Review XY127: The Semifinal Full Battle! Satoshi VS Shōta!!

[Hifen]

Hawlucha is used to being the fall guy since Weepinbell, although he did redeem himself against Heliolisk and Abomasnow. He owned Spritzee as well but that wasn't much of a challenge to be honest. His track record got a good bump with the win against a Mega Absol (even if that was an off screen one).
This defeat against Shota was kinda expected for me, but I did get my hopes up with his new outfit and that cool champion entrance...
Now I expect nothing less from him than a convincing win against at least one of Alain's pokemon and sure hope he don't drop the new costume yet!

As for the rest of the episode, I'm not too fond of Alain beating everyone with 1-2 pokemon only and, as stated before, also think that keeping Talonflame against Clawitzer was just plain dumb on Ash's side. Other than that, very nice pacing and I'm sure looking forward to Noivern battling next week!

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Also, is it just me or has Alain taken a level in jerkass? I hope Ash beats him because I'm personally just bored and tired of the guy at this point...

I think he's just getting cocky cause he's plowing through the league. And I feel you. I've been tired of him since the last Mega Evolution special.

 

[Alola]

The first part of Ash and Shota's Full Battle was pretty disappointing for me.

I thought the concept of Slaking using Counter was pretty awesome and unexpected-it actually made Hawlucha's loss justifiable. The only problem is that it was tanking Fighting type moves like nobodies business, which was very jarring. Following that KO, Ash realizes that Slaking has some pretty high defense and can retaliate against physical moves with Counter. So who does he send in? His other completely physically oriented bird of prey. The sad part about that was that Talonflame actually won, despite Hawlucha's clear type advantage and Slaking's seemingly impervious defenses with constant healing . Yet, even that victory is cut short when Ash decides to leave it in against Clawitzer where it inevitably gets destroyed.

The only decent battle in my opinion was Pikachu vs Clawitzer-it had a good pace and even a callback to when Ash fought Clemont. The highlight of the episode was Hawlucha asking Serena to make it its entry costume with a cape. Too bad it was unceremoniously knocked out afterward its entrance.

Finally, Alain's two to Remos six Full battle has him dangerously mirroring Tobias. On the other hand, looking at Remo's party shows there wasn't much to write home about anyway (and Alain's Metagross had advantages against 4 of Remos Pokemon).

Next weeks episode looks much better. Maybe then, I can finally start to enjoy the Kalos League.

 

[swampertuska]

Even after all these battles I can't make myself believe that Shota is a formidable opponent. He reminds me of some book worm, shallow version of Kohei from Sinnoh League. For me it was a disaster how writers just gave Shota (being noob and weak trainer) powerful pokemons, make Ash lose to him earlier and power up Sceptile from nothing to OP.... Worst writing ever.

 

[Sakuraa]

Talonflame won! Oh, and the rest of the episode was good too

I was surprised that we got to see the end of Alain vs. Remo. I also thought it was weird that Alain had Charizard Mega Evolve against Garchomp. I mean, I get that he wanted the power boost, but he also gave himself a weakness to Garchoo's dragon-type moves. Ah, who cares, it's not like he had any chance of losing. On to the main battle.

Damn, that intro for Hawlucha was awesome. I adored his outfit and I loved the fact that he asked Serena to make it for him. Wow, Bonnie would be the person to find Slaking cute. Ok, I get that Hawlucha and Ash both probably wanted Hawlucha to get a win after that suburb intro, but he really should have switched him out. I mean, after he saw that his attacks were doing virtually nothing, and then that Slack Off healed Slaking entirely, he should have just gone with someone else. But of course he has to get one shot by Counter. Well it was a good strategy from Sawyer, I'll say that.

Okay, seriously, where the hell is Razor Wind? Like seriously, Hawlucha just lost due to hammering Slacking with physical moves and getting destroyed with Counter. Then Talonflame comes out and...starts hammering Slacking with physical moves. I thought we'd see Razor Wind for the first time in forever to get past the Counter strategy, but I guess not. Whatever, he got a win so I'm pleased.

