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Review JN122: The Semifinals I: "Overwhelming Victory"

Gardevoir vs Charizard was actually a pretty good fight and she caused some serious damage to it. In a way this should of just been a 1 on 1 like the ones we had against Lance/Raihan earlier in the series because that's all they needed to show. Obviously they couldn't because it had to be 6 on 6 for the second match.

Honestly view this as a 1 on 1 match and you don't feel like you missed anything, lol
 
So is it just me or does it kinda feel like the writers are overcompensating with Rillaboom given how much it’s dominated in the Masters 8? It’s like between its lower popularity compared to the other Galar starters and how long it took for them to do anything with it, that they’re trying to overcompensate.
 
All of this negativity throughout the whole month of August has been absolutely draining. Journeys is basically a dying animal that needs to be put to rest. I’m sad that Journeys has to be like this, it seems like COVID really ruined whatever long-term plans they had. I’m ready to accept that Journeys is the worst series in the show, moreso than Best Wishes, and move on. I’ll just take the past character returning episodes and run.
 
Haven't seen the episde yet, only the screenshots from serebii but I can tell already it must have been a terrible episode full of missed opportunities! What a shame! The episode was crammed with way too much content and that concept just had to fail.

First, our wonderful Cynthia should have gotten an entire episode dedicated solely to her backstory. The way it was handled in favor of the search for some random kid can almost be considered an insult to the dignified Queen!

Second, Diantha, who turned out to be such an interesting Pokemon trainer, just didn't deserve that kind of unworthy treatment...not at all! I deeply feel sorry for her.

To sum it up in one sentence: This episode seems to be an insult to Cynthia, Diantha... and to us fans! (Hope I will change my opinion at least a little bit after watching the episode)
 
Frack me, the title really wasn't kidding! :eek:

I know their hearts weren't into the tournament in the first place (it was suppose be Ash battles and the rest were still pictures)...but...damn son :cry:

Arceus help me, but this might be even worse than BW105...:sick:
 
Welp. RIP Diantha and RIP Tyrantrum, who didn't even get to amend the horrendous screentime it got back in XY. At least they let it beat Leon's Dragapult I guess.

Staff pulls a sneaky and gives him Eternatus, Calyrex Ice Rider and Urshifu Rapid Strike Style.
I know this is meant as a joke, but of these three Legendaries Urshifu being in Leon's team actually does sound believable, since he would've had one in the games were it not for his horrible sense of direction, so the anime pulling a "what if?" on this would actually make some sense.
 
Oof. Talk about a bad episode. I get the idea of wanting to present Leon as this looming threat to present him as the top guy on the planet, but when most of the action occurs offscreen, it's not a prime example of "show, don't tell" going on. Plus, it also meant you ran over another region champ in the process.
 
While I am disappointed, I am not going to complain mostly because there is to much negativity and it is just a waste to get mad what is essentially a kids show.

My review for this episode is that it could have been more. I like the first part where Ash and Cynthia just interacting while training for their fight. The second part is a bit mixed. Someone getting lost or getting sidetrack in a middle of the tournaments is just tradition at this point so I'm not gonna cry over it. But man they really want to sell the fact Leon is THE UNDEFEATABLE CHAMPION!!! Poor Diantha, we know you're going to lose but man you are up against a wall with no way out. Let's just hope this 3 parter would be great but people would still find a way to complain.

Anyways, you guys try not to cry over this too much (even though I feel this is pointless cause this the net after all).
This is a kids' show, but kids deserve to have quality programming and not just something tossed on the table and be told "eh, eat it, I guess?"
 
I think all of Leon's battles should of been off-screen because they were never going to work till the finals. Or maybe just cut to Gardevoir vs Charizard since that was actually good.
 
Somehow wasn't expecting this reaction, from what I saw before the episode came out I didn't think anyone actually cared about this battle at all, even before it was revealed it would probably be a sweep.
I prefer how they did it then having to watch a whole battle with a foregone conclusion, atleast with Ash it's always possible for him to lose before reaching Leon because, well its the anime.
 
