Review XY030: Corni and Lucario! The Secret of Mega Evolution!!

[G50]

XY030 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

 

[Moe]

Korrina is great - hopefully the opening is an indication she is going to stick around for a bit. Also, yay at the return of Pikachu's love of ketchup! Pikachunite = a bottle of ketchup.

Running off before Clemont could make an explosion is just mean. I'm not sure whether to be annoyed or happy that Fletchling isn't being used in situations like that - obviously it would have helped track the balloon down, but equally trying to avoid type-casting it as the generic regional bird is probably a good thing.

Sucks seeing Ash thrashed yet again in an introductory battle using Pikachu - is Pikachu losing easily in battle just the standard welcome to new strong trainers?

 

[Sakuraa]

I liked this episode, mainly for Korrina and Lucario.

Korrina was really entertaining. Her interactions with Lucario were really entertaining. And did Bonnie call Lucario cute? Actually that wouldn't surprise me. She totally went ham on Pikachu in that battle. Swords Dance+ Bone Rush+ Power Up Punch=DAMN GIRL! Also glad that Lucario has a really entertaining personality and a nice moveset. Though I'm already anticipating it Aura Sphere-ing everything later on.

The lunch scene was funny. I love how Korrina ran up to Pikachu to sign her book with Ketchup. Pikachu is finally reunited with Ketchup again. I also liked how Bonnie had to blow her food before eating it. I like these nice little touches.

LOL at everyone running off before Clemont could even get out some invention. And then Bonnie had to help him make it to where the group was. These 2 are the best.

I like how Lucario was the one who came up with the plan o free Pikachu and himself. Though I found it funny that he was carrying Korrina's glove in his mouth seeing as his paws would work just as well. Damn, Lucario was so badass giving that beatdown to TR. And geez, Korrina had to pull he whole shirt off.

Glad she and Lucario are going to be traveling with the group. Hopefully, it'll be good to lead up to Ash's battle with her. 7/10.

 

[Ampharos King]

Korrina's Lucario seems to know three of the same attacks as it does in the games: Power-Up Punch, Swords Dance, and Bone Rush. If its fourth move is revealed to be Metal Sound in a future episode, I'd be impressed that the anime's consistency with the games.

Korrina also likes to collect footprints of Pokemon that her Lucario defeated in battle. She was disappointed when TRio and their Pokemon blasted off before she could ink their stamps in her album.

This episode established that neither the main characters or TRio were aware of the Mega Stones. Even though TRio supposedly stole Sycamore's research data in XY010, which should have mentioned the Mega Stones' names, TRio still didn't know that they ended with "nite" (in the Japanese version). That little detail was what made Korrina suspicious of TRio's knowledge of Mega Evolution.

Ash also refers to his and Korrina's fight against TRio as a "tag battle," for some odd reason (even though it wasn't a refereed fight).

 

[Master Cyrus]

I liked this episode, Korrina and her Lucario kind of reminded me of Cameron and his Lucario.

Please have more scenes of Pikachu being used as a baseball

Clemont really needs to catch himself a skiddo/Gogoat/rhyhorn/a mount of any kind.

You'd think Pikachu could have just blasted off TR by itself by now.

My 4 cents.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Korrina’s episode was good as heck…conveying my feelings for it is a bit hard, but I think have it figured out why I enjoyed it so much. It had been a while since the last time I’d felt that moment of “This is a character living in a world of Pokémon, who loves doing what s/he does, totally embraces it together with a Pokémon, and both of them are moving forward!” Korrina and Lucario, not just the human but the Pokemon as well, felt conscious, real, reactive, responsive, living….both as sentient beings in their own right. That’s an aspect that’s becoming more and more unfamiliar in these days unfortunately. While battles are important as well as action, the detail of Pokemon having their own voice and flow about them alongside their trainer feels like it’s lost in translation these days to the other points around them….? If that makes sense.

