csrdevil
Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2015
- Messages
- 28
- Reaction score
- 25
Hello Pokefans!
First of all a warm welcome and a millions salutes’ to all you crazy Pokeman fans out there, wherever you are in the world. I am back again with part 3 of my 6 piece tribute to the best anime show ever! My primary objective of course is to ‘inform’ those new to the anime and take those who’ve been there done that to a trip down memory lane.
Guys, the Kalos League is inching ever closer now. What with the Zygarde saga now slowly starting to unfold after months of stalling, we finally got a chance to see some action rather than wait in the side lines as the anime agonisingly builds up to a tantalising climax in form of the Kalos League. It is futile to discuss Kalos altogether in detail, here in this article at least. But to those of you still in the dark about Ash’s Greninja’s mysterious phenomenon, I can confirm that it is not “Mega Greninja” but “Greninja-EX”. And that fact was corroborated by the ending of episode 9 in Pokemon XY&Z where the Pokemon Company in process of unveiling new Pokeman card decks, revealed that Ash’s Greninja is indeed Greninja-EX. As such, just the prospect of analysing Greninja in my Kalos piece later on, makes my mouth water with anticipation.
Anyway today I’d like to take you down to Hoenn where anime underwent its first big change if you like. I’m of course talking about Misty’s omission from main cast which no doubt must’ve saddened “Pokeshippers” hoping to see a spark between Satoshi (Ash) and Misty. But many breathed a sigh of relief when Brock eventually joined him alongside brother and sister duo May and Max of Petalburg City, who were the new kids in the block so to speak. All in all, the raft of changes (more on that later) and loitering uncertainty, made for an enticing journey indeed.
Before I begin dear fan I’d like to offer my sincere apologies. I’ll have to reduce the content drastically for this article and possibly of my reviews of Sinnoh and Unova due to the anime’s exponential progression these last few weeks, which has the Kalos League literally banging on the door. But I’ll try and be as informative as I can.
Without further ado, Pokeball go!
The Hoenn Region
It is perhaps with a bit of heaviness in his heart that our hero set out alone for the first time in his journeys. But he would no doubt be in high spirits following an encouraging quarterfinal berth at the Silver Conference (which actually made Gary Oak retire). There were still a few rough edges about him that still needed to be smoothed out, but hey he was making every effort to get there, starting by ditching all his Pokemon but Pikachu, for the first time in the anime.
The story of course began with the introduction of May, a burly 10 year old who wants to be a great “Pokemon Co-ordinator”. Safe to say the developers played their cards straight from the word go. If I may, I think it was a genius manoeuvre to generate more female audiences for the anime (not that there wasn’t enough before!). In what can be summed up as a male dominated show (we concentrate on Ash his goals and his dreams after all), the Grand festival was perhaps just the catalyst needed for the developers to come up with something even more potent and popular with girls such as the idea of the Pokemon performances, which now forms an integral part of the Kalos chronicles.
But back to Ash and May, I think it is fair to state that Hoenn had a surprisingly dull start compared to its predecessors (I mean Suicune in Johto, come on!). Pikachu had an electrical “overload” on its way to Littleroot town with Ash to meet Professor Birch, who was to guide Ash through the registration process for the Hoenn League. After a chance encounter with May who’d visited the professor to collect a starter Pokémon, a predictable reverie ensued where Team Rocket blasted off again and Pikachu healed (unsurprisingly). Ash and May decided to become travel partners.
Now guys, apart from that and Brock and May’s brother Max joining them (and of course capturing new Pokémon) there aren’t really that many highlights in the Hoenn region altogether (not in the 1st season of Hoenn anyway). Perhaps the most exciting it got was when Misty made a cameo appearance in “The Princess and the Togepi”, where they help to restore a rightful heir to her throne from the evil clutches of her commander in chief of the army. An exciting two part special which ended with Misty releasing Togepi (which evolved into Togetic) to protect the Togepi in Mirage Island, but not before Misty and her Gyarados stole the show.
But the most beautiful bit about the flamethrower from Gyarados was not the move itself, but the excellent background music (“hot on the trail”) which is one the many reasons the Hoenn region can be appreciated. I think the Sinnoh region tops them all in terms of score music, but nothing beats “Hot on the trail” whenever it fires up in the background, be it when Misty sent Gyarados out to tackle Shedinja, or Swellow outclassing Winona in the Fortree Gym or indeed when Pikachu “surfed” out of trouble with Corphish, to draw a wry smile out of Juan who finally acknowledged Ash’s pedigree at the Sootopolis gym. Kudos to the developers for implementing it from the seemingly endless pile of scintillating background score they produced for the movie, Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (the best Pokemon movie I’ve seen up to date).
