Satoshi VS Kotetsu! The Secret Weapon Hydregion!!
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The Unova League Ends! Pikachu VS Lucario!!
Okay, I was not looking forward to this. A full six on six battle, and based on how many episodes are left in the series, it’s pretty obvious how this ends up. But…okay, let’s put my doubts aside and try to enjoy this.
Episode N Preview
First, I want to talk about this. I’ve been seeing trailers for this for a long time. Episode N. N is a fascinating trainer and he’s got quite some story to him, and I think that he’ll contrast quite nicely with Satoshi’s personality. The only problem is that Team Rocket looks like they’re going back to their comedy roots, but hey…I want to see the first episode before I decide if i’ll cover it, but I really suspect that I will. There will still be the funny filler episodes, but Pokemon with a proper plot and an anti-hero as a main character? It sounds a little like Colosseum all over again. Heck, even seeing Ghetsis and Colress in the trailers is enough to get my hopes up. However, my concern is that they’ll try to make him fit in too much, and that they’ll dull down the Reshiram/Zekrom story that the trailers are promising.
I have a lot of concerns about it, but I really think that they could do it right, and considering that it’ll probably be a 24 episode thing (It’ll get replaced when X and Y are released and the anime is ‘thrown into a new dimension’, I think that they could do it right. Anyway, With this many episodes, it can only be called a marathon…after the break there’s Episode 17 – Opelucid Gym! Iris VS Shaga!; Episode 18 – Team Eevee, Mobilize! The Pokemon Rescue Squad!; Episode 19 – The Unova League Higaki Tournament Begins! Satoshi VS Shootie!; Episode 20 – Fierce Fighting! Win Your Way Through the Rival Battles!!; Episode 21 – Kibago Gets Lost and Episode 22 – Enter Sawk! Satoshi VS Kenyan!
Pokemon Movie 15
To start with, I apologise for the Cartoon Network logo in the corner of the screencaps, I watched the Japanese version of it but ended up downloading the English version to get the screenshots. Anyway, You know, the Pokemon Movies have always been a bit of a wildcard. Some of them are pretty enjoyable, but some of them just aren’t, and the two parters in the anime are much better than they could hope to be. Unlike the anime, though, the movies always focus on legendary Pokemon, which, in my opinion, gives them a little more ground to work with than the others. This movie, the fifteenth, is about the fourth musketeer, Keldeo, and the other three, Virizion, Terrakion and Cobalion, with Kyurem also taking a spot. Quite a large lineup, to be honest.
That said, I do like the Satoshi, Iris and Dento combination, and as the start of this episode shows, sometimes the best ways you can show them are simply by having them doing mindless things like shopping, and that’s how they run into an injured Keldeo after it’s battle with Kyurem, whom it foolishly challenged in order to become a Sword of Justice. However, since it didn’t know Sacred Sword nor Secret Sword, it was unable to win and thus was badly injured by Kyurem when it transformed into Kyurem-W. Thus, because they have to do the right thing, the trio shelters Keldeo from Kyurem’s rampage, and thus, end up agreeing to take it back with them…not that it matters much, as a furious Kyurem will hunt it down no matter where it hides. This leads to Kyurem attacking the city where Satoshi and co are currently visiting, causing quite a commotion with it’s ice, thunder and fire powers as the pursuit reeks havoc on the entire city.
That’s all well and good, though…but I don’t really understand where Iris learnt to pilot a blimp, however, that’s unusually the only thing which doesn’t make sense in this film. This may be because of how unambitious the plot is, but sometimes it’s better not to be overly ambitious in such a short timespan…because, after all, the story is based around Keldeo’s battle with Kyurem, and it was always going to end in Keldeo transforming into it’s Resolute Forme, but who cares? The big battle at the end was really well done, and they managed to keep Satoshi, Iris and Dento’s involvement to the bare minimum, which is where they belonged in this movie, relegating them to supporting roles. It may not have given the predictable ending of Kyurem being defeated, but it didn’t disappoint or let me down, becoming one of the rare movies in the Pokemon franchise which is actually really enjoyable and a great watch.
Alex’s Score: 8.5 Meeps out of 10 (Very Good)
The Worlds Most Gorgeous Pokemon?! Cincinno VS Snivy!!
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The Earth & Sky Tag Battle!!
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Iris, Return to Dragon Village!
