Review XY131: Kalos League Victory! Satoshi's Ultimate Match!!

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Giving the trophy to the most overpowered character who had no interest in the league really bothers me, but the way that Team Flare's maniacal plan kicked off was just incredible. The corrupted Zygarde on top of the Prism Tower, destroying the stadium and the town was just intense. Lysandre has lost it.

 

[Pesky]

I honestly couldn't concentrate on Flare's plan being kicked into motion. I was so incredibly disappointed at Ash's loss that I think I, myself, lost all ability to feel anything positive towards the anime. Maybe it would've been a cool moment if not for the loss. 20 years later and still nothing for Ash. I just can't even, man.

 

[Desdar300]

All I have to say is that I'm more disappointed than livid. Even on the 20th anniversary the executives couldn't break the ultimate cliché which stings a tad more because Alola lacks a league. Thanks to Pokémon Go, a lot of people got back into the franchise and leading up to this episode, I saw so many people come out and root for Ash. People made fan art, were invested and it really felt like the 1990s all over again When I heard that Ash lost my heart literally sank and for a few minutes I felt despair not for his loss but for the millions that actually believed the miracle would happen. The outrage was so mad that even one of the animators had to speak out to confirm that he too was upset and Nintendo's stock dipped even more. I don't wish any
.harm on the staff..... But I will say that I think that they shot themselves in a way that they don't realize yet. What kills me is that the anime could've utilize all this hype from Ash's potential to boost the excitement for the Franchise in general rather than putting a dent in it

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Making to top 2 was great for Ash and is good enough in my opinion. Winning could of happened but it was clear Alain was stronger. They are not going to change the episode with an alternate ending. What's done is done. Now we have Team Flare to deal with.

 

[Pokefan19]

I blame the dubbing error for Brock claiming Ash's Water types are totally weak to Fire types...

(Also, Hello again Bulbagarden's, it been years since I remembered I had an account here)

 

[Poke Trey]

I blame the dubbing error for Brock claiming Ash's Water types are totally weak to Fire types...

(Also, Hello again Bulbagarden's, it been years since I remembered I had an account here)

Why I never trusted 4Kids because of things like that and also hey there mate

 

[draph91]

I stop watching the anime a long time ago, this needs to end

 

[Pokefan19]

But to get to the more serious post and mostly my review/offerings...

Let me start by saying I wasn't a big fan of this league in general from the minute they started skipping Ash's battles. That's not because I wanted to be negative, it's because Ash should still take precedence over everything else in this show, bar maybe plot or if the subject matter doesn't concern him. The League is where Ash should shine, so the fact we only got to see him win one on screen battle is about as disappointing as the fact that the anime staff (or executives) decided to get everyone's hopes up that Ash is destined to win. Now I'm not gonna disregard that he had a lot going for him, but there were red flags hidden within. No references to the past, the fact Alain was getting just as much if not a bit more focus then Ash, the fact they keep asking us if Ash was gonna win... Heck, not knowing what Alain's final attack would be vs the Shurriken.

But no, I wasn't rooting for Alain to win, I just couldn't imagine Ash winning the league with so little about his past happening in the league. The reserves deserved every right to be apart of Ash's league victory as much as the team that helped him through Kalos.

That being said, I don't by the theory's of Alain cheating or Team Flare helping him out... I mean there are still people who debate whether Alain truly beat Malva.

 

[draph91]

Alain was better than Trollbias, at least, in as much that he had a background and we knew what was at stake for him before he entered the tournament. How he entered the tournament could have been handled a lot better, but his existence wasn't based on the writers' need to have someone defeat Ash (even if he ended up serving that purpose anyway).

It just doesn't help that he's a totally boring character. I think him winning would have been tolerable if he were a more sympathetic character and the stakes were higher for him. Then they'd be playing off two characters the audience wants to root for and suddenly the battle takes on a new level of meaning. As it was, we never really saw him snap under any pressure or struggle, and that's why, for me at least, he was so uninteresting.

I'm kinda glad he lost to Alain

 

[draph91]

Status Quo reigns supreme again *twirls finger* whoop-dee-doo. I'll be over this eventually but the salt is real for me and going to be such for a while. Nonsense. Went and shot themselves in the foot badly after all that hype. May as well kick started the Flare plot to stop the match from going rather than letting OP-Mega boy and Godzard have it.

Gods, Ash is just not allowed to have nice things.

that's what I expected to happen to be honest

You're right. He reached the finals and finished as a runner-up. He never made that far in a League Conference before.

true

 

[Elementar]

I would have found it a little weird for Ash to go from Top 8 in Unova to winning the league. There needed to be improvement, yes, but winning the league would have beeen a little too far. If it was another league, Ash wouldn't have won because this was a relatively weaker league. I don't think Ash should have won just because it was a weaker league. If he used his Kalos team in another league, yes, he may have done a little better, but a weaker league isn't enough for me to see Ash win. Of course I wanted Ash to win, but it was an unrealistic illusion. We know Ash could have won if he used his best team possible, but he didn't, so he shouldn't have won just because of the league's difficulty compared to others. If he used Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, Greninja and the other one that no one can really agree on (seriously, it could be one of 7 different Pokemon in my opinion to take his last spot), he could have won.

 

[LeonMagnus]

It seems a lot of the reason that viewership has dropped is because the show doesnt really develop. On top of that Youkai Watch is absolutely EVERYWHERE over there, the kids can go to that for a simple fun humorous show.