Dear friends, I hope you’ll forgive me for not reviewing May’s exploits in the Hoenn region for I simply do not have the space or the time to fit her in. And beside this will be too lengthy an article if I were to decide to include her.
The Gym Battles
I’ll be blunt here, what can be classified as a “close fight” between Roxanne and her rock Pokémon and the Rustboro Gym, in hindsight can be described as a comfortable victory for Ash, as Pikachu despite its type advantage, picked up the Rock badge by mastering its iconic iron tail move. Things however started to get feisty as Ash met Brawly next in the Dewford gym and lost first time around as Brawly’s Makuhita beat Treecko in a close encounter and to my frustration evolved into Hariyama in the process, making the rematch for our hero all the more difficult. But Treecko after some intensive training finally managed to outsmart Hariyama. I believe it injure its leg in the process (Hariyama’s I mean) before delivering a knockout blow with pound attack. Fast-forwarding on to the Mauville gym and Wattson who provided little to no competition as his trio of electric Pokemon found Ash’s Pikachu in a class of its own. The now increasingly lethal yellow bundle of cuteness was beginning to prove why it is still numero uno.
Flannery of Lavaridge town came next and she was perhaps a bit more dynamic than all her colleagues thus far. Her exceptionally trained Torkoal almost proved to be the difference, before a sleeping Corphish came out, literally brought Torkoal out of its shell and delivered a precise bubblebeam attack to finally end Flannery’s resistance.
Now things got a little edgy for it was Petalburg city. This time it was bit uncomfortable for the sibling duo of May and Max, who were torn between the desire of whether or not to cheer Ash onto victory or support their father Norman, who was the gym leader in this case. Ladies and gentleman I think it is safe to say that the gym battles were now starting to get more and more intriguing, and incrementally challenging.
But crucially though, Ash Ketchum wasn’t far behind.
Perhaps it is this experience which saw him though at the Petalburg gym and a bit of guile to ignore the pressure of battling his best friend’s father. It took a while but Norman’s formidable Slaking was finally ousted by our very own Grovyle, whose boots are being filled by Greninja now in Kalos. With no regard for its far superior adversary, Grovyle used its speed and cunning to its advantage delivering a leaf blade attack to decide the match in Ash’s favour.
The Balance badge was now Ash’s, after much drama which preceded the crucial encounter. Ash was now more than halfway through onto the Hoenn League.
Now I think I’ve argued it before and if not, I’ll say it now. Gym battle number 6, 7 and 8 are my most favourite gym battles of all times. The number one reason being is the developer’s successful attempt to break the monotonous mould haunting gym battles across anime thus far, something which has drawn heavy criticism. Sadly they have adopted that tell-tale pattern again, but it was refreshing while it lasted. The last three gym battles Fortree, Mossdeep and Sootopolis were not only versatile, but housed gym leaders who truly provided stern tests for Ash’s resolve. Here at last were battles where we can gather substantial fodder from which to analyse whether Ash has a decent chance of winning it all at Ever Grande city (Hoenn League).
The MVP in those battles was undoubtedly what I think is one of Ash’s most priceless acquisitions, Swellow. Swellow began with an electrifying battle with Winona at the Fortree Gym, where some have criticised the developer’s lack of imagination in “finishing things off” smoothly (Swellow’s singular wing attack defeat of Winonma’s frankly unscathed Swellow until that point). To them, I’d just like to point out that aerial ace is an incredibly difficult move to execute. The Pokémon in question travels at an unimaginable speed (Winona’s Swellow actually disappears!). So if something crashes on to a wall at that speed (the wall being Ash’s Swellow’s wing attack) it is bound to get squashed or derailed at the least or as it was in Winona’s Swellow’s case, just simply faint. So I urge them to re-think the scenario again.
The Mossdeep Gym followed and also perhaps one of the weirdest most unorthodox moves I’ve ever seen our hero execute to date. Ash made Pikachu reflect the most powerful electric type attack on itself and poor Swellow, in a bid to use the stored energy as armour to break through Liza and Tate’s defences. The move worked and even though it was a double battle frankly, I think Swellow showed just how stubborn and defiant it can be. It finished off Lunatone with a “thunderous” aerial ace attack and if I remember, came out of the resulting smoke with a stylish swivel to let Liza and Tate know that “yeah, block that one”.