Episode N, huh? After the league ends (not looking forward to that), N appears to take a central role in the anime for the next group of episodes. It’s an interesting choice that he’ll join with Satoshi and co, but as for the rest…well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Anyway, the first episode is a filler and a half about Iris, Satoshi and Dento running into a trio of beauty queens and dressing up as elegant ladies to prove their Pokemon are beautiful and elegant A comedy episode if i’ve seen one, but ah well…it never hurt anyone. If anything, it was amusing to watch Satoshi’s Snivy enter a cat fight. Following it up is…another filler. They run into a pair of brothers who claim to be the worlds best at tag battles and they go up against Satoshi and Dent. However, the brothers have mastered combination moves like Drill Wing to make for a really entertaining match. It was better than watching everyone dress up as girls, but the cheesy one liners belonged somewhere else. That said, it was really entertaining to hear the voice Obake of Steins;Gate’s fame breaking through in some of Dent’s “tasting times”.
In the third episode i’ll talk about, Iris returns to the Dragon Village in an attempt to avoid a certain someone, and we get to see a little bit about what the place she grew up in was like. We saw the Matriarch the person who raised Iris, manhandle a rampaging Dragonite and Haxorous at the same time, and then we see her eye up Kibago to instantly tell how well it’s been raised. The comment about evolving was odd, but hey…Kibago probably won’t evolve. Along the way, we meet her childhood friend who’s raising a pair of Zweilous, and during her stay, one of them evolves into a Hydregion, and because of the drastic evolution, it goes on a rampage out of sheer surprise. In order to calm it down, Iris attempts to tame it by climbing on it’s back and bonding with it, similar to how she bonded with Dragonite previously. With the Hydregion all calmed down, Shaga (Drayden) shows his face, approving of Iris’s journey and telling her to battle him at his gym…and that’s the next episode.
Meloetta and the Underwater Temple!
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Advance of the Therian Formes! Unova’s Greatest Crisis!
So, it’s time for the end of Meloetta’s arc. With Sakai-sama, better known as Giovanni, appearing in the very start of the episode, with the line “Today, we’ll take over the Unova region”, I had pretty high hopes for this two-parter. The genie trio one was really good, but some of the others have been hit and miss.
After that, we get a little bit of training, as Meloetta decides that it would like to have a go fighting, however, breaking up the fight is a rather large Golurk and someone who appears to be Meloetta’s guardian, called Larry. It’s quite interesting to see how Larry refuses to “catch” Meloetta, saying that he doesn’t to take the mythical legend of Unova away from anyone. With Team Rocket’s descent onto Cynthia’s villa, it quickly becomes clear that these guys aren’t just the average grunts, using a Golum and a Rhydon in their ambush. Satoshi, Iris and Dento escape, only to get ambushed by Jessie, James, Meowth and the Yamask/Woobat that goes with them. After pretty much getting defeated, Satoshi runs off with Meloetta, only to get ambushed by Persian and Giovanni. As Giovanni threatens to actually kill Satoshi and Pikachu, Meloetta ends up agreeing to go along with Team Rocket, leaving an angry Iris and Dent behind with a defeated Larry…
Before long, Team Rocket begins their decent into the ocean, and that’s when it hit me. What’s in Undella Bay? The Abyssal Temple. As the villains head into the temple with Satoshi, Pikachu and Meloetta captive, Giovanni puts Meloetta in the seal and uses the recording of it’s song to activate the Abyssal Temple’s secret…the Reveal Glass, the legendary mirror. Back on land, Cynthia reunites with Larry, Dento and Iris, heading to the temple, but is it all too late, as Giovanni uses the Reveal Glass and Meloetta to bring the temple back to the surface?
Moving along to the second episode, the Reveal Glass starts to shine, and summons the legendary Pokemon…Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus, and along with their arrival comes Cynthia and crew, but it’s all too late, as Giovanni and the mirror manage to force the Genie Trio to form Change into the Therian Forms. With the Reveal Glass and Meloetta forcing the Therian’s to obey Giovanni, Cynthia’s Garchomp, Iris’s Dragonite and Larry’s Golurk head off to battle the Therians, yet end up getting smashed into the ocean…it’s all up to Pikachu and Satoshi, as Pikachu, powered up by Therian Thundurus, destroy the shrine, leaving Giovanni to go berserk thanks to the effect of the Reveal Glass. As he tries to use the Therians for destruction, it’s not until Jessie, James and Meowth attack him, and escape with him, in reference to the first series, with their parting line “That one really is a special Pikachu, isn’t it?”
