Review XY125: The Kalos League Begins! The Mega Lizardon Showdown: X VS Y!!

[Misty-Moo]

I've just seen this with subs, so can pass on the story of redhead character (whatever his name is).

He challenges Ash & Serena stops Ash because he'll be late for registration, so Ash says "Sorry, another time", this is why the redhead appears again later. He wants to battle someone who's qualified for the League because he hasn't earned enough badges & wants to prove his strength. When Ash beats him, redhead says "There's lots of people like me, don't lose" & Ash replies "Of course not".

 

[DracoMan]

I've just seen this with subs, so can pass on the story of redhead character (whatever his name is).

He challenges Ash & Serena stops Ash because he'll be late for registration, so Ash says "Sorry, another time", this is why the redhead appears again later. He wants to battle someone who's qualified for the League because he hasn't earned enough badges & wants to prove his strength. When Ash beats him, redhead says "There's lots of people like me, don't lose" & Ash replies "Of course not".

In other words, he doesn't do anything important to the episode; he's just a gratuitous pain in the ass.

 

[NinjutsuSen]

To me, XY(Z) has been a series that takes one step forward and two steps back constantly. And this episode is a great reflection of that.

Then XY(&Z) would be morw worse then BW or even Johto.

Well I think the writers are focusing onto the two 6vs6 battles to be good, which I like more then spending to many episodes on the pre-finals.

 

[Kairyu]

Yeah, this episode was not very good. First of all, the animation was hideously bad (apart from that brief 30second Greninja battle segment). The motions were stiff and slow. Both humans as well as Pokemon were drawn off-model (just look at how Ash and those Charizards were drawn, jesus christ).

Secondly, the writing was equally bad with how rushed the battles were and the pointless Furfrou trainer, but other people have already pointed this out so I wont go into details.

I remember the first league episode in DP also being rushed with skipped battles and whatnot, but at the very least that one featured an incredible showdown with great animation between Ash's Heracross and Nando's Kricketune. This episode, however, didn't deliver a single good fight, and for a league episode that's not good enough.

 

[Karamazov]

Recognized Takeru's voice instantly. His voice actor did Yuma Tsukumo, the protagonist of Yugioh Zexal. It seemed pretty funny since he's sharing the episode with Alain, who is voiced guy who does the protagonist of Arc-V.

I didn't mind him stealing the spotlight from Trevor because tbh, I don't care about Trevor all that much. I found Takeru's story (or what Bulbapedia says is his story) to be a lot more interesting.

 

[ii kanji]

I think the Furfrou part was to give Pikachu a battle, because I think Ash won't be using Pikachu much this league.

I also thought that :-(

 

[WatcherMark]

So Diantha does appear at the Kalos League but not at that Pokemon Summer Camp that she graduated from? Talk about having a strange set of priorities.

Yes, how weird that she'd turn up at the official tournament where she'll be able to observe the trainer who she'll likely have to face somewhere down the line and not to some summer camp she attended as a kid for a week.

 

[Pattyman]

Whenever known characters get paired up with each other, such as with what they did with Alain and Trevor in this episode, one of them ends up not staying around. Had Trevor or Alain got paired with a nameless/background character instead of each other early in the league, the results would have been different for either side.

 

[Dogasu]

Oh yeah i forgot to mention that despite the animators taking a week off they still didn't get rid of the animation errors that occurred during this episode. Why bother taking a one week break when you aint gonna do anything useful with that extra time? With the Alain victory screen error and the recycled Ash-Greninja transformation scenes as the best examples of the sheer laziness of the animators.

They didn't "take a week off." The animators don't have the luxury of taking vacation time or of even looking over episodes and touching them up to appease a group of people illegally downloading the show on the other side of the planet. It's all just one big grind of meeting deadlines and doing all the work assigned to them.

 

[Timsworld]

They didn't "take a week off." The animators don't have the luxury of taking vacation time or of even looking over episodes and touching them up to appease a group of people illegally downloading the show on the other side of the planet. It's all just one big grind of meeting deadlines and doing all the work assigned to them.

And that big grind is what causes them to screw things up every once in a while. I know that those people are also just humans and can make mistakes but seeing as those mistakes very rarely get fixed these days its a shame that they even occur in the first place.

