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Review JN014: First in the Isshu Region! The Raid Battle at the Ruins!!

I'm not a fan of how the anime has Go conduct catches, so I try not to sing the same tune during these reviews as we know it's not going to change anytime soon...

That being said, I have to say, his capture of Golurk was undeserved. He contributed the least during the battle, and got a free 5 Star powerful Pokemon due to the efforts of Ash & Co. It just really felt like he was a vulture, waiting for the opportunity rather than being the one to create it. Also, we're 14 episodes in-can he please, develop Scorbunny's battle prowess? The thing has yet to use a Fire-type move and gets knocked out in nearly every battle it participates in.

It was lovely seeing Dragonite battle and hold its own like the pseudo-legendary it is.
 
ASH: "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

*uses Thunderbolt*

GO: "Ash, you do know it doesn't work on Ground types right?"

*Ash face faults for the 100th time*

PIKACHU (thoughts): "Why... why must you do this to me Ash?"
To be fair to Ash, he hasn't yet battled a ground-type this series, so when would he have learned about it?

...Oh right, people still think continuity is a thing, how silly of me
 
I'm kinda disappointed at how generic the city in this episode looks compared to how the Unovan cities were typically drawn in BW. It just doesn't feel like they're in the Unova region.

Episode was enjoyable otherwise. It's hard to make a bad ruins exploration episode. I also noticed there were a lot of much needed new music cues.
 
I don't think Go was nearly as undeserving as people made him out to be. Aside from Pikachu, Dragonite and Darmanitan, all other Pokemon were chumping and doing scratch damage. Pikachu went down with one hit, too, and Dragonite was only able to meet Golurk's punch with Dragon Claw. It took Ash and Go combining their efforts into one attack - at the Golurk's most vulnerable spot, it seems - to hurt it. I think Ash was more deserving since he came up with the plan, but it's not like Go just sat back and waited for everyone to do the work. He was actively participating to the best of his ability, and seemed to be on par with everyone else. (Aside from his Scorbunny autonomously jumping into battle without thinking.)

Though if I'm being honest, Keira should have gotten Golurk. She knew the most about the Desert Resort. She solved the puzzle and awakened Golurk. She saved Ash's life. She identified the shiny hunter and his Psyduck being in the Cofagrigus. She convinced him to fight alongside them. I really hope she and the shiny hunter come back, they were great.

Loving the music, too btw. Especially during the puzzle-solving scene, it's so different from the songs we've been getting lately. Is it a game track? I haven't played Sword and Shield yet, so I don't know its OST by heart.

EDIT: Interesting trivia! Almost all of the Pokemon Karabari captured can be found in the BW2 Unova Dex. The only exception is Bagon, who can still be found in Hidden Grottoes in BW2. Meditite (Through Medicham) and Beedrill can also be found in Hidden Grottoes, and wild Dragonite can be found in BW2's postgame. This leaves Scorbunny and Pikachu as the only Pokemon in this episode not naturally found in Unova.
 
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Go was the only one who really wanted to catch Golurk. Keira and the researcher were most excited about the ancient city (Golurk was an obstacle), while Ash and Go said in unison "no hard feelings no matter who catches it!" Let's just say that I didn't see Ash ready to throw a Poke Ball, so it's ironic that his fans are salty. Also, am I the only one who would find it cheap if Golurk took part in tournaments? It would have to be nerfed in order not to make Ash's other Pokemon seem inferior. Meanwhile, Go will probably not use Golurk (maybe just against Gengar) and that's fine with me. Let the titan be a guardian.

In the future, I'd like to see Go take part in a raid battle involving an actual rival.
 
You know what’s sad? I’d say that the writers have Go Golurk so he’d have a Pokémon that’s strong against Gengar and thus would be an asset the next time they have to deal with it, but that would be giving them too much credo on forward thinking.
 
Go was the only one who really wanted to catch Golurk. Keira and the researcher were most excited about the ancient city (Golurk was an obstacle), while Ash and Go said in unison "no hard feelings no matter who catches it!" Let's just say that I didn't see Ash ready to throw a Poke Ball, so it's ironic that his fans are salty. Also, am I the only one who would find it cheap if Golurk took part in tournaments? It would have to be nerfed in order not to make Ash's other Pokemon seem inferior. Meanwhile, Go will probably not use Golurk (maybe just against Gengar) and that's fine with me. Let the titan be a guardian.

In the future I'd like to see Go take part in a raid battle involving an actual rival.
I still think Go needs to train more cause he can't rely on one shots forever. Eventually he'll have to fight tough pokemon to catch them and Ash won't always be there to help him
 
I still think Go needs to train more cause he can't rely on one shots forever. Eventually he'll have to fight tough pokemon to catch them and Ash won't always be there to help him
Agreed, and that's why I am not pleased about Ash stalking Go in the next episode. But with Go having five Pokemon with him, I don't think he needs Ash to defeat a Mankey.
 
Go was the only one who really wanted to catch Golurk. Keira and the researcher were most excited about the ancient city (Golurk was an obstacle), while Ash and Go said in unison "no hard feelings no matter who catches it!" Let's just say that I didn't see Ash ready to throw a Poke Ball, so it's ironic that his fans are salty. Also, am I the only one who would find it cheap if Golurk took part in tournaments? It would have to be nerfed in order not to make Ash's other Pokemon seem inferior. Meanwhile, Go will probably not use Golurk (maybe just against Gengar) and that's fine with me. Let the titan be a guardian.

In the future, I'd like to see Go take part in a raid battle involving an actual rival.

He should have failed. It'd have been nice to see him fail, constantly succeeding isn't something that helps one get behind supporting a character. If May and Dawn constantly won contests it'd have been just as boring, same as Ash constantly winning battles.

Their first raid, Go comes out with a Pokemon..... May, Dawn, and Serena lost their first contests/showcase. It should have gone to the girl, she did a lot of work and earned the capture. Go did the least amount and yet he got it, that's not fair. Seeing him fail, get upset but then accept it as he'd already caught a few Pokemon that day would have vastly improved the episode.

I can't help but laugh at Ash's attempts to catch a Woobat, considering Jessie had one back in Black and White

Mind you, it makes more sense then James trying to catch a female Frillish in Alola when Jessie had one in Unova

Well the thing with Frillish was they basically ignored the fact Team Rocket previously owned one. "Frillish, a rare Pokemon!" Um excuse me, didn't your team mate use one of those things a few months ago?
And a silly way at getting Mareanie jealous
 
Is this the first appearance of the Go-Goggles in the anime?

Also funny how the BW games removed Go-Goggles, with NPCs even going as far as to saying they don't need them in the Desert Resort, only for the anime to do the complete opposite when Ash finally does go to the Desert Resort.
 
I wouldn't have minded the capture if Ash didn't imply he wanted to catch that Golurk as well, that made it a bit frustrating. But the Raid Battle was really fun and all the CoTDs were memorable and enjoyable (so much I wish we get to see more of them at some point...), so I can't say this episode was bad at all. It did have a slow start though.

I'm kinda disappointed at how generic the city in this episode looks compared to how the Unovan cities were typically drawn in BW. It just doesn't feel like they're in the Unova region.
I couldn't disagree more, I remember always complaining about how generic cities looked in BW. They all had the same color palette and the only differences usually were one landmark and maybe the size of the buildings. Compare Icirrus City and Flocessy Town for instance, if were not for the water they could very well pass as the same location. Not to mention what they did to Lacunosa, which was a pretty unique-looking town in the games. And if anything the few shots of the city we got now did feel like Castelia because of the streets and the more grey-ish colors. It reminded me of the setting for that episode with the Venipede outbreak.
 
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