Meloetta’s song stops the rampage of the Therians, leaving the only damage done being the water around Undella Bay, and rather humbled by his own madness, Giovanni orders the retreat of Rocket Gang all the way back to Kanto, and Meloetta and Larry leave to go back to hiding for another hundred years. You finally get the impression that everything really has been resolved, with a Team Rocket montage at the end of the episode. Is this actually the end of Team Rocket?
Humilau Gym Battle! Mantine VS Samurott
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Pokemon Nursery School Uproar! Rufflet & Vullaby!
Sorry about the lateness, I know that a lot of lurkers follow these posts xD I didn’t check [PM]‘s site for a while, and when I checked, there were a whole four episodes.
Following on from Hikari’s depature, Satoshi and group go with the newcomer, Kotetsu, and journey to Himilau town to challenge the water gym leader so that Kotetsu can grab his 8th badge to enter the league, which is starting up soon. After getting lost on the path, in their eager rush to arrive to the gym, the new duo of friends with Meloetta tagging along gets lost in the forest during a downpour. A little bit of comedy and bonding later, and the trio (Satoshi, Kotetsu and Meloetta) end up closer than ever before, with the whole camping outside thing helping to fester the bromance between the kindred spirits who got themselves lost. Upon arrival at the town, the gym leader arrives by riding on a giant Wailord, helping to reunite the lost friends. And thus, the battle begins of Kotetsu against Shizui, starting off with Kotetsu forgetting to bring his Riolu along. Whoops.
Sending out a Ferrothorn instead, giving it almost no movement ability apart from jumping around, the Ferrothorn very quickly defeats Jellicent, and after suffering from Jellicent’s Cursed Body ability, the Mantine sent out by Shizui has a clear-cut way to defeat Ferrothorn, taking complete advantage of it’s lack of movement. Sending out a Samurott next, the pokemon he should have sent out in the first place, an underwater battle starts to happen, thanks to Kotetsu’s “Brainwave”. Ending it promptly with a Hydro Cannon and following it up with an Aqua Jet, the heavily weakened Mantine doesn’t last very much longer, calling the battle to an end. Promising to re-unite at the League, the friends part for now. I really do like a good battle, but it has to be a good one, and not one that’s already been done before. In this event, I think letting Kotetsu do the battling instead was a really nice change, as watching him change the flow of battle constantly thanks to his “brainwaves” was pretty amusing.
Moving onto the next episode, Satoshi’s training disturbs a nearby Rufflet and Vullaby, who start fighting, and then after a twist of events, they end up going to the nearby Pokemon Nursery to help the Rufflet and Vullaby get over their fight. Thanks to Dent’s Taste Testing and sommelier abilities, Satoshi’s arrogant way of running into trouble and Iris’s understanding nature, they end up using their talents to make sure that everyone plays together and has a nice time, in typical cheesy style. It does beg the question as to why Dent’s a gym leader and not a day-care expert, or a breeder, what with his immense knowledge of how to make everyone happy, yet it’s not long until they start fighting again. After an upset and a bicker, the Vullaby runs off, and the daycare teacher trips over a stone, letting it get away…and thus, the adventure to re-unite the teacher and the bickering Pokemon begins. Thanks to Dent’s knowledge and the Rufflet which followed the teacher, everyone makes up and live happily ever after. Ultimatly, it’s a harmless filler episode to bridge the gap between the gym match and the Team Rocket arc, which will be up shortly.
Fighto! >o<
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In all seriousness, now that we’ve seen almost everything, here’s the finalised version of who’s covering what, with, rather spectacularly, almost every good show being covered this season.
Alex, after removing all his jokes, is covering Sword Art Online, Magi, Little Busters
Mimi,currently overjoyed with her new headphones, is covering Shin Sekai Yori, K and Sukitte Ii na yo.
Dusk, won her quest for justice, is covering PYSCHO-PASS, Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun and Jormungand 2
Doofus, recently exposed as a tsundere, is covering Hunter x Hunter, Gintama 2012 and Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure (Triple helping of Doofus, everyone!)