The eighth gym followed and with his Pokémon in top form Ash couldn’t go wrong. After sorting out the mess that was Team Rocket, who stretched the battle at Sootopolis to a two part spectacle, Ash’s Pikachu was the culprit again as it delivered a Pokémon of the match performance. It displayed great resilience and its knack for teamwork, combining excellently Corphish to defeat Seaking and Sealeo in the first round (with “hot on the trail” playing in the background again). In a three round battle, unheard of in gym encounters thus far in the anime, Ash won a gruelling final round against Juan’s gracefully powerful Milotic. In the end electric and water Pokémon is still a bad match. Type advantage pays, unless of course you have Swellow in your team.
Right then, my thoughts? I think apart from a minor setback in Dewford City, which was primarily down to inexperience perhaps on Treecko’s part, I think Ash passed the gym trials with flying colours. But it was perhaps the last 3 gym battles where we saw glimpses again of what he can potentially be. His trademark unorthodox style of battling was there for everyone to see. He carried that form thankfully later on to the Sinnoh League and strung together, what I think were the best performances of his life. On to Ever Grande City then.
The Hoenn League
Gary’s departure left a huge hole in the anime, in terms of who would be Ash’s main rival in the near future. The arrival of Morrison from Verdanturf Town looked to answer that to some extent. But to those who’ve witnessed Ash vs Paul in the Sinnoh League, I think Morrison in that case can be classified as a “tame” wolf.
Nonetheless registration passed in a bit of a whirlwind and our hero spent a sleepless night again as excitement and anticipation took over, and the desire to be champion burned ever brighter in his heart.
Again the tournament bore refreshing signs of change. Ash’s first hurdle involved a best of 3 preliminaries all of which would be double battles. The tournament will then proceed on to a second round composed of thirty-two best trainers (out of 256), who will play a 6v6 match right from the get go. Surprising to see 6v6 matches introduced so prematurely (compared to previous competitions of course) but eventually it was time to face the music.
The highlight of Ash’s round 1 battles came against Clark, a big celebrity in the Hoenn region. Of course he is not the reason I cherry picked this battle. Clark commanded a Quilava and interestingly a Charizard as well, a Pokémon whom I was delighted to see make a rare appearance and who I am sure will give anyone a match any day. Thus Ash had his work cut out even more for he’d already sent out Grovyle and Glalie, both weak against fire-type Pokémon. But guys, when has that ever stopped him?
Ash began with a direct approach but Clark’s Charizard and Quilava derailed them with effective long range and physical fire attacks respectively. The match then started to turn into a cat and mouse game as Ash clearly recognized he is at odds here, and ordered Glalie to use icy wind in a bid to shroud his Pokemon from super effective moves. But after Grovyle knocked out Quilava, and Charizard in turn knocked it out with steel wing in quick succession, Glalie used Ice Beam on the ground, forming some ice pillars that stopped Charizard from delivering a fatal flamethrower. But still Charizard attacked unfazed, succeeding in striking Glalie with steel wing, sending it ricocheting from pillar to pillar. But Ash being Ash, recognized the opportunity in a seemingly hopeless situation and ordered Glalie to use the pillars to dart around the icy field and gain momentum. The result of which was a high speed headbutt which eventually and knocked Charizard out, earning Ash a round of thirty two berth.
The pride of Lilycove City, Katie, awaited Ash in his round of thirty-two 6v6 matchup. Nicknamed "Cool Beauty", Katie certainly looked “cool” landing two consecutive victories by claiming Torkoal and a huge scalp in the form of Ash’s Pikachu, recycling her Venomoth, Golduck and Dugtrio to devastating effect. Facing a trainer who can cleverly juggle between her Pokémon and spot a disadvantage, Ash knew he had to outsmart her at her own game. As such Ash then sent out Glalie who fought bravely to down Dugtrio after its futile attempt to escape underground and even defeated Misdreavus, but not before the mischief Pokémon had dragged Glalie down with it using destiny bond.
The match now evenly poised with Ash having three remaining Pokémon and Katie with four, the drama resumed as even the battlefield decided to spice things up shedding its rock skin to convert into a water battlefield. And after Corphish built on Glalie’s breakthrough to conquer Katie’s Golduck, Swellow came out and stole the limelight.
