Review XY018: Wake Up Kabigon! Battle in Parfum Palace!

[Likeitornot.]

I always have an interest in snooty wealthy girls in Anime, so Princess Ally entertained me for the majority of this episode. What I particularly liked what that her dress, well, in my view, was pretty garish in design, yet probably expensive, given who she is. Also, I quite liked how the maids even giggled, being slightly as stuck up as her, but with more subtlety. Furfou being sent off due its humiliation at its coat being ruined in the battle was also a very amusing and appropriate way to end the battle.
I'm kind of relieved they did not decide to include the part in the games where you have to trap Furfou in the maze to catch it- I just don't feel it would have been amusing as what they did with this episode. Also, I'm delighted that they did take advantage of the seeming pointless TRio appearance and made them blast off by the same devices- Jessie's terrible flute playing. I was relieved- it made their appearance less cumbersome, and it was much funnier.
Also- I really liked how they sort of incorporated a reference to the fireworks scene by having Clemont's robot explode in such a way. Which was a slightly devious way of leaving- but he did put in the effort, I suppose, by leaving his jumpsuit behind and having the robot speak before it blew up (which I'm guessing was not intentional, given his failure rate). That was my favourite scene, probably.
The King's facial expressions and mannerisms were quite comical, and I loved the backgrounds when the Snorlax situation was explained and when the King told the gang of why he did not have the Pokeflute. They permitted the gang into the castle pretty easily, I noticed; I thought it would be a bit more of a challenge, but in retrospect, it just would have wasted time.

 

[Dogasu]

The Rocket trio (well, Musashi) were the ones who actually woke up the Kabigon. That doesn't make their appearance "pointless" at all.

 

[dman_dustin]

WTF guys.

The Rocket trio (well, Musashi) were the ones who actually woke up the Kabigon. That doesn't make their appearance "pointless" at all.

My God you people are infuriating.

I don't see your point, considering King Shabboneau would have woken up Snorlax anyway, and actually calmed it down after Jessie played the Pokeflute.

How does that make their role have meaning when another character could have done the same only less destructively.

It's not like the plot hinged on Jessie waking up Snorlax.

 

[Dogasu]

How does that make their role have meaning when another character could have done the same

That applies to everyone else too, y'know.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Pretty fun episode, Clemont was fantastic and Princess Allie was lovely. I kind of want her to appear again as a rival for Bonnie, the battle was left inconclusive which kind of annoyed me. But her obsession with Clemont/Pikachu made her really entertaining. She was a pretty bad bitch and brought her own brand of antagonism into this episode.

Team Rocket felt largely unneeded here, we already had Princess Parfum causing conflict and they just felt needlessly put in for no real reason. They weren't very funny or amusing to me, they were just a drag and pointless. I would have preferred their screen time had gone to a longer Pikachu/Furfrou bout than anything before it ended abruptly like that or at least seeing Inkay again would have been nice, shame its power-up from the early XY episodes is gone though. The first Furfrou episode, TR were entertaining due to some of their antics and Bonnie and the sexy battle between Pikachu and Inkay though.

 

[G50]

This episode was ok, not bad but not great. Oh my... the princess' laugh was quite amusing. There were some funny moments in this episode for sure, Furfrou's fur after being hit by Thunderbolt, and the Princess' and Bonnie's "Oh my god!" faces :-D. The ending was quite clever, with Clemont leaving behind a Citron doll in place of himself, and then the princess hitting it out of anger.

Jessie sure plays the Poke Flute badly. The updated Hyper Beam animation really looked solid here. Overall this episode wasn't too bad. I did like the battle between Pikachu and Furfrou, even though the messed up fur on Furfrou's head cut the battle short.

 

[Dogasu]

Team Rocket felt largely unneeded here...

...I would have preferred their screen time had gone to a longer Pikachu/Furfrou bout than anything before it ended abruptly like that

The battle ended abruptly because the writers wanted to show off how ridiculous the princess is. She called off the match because she didn't want her or her pokemon to be seen looking less than perfect, and also probably because she realized she wasn't going to win and therefore didn't want to suffer the humility of defeat. Seeing the princess battle fairly until the match reached a proper conclusion wouldn't have given us any of that.

