemed disappointed that Lance lost.

He explicitly cheered for Leon ("イケ !") when the latter ordered his second Flamethrower and was surprised when Lance reacted the way he did.

It didn't look like disappointment regarding Lance at the end to me, but to each their own.

 

[Knightwolf09]

He explicitly cheered for Leon ("イケ !") when the latter ordered his second Flamethrower and was surprised when Lance reacted the way he did.

It didn't look like disappointment regarding Lance at the end to me, but to each their own.

What can he say? He's Charizard biased

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

What can he say? He's Charizard biased

I think he just doesn't care who wins as long as the battle is good.

 

[Pulsaro23]

So, as always, I'm pretty late to with my review. Well, that's that. Anyways, considering everyone's already praised this episode to death and that most of the things I wanted to say have already been said by others around here (that, and I've also recently gotten into GW2 and I can't wait to get back to playing some more of it), I'll try to make this quick and keep this review shorter than usual.

Overall, the episode was just utterly amazing. They actually spent most of the episode focusing on the battle, they didn't rush it, nor did they stretch it too much, the animation was for the most part fantastic (though I do find the inconsistency between some of the moves' animations to be jarring (like how they changed Dragon Dance's animation from how it looked in the Dragonite episode to how it looks now or how Thunder Punch now involves the user being engulfed in lightning), but those are just some pretty minor nitpicks), with the Max Moves looking outstanding, and they even acknowledged the past series with things like Ash recognising Lance, him having a Red Gyarados and him being a member of the Pokémon G-Men (and would you look at that, the world didn't implode due to the references' obscurity and them confusing the "younger demographic"). And I don't care what some may say about it, the battle wasn't one-sided: for the most part, Lance and Gyarados were in control and managed to kept Leon and Charizard at bay with their strong attacks and unique strategies, with Leon only being able to defeat him after they both Dynamaxed their Pokémon, with him using his Max Moves in a more unconventional manner so as to make up for the lack of mobility (which makes sense, considering that Leon's the Champion of Galar (you know, the only place in the world where the phenomenon happens and the region where it is often used in Pokémon battles), meaning that he's more experienced at using Dynamaxing and Max Moves than Lance is). Also, I really liked how they explained Lance's change in outfits by having him train at the Hammerlocke Gym and him being inspired by their uniforms. I never even noticed the similarities between those two until someone posted a picture of the two side by side. Glad that they decided to explain it this way, as it makes the world feel more connected.

I did have some minor issues with the episode: some of the moves' animations and how they're inconsistent with how they were portrayed before, the fact that this was a 1v1 and not a full battle, which is disappointing considering that this are the finals of the World Championships and all (thought I don't know how they would've been able to squeeze a 6v6 in the episode; maybe they could've shown their some of their Pokémon battling via stills, like they did with Red vs Blue in Origins?), I still despise the Rocket Gachat and whenever it appears (though the TRio actively trying to catch a Drednaw does give me hope that maybe they'll start catching their own Pokémon soon... plus, I do have to admit that the Bellsprout that they got was entertaining enough and it knowing Power Whip was a pleasant surprise), Lance not using his ace Dragonite felt just... wrong. But, as I already said, these are minor complaints to an otherwise wonderful episode. Can't wait for the next episdoe, which hopefully will give Ash an actual goal that he can work towards.

 

[Johtohfiller]

It didn't look like disappointment regarding Lance at the end to me, but to each their own.

He doesn't look too happy about it and his response emphasizes Lance over Leon. It looks to me like he was favoring Lance.

Spoiler

Though I do agree with FinnishPokeFan92 that he's more concerned with the battle than who wins.

 

[El Squibbonator]

So the Rocket Gachat Pokémon in this episode was a Bellsprout. I'm actually kind of disappointed that there wasn't any call-back to James's old Victreebel.

 

[Knightwolf09]

He doesn't look too happy about it and his response emphasizes Lance over Leon. It looks to me like he was favoring Lance.

Spoiler

View attachment 131047

Though I do agree with FinnishPokeFan92 that he's more concerned with the battle than who wins.

Darken the dude in the yellow shirt in the back's skin, and I just found anime me.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Turns out that I had already received an answer to this question a full week ago, but better late than never, I guess...

Anyway, Abcboy confirmed that Lance being called an Elite Four member in the Advanced Generation was a dubbing error. In the Japanese version, he was called the Champion of the Elite Four. Meaning that this is the first time the Japanese version hasn't called him a Champion. It seems Lance lost his title at some point after appearing in Hoenn.

 

[Giri]

Epic. I've been waiting for this episode from the beginning
5/5

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

Leon was just great in this episode.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

There is something greatly entertaining about two boys' ramdomly visiting those so called game locations and having fun of their lives. It's like some sort of wish fulfillment for those of us who still caged in their homes in fear of coronavirus.

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

I still love the movements that the King does before the battle.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Let's Rewiew!!!
Leon vs Lance is Very Intese Fast Paced and What a Battle Should be Loved ıt All the Way
Team Rocket=UNNESSASARY
9/10 WHAT A BATTLE AND AN EPISODE SHOULD BE