Brushing aside Venomoth with with ease Swellow finally put Katie on the back foot by its defeat of her Scizor, whom Katie had chosen in vain hope that its part steel type characteristics may help gain the edge, but to no avail. Swellow matched and then bettered her Scizor in every possible department of Pokémon battling, in the end overwhelming it by one hell of an aerial ace attack to send it smashing down in to the arena. Eventually it succumbed to Katie’s trump card, Walrein, who overpowered a frankly exhausted Corphish next. But in the end it was Ash’s Grovyle which earned him the victory and set up a round of sixteen tie with none other than Morrison.
Now I think the anime did a good job overall, but honestly the whole ordeal was a bit melodramatic if you ask me. In a battle dominated by friends at odds with each other, it was Morrison who was penalized first for not sending a Pokemon out quickly enough. As such, Ash was one nil up. It is really hard to describe a battle that had no ebb and flow to it. But apart from a surprise disqualification, and two stalemates, the macth did have a couple of good spells for each trainer and crucially for Ash, the final say in the proceedings. In a battle I’d describe less stimulating that Katie’s, Glalie seized the initiative and knocked out Morrison’s Metang with a low gravity headbutt attack. The battle ended and ladies and gentlemen it sent our hero into to a fevered frenzy, as the victory meant another quarterfinal appearance at a major Pokemon League tournament. This time though he paired with Tyson, who’d rather die a slow painful death than give Ash a moment’s respite in a battle.
It turned out to be that way, in a battle where both trainers had their chances. Swellow proved its pedigree again nearly annihilating half of Tyson’s Pokémon before finally succumbing to the antics Tyson’s powerful Metagross. But even Swellow couldn’t eclipse Tyson’s Meowth.
I’ve always loved Meowth, Team’s Rocket’s one anyway. But this little was even more amazing because where it lacked the ability to speak English, it compensated it with a stellar battling style and excellent array of moves and skills, a list which includes thunderbolt and iron tail. One can argue that Pikachu gave it a good match but if you take a closer look, Pikachu was outperformed in that match in more ways than one. Tyson’s amazing Meowth, to our disappointment, claimed the scalp over Ash and I can wholeheartedly say at least it deserved to do so. It simply was the better Pokémon on the day.
csr121295 **sighs**, I know readers another campaign and bitter disappointment again but to those who’ve followed the franchise for years, know that the developers were just getting warmed up. Dear readers, our hero tried, I can honestly say that to myself, because he gave it a good go and was just edged out by a slightly more skilful opponent. But the Indigo Plateau did end in a dubious manner and the Silver Conference was down to a lack of ruthlessness and/or clinical decisions. The Hoenn League however was much more reassuring as Ash passed two 6v6 hurdles mind you, not to mention against incredibly talented opposition. As such one could only look in hope towards the future that the good work he’s done on the tournament would prove to be a cornerstone for success later. And there was much heart to take from the performances of some of Ash’s Pokemon as well. So the future looks bright.
Ash’s MVP For The Hoenn Region
I must say I was impressed with nearly every acquisition in Hoenn, but Torkoal, who is a bit too lethargic for my taste. The tournament though provided Ash to develop them into absolute gems as Grovyle, Glalie, Corphish and Pikachu enjoyed various levels of success. However there is no doubt in my mind that Swellow is and probably could be one his best ever captures.
Agile, docile an impossibly stubborn, Swellow is someone I think embodies Ash’s desire to become a Pokémon master, because that is how good it is. Like Greninja (or should I say Greninja-EX?) who today carries the brunt of Ash’s hopes of claiming the Kalos League, Swellow almost literally carried Ash through the most difficult gym battles in Hoenn and proved to be a nightmare for Tyson who was forced to send out a high level and fully fit Metagross, to conquer Swellow. Even then the proud bird managed to land a few blows before finally giving in. It is this kind of tenacity that a lot of Ash’s Pokemon lack. Commitment has never been an issue for them. And it certainly is not with Swellow.
As a side note, I think its ability to simply “shrug off” high powered electric moves will forever be legendary amongst Pokemon fans and certainly in Pokemon folklore.
Conclusion
Hey guys, so thank you for reading, part three of my build up to the Kalos League. Be sure to check in regularly, as I breakdown the Sinnoh region next for part 4 of my project.
