Review S11 EP25: Strategy With a Smile!

[Trainer Lisa]

Okay, so this is the last episode of The Wallace Cup. Things are really heating up now! =D

And wow, it's May vs Dawn vs Zoey in the final rounds of the contest!

Who's gonna win? Let's find out!


Anyway, this will certainly be an interesting episode. I'm excited to see how everything turns out! XD

 

[Casual_Furi]

Hmm the Wallace cup ribbon was changed back to the aqua ribbon.
I've never noticed how dis-proportionate Dawn's neck was to her head :O May as well. Good thing the Pokeverse has such little gravi--KIRBY!!

 

[Lethal Carnivine]

Wow the animation looks excellent. Shimuera has really come a long way hasn't she?

Piplup's use of Bide/Dark Pulse looked pretty cool.

I love how Jessie just blows Dawn off and jams her face into the camera.

Wow Marion was right. Glameow doeslook pretty good, heh.

Like Zoey's combo this time too. May was almost beat for a second.

awww, at least May got a little more time to speak than Dawn lol.

Wow, I liked how May just used Mirror Coat against Dawn's little whirpool.

And this battle between May and Dawn is pretty intense.

And it looks like Dawn won, a bit exaggerated but good for her.

Interesting way of presenting a ribbon.

Wow Jessie's 'Look out' scared me a little bit.

New Pokemon, eh? Can't wait for this one.

Looks like May left. And what a great episode this was. Seriously good battles and animation.

 

[Jukain]

Beautiful? I'll go with the frightening, though, on Glameow. We actually get to see Zoey lose, nice. Note how she's a lot more composed than Dawn is when she loses. That's all you have to say? May beat Zoey? You've seen May get to two Grand Festivals and get to the finals of the last one. Nice seeing all of her family and rivals watching her. May's superior skill shows, but Dawn is nice, too. I wouldn't have believed it, but that was an excellent contest battle.

 

[Musashi]

I forgot just how good a battle this was. Glaceon and Piplup are just about even on power, and I still think it was a perfectly fair win. The Zoey/May battle was really great as well. Two veterans facing off always makes for a great battle.

I'm not much of a contest person, but some of these pretty moves were really creative. It makes me even more excited for the Grand Festival if we're getting this kind of stuff now.

 

[NoodleChefKyle]

Whoa! Piplup still knows Bide?!

What's the name of that song when May and Zoey's match starts?

I'm amazed at how Zoey changed so fast.

That whole battle with Dawn and May was so great!

Wow Jessie's 'Look out' scared me a little bit.

Yeah. Me too.

 

[Ino-Chan]

The mirror coat was pretty cool how it looked in general, but I still think that Glaceon should have been stronger.

 

[snorlaxzilla]

DUN...DUN...DUN....

 

[Candy Christina]

I really liked this episode. May and Dawn really did deserve to be in the finals! May has really grown in skill since her last appearance, and Dawn worked hard to make it this far. I'm not upset about the outcome at all; I was pretty neutral on the whole thing.

I was sad to see May leave. I wished they could've given her another episode or something! Ah well. It was great to see her again at any rate.

 

[Kairyu]

I quickly watched through my low quality copy of this episode, and if I counted right, there was 7 pieces kept.

While that is a decent amount... they still removed the best bgm of them all which played during the last part of the haruka/hikari battle, from movie 6 iirc. It's a dramatic piece which really intensified the battle, however, since it wasn't present in the dub, the battle seemed kinda lackluster.

I was sad to see May leave. I wished they could've given her another episode or something! Ah well. It was great to see her again at any rate.

Yeah, I would've liked it if she stayed for at least one more episode. Would be so nostalgic to see her on the group again in a non-contest episode.

 

[ShadowDeeps]

Not a dreck episode. The animation was good and commanding, as was May's, Zoey's, and Dawn's battles (Piplup against Glaceon comes to mind here, to expound). I was also rather pleased to hear the Kanto BGM kept after May parted away from her battle with Zoey as the victor - I don't have vivid recollection of hearing the track since the days of the Indigo league first beginning (Ash's trepidations and nervousness just before the league started, to specify). I still find the original BGM from those days superbly composed, holding it in very high regard, as to me it has a way of calming the ears and exploring the characters, concepts, and themes of the series in a way that the other BGM doesn't (not to say the other BGM is bad by any account, just personal preference). Not all the original Japanese BGM was kept, of course, but still.

