Review XY011: Pursuit in the Bamboo Forest! Yancham and Goronda!!

[Iteru]

This was an okay episode in my opinion. It had its good points and bad points but neither side prevailed.

Good points:

- Starters showing personality. I like that they're being referenced and being established early. Harimaron in particular being naive makes me think we'll see some great moments later down the line.

- Maiika. This thing is hilarious. Being praised one second to getting TRio clobbered. I'm hoping we see more sudden u-turns like that from it.

- All the Pokémon on the case did something. None of them seemed to be too focused on and everyone helped out at the end.

Neutral:

- Satoshi saving Goronda. Satoshi will do what it takes to save Pokémon, but we've seen that recently in this series with Gablias and I think too much of it can get a bit tiring. We saw Citron save the day last episode, so I was hoping for Eureka or Serena. Hopefully they'll be able to show their stuff later.

- Bakeccha. I'm not thrilled at the capture and seeing Shadow Ball made me roll my eyes. However I really liked it using Leech Seed and how it kept the Pokémon stationery. Bonus for Harimaron not being leeched.

Bad points:

- The plot itself wasn't exciting and neither Yancham or Goronda were showed off particularly well. IIRC only Hammer Arm was shown by Goronda. These two have pretty good movesets so I was anticipating a bit more.

 

[Yamadora]

Fokko eating stick and Harimaron trying (unsuccessfully) do the same. Seriously, am I the only one who snickered at that? And great to see how much they're putting the facts from Pokémon Zukan to the actual behaviour of the Pokémon.

 

[Litten]

Okay first of all I loved the two Pancham; they were adorable. I liked how they ate all of Ash and friend's food at the beginning and how they fled when Team Rocket arrived. They were clearly not interested in drama. I was disappointed in Fletchling though. I thought it would actually pop Team Rocket's balloon, but it didn't. Speaking of which, Team Rocket fighting over who got the credit for their scheme or whatever that was seemed so silly and unnecessary imo. Anyway, I fell in love with Pangoro and how it just tossed Meowth back into the sky when Meowth dropped on its head lol. Pikachu's desire to help Meowth was frustrating since I knew that Meowth would betray him, but whatever. I loved when Jessie and James encountered Pangoro and how Inkay squirted ink at it. Jessie and James's freaked out expressions were hilarious. Jessie catching Pumpkaboo was quick like I thought it would be which was good and seeing Dedenne being put to good use by looking for Pikachu was nice to see. Seeing Ash and friends retrieve a new branch for Pangoro was interesting and unexpected, but I liked watching Ash risk his life to give Pangoro the branch while running towards Team Rocket; I loved the animation and that all the Pokemon helped blow Inkay and Pumpkaboo's attacks away. So yeah, the whole episode was great.

 

[G50]

This episode was okay. Some of the Pokemon's personalities really stuck out in this episode. Fennekin likes to make sure its tail is clean, and it was pretty cool how Froakie used its bubbles to fix its tail. The Pancham sure looked as cute as they have since I first saw them when revealed for Generation VI. It was interesting to see how Pangoro is different in its aggressiveness, since it is only aggressive without its leaf. I wouldn't be surprised if Pancham would be the same way if it lost its leaf.

I chuckled a bit, as Jessie was just lightly tossing the Poke Ball to catch Pumpkaboo with that look on her face while doing so. It was interesting that both Fennekin and Froakie knew Meowth couldn't be trusted, while Chespin was very gullible. It was a nice change seeing Team Rocket blow up their own balloon this time.

 

[Misty Calls Masquerain]

Terrible episode.

They tried much too hard to make Ash look *cool* (See: Ash putting the twig in Pangoro's mouth), but he really didn't...the other characters didn't even get to do much, even though Clemont took responsibility. In all honesty, he should have shined, but no, he got swept under the rug so we could be exposed to Ash's (un)cool *heroics* for the 435566th time...

Fennekin just HAD to have a stereotypical personality, didn't it?

Team Rocket was bad, even by XY, DP and DA standards. Since when do they argue over who should take the credit? I thought they were supposed to be a team! This goes against even the worst of their DP characterizations. It seems like they're just written any how now. It was also lame how they blasted off three times, and each one was more grating than the last.