I honestly think the writing isn't very good and that the new hooks like the shipping and shonen battles are more of a sign of desperation to combat poor ratings. Serena and a competent Ash are hooks for ratings, not a sign that the writers will actually care about anything other than Team Rocket. Serena had no purpose for a long time when she was introduced, honestly would have liked to have seen Rhyhorn races instead of more contest like stuff that way Ash and co could get more involved. But its clear that even with the staff at around 40 years old in some cases they just can't keep the quality of the show up.

The battle itself was pretty terrible too, outside of the bird battle. If you crawled from under a rock to watch the episode having no prior exposure to the hype, absolutely all the signs were there that this would be a disaster. Fairly rushed battles, relying on gilloutine TWICE to deal with his formidable Pokemon, no trademark thinking outside of the box strategies etc. It happens every single time he loses. Only this time you could tell they just couldnt bother with an actual decent battle between Greninja and Charizard and had to rush towards a clash of attacks cliche, even the orange shuriken was anticlimatic, no explanation for its use, Ash wasnt backed into a corner, it was just kind of used. Everything about the battle just felt lame, the Tobais Latios Pikachu battle was much better than this mess.

Almost all of his league loses have him brute force the battles. With Tobias they even brushed off strategy with Heracross having sleep talk and the Darkrai tanking Megahorn. Maybe the writters have their hands tied. Some of this just seems unbelievable for so-called professionals.

People say that they are done with the anime after this but really, was there anyone really dedicated to watching it anymore to make that a huge threat? The ratings are already bad, this will just make it worse because it shows that they will add leads to development and bring them to a dead end.

 

[Almonds]

I just read someone's blog post, and they mentioned that at some point Alain felt more like the main character than Ash was supposed to be. Sure Alain is the other protagonist along with Ash, but they certainly put a lot more focus on Alain, especially with the Team Flare arc coming up and all. The Kalos League was supposed to be Ash's big moment, that one big step to being Pokemon Master, and yet the focus shifted on to Alain more than Ash during the final battle. Compared to when Ash and Sawyer were encouraging each other to give their all during the short telepathic mind space, Alain stated his reasons and Manon pops up in his head, providing him the one motivation that he absolutely cannot lose. Ash, on the other hand, didn't have anything like that. He's done his best, he's come this far, he wants to win - but his desire for the win wasn't as strongly depicted compared to Alain at that moment.

 

[Shadao]

I just read someone's blog post, and they mentioned that at some point Alain felt more like the main character than Ash was supposed to be. Sure Alain is the other protagonist along with Ash, but they certainly put a lot more focus on Alain, especially with the Team Flare arc coming up and all. The Kalos League was supposed to be Ash's big moment, that one big step to being Pokemon Master, and yet the focus shifted on to Alain more than Ash during the final battle. Compared to when Ash and Sawyer were encouraging each other to give their all during the short telepathic mind space, Alain stated his reasons and Manon pops up in his head, providing him the one motivation that he absolutely cannot lose. Ash, on the other hand, didn't have anything like that. He's done his best, he's come this far, he wants to win - but his desire for the win wasn't as strongly depicted compared to Alain at that moment.

I believe it's because nearly all of Ash's character development and focus occurred in the Winding Woods episode, where he finally remembers why he wanted to be a Pokémon trainer in the first place. Once Ash made peace with himself, letting go of his urge to win no matter the cost, he masters Ash-Greninja and finishes his internal conflict. All he has left to do in the Kalos League is reestablishing himself to Sawyer as the trainer who inspires many people, and demonstrate his newfound maturity by focusing on what matters: The fun and excitement generated from battles. That's why he doesn't have strong passion like Alain does in their final conflict.

In other words, Ash's character development is mostly done. He passed his test and became an extraordinary trainer in the process. Now it's time for the other trainers like Alain to learn from him. After all, unlike the past regions of the series, the Kalos Region is where everyone looks up to Ash instead of looking down, ever since he got off that plane in the first episode.

The reason why Alain is given more focus is to showcase his flaws as a character that will play a big part in the Team Flare arc. He is strong, but lost in the darkness of deception from Team Flare. His goals are well-intentioned but misguided. As we see in the monologues of the two final trainers, Satoshi awakens the passion of Pokémon battling within Alan, something that no other trainer is able to do beforehand. This is the lesson that Alain needs to learn, a lesson that he foolishly ignored.

 

[King Robert]

Just don't make it a massive tearjerker like one I've seen in which Pikachu dies right afterwards...

Uh...why would I kill off Pikachu?

 

[ii kanji]

The outrage was so mad that even one of the animators had to speak out to confirm that he too was upset and Nintendo's stock dipped even more.

Eh?

 

[Desdar300]

Eh?

Here you Go
View: https://twitter.com/aoshi11/status/766241482881638400

 

[LeonMagnus]

Eh?

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/aoshi11/status/766241482881638400


しっかしホント、なんで優勝させて貰えないんだろうね… (´・ω・)子ども向けアニメなんだし、もー少し夢を持たせてあげても良いのでは…？とは思う

It pretty much says or conveys that he is dumbfounded at the fact that they don't let him win and why in a children's cartoon they don't let the kids get their dream of seeing him win when he thinks they should. So apararently not everyone is on the same page working on this anime. If you need even more of a reason to be convinced of it being a joke.

Honestly I think some of these writers may have some issues. I heard that some of them had written some side story about Ash's dad where he actually wasnt dead but a failed Pokemon trainer who was so shameful he did not return home and Ash's mom gave up on him and didnt bother to hunt him down for a divorce and chose to focus on supporting Ash.

Edit: What Nintendo's stock went down from this? Lol why not TPC? If anyone followed the new Sailor Moon show when it first came out it was such a disaster that they had to clean out the original staff. It may very well happen with these guys if this gets any worse.

 

[ii kanji]

Who is this?

 

[Desdar300]

Who is this?

A writer for the show.