Until next time. Take care and keep watching the greatest anime show on earth.
First of all a warm welcome and a millions salutes’ to all you crazy Pokeman fans out there, wherever you are in the world. I am back again with part 3 of my 6 piece tribute to the best anime show ever! My primary objective of course is to ‘inform’ those new to the anime and take those who’ve been there done that to a trip down memory lane.
Guys, the Kalos League is inching ever closer now. What with the Zygarde saga now slowly starting to unfold after months of stalling, we finally got a chance to see some action rather than wait in the side lines as the anime agonisingly builds up to a tantalising climax in form of the Kalos League. It is futile to discuss Kalos altogether in detail, here in this article at least. But to those of you still in the dark about Ash’s Greninja’s mysterious phenomenon, I can confirm that it is not “Mega Greninja” but “Greninja-EX”. And that fact was corroborated by the ending of episode 9 in Pokemon XY&Z where the Pokemon Company in process of unveiling new Pokeman card decks, revealed that Ash’s Greninja is indeed Greninja-EX. As such, just the prospect of analysing Greninja in my Kalos piece later on, makes my mouth water with anticipation.
Anyway today I’d like to take you down to Hoenn where anime underwent its first big change if you like. I’m of course talking about Misty’s omission from main cast which no doubt must’ve saddened “Pokeshippers” hoping to see a spark between Satoshi (Ash) and Misty. But many breathed a sigh of relief when Brock eventually joined him alongside brother and sister duo May and Max of Petalburg City, who were the new kids in the block so to speak. All in all, the raft of changes (more on that later) and loitering uncertainty, made for an enticing journey indeed.
Before I begin dear fan I’d like to offer my sincere apologies. I’ll have to reduce the content drastically for this article and possibly of my reviews of Sinnoh and Unova due to the anime’s exponential progression these last few weeks, which has the Kalos League literally banging on the door. But I’ll try and be as informative as I can.
Without further ado, Pokeball go!
The Hoenn Region
It is perhaps with a bit of heaviness in his heart that our hero set out alone for the first time in his journeys. But he would no doubt be in high spirits following an encouraging quarterfinal berth at the Silver Conference (which actually made Gary Oak retire). There were still a few rough edges about him that still needed to be smoothed out, but hey he was making every effort to get there, starting by ditching all his Pokemon but Pikachu, for the first time in the anime.
The story of course began with the introduction of May, a burly 10 year old who wants to be a great “Pokemon Co-ordinator”. Safe to say the developers played their cards straight from the word go. If I may, I think it was a genius manoeuvre to generate more female audiences for the anime (not that there wasn’t enough before!). In what can be summed up as a male dominated show (we concentrate on Ash his goals and his dreams after all), the Grand festival was perhaps just the catalyst needed for the developers to come up with something even more potent and popular with girls such as the idea of the Pokemon performances, which now forms an integral part of the Kalos chronicles.
But back to Ash and May, I think it is fair to state that Hoenn had a surprisingly dull start compared to its predecessors (I mean Suicune in Johto, come on!). Pikachu had an electrical “overload” on its way to Littleroot town with Ash to meet Professor Birch, who was to guide Ash through the registration process for the Hoenn League. After a chance encounter with May who’d visited the professor to collect a starter Pokémon, a predictable reverie ensued where Team Rocket blasted off again and Pikachu healed (unsurprisingly). Ash and May decided to become travel partners.
Now guys, apart from that and Brock and May’s brother Max joining them (and of course capturing new Pokémon) there aren’t really that many highlights in the Hoenn region altogether (not in the 1st season of Hoenn anyway). Perhaps the most exciting it got was when Misty made a cameo appearance in “The Princess and the Togepi”, where they help to restore a rightful heir to her throne from the evil clutches of her commander in chief of the army. An exciting two part special which ended with Misty releasing Togepi (which evolved into Togetic) to protect the Togepi in Mirage Island, but not before Misty and her Gyarados stole the show.
But the most beautiful bit about the flamethrower from Gyarados was not the move itself, but the excellent background music (“hot on the trail”) which is one the many reasons the Hoenn region can be appreciated. I think the Sinnoh region tops them all in terms of score music, but nothing beats “Hot on the trail” whenever it fires up in the background, be it when Misty sent Gyarados out to tackle Shedinja, or Swellow outclassing Winona in the Fortree Gym or indeed when Pikachu “surfed” out of trouble with Corphish, to draw a wry smile out of Juan who finally acknowledged Ash’s pedigree at the Sootopolis gym. Kudos to the developers for implementing it from the seemingly endless pile of scintillating background score they produced for the movie, Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (the best Pokemon movie I’ve seen up to date).
