Take A Breath - Pokémon: Paldean Winds Episode 3 Review - The Perfect Scoop

This latest episode of Paldean Winds one wasn’t as action-packed as the previous two, but it was still a gentle story showing its central character learning an important life lesson. This time, it’s Hohma’s turn in the spotlight, focusing on his attempts to get a video with Team Star as part of the main character's overall video project for the academy.

(Please note: This review contains spoilers. If you haven't watched the episode yet, go watch it now before reading on!)

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Hohma has always been seen as the peppy know-it-all, but this episode shows a deeper insight onto his character. He enjoys finding good topics to create articles about, but he’s really only a grunt of the journalism club, and his article on the Aliquis vs Nemona match from last episode gets rejected by the president. At first, it seemed like he wanted to find scoops for selfish purposes like making a name for himself, but he quickly realizes that finding a scoop isn’t always about wanting to make something biased, and that what he writes needs to be something that everyone can enjoy.

I like that each of the three episodes so far have focused on different aspects of the Paldea Region, with different characters showing up each time. Ohara’s episode focused on the Glaseado Mountains and Arven; Aliquis’s focused on the school and Nemona; and now Hohma’s episode focuses on Team Star, specifically Eri and the Caph Squad. I thought that Eri was the perfect Team Star leader to showcase in this episode, as she's both the nicest of the five, and arguably the strongest. Her Annihilape certainly did a good job at pulverizing my team in my own play through of Violet! I thought Hohma’s biggest mistake though was trying to write an article about how scary Eri is when she’s anything but. Knowing that it was a failure of a scoop got him down, but his (newly evolved) Quaxwell cheered him up, and he was able to return to work on the video project.

Speaking of which, I commend Quaxwell for being the first of the Paldean starters to have an on-screen evolution. I love the usage of the actual evolution jingle when Quaxly started to evolve. I also thought the way Quaxwell’s dancing was animated was super fluid and beautiful. While Hohma had no idea what Quaxly was doing by flapping its wings at him at first, he then realized through its dancing that it was trying to cheer him up. I do like this overarching theme of the preciousness of people and their Pokémon partners. Now that Quaxly has evolved, each of the main characters have their partner Pokémon at a different state of evolution, with Fuecoco still being a basic Pokémon, Quaxly now at its first evolution stage, and Meowscarada at its final stage.

Team Star’s battle system wasn’t incorporated into the story, but I did enjoy the Team Star segment regardless. I really liked how Eri was given a rather sweet and cute voice to contrast her height and build, signifying how while she loves exercising and training, she's more than she seems from her appearance alone. She's just a total sweetheart! It was great seeing Annihilape get its fair share of screen time too, and seeing Revavroom was a nice treat given that it’s a staple Pokémon for Team Star. I do feel as if Team Star are a bit underrated in the fandom, but I thought the writers did a great job giving Team Star justice here.

With the way this series has been shaping up, I feel like the final episode will involved a gathering of all the important characters in Paldea, but it's hard to see how they're going to manage to squeeze them all in a 9-10 minute video. Can Wit Studio pull this off? I’m honestly excited to see the finale. What do you all think about this episode?