Liam, after baking everyone a nice cake, is covering Zetsuen no Tempest
Justin, living happily ever after in Canadaland, is covering Space Brothers and Code:Breaker
Satoshi, Iris and Shootie! The Final Battles!
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The Junior Cup, Site of Partings and Encounters!
With the battle royal continuing, it’s time for some more of Iris and her rather special Dragonite as she goes up against Satoshi in the final semi final event. In that sense, it’s essentially obidence and well trained verses powerful and carefree…or so it appears, as Dragonite starts off the battle by listening to all of Iris’s commands and unleashing it’s powerful Ice Beam and Flamethrower attacks at range to keep Satoshi’s Krokorok on the defensive. It really was a great battle to watch, as both sides appeared to be evenly matched, with the strange revelation of Dragonite suddenly listening to Iris…and as Satoshi looks like he’s loosing, Krokorok evolves into Krookodile to turn the match around, landing a powerful Dragon Claw on Dragonite.
However, Dragonite’s true insolent nature comes up after it gets brutally pounded, doing whatever it wants and pounding the stage with it’s attacks…allowing Satoshi and Krookodile to take advantage of the chaos and finish the match. With Iris all down and beaten up, it takes an intervention from Shirona to cheer her up and tell her what’s really going on with Dragonite. I have a feeling that a trip to the Dragon Village is coming up, but enough of that…it’s time for Shootie to face Satoshi.
I don’t think that the tension in that final match worked very well. It was OBVIOUS just how large the difference between Serperior and Pignite was from the very beginning. It’s like a level 70 against a level 40, there’s a world of difference between them…and Satoshi was never going to beat Shootie.I have very mixed feelings about that, but I suppose it was best that Shootie was going to win in the end. Now the big thing is going to be if Adeku can teach Shootie a lesson, or if Shootie’s going to win and best the champion of Unova in a battle.
The battle of Adeku and Shootie continues into the second episode, and as Bouffalant’s Sap Sipper renders Solarbeam and Frenzy Plant useless, Adeku shows just why he’s the best, finishing the battle in one shot with Head Charge. It’s such an interesting style of battling that Adeku has, and even Shootie accepts that. It’s just a shame that he got thrashed so quickly and easily. One emotional lecture from Adeku later and everyone happily sets off on their journey, with everyone looking forward to meeting again, and Shootie’s arrogance also shattered and his personality defrosted. However…it’s not long until a new trainer and his Riolu appears, completly infatuated with the Pikachu. As Kotetsu, the newcomer with his Riolu arrives with the intention to participate in the Junior Cup, it’s pretty clear that the innocently stupid kid is going to be a new character this time around.
However, that’s not everything for this episode. As Hikari reveals that she’s leaving soon for a new journey and a new contest, there’s time for one final battle between Satoshi and Hikari, the companion from Sinnoh. However, Shirona calls the battle as a draw and calls both of them equals, which is pretty interesting. I wonder if Iris will become that strong by the end of this season, and match Satoshi’s strength perfectly. With Hikari departed and Kotetsu appearing at the last minute, completely mistaken about everything for the Unova league, it’s off to go see the new Water typed gym leader with Kotestu, bringing what’s been the best battling sequence of episodes to an end.
The Junior Cup Begins! Dragonite VS Beartic!
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Power Battle! Iris VS Hikari!
It’s been a while since the last tournament styled episode, with the last time being the horrible-to-blog Don George tournament, so it’s time for the Junior Cup to get underway. However, what better way to start it than watching Adeku fail to hit on Shirona. Clearly, none…apparantly. After being shouted at by Shooti, they all move on, to allow Langley to arrive, yell at Iris and move on as well. The only rival who hasn’t appeared is Cabernet, and it doesn’t take her very long to appear and cause people trouble.
The tournament starts up with Cattelya of the Unova E4, The Psychic Type, fighting against Shirona and her Garchomp. Even though they did reach a time out, it was still a wonderful battle and something truely enjoyable to watch, even though it may have been a little…uh…over the top? However, as the title indicates, that’s not the highlight of this episode. The highlight is Iris going up against Langley right away, but beforehand, we’ve got a few minor conflicts to resolve. Shooti wipes the floor with Cabernet, Dento takes out his match-up, Satoshi wins that match, Hikari obviously cleans up, and we can finally get on with the highlight of the episode.
