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Review SM125: Satoshi, Encounter Beyond Time!

martianmister said:
Hey, do you remember how everyone criticized Suiren and called her a Mary Sue because she used a Z-move without showing any kind of training to master it? Well, Satoshi just used a Z-move with zero training, and he accomplished it in his first try with ease. So why no one criticized him? Double standards? :rolleyes:
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He probably watches Kiawe do Firium Z closely enough that he can do it from that.

....Kiawe x Ash slash fics just spawned from that, didn't they?
 
PkmnTrainerV said:
Doesn’t help that Torracat trains more than Primarina ever did
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Did it really trains more? I don't remember. We've seen few times it's fighting with Lugarugan, we've also seen few times Suiren training Ashimari. Most of their training was off-panel, there is no much difference. Not to mention Satoshi is the main character, so his pokemon get much more screentime, compared to others.
 
PkmnTrainerV said:
Doesn’t help that Torracat trains more than Primarina ever did, and Ash is pretty experienced with Z-moves of various types than Lana.
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I can excuse Lana being able to pull off Oceanic Operetta on her first try because she already had to master Hydro Vortex earlier. That experience probably helped with mastering this new Z-Move quicker too.
 
I really want to like these episodes (*) but the writers always take these nonsense decisions...

This episode had so much potential, and, well, it accomplished it to some degree. We learnt that Kukui had this obsession with moves as a child and that he considers Hala his master. Also, his personality was quite nice an resembled an actual child, he had really good chemistry with Ash and his relationship with Litten was endearing. But we didn't learn whether he has participated in the Island trials or a Pokémon League (he just hinted that he liked both), his relationship with Guzma, why he became a teacher and a fighter, and whether he studied in the Pokemon School or not. This is one of the few episodes I preferred if it happened at the school, specially because...

...Everything about Trevenant was a mistake. It's not a bad character but everything about him (besides the crystals) is so disconnected from Ash and Kukui's story and bond and drafted the episode to a different direction. Their adventure should have been about something more exciting in which both would have learned something about the other. Even the Olivia episode and the Treasure Island episodes had better climaxes. I'll give it to him that we've not seen a totem in almost 80 episodes, and that seeing his corpse was eerie.

There were parts that I liked, but also parts where this seemed like a last minute idea to give a Z-crystal to Torracat and to add more drama to the Ash vs Kukui battle. 5/10

(*)I watched the first episodes of season 22 last week and besides the marvelous SM094 all of them had serious flaws.
 
  • First off I'm so happy we didn't get the predictable "having to carry an injured Celebi" plot again.
  • I liked Torracat's usual determined feisty attitude to seeing the younger unevolved Litten, I don't know why but that got a good chuckle out of me.
  • Ash and Gao-Kukui's interactions were very moving, it's always nice to see Ash befriend another character that's on the same wavelength as him and these scenes showed it off well.
  • The battle was pretty nice. I liked how Gao-Kukui insisted that Ash not hold back.
  • The Totem Trevenant was nice, kinda reminded me of the forest Drampa, it didn't do too much aside from giving Ash his Firium Z as thanks for helping getting those Cutiefly out of its hair(?) bush(?) whatever...but its presence was still welcomed. On a side note, wow, I didn't expect to see its remains when Ash returned to the present like that. :(
  • There are somethings I'm confused about, but that'll happen with these time travel plots, so I'll just let it go.
Overall, pretty fun episode.
 
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Fun little low-stakes pre-League Filler that makes Ash the cause of Kukui's desire to make a pokemon league

A good example of SM's strengths, putting good animation alongside slice-of-life bonding moments

Also a rather dark moment by showing Grandpa Ohrot's corpse when Ash got back
 
Is everyone in the anime/movies asking Ash what being a Pokémon Master means only to receive a non-response a meme now? Because I can remember a couple of other times the same thing has been asked (i.e.: M20). It doesn't particularly bother me, just makes me curious.

Twilight-Kun said:
Fun little low-stakes pre-League Filler that makes Ash the cause of Kukui's desire to make a pokemon league

A good example of SM's strengths, putting good animation alongside slice-of-life bonding moments

Also a rather dark moment by showing Grandpa Ohrot's corpse when Ash got back
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There's also that Druddigon looking rock that Ash blows up this episode.
 
martianmister said:
I still find it fascinating that no one is criticizing Satoshi for that Z-move.
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Maybe that's because:
A) He has more experience in Z-moves than all of the classmates combined (bar Kiawe), so him being able to pull it off isn't as unbelievable;
B) The fact that his Torracat has more battle experience than all of the classmates' Pokémon (bar Kiawe's Pokémon), so it having no problem isn't as hard to believe;
C) The fact that (as shown in the episode) Ash has already seen Kiawe pull Inferno Overdrive multiple times, so him knowing the pose and doing it right isn't that difficult to believe.
 
Pulsaro23 said:
C) The fact that (as shown in the episode) Ash has already seen Kiawe pull Inferno Overdrive multiple times, so him knowing the pose and doing it right isn't that difficult to believe.
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It's probably the most or second most used Z-move so far anyway. It was kinda easy to suspend my disbelief there, especially given they bothered putting in a flashback and Ash actually being surprised about pulling it first try.
 
Twilight-Kun said:
How is blowing up a natural rock formation dark? Not the first pokemon-shaped rocks we've seen
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After seeing that Trevenant basically turned into a fossil in the same episode I'm legit questioning whether that was a natural rock formation. It likely might be, sure, but I still can't get the idea out from the back of my head.
 
martianmister said:
Hey, do you remember how everyone criticized Suiren and called her a Mary Sue because she used a Z-move without showing any kind of training to master it? Well, Satoshi just used a Z-move with zero training, and he accomplished it in his first try with ease. So why no one criticized him? Double standards? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
What Z-move did he use?
 
Ash: Watches Kiawe use Z-Moves all the time and battles with him, can pull off Inferno Overdrive by remembering the first time Kiawe ever used it
Lana: Mastered Hydro Vortex, which uses the same pose as Sea God's Symphonia, and watched Ida pull it off once not that long ago

It's really not that egregious an issue
 
PkmnTrainerV said:
Am I the only one who thought Litten's voice was a bit... unfitting? It sounded like a grown man in some instances.
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FinnishPokéFan92 said:
Litten used the same voice actor as its evolved form. Maybe that explains it. I think they wanted to make it sound different to Ash's Litten.
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I liked how they gave Liten a different voice actor, I wonder if they'll do the same in the dub
 
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