 

[kantoskies]

I feel like even if Team Rocket is pointless in an episode (which they weren't), it's fine as long as they're funny in said episode (which they were). Although I'm disappointed they're still using that same recycled animation. I thought what with the new animation last episode and XY014 they finally moved past it, but apparently not. Which is a shame because had they used new animation here it would have looked great with the light pink sky color/lighting.

 

[gritty stunfisk]

How does that make their role have meaning when another character could have done the same

That applies to everyone else too, y'know.

I think the gripe is more with their role as unnecessary additional antagonists, given that the main antagonist was already defeated their appearance was perhaps more unnecessary than the others - which, honestly, I wouldn't mind if they were written better. The way I see it, they either need more screentime or no time at all: the little time they get is an 'outline the plan' and 'the plan fails' scene, the consequence being they seem more like three copies of the same sentiment than individual characters like they used to be portrayed. I know the actors themselves are more than capable of it after reading about the live event that you went to, it's just a writing problem that the majority of their appearances now consist of their motto and blastoff sequence. (Then again, having only seen the subs of late BW and XY, I dunno how much of their 'good characterisation' was down to 4kids taking creative liberties and how much of it was actually down to the original writers, so I could be wrong about their personalities having become less individual.)

But, honestly, I have faith in them getting better, and XY's given them some pretty funny scenes so far (not the dub, can't stand their current dub voices or writing) like the flute scene here and that motto + music in the espurr ep. They didn't ruin the story or anything so I'm pretty cool with them being in this ep and on the show in general. The stock motto was lazy though.

 

[Dogasu]

I think the gripe is more with their role as unnecessary additional antagonists

And Serena's been an unnecessary additional protagonist for the past month's worth of episodes or so. Let's endlessly bitch about her in every single review thread too.

Haha, I'm kidding of course, everyone who's not the Rocket trio isn't held to the same ridiculous standard that they are and so that'll never happen.

 

[Sutekh]

Correct me if I'm wrong - weren't Team Rocket always unnecessary additional antagonists? Like, from about EP004 onwards at least.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Okay, I think that this off topic conversation has been going on long enough. A review thread is not the place to complain about whether or not characters are unnecessary for the whole series or discuss them outside of the context of this episode. If you want to discuss Team Rocket outside of the events of this episode, then feel free to create a discussion thread in the Character and Saga Discussion section. Please get back on topic to discuss this specific episode. Thank you.

 

[Magma Bomb]

Another great episode for XY. If there's one thing I'm liking in the fillers so far is how interesting the characters of the week are. I know there are plenty of people who hate the attitude of arrogant characters like this week's princess, but in my eyes they make up for good humor due to the anatgonistic interactions they provoke in the cast. It has potential for good humor when used properly and thanks to that Clemont completely stole the spotlight in this episode.
I also didn't care for the battle being unfinished, that wasn't the point of the episode and Pikachu clearly ended up as the superior fighter anyway.

In fact, there's only one flaw in this episode: Team Rocket didn't have a reason to be present. First of all, there was already another, more interesting, antagonistic character to conflict the cast today, so it was pointless to add them, especially when their appearence had zero impact on the plot (note the king was about to wake up the Snorlax anyway). Second, the time they used to hog the spotlight could have been used to further exploit the fact Clemont was stuck in the castle with the princess, which could have been used for much better jokes than setting up an obligatory blast off scene, but they wasted this opportunity.
Seriously, if there's another antagonist around don't add Team Rocket unless it is really crucial for the plot. XY018 definitely wasn't one of these cases.

 

[Alola]

Another great episode for XY. If there's one thing I'm liking in the fillers so far is how interesting the characters of the week are. I know there are plenty of people who hate the attitude of arrogant characters like this week's princess, but in my eyes they make up for good humor due to the anatgonistic interactions they provoke in the cast. It has potential for good humor when used properly and thanks to that Clemont completely stole the spotlight in this episode.
I also didn't care for the battle being unfinished, that wasn't the point of the episode and Pikachu clearly ended up as the superior fighter anyway.

In fact, there's only one flaw in this episode: Team Rocket didn't have a reason to be present. First of all, there was already another, more interesting, antagonistic character to conflict the cast today, so it was pointless to add them, especially when their appearence had zero impact on the plot (note the king was about to wake up the Snorlax anyway). Second, the time they used to hog the spotlight could have been used to further exploit the fact Clemont was stuck in the castle with the princess, which could have been used for much better jokes than setting up an obligatory blast off scene, but they wasted this opportunity.
Seriously, if there's another antagonist around don't add Team Rocket unless it is really crucial for the plot. XY018 definitely wasn't one of these cases.