Beartic is a pretty strong ice-type, but as we’ve previously seen, that Dragonite is ridiculously strong…batting away Hidden Power like it’s nothing, and even catching a Focus Blast. Refusing to dodge or counter any moves, Dragonite gets itself cased in a thick layer of ice due to taking a pair of Ice Beams head on, takes a Blizzard to the face and knocks Beartic out with a single Thunderpunch. It’s reckless, and it looks a lot like Excadrill did before Iris got through to it…so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens from here on out.
Moving on to the next round, we get a bunch of meaningless match-ups with everyone apart from Hikari and Iris, Shooti sweeps the floor with his Leer to Solarbeam combo, Dento starts his match…whilst Shirona gives Iris advice on how to handle her Dragonite. She does have a Garchomp and all, and they’re known as the strongest of the dragons which aren’t legendary…so I suppose it makes sense. After a pep talk about trusting your trainer, Iris is ready for the next match. However, first we’ve got to watch Dent wipe the floor and Satoshi to win his battle. Time for some girl power!
Obviously, the biggest problem is Iris’s Dragonite. If she can’t control it, then it’s just a super-powered tank without a driver…up against a Mamoswine, the strongest of the Ice-types. But uh. A machochist Dragonite who wants to take Ice Shards and Take Downs to the face…to pull a wrestling move and toss Mamoswine across the field.I think I feel Iris’s frustration here…a Pokemon that’s ridiculously powerful refusing all of it’s orders and doing what it wants to do, which is just to wrestle with the Mamoswine. However, she didn’t actually order it to use Dragon Rush…and I don’t think she knew it even HAD Dragon Rush. I think that’s going to be a very interesting combination in the future episodes, especially if it continues like this.
However, that’s not all that this episode has to offer. It pulls a Dento vs Shootie out of the bag. How does Dento plan to counter this hyped up Superior and Shootie combination? He…doesn’t. He blocks a Solarbeam, but takes a Frenzy Plant to the face and looses the match.
Dento the Sommelier Detective! The Mystery of the missing Cubchoo!
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Iris and the Roughneck Dragonite!
Being on a rich island, it’s obvious that rich kid’s Pokemon get treated differently. The first episode in my montage of Pokemon is where a rich kid, Chris, finds that his Cubchoo has run away from it’s “Pokemon House”, and considering that the door was locked, Dent puts his detective cap on…and much to Iris and Hikari’s amusement, starts tracking down the missing Pokemon. To be honest, episodes like this are neither amazing nor poor. They’re entertaining, especially with the addition of Hikari and Piplup into the frey. They’re the kind of solid, entertaining episodic story that you came to expect from Best Wishes, and it looks like the sequel is no exception. However, it does have a few highlights…such as Dent actually trying to interrogate a Tsunbear time and time again.
Dragons are known as some of the strongest Pokemon in the game, with only a few exceptions being able to rival them. As Episode 5 starts off by showing a battle between a Dragonite and a Hydregious, you can obviously expect something different to the fun filler style episodes that they’ve been showing. After the Dragonite knocks out the power lines nearby, Iris sets off to prove the innocence of this Dragonite. With the Dragonite sealing itself into the facilitiy, Iris, Hikari and Satoshi all head into the air-ducts to get the Dragonite out. As Meloetta appears and calms the rampaging Dragonite down, Iris stays behind with it as the others return to the police force assembled outside.
However, that’s when things got a little strange. I never knew that Iris had some sort of ability to communicate with dragons, but seeing as she hails from the Dragon Village and all, I wouldn’t doubt that she’s got some special ability. After finding out that the Dragonite only rampaged because of an accident, and that it tried to protect the local Pokemon. Obviously, this leads to Iris standing in front of the police force and the Pokemon that they’ve assembled to defend the Dragonite, and in doing so, she bonds with it, and this results in the capture of it. Now that she’s got Dragonite, Excadrill and Kibago under her belt, there’s no doubt she’s the strongest in their little team. All in all, it was another great episode.
During these two episodes, we get to see Team Rocket’s scheme slowly advancing, as they discover undercover ruins which we have to assume are linked to Meloetta, and as it appears that they’ve layed out almost all of their plan, it won’t be long before we see what’s happening. Since i’ve got internet problems at the moment, the next few episodes, along with Phi Brain and SAO will be up whenever I can.