Ash has a strong bond with Pikachu, but it hasn’t felt…real so to speak. It doesn’t seem to get treated as an interesting facet to the character so far in XY, more so as a boasting characteristic that gets regularly glorified and drilled into my head ever so often. Korrina and Lucario worked so well….because everything felt so mutual and genuine about them and the way they swaggered and flowed with one another. Korrina and Lucario have been friends since they were young kids, the gym leader and young jackal play day by day as not trainer and Pokemon but siblings in their own rights. They fight over ice cream(No bond is 100% perfect the majority of the time), they share a massive ice cream cone, they play, they grow alongside one another, they hang with one another, they get hungry together and embarrassed alongside each other, they congratulate and celebrate one another, they both wear stones that connect to one another around their respective left arm/hand, even in casual actions like backpack-holding they are mutual with one another as Lucario carries it.

The intrinsic bond between Korrina and Lucario allows Korrina to sense the location of the jackal and Pikachu after they were kidnapped. It feels so real on its own that you really get a sense for why the two are the way they are, Korrina’s voice sounds so naturally solicitous and as if she really does enjoy her time with Lucario when she goes into exposition about their past. Lucario saves her keystone-embedded glove, Lucario plans out a way to escape TR’s trap, Lucario makes decisions on its own. Lucario has a more Cameron-Lucario-esque personality which is my overall preference in mold-breaking behavior of Pokemon, such as Lucario or Dragonite, it adds more and feels more authentic and I feel allows more. Even on their owns, Lucario and Korrina thrive separately. As a team too. Lucario has its own authority, freedom, control and agency. They work and care for each other in an awesome way, they aren’t fundamentally tied to one another but mutually. If this makes sense?

Korrina herself, felt as though she was this character who was proactively interested and trying to connect to the world of Pokemon and move forward in life in a natural way. She’s bubbly, agile, bouncy, she’s a successor, genuine and vibrant. They could have easily gone overboard with her energetic nature and made her annoying and come off as a caricature, but that didn’t happen. The character stands tall and well in her own right for who she is as a person. Though character interactions are a fantastic way to bring out more interest in a characters with others, what good is a character when they fail to stand on their own merits in that regard? Korrina destroys that fear and works it well. There’s just something special about Korrina that places her high in my mind. I’ve found many Pokemon and a few characters to be bland in the way they carry themselves, meanwhile Korrina and Lucario simply exude personality and a working character aura. Even all that jumping around, makes you really follow Korrina. She’s show-stealer, but not in a bad way. That jumping, punching in the air, gentle remembrance of her past, even something simple like getting her opponents paw-print with ketchup of all things makes her hyper known. She feels very strong and experienced, defeat-able in a real way, but at the same time not peaked. As if she has a lot to learn still and her character has places to go. That's the ideal article for a character for me with experience like he, not some idolized, OP-esque character. She's a character with somewhere to go, not just in her profession or as a successor but as a person.

The episode was fantastic, the exposition, interactions between Korrina and the cast, personality from the two, action, TR thief and all were handled nicely. She gels well with the show and world around her, I like how she commands her Pokemon and I like how she simply wrecks her opponent in battle. So much force, even with simple attacks, the usage of Swords Dance, the usage of Bone Rush and the biting strength of Power-Up Punch. Of course she offers her challenger a berry to heal their Pokemon, as she seems to be aware of her own power and how violent it is. Even against TR, she gets her skater gear on and doesn’t hold back in combat and knows when to get serious and roll with the punches. This episode was just so good because of her, like I said before, it’s just so revitalizing and invigorating to have a character who lives in the Pokemon world, has a connection to her Pokemon partner that feels real, that stands as its own and even away from that Pokemon can continue thrive on its own. She bear-hugs the world of Pokemon like a champ and advances in it.

 

[Grabbergirl]

I'm sad Clemont wasn't wearing an apron while cooking. But that's okay he must be like Brock with aprons, wears it every now and then. Wow Clemont knows her diet well like as if she were his own child, Clemont knows everybody like he raised them (Sanpei with Japanese food and Korrina with a high calorie lunch). Yes Korrina needs lots of calories because she burns them by running around all the time, on top of that when she gets done she eats like a hungry pack wolves (Korrina probably consumes 2,200 calories a day, so even if she gorges on the "bad foods" she won't get fat because her metabolism is extremely fast). I wonder why Clemont's not eating? He normally does eat (oh he's making soup) then he probably ate off screen then. I see somebody wants to be an ichologist (footprints). I don't get why the flashback made Korrina look like she was neglected as a child (when Riolu went on top of her an adult would have rushed over and check up on her to make sure she's okay)? I mean what adult leaves their child alone with ice cream and a animal (in this case, Pokemon, Riolu)? I noticed how she looked underweight in the first flashback then looks to be at a healthy weight in the park flashback. Korrina reminds me of Iris a little. She likes Clemont's cooking! Okay I'd scream if this turns into a romantic relationship (stay friends, Korrina). I have feeling Clemont would have to act like her mother soon.

