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Review XYS02: The Strongest Mega Evolution ~Act II~

This special was basically just a setup episode (with tons of dialogue) for the next mega special, at least that is what it felt like. Those of you who wanted a lot of eventful action from this will probably be disappointed. I cannot really judge this episode before I understand it better so I'll leave it at that.
 
I'll just copy-paste myself from the other thread:
It felt more like a set up than anything... they also didn't even include any of these scenes showcasing mega evos that we've been shown every week at the end of XY eps... weird. Did they create these scenes just for hype?
At least they announced Act III for 2015 but ehhh.... they really should've made these double eps at the very least. 20 mins may have been sort of enough for Act I, but it definitely wasn't enough for Act II.
Also, this Steven, other than having a different VA and other than clearly being the Champion and not a random dude who likes rocks, also seems to have a much more happy/excited/nice personality (similarly to his ORAS self) so I find it ridiculous if anyone believes he's the same Steven as AG!Steven... these are two completely different characters unless proven otherwise. Same thing as with Raikou!Jimmy/Kenta and Movie13!Ethan really... it's stupid but it's just the way it is.
 
What gets me about this episode is that, name and general appearance aside, this Daigo is apparently completely different character and personality-wise from the Daigo that Satoshi encountered in Hoenn over a decade ago.
 
I'm glad to see the plot begin to take form. As expected, the Flare Gang is manipulating Alan. It'll be a lot of fun if this eventually leads to Alan fighting Satoshi.

I was also happy to see Iwane do a nice little action cut for Lizard. I don't think Lizard has ever had a chance to receive a good animator draw a nice cut or two of him.

What gets me about this episode is that, name and general appearance aside, this Daigo is apparently completely different character and personality-wise from the Daigo that Satoshi encountered in Hoenn over a decade ago.

That Daigo was unnecessary to the story the staff wanted to tell, so they discarded it. This is hardly the first time this has happened with this franchise.
 
I just saw it and here's my impressions (I didn't understand what they were saying because no subs, but I can guess)

Steven Stone mega evolving Metagross was absolutely beautiful. So elegant. My favorite scene. EVER. I thought he was going to kiss the key stone and it would have been very sexy if he actually did that :D. I love the overall animation they focused on him.

EDIT: actually, it seems he DID kiss the key stone?? That scene went way too fast, but I just realized that his hand location says it all. Though damn... the mega evolution light blinded everything...

Lysandre thinking Manon is Alan's little girlfriend and both of them flipping out was so cute. I'm starting to ship them.
By the way, how tall is Lysandre? He's practically towering!

So basically, this episode explains how Alan came to work for Lysandre, and I'm pretty sure Lysandre fed Alan fake information regarding Professor Sycamore (idk what he exactly said, but judging how it made Alan leave Sycamore for good, it's plausible).
It seems Lysandre made use of Steven's information to summon the huge Mega Stone to analyze it. Unfortunately, it backfired and Rayquaza came and destroyed everything and everyone. I don't know what Team Flare is up to - I wish I could understand what they were saying ._.
Also, at the end, Lysandre told Alan to stay away from Steven (I heard stuff like 'he has information that even I can't imagine' - or something along the lines, which was probably to make Alan cautious of Steven).

And thus, Steven, Alan, and Manon end up travelling together to some place? I'm pretty curious how they're going to implement Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre in the next story though.


I'll watch again after I get subs. This episode was way too dialogue heavy, especially when they were talking about the artifact and the ruins and stuff. But the battle scenes were very cool. Awesome animation there.
 
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That Daigo was unnecessary to the story the staff wanted to tell, so they discarded it. This is hardly the first time this has happened with this franchise.

The only other case we had the anime reuse an existing design as a new character was Ethan's cameo in the Movie 13 intro so I'm not sure what are you talking about. It's not something they're doing often at all.
 
What gets me about this episode is that, name and general appearance aside, this Daigo is apparently completely different character and personality-wise from the Daigo that Satoshi encountered in Hoenn over a decade ago.
Maybe he has Mega Evolved? In which case he could revert at any time.