Somehow wasn't expecting this reaction, from what I saw before the episode came out I didn't think anyone actually cared about this battle at all, even before it was revealed it would probably be a sweep.
I prefer how they did it then having to watch a whole battle with a foregone conclusion, atleast with Ash it's always possible for him to lose before reaching Leon because, well its the anime.
I knew most of the battle would be off-screen so that didn't bother me, I think people dislike the pointless kid subplot and would have hoped it focus on Cynthia more or her backstory.
 
Welp. RIP Diantha and RIP Tyrantrum, who didn't even get to amend the horrendous screentime it got back in XY. At least they let it beat Leon's Dragapult I guess.


I know this is meant as a joke, but of these three Legendaries Urshifu being in Leon's team actually does sound believable, since he would've had one in the games were it not for his horrible sense of direction, so the anime pulling a "what if?" on this would actually make some sense.
Hey, if we're making the Masters' pairings canon in other media, might as well give Leon Eternatus and the Calyrex to make it a reality.
 
The trouble is, Leon vs Diantha, and Ash bonding with Cynthia could have each made for a great episode.

Instead we had a third of the episode taken up by a missing child… I have no idea how anyone thought that’d be fun - don’t talk to me about budget, I’d have rather watched the battle in stock motion on a kitchen worktop than a kid going missing and Ash finding them.
 
This is a kids' show, but kids deserve to have quality programming and not just something tossed on the table and be told "eh, eat it, I guess?"
Agreed. And on top of that, people aren’t complaining just for the sake of it. It’s a disappointment because we know that the writers are capable of better than what they’re giving us because they have in previous sagas. In this case, the writers feel like they’re just phoning it in especially with an episode like this one. The “it’s a kids show.” argument is and always will be bull because it’s such defeatist argument that’s saying that kids don’t deserve actual quality and effort put into shows where they’re the target audience.
 
I'm waiting for gogoanime to add the episode so I haven't seen the episode yet, but this episode looks bad. I am interested to see Cynthia's backstory and how she met Garchomp...ya that's the only thing I'm looking forward to in this episode.

Aside from that, everything I've heard about this episode makes it seem like it will be even worse than JN115 and JN120, one of which was an episode that treated Alain as nothing more than Leon fodder rather than an actual character and barely gave us any interactions with him and Ash while also acting as a rushed introduction to the M8, and the other gave Chloe's half-baked arc ZERO closure and made her my least favorite companion solely because of how much of an after thought she was.

Edit: I saw the episode. It was not good.
 
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Well, if there's anything positive to be gained from this episode is that in a way it retroactively makes Alain's Charizard look less nerfed what with it having two-shot the same Rillaboom that swept through two thirds of Diantha's team. Even then, though, that still felt like a huge overcompensation: they could've had Leon's Dragapult beat two of Diantha's Pokemon (say, Hawlucha and Gourgeist) before losing to Tyrantrum and then have Rillaboom beat Tyrantrum, Aurorus, and Goodra and that still would've had the desired effect without looking too overly ridiculous.
 
Alright so now I saw the episode and it was not good. The first half of the episode is literally filler, it focuses on a pointless lost kid sub-plot instead of ACTUALLY FOCUSING ON THE MASTERS 8 BATTLE, so we barely even saw most of the battle. WTF? The second half was at least a bit better, what we did get to see in the battle was pretty good, it feels more fast-paced compared to other M8 battles, and some creative strats were used here.

However, it still has issues, like what happened to dodging? I thought Ash vs Steven fixed that problem but they kept it here? Plus, Cynthia's backstory wasn't anything great. Sure, it's nice to see them compare Cynthia's Garchomp to Ash's Lucario, however, I was hoping for more, it was just "Garchomp hatched and we were friends now" like that's it? No exploring her motivations for participating in the M8 or exploring her relationship with her Garchomp at all? Wow, what a disappointment.

Overall this episode was not great. The first half focused on a stupid kid sub-plot with Toria getting lost so we can't even see the battle at all, and the second half was somewhat better, however, it couldn't save this bad episode.

Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to SKIP most of Leon vs Diantha in favor of a boring lost kid subplot?

Score:
3/10, not the best.
 
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