Dear friends, I hope you’ll forgive me for not reviewing May’s exploits in the Hoenn region for I simply do not have the space or the time to fit her in. And beside this will be too lengthy an article if I were to decide to include her.
The Gym Battles
I’ll be blunt here, what can be classified as a “close fight” between Roxanne and her rock Pokémon and the Rustboro Gym, in hindsight can be described as a comfortable victory for Ash, as Pikachu despite its type advantage, picked up the Rock badge by mastering its iconic iron tail move. Things however started to get feisty as Ash met Brawly next in the Dewford gym and lost first time around as Brawly’s Makuhita beat Treecko in a close encounter and to my frustration evolved into Hariyama in the process, making the rematch for our hero all the more difficult. But Treecko after some intensive training finally managed to outsmart Hariyama. I believe it injure its leg in the process (Hariyama’s I mean) before delivering a knockout blow with pound attack. Fast-forwarding on to the Mauville gym and Wattson who provided little to no competition as his trio of electric Pokemon found Ash’s Pikachu in a class of its own. The now increasingly lethal yellow bundle of cuteness was beginning to prove why it is still numero uno.
Flannery of Lavaridge town came next and she was perhaps a bit more dynamic than all her colleagues thus far. Her exceptionally trained Torkoal almost proved to be the difference, before a sleeping Corphish came out, literally brought Torkoal out of its shell and delivered a precise bubblebeam attack to finally end Flannery’s resistance.
Now things got a little edgy for it was Petalburg city. This time it was bit uncomfortable for the sibling duo of May and Max, who were torn between the desire of whether or not to cheer Ash onto victory or support their father Norman, who was the gym leader in this case. Ladies and gentleman I think it is safe to say that the gym battles were now starting to get more and more intriguing, and incrementally challenging.
But crucially though, Ash Ketchum wasn’t far behind.
Perhaps it is this experience which saw him though at the Petalburg gym and a bit of guile to ignore the pressure of battling his best friend’s father. It took a while but Norman’s formidable Slaking was finally ousted by our very own Grovyle, whose boots are being filled by Greninja now in Kalos. With no regard for its far superior adversary, Grovyle used its speed and cunning to its advantage delivering a leaf blade attack to decide the match in Ash’s favour.
The Balance badge was now Ash’s, after much drama which preceded the crucial encounter. Ash was now more than halfway through onto the Hoenn League.
Now I think I’ve argued it before and if not, I’ll say it now. Gym battle number 6, 7 and 8 are my most favourite gym battles of all times. The number one reason being is the developer’s successful attempt to break the monotonous mould haunting gym battles across anime thus far, something which has drawn heavy criticism. Sadly they have adopted that tell-tale pattern again, but it was refreshing while it lasted. The last three gym battles Fortree, Mossdeep and Sootopolis were not only versatile, but housed gym leaders who truly provided stern tests for Ash’s resolve. Here at last were battles where we can gather substantial fodder from which to analyse whether Ash has a decent chance of winning it all at Ever Grande city (Hoenn League).
The MVP in those battles was undoubtedly what I think is one of Ash’s most priceless acquisitions, Swellow. Swellow began with an electrifying battle with Winona at the Fortree Gym, where some have criticised the developer’s lack of imagination in “finishing things off” smoothly (Swellow’s singular wing attack defeat of Winonma’s frankly unscathed Swellow until that point). To them, I’d just like to point out that aerial ace is an incredibly difficult move to execute. The Pokémon in question travels at an unimaginable speed (Winona’s Swellow actually disappears!). So if something crashes on to a wall at that speed (the wall being Ash’s Swellow’s wing attack) it is bound to get squashed or derailed at the least or as it was in Winona’s Swellow’s case, just simply faint. So I urge them to re-think the scenario again.
The Mossdeep Gym followed and also perhaps one of the weirdest most unorthodox moves I’ve ever seen our hero execute to date. Ash made Pikachu reflect the most powerful electric type attack on itself and poor Swellow, in a bid to use the stored energy as armour to break through Liza and Tate’s defences. The move worked and even though it was a double battle frankly, I think Swellow showed just how stubborn and defiant it can be. It finished off Lunatone with a “thunderous” aerial ace attack and if I remember, came out of the resulting smoke with a stylish swivel to let Liza and Tate know that “yeah, block that one”.