Piplup said:
It's not something they're doing often at all.
Sadly, they don't bring back older characters very often. We don't have a big sample to work with.
 
That Daigo was unnecessary to the story the staff wanted to tell, so they discarded it. This is hardly the first time this has happened with this franchise.

The only other case we had the anime reuse an existing design as a new character was Ethan's cameo in the Movie 13 intro so I'm not sure what are you talking about. It's not something they're doing often at all.

Discarding unnecessary things applies to more than just characters. How many times has the series ignored that it's very possible to do research on other trainers in preparation for fights? We saw this during the Shin'ou League where the characters were using computers to research their foes' parties and previous battles. Or how Satoshi doesn't begin developing strategies for fighting all of the gym leaders ahead of schedule? Or how Satoshi has twice now ignored that Sana has a Fushigidane just like him? Daigo is just the latest in a line of "things that will just be a burden."
 
I think this was an okay episode. Currently, I think I prefer Part 1 only because this part was so dialouge heavy for a majority of the episode. I'll have to wait for the dub for my final opinions, but for now I'll review what I can.

First of all, the battle between Mega Charizard and Metagross was ok for just showing off Mega Metagross, but way too short for my tastes. It was also pretty predictable and I would have liked to see it go a bit longer. Also, Blast Burn looked a lot weaker here than in the last episode imo.

Aw man I loved Lysandre and Pyroar, mainly because Pyroar is one of my favorite Pokemon and Lysandre is one of my favorite villains. I was surprised to see Alain working for him though. I'm guessing that Alain doesn't know what Lysandre's true motives are, if his motives are the same as in the games or some other evil scheme, which would make sense if Lysandre's just using him for his own little plot.

The episode picked up again as soon as Rayquaza came into the scene. I wish that Lysandre would have helped battle Rayquaza with Pyroar (Unless he didn't want to because it has to do with that plan he's scheming) but whatever. It was good to see more of the Megas and have some action. I also thought that ending scene of all the newly revealed megas was pretty cool.

I don't really have anything to say about Mairin. I found her pointless and annoying in the first special and those feelings haven't changed for this one. If anything, I dislike her even more, but at least Chespie isn't as annoying as Clemont's Chespin...yet.

Overall, I'll need to see the dub to compare this special with the previous one. As of now, I like the other one more. 6/10.
 
Personally, I thought the dialogue heavy episode was a great compliment to the action heavy Act 1. Granted some more action would have been better, but what little they did put in was definitely worth watching. What I also liked about this episode is that how well the characters were fleshed out, a step up from Act 1, the two best examples being Alain and Lysandre. We learn what caused Alain's huge personality shift yet we're better able to see that his old one is still present, especially in how he's beginning to care more for Mairin. As for Lysandre, wow, I almost hated him in that flashback. He deters an originally cheerful and innocent kid's journey, utterly destroys his partner, manipulates him into working for him in exchange for the easy way out, causes him to cut off ties with someone he shared a close relationship with, makes him doubt the trustworthiness of someone who doesn't even look suspicious, and overall almost completely reshapes his character, and not for the better. The result, from the way things seem to be going so far, looks like Pokemon's first anti-hero, which is incredibly refreshing in my opinion. We still don't know what exactly Lysandre's up to, but it's being built up beautifully so far, I may end up watching the main series again if this continues. Speaking of build up, this series has done an excellent job of that so far. As soon as I saw Primal Groudon and Kyogre towards the end, I said to myself, "Alright, once I watch the English dub of this I'm going to spend every week trolling the internet for more news on Act 3." Lastly, the animation was pure eye candy, especially during the Mega Evolution sequences and towards the battle with Rayquaza. In conclusion, it was a good episode and I love this series so far.

P.S. That one scene where Lysandre asks if Mairin and Alain were in a relationship=ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!!!!!
 
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This episode has got me thinking of whether there will even be a Team Flare in the anime. Two appearances of Lysandre with no indication of a Team Flare even existing is interesting. Either the writers didn't know what to do with Team Flare so they only used Lysandre or they'll introduce them at a later date.