 

[ii kanji]

@Timsworld have you ever animated anything? I haven't. It's easy to spot even minor errors, but by my understanding the Pokemon animation team work ceaselessly with a pretty limited budget on an unending series. The finished result is not perfect, but it's really damn great at the moment, especially when you compare it with some of the stuff we used to get even as recently as DP. If you watch without nitpicking or poring over caps post-episode you might find that you actually appreciate it for what it is.

 

[Mikuri]

Well, this was disappointing. I never thought I would get to say that for real, but this managed to be worse than the first episode of the Vertress Conference (and that's saying something). This was a slap in the face of those who have been waiting so patiently for the League.

I am so sorry for all of you who really care about this. I lost 70% of my interest for Ash's quest a long time ago and I find Gym battles kinda boring and that's why you often see me complaining about Pokémon Showcases because what really keeps me watching the anime these days are Ash's companions. I care a whole lot more for the female lead than for our main character Ash.

That said, I still want the League to be good, and this episode was far from being good. The battles were rushed and I feel like Trevor deserved more (and I don't even like the guy!!). I'm not sad because he lost, I'm sad due to the way he lost. I knew he didn't stand a chance against the guy who defeated ten Mega Evolution Trainers in a row (one of them being Elite Four Malva), but I expected their battle to roll out properly you know. Aerodactyl and Florges appeared for five seconds, and Mega Charizard Y didn't last much longer.

I think Alain could have used a Pokémon other than Charizard. We have seen enough of his Charizard already and this battle was the perfect opportunity for the writers to show the rest of Alain's team. That way Trevor could have done something, maybe he would land a few attacks. Anyway, I think it could have been less humiliating. And I was pissed when Alain wore his jackass face after winning the battle. He didn't celebrate his victory. It was a foregone conclusion but what's the point of joining the League if you're not going to have a fun time while there? He was like, whatever.

It just served as a testament to what I have been saying, Alain doesn't belong in the League. But now that he's here and that his homolust for Ash (which is kinda cute I'll admit) is going strong and they're going to face off in the finals, I want to see his other Pokémon partners because the Lumiose Conference finals is going to be ultra boring for me if it turns out to be a Mega Charizard X versus Ash-Greninja showdown because the rest of the battle got skipped. These two have been shoved down our throats for a while now and I know they're popular and all but I want to see the rest of Ash's team shining.

Oh, and I disagree completely with anyone who thinks this was an "establishment episode." It wasn't. This is a culmination episode. It's the result of three years of build up. We have seen Ash talking about this since he landed in Kalos. The writers don't have to appeal to people who watch the anime once in a blue moon. And I very much doubt that this particular episode would have made a person who don't keep up with the anime think that the Lumiose Conference is going to be any good. Two rushed battles that managed to be worse than a battle that happened inside the League stadium but wasn't really a League battle. This was ridiculous and I honestly feel bad for everyone who went to watch this episode with high expectations.

I have mixed feelings about the punk guy, I quite like his role but… why here of all places? The writers could have given him an entire episode and it would have been a lot better than that boring ingenuity festival nonsense. I am tired of this episode and so I'm going to summarize:

• No Mr. Goodshow, bummer;
• Yay for Team Rocket working as Malva's crew;
• I know this announcer from somewhere else;
• Why is Prof. Sycamore here? He wasn't in the Master Class;
• At the gathering, Sawyer was all alone in his table, poor him;
• These battlefields are too over the top for my tastes;
• So much for Ash being a mature Trainer, he was almost disqualified;
• I really hope this isn't the last we see of Pikachu.

That's all.

 

[Necrozma]

So much for Ash being a mature Trainer, he was almost disqualified;

I don't see how Ash being almost disqualified makes him immature. The reason he was late was because he battled the trainer, and the reason he battled the trainer was because he promised that he would battle him after not being able to battle him the first time. Ash upholding his promise is a sign of maturity to me, rather an immaturity. Sure, it was careless of him and he could have been late, but the battle obviously meant a lot to that random trainer and Ash decided to appease him.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Oh yeah i forgot to mention that despite the animators taking a week off they still didn't get rid of the animation errors that occurred during this episode. Why bother taking a one week break when you aint gonna do anything useful with that extra time? With the Alain victory screen error and the recycled Ash-Greninja transformation scenes as the best examples of the sheer laziness of the animators.