The eighth gym followed and with his Pokémon in top form Ash couldn’t go wrong. After sorting out the mess that was Team Rocket, who stretched the battle at Sootopolis to a two part spectacle, Ash’s Pikachu was the culprit again as it delivered a Pokémon of the match performance. It displayed great resilience and its knack for teamwork, combining excellently Corphish to defeat Seaking and Sealeo in the first round (with “hot on the trail” playing in the background again). In a three round battle, unheard of in gym encounters thus far in the anime, Ash won a gruelling final round against Juan’s gracefully powerful Milotic. In the end electric and water Pokémon is still a bad match. Type advantage pays, unless of course you have Swellow in your team.
Right then, my thoughts? I think apart from a minor setback in Dewford City, which was primarily down to inexperience perhaps on Treecko’s part, I think Ash passed the gym trials with flying colours. But it was perhaps the last 3 gym battles where we saw glimpses again of what he can potentially be. His trademark unorthodox style of battling was there for everyone to see. He carried that form thankfully later on to the Sinnoh League and strung together, what I think were the best performances of his life. On to Ever Grande City then.
The Hoenn League
Gary’s departure left a huge hole in the anime, in terms of who would be Ash’s main rival in the near future. The arrival of Morrison from Verdanturf Town looked to answer that to some extent. But to those who’ve witnessed Ash vs Paul in the Sinnoh League, I think Morrison in that case can be classified as a “tame” wolf.
Nonetheless registration passed in a bit of a whirlwind and our hero spent a sleepless night again as excitement and anticipation took over, and the desire to be champion burned ever brighter in his heart.
Again the tournament bore refreshing signs of change. Ash’s first hurdle involved a best of 3 preliminaries all of which would be double battles. The tournament will then proceed on to a second round composed of thirty-two best trainers (out of 256), who will play a 6v6 match right from the get go. Surprising to see 6v6 matches introduced so prematurely (compared to previous competitions of course) but eventually it was time to face the music.
The highlight of Ash’s round 1 battles came against Clark, a big celebrity in the Hoenn region. Of course he is not the reason I cherry picked this battle. Clark commanded a Quilava and interestingly a Charizard as well, a Pokémon whom I was delighted to see make a rare appearance and who I am sure will give anyone a match any day. Thus Ash had his work cut out even more for he’d already sent out Grovyle and Glalie, both weak against fire-type Pokémon. But guys, when has that ever stopped him?
Ash began with a direct approach but Clark’s Charizard and Quilava derailed them with effective long range and physical fire attacks respectively. The match then started to turn into a cat and mouse game as Ash clearly recognized he is at odds here, and ordered Glalie to use icy wind in a bid to shroud his Pokemon from super effective moves. But after Grovyle knocked out Quilava, and Charizard in turn knocked it out with steel wing in quick succession, Glalie used Ice Beam on the ground, forming some ice pillars that stopped Charizard from delivering a fatal flamethrower. But still Charizard attacked unfazed, succeeding in striking Glalie with steel wing, sending it ricocheting from pillar to pillar. But Ash being Ash, recognized the opportunity in a seemingly hopeless situation and ordered Glalie to use the pillars to dart around the icy field and gain momentum. The result of which was a high speed headbutt which eventually and knocked Charizard out, earning Ash a round of thirty two berth.
The pride of Lilycove City, Katie, awaited Ash in his round of thirty-two 6v6 matchup. Nicknamed "Cool Beauty", Katie certainly looked “cool” landing two consecutive victories by claiming Torkoal and a huge scalp in the form of Ash’s Pikachu, recycling her Venomoth, Golduck and Dugtrio to devastating effect. Facing a trainer who can cleverly juggle between her Pokémon and spot a disadvantage, Ash knew he had to outsmart her at her own game. As such Ash then sent out Glalie who fought bravely to down Dugtrio after its futile attempt to escape underground and even defeated Misdreavus, but not before the mischief Pokémon had dragged Glalie down with it using destiny bond.
The match now evenly poised with Ash having three remaining Pokémon and Katie with four, the drama resumed as even the battlefield decided to spice things up shedding its rock skin to convert into a water battlefield. And after Corphish built on Glalie’s breakthrough to conquer Katie’s Golduck, Swellow came out and stole the limelight.
