Review XY020: Battle Chateau Challenge! Viola VS Zakuro!!

[Alola]

Did anyone else think Dusknoir's ghostly cry was amazing?

 

[G50]

This episode was ok. Although the battles were short, it was nice to see Fletchinder in battle in the anime for the first time. Its animation sure makes me like it a lot more now than I did before. I really liked Viola vs Grant, and it was nice to see Grant move up and Ash gain a ranking in the Battle Chateau.

The brothers' rapping was kind of odd, but I liked it for some reason. Serena's reactions to the rapping was amusing.

 

[StaraptorZ]

YO YO that was a great episode LOL because of the band aid gangsters.

I wonder if that Pokeball that Ash clipped toward that trainers Pokeball was Pikachu's cause I saw no hair of the lightning symbol.

 

[Shadao]

That is Pikachu's Pokéball. The lightning bolt was only featured in the first episode. Remember in the episode Showdown in Pewter City, when Ash tried to recall Pikachu into his Pokéball from Onix's Bind? The Pokéball had was a plain one and had no symbol of any kind.

As for this episode itself, it was a pretty good one. I have to say it was pretty clever to have Fletchling used FeatherDance against Pikachu. While it was a move error since Fletchling can't legally learn FeatherDance, it gave a better justification as to why Pikachu didn't One-Hit KO the Tiny Robin Pokémon with its Iron Tail without the need of a Deus Ex Machina. Simple details like that is what makes the battle more enjoyable and I hope they continue to give subtle explanations to Pikachu's fluctuating power in his future battles, whether it'll be against veteran trainers or clever tactics.

 

[Satoshi Da Ze]

It's episodes like this that make me wish the anime was more divided into episode arcs.
The Battle Chateau would make a very nice arc on its own.
Not this early of course. I mean, If Satoshi went too far in the ranks it would make any possible bad performance in latter battles in Kalos a lot more ridiculous.

I like how the series stopped using those cheap generic scrolling backgrounds during important battle episodes. I'd rather see the sky that is supposed to be there than that. I'm very pleased with the animation during battles in general.

The reveal of a gym character is always ridiculously obvious, but I wonder about someone who hadn't seen the character in the game before the anime. I mean, the character design for CotD has improved a lot since Best Wishes, so I kind of think if I didn't play the game or saw info online, etc, I may or may not have guessed what character was a gym leader at first glance.
Then again it looks like gym leaders are all going to be eccentric this time around so...

Either way I like how they seem to be going to introduce the gym leaders as characters earlier than just an episode prior to the arrival in the actual gym.
It makes me care more about them. It's this kind of treatment that makes the difference from throwing a character, babbling about how he's a godly beast of importance and awesomeness and trying to convince me of that in the first and last time he/she appears. It just doesn't works.
(Naruto did this a lot during its current terrible arc)

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Seems like a lot a dumb formality for such short battles. Doesn't seem like a good place for training? Also Onix means rock gym umm you know it losses rock when it evolves and it's also ground? Dumbass.

 

[evi]

Did the animation team change mid episode? It was ruining the episode 5 minutes in, then, as if by magic, everything got better.

- Viola and Grant had amazing chemistry and now I want them to marry and have interracial babies. And what a sexy dress Ms. Viola.
- I really liked it that Ash brought out his pokémon to watch the battle.
- I liked the color rank system, if I was part of the Chateau it would motivate me more to rank higher if I had the incentive of exclusive purple capes.
- We all knew that Grant would win that battle so that his Gym would seem harder to beat.

Because of the hype it let me down a little bit, but great episode nonetheless.

I enjoy the battles in this episode but it could have been much better, the match between Viola and Grant was really great. I do argee on Viola and Grant having chemistry and i can see them being marry but i don't see them having any babies. i do have to say Viola had a very nice sexy dress.

I can't wait for Ash's Fletchling to evolve into Fletchinder, and i do hope it is very soon.

 

[Dr. Buni]

That Onix was awesome, holy crap. I never thought I would enjoy watching an Onix fighting. Also, Viola looks absurdly cute in her duchess outfit.

Serena rapping in the end was priceless. I hope the rapper kids appear in the future again, they are nice characters.

 

[Ambipom666]

I really liked this episode. The concept of a formal institution for battling was very interesting. The use of the Legendary Battle theme from X/Y to make the whole affair ridiculously dramatic was even better. Kinda sad how Tesla was training all this time in anticipation of his first battle and then Ash beats him just like that! I wouldn't say no to another Chateau episode in the future.