How does she know where Lucario is? Does she smell it or something?

 

[pkmnlover000]

I love Korrina's personality, her character was so cute and epic.
Her debut was freaking amazing, I love that episode. I can't wait for the rest!

 

[Dogasu]

Why is the return of "Pikachu's love of ketchup" - aka a tiny part of a filler episode that debuted about 16 years ago and hasn't been brought up since - such a big deal with this fandom?

 

[JacobYBM]

This wasn't even a Takegami scenario!

 

[G50]

This episode was pretty good. Although it was quite one-sided, I liked the way Lucario utilized Swords Dance, Power-Up-Punch, and Bone Rush during the battle. I'm glad the Swords Dance animation is very close to what it was during the games. I also liked Korrina's personality that was shown throughout the episode.

 

[Piplup]

Why is the return of "Pikachu's love of ketchup" - aka a tiny part of a filler episode that debuted about 16 years ago and hasn't been brought up since - such a big deal with this fandom?

It actually was brought up again in the second ep of AG... and I don't know about others, but for me it's a cute quirk of Pika (so I wouldn't say it is "a big deal" but it's nice to see it back, especially for us old viewers who can catch up on that obscure bit of continuity)

 

[THECIA]

hopefully korrina will be a lot better than serena

 

[Dogasu]

It actually was brought up again in the second ep of AG...

Alright, so eleven years since it was brought up. Two times in the show's nearly seventeen year history.

That's nothing.

 

[Banjo]

Why is the return of "Pikachu's love of ketchup" - aka a tiny part of a filler episode that debuted about 16 years ago and hasn't been brought up since - such a big deal with this fandom?

From what I can tell, that particular little quirk of Pikachu's is a fan favorite, so it only makes sense for folks to be happy about it being mentioned again.

 

[Pokemaster97]

I think like with any fandom, people appreciate when the writers throw back a reference to an older installment of the series or franchise. I frankly don't see what's so weird about it.

 

[Dogasu]

The problem I'm having with understanding why people made Pikachu + Ketchup a "thing" in the first place. It's a forgettable throwaway gag from an episode that debuted a million years ago. It's not the kind of thing I'd expect anyone to pick out and then remember for years and years after the fact.

Why is Pikachu + Ketchup a thing when, say, "Nyasu loves round objects" isn't? Why aren't people clamoring for the return of "Satoshi wants to eat Koiking"? Or any other random little one-off characteristic that's brought up once or twice and is then never mentioned again?

(And, more on-topic...the Pikachu + Ketchup thing in this episode is basically this: Pikachu gets ketchup on his hand and then licks it off. The end. There's little else in the episode more insignificant than that)

 

[Johtohfiller]

The ketchup gag was a HUGE hit in the North American fandom back in the day. It was a meme before memes were much of a thing. As for why, I can't say exactly - it could just be an "Americans like ketchup" thing.

 

[Reila]

- Korrina is a fun character, as well as a bit sadist. She seemed to enjoy her Lucario beating Pikachu way more than she probably should
- This is the first Lucario to appear in the anime to not have a "look at me, I am so bad ass" tryhard aura. I am still a bit sick of seeing Lucarios everywhere, though
- Leader: "I am the Gym Leader of Blah City" Ash's crew: "EEEEEEEHH?". Seriously, stop this crap, writers
- Oh my, Pikachu's likeness for ketchup! This bring back some good memories
- This show would be much better with Korrina in the cast instead of Ms. Bland Love Interest
- Why wasn't Team Rocket cut from the show yet? My god

The episode was far better than the Diantha and Mega Gardevoir one. 8/10.