But yes, this episode set a good pace with animation and battles of equal merit. I wouldn't expressly deem it a great episode, but it was good. May does seem more mature this time around. It isn't a half-bad way to end the Wallace Cup.

 

[Mooites]

meh, it was ok. some of the dialogue was a little odd, but hey, thats PUSA.

mirror coat looked cool, but glaceon sounded like it was purring. I thought the eeveelutions were more dog-based (except Espeon)

 

[Yash]

Actually they kept eight pieces. The music during the second half of May and Dawn's battle was pretty lame, but whatever. There were a bunch of silent snippets, which is good since we haven't had any long periods of silence since Our Cup Runneth Over.

I'm glad Dawn won. I consider May the better coordinator, but for the sake of advancing the plot, Dawn needed to win. Having May steal the prize away from Dawn only to head back to Johto and be forgotten again for the next 200 episodes would be a dick move on the writers' part.

 

[poke07]

review

Plot:

I'm happy Dawn won, but in general I thought the episode was bland. Perhaps it was because of the background music? The battling was pretty good, but it didn't have the same energy as usual. I wish there was a more interesting side-plot going on at the same time. Usually during these sorts of episodes there is.

Music:

The follow is very opinionated so I am "spoiler tagging" it just in case.

Spoiler

Interesting. I really liked that battle piece at the beginning. I think it is from one of the Japanese Mewtwo movies. They've been using that one for a while.

Also, the BGM that they played when we first saw Jessie doing the interview was good to hear. We haven't heard that one in ages. It's short, but a really good accordion theme. I wonder if it is Japanese or PUSA BGM??

The PUSA battle music is QUITE poor. I am taking a composition class, and now I can identify why. The PUSA battle music doesn't seem to have strong "motifs." This means that they have no particular "catchy" theme or melody. It's just random notes with a constant beat behind them. I'm still so surprised that it is the same composer as under 4Kids, where they all had very strong motifs.

In contrast, I really like PUSA's ending music, particularly the one they used at the end of the episode today.


Audio:

Whoever is the mixer at DuArt REALLY needs to improve his trade! They are better now in terms of voices vs. BGM. However, the sound effects are much louder than either of the two. Whenever there is a sound effect, I can't hear anything else. I think TAJ was really good at sound balance.

Rating: B

 

[Cybersai]

Speaking of the music, what was that music that played during May and Zoey's battle? I never heard that before, and I can't remember but was that in the Japanese version?

Otherwise the BGM in this episode was pretty well done, a lot of the better battle pieces were kept.


Anycase, Glaceon Vs. Piplup is my favorite Contest battle in DP. Dawn winning was fine since she only won by a point, (I remember when the Japanese ep aired, someone actually drew a line with photoshop to show how close it was) and it was a nice action packed battle. Dawn's emotion at the end was really great.

Beautifly Vs. Glameow was pretty good too. I love how that battle was between May and Zoey's signature Pokemon, (well, after Blaziken). Beautifly is in some of the best contest battles of the series, so I'm glad that everytime May uses it its fun to watch.

Piplup Vs. Crawdaunt was kinda meh, but its understandable they rushed it since it was against a filler character and not an important one.

As a whole, I liked the Wallace Cup. It could have been extended an extra episode so we could have gotten to see May's Venusaur actually battle in more than a 1 second shot, but oh well.

 

[ashfangirl]

OMG saw it WHY DID (_____ not gonna spoil it unless u say so XD) have to win! no fair! (_____)was SO much better!!!!!!

 

[Geodude]

For one thing, she only won by a VERY slight margin. For another, Glaceon is not May's strongest Pokemon, which levelled the playing field somewhat.

 

[Lethal Carnivine]

For one thing, she only won by a VERY slight margin. For another, Glaceon is not May's strongest Pokemon, which levelled the playing field somewhat.

You mean May don't you, lol.

 

[GreatLiver]

This is because Glaceon is also not Dawn's Pokemon

 

[DashingFox]

^lol.
It was a great episode because of the great battles. It's one of my favourite contest eps. I also agree that Jesse's "Look out" was somewhat creepy.