Completely agree.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Spoiler tagged for long-ness.

Spoiler

I fucking loved it so much, I expected for it to range from average to good but it was fantastic. I thought this episode would be entirely focused and devoted to Ash but it was a Clemont episode surprisingly with some spice of Bonnie/Serena as well. Ash got some great focus here as well and it was in a fun way and not the screenhoggy way a good amount of his XY focus has been in thus far.

First thing that comes to mind and my favorite thing about this episode, Princess Ally was a fantastic antagonist for this episode. She was everything, strong, entertaining, filled to the brim with personality, she was simply perfect and everything I would want in a rival for Bonnie. Her constant noblewoman’s laughs, selfish/smart remarks, amusing moments and consistently great voice acting from Misato Fukuen a.k.a Oshawott/Georgia’s VA from Best Wishes truly made me smile.(Seriously go to the scene where she makes the proposition about Pikachu and that scene where she shouts “Chhhhharrgge Beam!” and tell me Misato Fukuen doesn’t have talent.) Not to mention I really liked the design a lot, the sharp eyes reminded me of Georgia, the holier-than-thou attitude and extremely fancy dressing reminded me of Moira a.k.a the Cinccino girl from BW2 that Iris tried to get back at. Ally’s moment with the fan, the constant laughing, finger-snapping, face-faulting, deadpan snarking, battle commanding, it was all fantastic.

I could write a freaking book on why that Parfum Princess was great, but I’ll just end it here and say she should return as a rival. Not for anyone on the main cast but Bonnie, her battle with Ash was left inconclusive, she’s quite small and around Bonnie’s size, Princess Ally’s constant advances toward Clemont and yandere-level obsession could really get under Bonnie’s skin and spark some strife between the two. Bonnie wants to get a bride to take care of Clemont, that’s one of the things she wants to accomplish and Ally’s interfering could really piss her off in a great way. Gradually they could move toward becoming rivals due to their dynamic and less because of Clemont. It’d simply be perfect in my opinion for Bonnie if she could have Parfum Princess for a rival and a big and great thing for her character. I do want to see Bonnie battle more and gradually grow into a more competent young kid as the journey through Kalos goes on and this could be a fantastic motivator for her. We’ve never had an ojou-sama character for a rival either.

Ash and Pikachu were actually great here too, I liked their scenes together and my favorite was that scene of Pikachu’s mouth with Ash grasping onto him while worried as they overlook the treasure. Clemont’s getting used as a date slave and calling out her on her behavior was simply great too. Not to mention being stripped down to his underwear and escaping like that and I gotta admit her crush on him was kind of cute, she even set up a fireworks date for them. Bonnie’s scenes were great as always, “the future is now thanks to science” stuff, her concern for Clemont, her moments with Serena and everything are always relaxing and entertaining for me because they bring a certain something daily that makes me want to root for her and to see more from her.

As mundane as I thought the Snorlax stuff would be, I was surprised when I found myself interested in the relationship between Snorlax and the town. The king was nicely-designed and entertaining without being too over-the-top and annoying about it. The one flaw that sticks out for this episode for me is Team Rocket and how unneeded they were. We had an antagonist in the princess, TR were completely unnecessary. Jessie playing the flute and proceeding to get sent skyward by Snorlax was such a waste of time. It just feels like they’re being put in for the sake of being put in and it does make me wonder if the Rocket’s VAs have a contract or something saying they have to voice act in a certain amount of episodes because their inclusion here was forced and pointless. Snorlax’s rage was quickly and abruptly calmed and completely just put in for the sake of giving TR a blast off scene.

So yeah, great episode, could have done without Team Rocket but pretty much everything else was great.

 

[Almonds]

Two things to watch in this episode:

1. Citron in his underwear - lol, so cute!! I can imagine how desperate he was to escape from the princess that he'd leave his clothes and a robot as a decoy. We need more screentime of Citron without his jumpsuit

2. Upgraded Boss Fantasy - Most of the boss fantasies up till now were downright silly, but that Snorlax army was scary

 

[Dogasu]

Serena and Eureka didn't have a reason to be present. First of all, there was already another, more interesting, protagonist character in the cast today, so it was pointless to add them, especially when their appearence had zero impact on the plot

Fixed.