Pumpkaboo's capture was LAME...I think it was supposed to be funny how casually she (Jessie) tossed the ball at it, but it wasn't.

2/10

 

[Garren]

I personally thought the scene at the end was cool with Ash, particularly how the Pokemon pitched in and blocked Team Rocket's attacks so Ash could make it through.

But you know, different strokes. I'll agree with the Team Rocket scene (although Jessie claiming she should be congratulated for saying "Go!" made me laugh), but it isn't actually new. In fact I recall them arguing leading to a blast-off a few times, notable like in DP 1 or 2 it happened. Pretty much the same way with Wobbufet and everything.

I actually found the episode fairly enjoyable. I'd say the weakest XY episode is probably the Furfrou episode for me, apart from the Wobbuffet dress-up scene. One thing I reallly enjoyed about this episode is how it looked "unique" with the bamboo shoots and everything as opposed to simply a generic forest.

 

[kantoskies]

Haven't they argued about who should get credit for their success multiple times before? When I saw that scene I got quite the déjà vu (not that I didn't enjoy it, it was hilarious).

Jessie's capture was hilarious, especially compared to how she captured Seviper back in Hoenn.

 

[Capricious Equilibrium]

While not the best, it was still a great episode in my opinion.

The detail to the Pokemon was great. Fennekin eating her twiggies was adorable x3 The fact she looks after herself is nice. I can totally see her evolving into a fashionable lady-like Braixen, not sure about Delphox, though.

Also, even though Chespin got the sprout wrapping, it isn't shown leached. If this was unintentional or not, its nice seeing a Grass-Type not getting hurt by Leech Seed, one of the moves they are immune to.

At least Pangoro didn't spread Poison Powder at everything. Seriously, one saga, and the darned mushrooms got sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo old.

 

[JacobYBM]

No wonder this episode had so many details, it was written by Series Organizer Tomioka Atsushiro, the man who wrote the best episodes of Diamond & Pearl. I suspect he delved right into a copy of the Zuukan entries to find stuff he could incorporate into an episode he knew was going to be reliant on Pokemon traits.

 

[Magma Bomb]

After reflecting a lot about thie episode I came to the conclusion there is nothing really memorable in it. It is not a bad episode, but is not a good one either, it is just so average it passes as forgettable. It is the usual angry bear episode with nothing really special about it, in fact, despite the capture I am tempted to label it as a filler.
There's a name I like to use for this kind of circunstances, a semi-filler. The author writes an episode that would have otherwise no impact on the bigger picture, but inserts a tiny plot moment in the middle of it to cheat its way out of the filler label. I hate when they do that, it is cheap. If you want to write a capture episode there are several ways to turn that into an interesting episode, you shouldn't squeeze it into a filler as a one minute gag capture.
To make things even worse, Team Rocket was in their DP characterization for two thirds of the episode, making stupid things like defeating themselves and being easily swept away. Please, don't go there again.
This is the first time I don't give my approval for a XY episode. Final score: 4/10.

 

[Garren]

No wonder this episode had so many details, it was written by Series Organizer Tomioka Atsushiro, the man who wrote the best episodes of Diamond & Pearl. I suspect he delved right into a copy of the Zuukan entries to find stuff he could incorporate into an episode he knew was going to be reliant on Pokemon traits.

I've felt XY's been pretty good so far with introducing elements of each Pokemon that borrow, and expand, on their PokeDex entries.

Good example is Dedenne and the whole "dormouse" thing, it's not actually mentioned in the PokeDex (although I wouldn't be surprised if it's based off official information the staff is given when it comes to depicting certain Pokemon), but looking over its moveset with Rest for instance it's really not a stretch and perfectly logical for the species. Same with this episode and Pangoro's twig being expanded to being a special twig.

 

[Life]

Just got done watching this, and the thing I was most impressed with was Fokko eating sticks. I smiled the whole time during that scene.

I really loved how most of the Pokemon's personalities were shown in this episode, it's always nice to get to know who you're watching. I also love Keromatsu's feelings towards Nyarth; one of the reasons he's my favorite on the show!

 

[Grabbergirl]

Good episode. Too bad they forgot to eat. It's shown Clemont's not a hypoglycemic like I thought he would be (my crazy headcannons). Because it's visible he, like them can go several hours without eating, hypoglycemics can only go a few hours or less without eating.