Ash really should have switch out Talonflame for Pikachu as soon as it came out. There was no reason for Talonflame to stay in that battle and go down like that. He could have been saved to do damage to Sceptile, the sword, or even take on Slurpuff to protect his dragons. I also felt that Talonflame getting OHKO'd by Aqua Jet was a bit much. The Ice Beam pretty much did nothing, and maybe it's just me, but I feel the Aqua Jet should have been slightly weakened with the fire-water collision. Oh well. At least he got one win. Pika vs. Clawitzer was pretty straight forward so not much to say about it. Except that Ash really seems to like having Pikachu use that "captured in appendage Electro Ball" strategy.

Well this is great. This is the moment Ash could have had Talonflame come back out to fight the sword and let Pikachu rest for later. Or let Pikachu start out and then have Talonflame finish. Guess, we'll have to wait to see what ends up happening since it seems his hiding in the trees strategy is out.

Overall, a nice start to the first full battle. Switching out Hawlucha and Talonflame when they were struggling would have made this a much better match though. 8/10.

 

[WatcherMark]

Looking at Louie's scoreboard Pokemon, I noticed he had a Dotekkotsu... so it's nice to know Satoshi isn't the only person in this league using a Pokemon not in its final evolution.

 

[Jaisac]

Watching Hawlucha losing after that awesome intro and new outfit (made by Serena) broke my heart. Again, the "legendary brave bird" succeed where Hawlucha failed. It piss me off.

I agree with everyone else, the best battle so far was Pikachu's. Let us hope that Hawlucha redeems himself in the battle against alain

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Amusing how Hawlucha can beat a Mega Absol but lose to a Slaking who doesn't mega evolve. Glad to see Talonflame getting a win before losing to the next pokemon. Pretty good episode.

 

[Misty-Moo]

I must be going mad, I could have also sworn that Metagross was on the board.

It was. When the board was first shown, Metagross was on it.
But apparently since Clemont mentions Metagross being used, that means that there was a mistake when the board was shown the second time.

Yes, I've just looked again, Metagross is greyed out until the board is shown for the final time

 

[Karamazov]

Looking at Louie's scoreboard Pokemon, I noticed he had a Dotekkotsu... so it's nice to know Satoshi isn't the only person in this league using a Pokemon not in its final evolution.

Aww, that's sad. No one wanted to trade with him.

 

[Nicolas721]

The episode was just OK. The only awesome thing in this was how much time it took for the battle to start properly.

I like Sawyer. He's like a computed program that can predict stuff and that has the answer to everything based on patterns. I also liked that the birds went down fast. I dont' care if they have a winning rate less than 50% or not, I'm just tired of seeing them every single time. However, the battle definetely lacks momentum and tension so far.

 

[Kriatopher Brown]

I think at this point why not just hand Alain the league if he this overpower. but if ash beat him it would make that victory all the more satisfying (If)
but to the actually it was pretty enjoyable two even trainers having a back and forward battle is pretty fun. I get that hawlucha getting one shot was weak, and keeping talonflame out on clawitzer was pretty stupid but you know it just the start up to the battle all the real action will happen next week
7.5/10 if have to rate it

 

[Lucifer Angel]

Hawlucha vs Slaking was like I can't really say. But getting one shotted was kinda bad even after he attacked Slaking. With everything he had and it still tanked all his moved. I really liked the Pikachu vs clawitzer battle as it was the best one this eppy. I am disappointed that the battles seem to be going Offaly fast.

 

[Gabo2oo]

What I expected after seeing XY's animation quality:
[People acting like real sport audiences, standing from their seats when things get intense, maximum hype, distinct designs at least in clothes, contrasting expressions to show how each person cheers for a different side]

What I got:

 

[Gabo2oo]

[Sorry for double posting but this is a different subject]

...I'm honestly surprised no one anywhere has brought attention to this:

Pikachu started charging his Electro Ball right before Ash commanded him to use it, something they had never actually done before.
Remember back then when it was kind of a big deal for Korrina and Lucario? I'm pretty sure this was deliberate.