I don't understand why it's OK for other characters to sit in the sidelines and do absolutely nothing yet when it's the Rocket trio we're talking about then pulling your own weight in an episode is suddenly the most important thing ever. Even if the Rocket trio don't do anything at all to contribute to the plot of an episode (which, again, they did), that would be OK. There shouldn't be conditions for being on this show that applies to them and them only.

(and I actually like Serena and Eureka, but you have to admit they're not the most active characters in the show)

Upgraded Boss Fantasy

I wouldn't call it "upgraded." It was a static image of the Boss doing something entirely predictable with a group of pokemon (raising them to be an army). Give me the zany off-the-wall Boss Fantasies of the AG / DP era any day.

 

[Moe]

I don't understand why it's OK for other characters to sit in the sidelines and do absolutely nothing yet when it's the Rocket trio we're talking about then pulling your own weight in an episode is suddenly the most important thing ever. Even if the Rocket trio don't do anything at all to contribute to the plot of an episode (which, again, they did), that would be OK. There shouldn't be conditions for being on this show that applies to them and them only.

Because they made the decision to stop having Team Rocket in every episode it's reasonable to expect there's a reason for their appearances in episodes where they do appear, as well as thinking about whether there were parts of an episode that could have been improved by the time spent including TR in an episode being used elsewhere.

The difference between Ash's travelling companions doing absolutely nothing and Team Rocket having an appearance is that the former doesn't impact the episode. Doing nothing in the background is fine, but Team Rocket never actually do nothing - they interrupt the episode to plot something, do a motto, fail and blast off.

That's fine in plenty of episodes because there's not always 22 minutes worth of plot from a lot of the episode ideas, this episode is one of them, Team Rocket's appearance is no worse than bringing out the exact same plot Snorlax always gets.

 

[Magma Bomb]

Fixed.

I don't understand why it's OK for other characters to sit in the sidelines and do absolutely nothing yet when it's the Rocket trio we're talking about then pulling your own weight in an episode is suddenly the most important thing ever. Even if the Rocket trio don't do anything at all to contribute to the plot of an episode (which, again, they did), that would be OK. There shouldn't be conditions for being on this show that applies to them and them only.

(and I actually like Serena and Eureka, but you have to admit they're not the most active characters in the show)

I sincerely don't know why you are nitpicking on my earlier post, I didn't mindlessly bash Team Rocket there. Even though I admit to not like the characters, I'm perfectly able to tolerate Team Rocket appearing in certain episodes (not all of them), when their appearence actually fits the occasion. When I said why I think they shouldn't be there I gave what I found to be a reasonable opinion for that, their appearence there didn't add anything to the course of the plot and just took time I thought should've been used to show another thing. For example, I think a Rocket attack was indeed necessary in the Frogadier episode, but here I think it was a waste.

By the way, nice job shifting the focus of the discussion to characters that weren't even in my post to begin with. I'm perfectly aware they weren't active in this episode, but the reason I didn't criticize them is because, unlike Team Rocket, they didn't take time away from the episode.
And just to add one more thing my one major criticism to Serena's character is exactly that, I really think the writers should give her something to do. Go check for my post on Serena's topic, I don't focus 100% of my criticism solely on Team Rocket. The reason I didn't mention Serena on this topic too is because I didn't find it important to note for that particular discussion.

 

[Artichoker]

I just wonder why Clemont uses his grandma's underwear

Boss Fantasy!!! yay!!! not so Chibi like in AG or DP, but still a great idea

Another great episode for XY. If there's one thing I'm liking in the fillers so far is how interesting the characters of the week are.

I hope the princess returns in the future, chasing Clemont and demanding what belongs to her ;D like a new Jessibelle, but more fiendish ;D

I also didn't care for the battle being unfinished, that wasn't the point of the episode and Pikachu clearly ended up as the superior fighter anyway.

this is not the first time that Ash bets his pokemon, or badges or whatever, so the result was obvious (besides evil never triumphs) the battle was pointless (unless you have a pokemon called Oshawott to ruin it)