Review XY025: Shōyō Gym Battle! Pikachu VS Chigoras!!

[G50]

XY025 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Animation: Team Kato
Screenplay: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard: Mitsuko Kase
Assistant director: Fumio Maezono
Animation director: Atsushi Ogata

 

[WatcherMark]

I enjoyed this battle from what I saw... my stream kept cutting out. What was Zakuro's second Pokemon? I completely missed that battle (and didn't even realize it was 3vs3 until Satoshi sent out Yayakoma).

EDIT: So apparently Zakuro didn't have a second... well, third Pokemon. Looks like this battle was shaped using game rules in that you got to use your entire team against however many Pokemon the Leader has. Gotta admit, that sucks since all it does is make Satoshi look weak. There wasn't even any point other than filling in time, given how quickly Yayakoma was defeated.

 

[Cresselia92]

I enjoyed this battle from what I saw... my stream kept cutting out. What was Zakuro's second Pokemon? I completely missed that battle (and didn't even realize it was 3vs3 until Satoshi sent out Yayakoma).

It was Tyrunt/Chigoras. Basically this battle was a 3vs2 and it seems that Fletchling/Yayakoma was defeated rather quickly (from what I've seen), and frankly I would have rather not see him here, so that the battle could have been a pure 2vs2.

Shame, I would have liked to see Amaura. I wonder why they've decided to show it in a standalone episode instead of showing it during this battle…

 

[WatcherMark]

As I said, there was absolutely no point in including Yayakoma in this episode. You know, I would rather have had Team Rocket appear for two minutes just to fall off the cliff before reaching the Gym than have the total smackdown that the poor bird received.

 

[ArvAl]

Well at least Ash wins against Grant's pokemons

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

Pikachu stars again. They have a Froakie and a Fletchling whom Ash has had for like 25-30 eps now. But they let Pika star. He has only been in 800-900 eps and countless battles.

Bad writing.

 

[Dogasu]

I can't decide what was more distracting; Zakuro's hands or the Flare-Dan battle music debuting in the middle of a Gym Battle.

 

[Moe]

Well it certainly didn't leave as bad of an impression of Ash as the battle against Roxie did - where Ash had a fully trained team of 6 Pokemon nearly go down. Compared to that, the relatively inexperienced team he has now being given a 3-2 advantage isn't as bad, but as mentioned above, the way Fletchling did nothing in the way of justifying it's presence in battle made it seem a totally needless departure from a very logical battle rule.

Pikachu's endless Iron Tails seemed a bit overpowered - and it seemed a bit repetitive with both Froakie and Fletchling using Double Team. There was some creativity in using the moves as stepping stones, but I'd like to start seeing a few of Ash's more creative combination moves make their way back into his battling.

I wonder how far off we are from being introduced to Fairy's type advantage over Dragon? Tyrunt certainly needs an episode to itself, it didn't really get much of a chance here to be shown off. The stone ending up wedged in it's roaring mouth was amusing and showed off the downside to the design, but I'd have liked to see more of Tyrunt and less of Onix.

Getting back to the 2 on 3 thing - because of how useless Fletchling was and how it wasn't needed to produce the overall damage needed to win, I don't consider this to be a badge that Ash didn't earn. Froakie and Pikachu won the battle here and could have done it alone, so I'm fine with the outcome.

The Gym itself looked great, though perhaps it would have made the climb up more worthwhile if there was any sense of them being up high. Having a move that left either side stranded near the drop down would have helped.

 

[R!ck]

Great episode and great gym battle. So far XY doesn't disappoint in the gym battles department 9/10.

I'm happy they're following the games more closely and they let you use all of your team against a gym leader like when you're playing the games, that's cool. :-D

 

[Dogasu]

Satoshi does comment that Yayakoma helped him figure out the rest of Chigaurus' moveset. So it wasn't *completely* useless.

 

[Ashs Battle Coach]

That wasn't too bad. Still don't think Fletchling was at all necessary. Especially when Fletching/Fletchinder will get the next 2 gyms at least. (When that thing reaches it's final stage it's going to be fantastic )

The Froakie Vs Onix and Pikachu Vs Tyrunt were great battles. Froakie vs Tyrunt was short lived but wasn't bad either. Fletchling served his purpose I guess but was easily the worst of the 3. Could have done without it. The uneven format was and will usually be kinda lame. Definitely not as bad as the Roxie match up though

I don't even think I would consider Pikachu the star of this. Froakie was a little more impressive and is coming along nicely. Is that the only Criteria for being the star of a Gym battle? Beating the final pokemon?

Another decent XY battle. Keep up the good work

 

[JacobYBM]

Tomioka Atsuhiro wrote this episode. He's been in charge of Series Organization since Diamond & Pearl and wrote all of the good episodes of Diamond & Pearl, including most of Satoshi's fights with Shinji.

 

[pharaohyami5000]

Tomioka Atsuhiro wrote this episode. He's been in charge of Series Organization since Diamond & Pearl and wrote all of the good episodes of Diamond & Pearl, including most of Satoshi's fights with Shinji.

Yes, but comparing those works with the works he has done since Best Wishes started and continuing with XY, they're... about half of his efforts are put in here. Still great episodes, just doesn't seem like his best works.

Froakie dodging that Iron Tail was really cool.

 

[Clouds]

great battle, probably one of the best/better ones since Diamond and Pearl

 

[Darth Darkrai]

I Thought the Episode was Alright Overall I Think, this wasn't the Best Gym Battle but still Entertaining I thought. I Give it a 6.9, my Favorite Parts were Froakie, Tyrunt, and Ash Flipping his Hat Backwards, I ALWAYS LOVE IT when he Does that.

 

[Iteru]

This was an alright battle episode. I think they could have extended Yayakoma's usage but aside from that no major complaints. I think for a gym battle overall it was average.

 

[Master Cyrus]

So is there a reason the anime decided to suddenly abandon the rule where Ash uses the same number of pokemon as the Gym leader? It seems like the only difference it made was that Tyrunt got a free fletchling KO. Not a fan of how Onix and Froakie just froze up and let the enmy have their way with them after seeing double team/Draco meteor respectively. You'd think Grant would know how to deal with double team and Ash should have plenty of knowledge on DM.

 

[Jyo]

It was OK, for me should have kept anime tradition - Satoshi using same Pokemon as gym leader, Fletchling didn't need to appear. Great to see the new Kalos Pokemon in action.

 

[Alola]

So is there a reason the anime decided to suddenly abandon the rule where Ash uses the same number of pokemon as the Gym leader? It seems like the only difference it made was that Tyrunt got a free fletchling KO. Not a fan of how Onix and Froakie just froze up and let the enmy have their way with them after seeing double team/Draco meteor respectively. You'd think Grant would know how to deal with double team and Ash should have plenty of knowledge on DM.

They didn't suddenly abandon it. Grant explicitly stated that in his gym, challengers may use their entire party if they wish.


Anyways, it was a nice episode. Not really much to write about. Ash's climbing rock strategy never bores me and reminds me of his battles with Juan and Paul. And Fletchling being knocked out in one hit irks me. It could have at least gotten in two Steel Wings.

 

[Ampharos King]

Wait a minute. So Grant's Onix, who used Rock Polish to increase its speed, was still slower than Ash's Froakie who only used Double Team? And Froakie effortlessly dodges Onix's large Iron Tail?

How Grant became a Grand Duke with an Onix that slow is beyond me.