 

[Ghurlag]

So, finally an Ash battle, and just for flavour we got to see Alain finish steamrolling the guy he was always going to beat. Oh hey, Charizard wins, what a surprise. The real surprise is that he somehow managed to switch in Metagross to lose a round for once.

I must say that so far this battle is less gripping than Sawyer's quarter-final. Part of that might be the lack of tactical switching which has been plaguing us since B/W and makes the battles predictable. At least Tierno switched Raichu. It would've been more interesting to see Ash throw a few things against Slaking (who was a great counter to Ash's battle style, good work Sawyer) and actually beat it with special or status approaches rather than just punch it again. Battles being all about 'heart' and 'giving it your all' are boring because everyone just plot-armours through.

The other part of the drag is the one-shot knockouts: we don't feel as invested because the battlers are never injured, just wiped out. Hell, I felt more for Clawitzer in that last bout -- at least it was recovering and trying to counter a strategy that had it on the ropes.

All that said, this wasn't too bad, and it's clearly setting the stage for a more tense battle with the 'mons they want to showcase: Noivern, Goodra and the Greninja/Sceptile showdown. They're even clearing Pikachu quite early.

 

[Misty-Moo]

I must be going mad, I could have also sworn that Metagross was on the board.

It was. When the board was first shown, Metagross was on it.
But apparently since Clemont mentions Metagross being used, that means that there was a mistake when the board was shown the second time.

My mistake, I've just seen a subbed version, Clemont does say that Alain's only used Charizard and Metagross up until that point. The screenshot I posted must have been an animation error

 

[Tyrannozilla]

It's kinda funny that all the trainers that reached the semi finals have a pseudo legendary.

 

[Mikuri]

This post won't be too long because I don't have much to complain about this time. This episode was good but hopefully things will be better next week.

I have mixed feelings about Sawyer. I think it's super cute that he admires Ash and has made it his mission to surpass him, but he's also very boring. That is a problem I have with pretty much every rival character in the XY series, but Sawyer's drug addicted face doesn't help. The rivals in this saga are all... meh. And when the writers tried to make an interesting rival they came up with Alain, which at first I liked but now he annoys me.

I hated it that Alain defeated Remo using only two Pokémon. Remo is a semifinalist after all, he is supposed to be a formidable Trainer who has defeated strong opponents to get to this point, but apparently he is just another Youngster you find in the very first routes of the games. Alain defeated five of his Pokémon without Mega Evolving his Charizard. And I really wish I could have seen another member of Alain's team. I have my own problems with how much Charizard in general is overexposed in the anime since the original series, but it's like Alain doesn't have any other Pokémon.

The main battle of the episode was good. Hawlucha totally stole the show with his I'm-so-much-cooler-than-you outfit. It was a cute moment when he asked Serena to make him a cape. I really like these nice little moments and it suits Hawlucha's personality. A real shame that he lost the battle after attacking Slaking so many times with super-effective, Fighting-type moves. I don't have anything to say about Talonflame but I think Ash should have recalled the bird when Sawyer sent out Clawitzer.

About Pikachu, maybe I'll rewatch this episode just so I can see him in action again. I'm glad he got a time to shine because I thought he wouldn't get much screentime after that battle against Takeru's Furfrou (and now that I was proven wrong, that battle is even more pointless). I liked when Clawitzer grabbed Pikachu's tail with his claw and Pikachu used Electro Ball to get out. As Zoey told us waaaay back in the Jubilife Contest, you always need a follow-up and Sawyer did not have one in mind. You grabbed Pikachu's tail and what now kiddo? Better write that down on your notebook.

 

[Necrozma]

As Zoey told us waaaay back in the Jubilife Contest, you always need a follow-up and Sawyer did not have one in mind. You grabbed Pikachu's tail and what now kiddo? Better write that down on your notebook.

I'm pretty sure Sawyer told Clawitzer to use one of its moves directly after it grabbed Pikachu's tail, Ash was simply faster.

Though Sawyer still made a mistake, he should have realized that grabbing the tail was a bad idea in the first place since Pikachu generates Electro Ball from his tail.