Japanese cartoons have had a long, long, long history of cutting corners. Pokemon isn't the only one. And it's not just Japanese cartoons that do this. Animation in general has mistakes and corner-cutting measures, no matter what country it comes from. For an American example, take a closer at Disney's "The Jungle Book" (the 1967 animated one) and see how many errors and cut corners you can spot, especially in terms of how many scenes look exactly alike.

 

[PokePete]

Not a bad first episode of the Kalos League even though it was rushed. Would have loved to see some more of the battles but I guess it would just show Ash-Greninja dominate the match. My guess was the red haired guy was jealous of seeing Ash being interviewed and how confident he was to win the league so he wanted to prove to him that someone who doesn't have eight badges is just as strong but Ash proved him wrong. I was quite disappointed how weak Charizard Y was against Charizard X and didn't even put up a fight even with his drought ability. I loved the BGM they used for the battles, at the beginning, and at the end of the episode which I hope the dub does not replace but I have my doubts.

 

[Mikuri]

I don't see how Ash being almost disqualified makes him immature. The reason he was late was because he battled the trainer, and the reason he battled the trainer was because he promised that he would battle him after not being able to battle him the first time. Ash upholding his promise is a sign of maturity to me, rather an immaturity. Sure, it was careless of him and he could have been late, but the battle obviously meant a lot to that random trainer and Ash decided to appease him.

Yes, Ash keeping his word is a sign of maturity.

Ash battling a random Trainer while on his way to a League match at the risk of getting disqualified for showing up late, essentially throwing away all the hard work he and more importantly his Pokémon have put into collecting the eight needed Badges to get to this point is sheer stupidity.

 

[Galactic_V]

I got this feeling this was a pretty fast paced episode for a League arc. I mean sure we got some battles, but what about everything else?
In later sagas we'd seen Satoshi going around the arena, going to other places, meeting other characters such as Tamaranze, etc... Even running with a tourch ala Olympics Games. In this one what we got?
A rushed introduction, a rushed characters' meetings, a nonsense battle with a guy we've never seen before and for no reason at first, a short scene with Trio planning to steal Pokemon, etc...

And looking through the next episodes, Satoshi's semi-final battle's finish'll take place in the 5th episode league. I really hope his battle with Alan takes at least 3 episodes... (I'm pretty sure he's winning his one against Shouta)

 

[Necrozma]

Yes, Ash keeping his word is a sign of maturity.

Ash battling a random Trainer while on his way to a League match at the risk of getting disqualified for showing up late, essentially throwing away all the hard work he and more importantly his Pokémon have put into collecting the eight needed Badges to get to this point is sheer stupidity.

Except Ash was clearly aware of everything as there was a screen in the same room with him. So Ash couldn't have been late because he knew when to come out on field, when he was supposed to battle.

 

[Matleo]

for me Alain took out Tiernos pokes to quickly out, they could have ended the match of both chars with atleast a tie.
But they wanted to show Alain as a hard trainer.
Aerodactyl din't even get a chance to use even a move.

They could have made it a preeleminary and give then the oportunity for Ash to battle Trevor and show Charizard Y drough ability and give more shine to other pokes. They could have made the running and talking shorter, the battle of Furfrou was not necessary, it would be rather a good preleminary battle if something. They should give more time for battles.

 

[Mikuri]

Except Ash was clearly aware of everything as there was a screen in the same room with him. So Ash couldn't have been late because he knew when to come out on field, when he was supposed to battle.

Except Ash could have been late, so much so that he was indeed late. The announcer called his name but he didn't show, the referee waited for a little while but Ash only got to the battlefield when the referee was about to disqualify him. He didn't get there when he was supposed to, he didn't get there when everyone was waiting for him, he arrived there just in time to prevent Tomo from winning by default.

And that, in my eyes, is a sign of immaturity. Ash could have battled Takeru after his League match. He still would have kept his promise without putting at risk his League participation. It's like all the high school graduates who have studied the entire year to take the Enem exam in October, but they promised their mothers that they would clean up their rooms and they decide to honor this promise on the day of the test a few minutes before it begins. It's nonsense.

Ash had no need to battle Takeru at that time. What he needed to do was get to the battlefield when the announcer called him. He could have said "I'm sorry but they're calling my name, I'll battle you later, see ya!" and walked past Takeru and looked for the guy after defeating Tomo. He would still be the mature guy you're talking about (for keeping his word) without being the immature guy I'm talking about (for almost being disqualified). It's a win-win scenario.