I love that the writers seem to really like Lysandre though. The only other evil team leader that has this level of importance is Giovanni. I'm glad because I really like Lysandre. He's a genuinely interesting villain. Definitely a huge step up from the fiasco that was Ghetsis and Colress (in the anime).

This also basically confirms the ultimate weapon storyline is not going to happen. Lysandre wouldn't be searching in Hoenn for the origins of Mega Evolution if they were planning on using X/Y's storyline. It's a shame Game Freak didn't think of the idea. Ditching Aqua/Magma and introducing a new evil group would have been a awesome.

Also with a part 3 confirmed, how many more of these do we expect?
 
This also basically confirms the ultimate weapon storyline is not going to happen. Lysandre wouldn't be searching in Hoenn for the origins of Mega Evolution if they were planning on using X/Y's storyline. It's a shame Game Freak didn't think of the idea. Ditching Aqua/Magma and introducing a new evil group would have been a awesome.
Well, I wouldn't say that. I mean, we did get some well-placed hints that it could happen in the Madame X episode. Also, Lysandre did have a keen interest in Mega Evolution in the games, so, at least to me, it makes sense that he would be studying it in the region that has the second largest contribution to the history of Mega Evolution. But, regardless, I have no doubt in my mind that they're building up to something big. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
This also basically confirms the ultimate weapon storyline is not going to happen. Lysandre wouldn't be searching in Hoenn for the origins of Mega Evolution if they were planning on using X/Y's storyline. It's a shame Game Freak didn't think of the idea. Ditching Aqua/Magma and introducing a new evil group would have been a awesome.
Did it not occur to you that Lysandre is potentially looking into the Mega Evolution and the energy it releases in order to use it and power up the weapon? Also, the games imply Lysandre researched Mega Evolution, it's just that anime is actually showing us that.

So, yeah, I see these acts as a prelude to Lysandre's main plot. I think he's looking into the energy of Mega Evolution so he could use it for something else. He's not just there to research the origin of Mega Evo, he has an ulterior motive and is manipulating Alan.

ALSO

Lysandre being in Hoenn means nothing since he can easily fly back to Kalos where his labs are actually situated. Also, ORAS promotion?
 
The special was a step up from Act I because it actually attempted to have something resembling a plot (even if the whole set-up to the battle at the beginning of the episode was incredibly groan-worthy) but I still can't bring myself to care about Alan. Fleur-de-Lys was somewhat interesting but everyone else...meh.

Kyriaki said:
Also, at the end, Lysandre told Alan to stay away from Steven (I heard stuff like 'he has information that even I can't imagine' - or something along the lines, which was probably to make Alan cautious of Steven).

Actually he said the opposite; he told Alan not to take his eyes off Daigo.

DasManiac said:
This episode has got me thinking of whether there will even be a Team Flare in the anime. Two appearances of Lysandre with no indication of a Team Flare even existing is interesting. Either the writers didn't know what to do with Team Flare so they only used Lysandre or they'll introduce them at a later date.

They're clearly waiting until they find out what Game Freak plans to do for next year (third version? X2 Y2? take a year off?) before committing to anything. Hence the six month wait between Mega Evolution Acts.
 
The Mega Stone Lysandre found when he first encountered Alain was an Ampharosite. I'm flattered.

And I think that this is the first time we saw the visual effect of a stat drop (in this case, the Special Defense drop from Flash Cannon) in the anime?
 
The Mega Stone Lysandre found when he first encountered Alain was an Ampharosite. I'm flattered.

And I think that this is the first time we saw the visual effect of a stat drop (in this case, the Special Defense drop from Flash Cannon) in the anime?
And you'd be correct.
 
The special was a step up from Act I because it actually attempted to have something resembling a plot (even if the whole set-up to the battle at the beginning of the episode was incredibly groan-worthy).

I guess that's also true.
 
I found this special to be all right. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I could understand the more dialogue heavy parts. The action scenes, as well as the battle at the beginning were interesting to see, though. Hope the third Mega Evolution special doesn't disappoint.
 
Please note: The thread is from 9 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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