Brushing aside Venomoth with with ease Swellow finally put Katie on the back foot by its defeat of her Scizor, whom Katie had chosen in vain hope that its part steel type characteristics may help gain the edge, but to no avail. Swellow matched and then bettered her Scizor in every possible department of Pokémon battling, in the end overwhelming it by one hell of an aerial ace attack to send it smashing down in to the arena. Eventually it succumbed to Katie’s trump card, Walrein, who overpowered a frankly exhausted Corphish next. But in the end it was Ash’s Grovyle which earned him the victory and set up a round of sixteen tie with none other than Morrison.
Now I think the anime did a good job overall, but honestly the whole ordeal was a bit melodramatic if you ask me. In a battle dominated by friends at odds with each other, it was Morrison who was penalized first for not sending a Pokemon out quickly enough. As such, Ash was one nil up. It is really hard to describe a battle that had no ebb and flow to it. But apart from a surprise disqualification, and two stalemates, the macth did have a couple of good spells for each trainer and crucially for Ash, the final say in the proceedings. In a battle I’d describe less stimulating that Katie’s, Glalie seized the initiative and knocked out Morrison’s Metang with a low gravity headbutt attack. The battle ended and ladies and gentlemen it sent our hero into to a fevered frenzy, as the victory meant another quarterfinal appearance at a major Pokemon League tournament. This time though he paired with Tyson, who’d rather die a slow painful death than give Ash a moment’s respite in a battle.
It turned out to be that way, in a battle where both trainers had their chances. Swellow proved its pedigree again nearly annihilating half of Tyson’s Pokémon before finally succumbing to the antics Tyson’s powerful Metagross. But even Swellow couldn’t eclipse Tyson’s Meowth.
I’ve always loved Meowth, Team’s Rocket’s one anyway. But this little was even more amazing because where it lacked the ability to speak English, it compensated it with a stellar battling style and excellent array of moves and skills, a list which includes thunderbolt and iron tail. One can argue that Pikachu gave it a good match but if you take a closer look, Pikachu was outperformed in that match in more ways than one. Tyson’s amazing Meowth, to our disappointment, claimed the scalp over Ash and I can wholeheartedly say at least it deserved to do so. It simply was the better Pokémon on the day.
csr121295 **sighs**, I know readers another campaign and bitter disappointment again but to those who’ve followed the franchise for years, know that the developers were just getting warmed up. Dear readers, our hero tried, I can honestly say that to myself, because he gave it a good go and was just edged out by a slightly more skilful opponent. But the Indigo Plateau did end in a dubious manner and the Silver Conference was down to a lack of ruthlessness and/or clinical decisions. The Hoenn League however was much more reassuring as Ash passed two 6v6 hurdles mind you, not to mention against incredibly talented opposition. As such one could only look in hope towards the future that the good work he’s done on the tournament would prove to be a cornerstone for success later. And there was much heart to take from the performances of some of Ash’s Pokemon as well. So the future looks bright.
Ash’s MVP For The Hoenn Region
I must say I was impressed with nearly every acquisition in Hoenn, but Torkoal, who is a bit too lethargic for my taste. The tournament though provided Ash to develop them into absolute gems as Grovyle, Glalie, Corphish and Pikachu enjoyed various levels of success. However there is no doubt in my mind that Swellow is and probably could be one his best ever captures.
Agile, docile an impossibly stubborn, Swellow is someone I think embodies Ash’s desire to become a Pokémon master, because that is how good it is. Like Greninja (or should I say Greninja-EX?) who today carries the brunt of Ash’s hopes of claiming the Kalos League, Swellow almost literally carried Ash through the most difficult gym battles in Hoenn and proved to be a nightmare for Tyson who was forced to send out a high level and fully fit Metagross, to conquer Swellow. Even then the proud bird managed to land a few blows before finally giving in. It is this kind of tenacity that a lot of Ash’s Pokemon lack. Commitment has never been an issue for them. And it certainly is not with Swellow.
As a side note, I think its ability to simply “shrug off” high powered electric moves will forever be legendary amongst Pokemon fans and certainly in Pokemon folklore.
Conclusion
Hey guys, so thank you for reading, part three of my build up to the Kalos League. Be sure to check in regularly, as I breakdown the Sinnoh region next for part 4 of my project.
Until next time. Take care and keep watching the greatest anime show on earth.
