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Review AG099: Fu and Lan! Space Center Battle!

Dogasu

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I didn't get in until after the commercial break (I was in the city buying lots of anime stuff), so I missed the entire first half of the episode. What follows is a summary of about the last ten minutes or so of the episode.

-We see the space shuttle taking off, with Musashi and Kojirou in the pilot's seat. As the rocket roars upward, it jolts to a stop. Musashi-tachi look outside to see what's wrong, and they see a bunch of Yajiron, stopping the rocket with their telekenetic abilities!

-As Team Rocket is occupied by their thwarted hijacking attempt, Masato and Fuu are in the back, tied up. They look over and see Satoshi's Heigani, hiding underneath a shelf or something like that. The pokemon motions for them to be quiet so that nobody notices that there's a stowaway on the shuttle.

-Team Rocket is still occupied in the driver's seat, wondering what to do with the Yajiron. Suddenly, their bodies start to glow as they are lifted off the ground! Fuu's Solrock, whose trainer is now free, uses its psychic powers to throw the Rocket trio around the shuttle for a bit. Fuu then gets on the radio system and tells his parents (the astronaut, Jin, and the woman operator, Rei) that he's OK. Ran, who's at the control center with Satoshi, Takeshi, and Haruka, is relieved to find out that her brother is safe.

-Jin then informs the group that the Yajiron won't be able to land the ship, so it will crash unless Fuu and Masato do something! Fuu tells his father that he's worked the simulator before, so he reckons that he can handle it. Masato says that he'll help too.

-So, the landing process begins. Jin talks the two boys through the process of landing the shuttle. After a stressful few minutes, in which we see the two young boys flipping switches as Heigani threatens to press one of the buttons at random, the shuttle finally makes a safe landing.

-As the shuttle lands, Team Rocket dizzily falls out of the rocket. However, Satoshi and the others are at the landing site, waiting for them! Haruka has her Wakashamo use some sort of fire attack to toast the Rocket trio. Then, Ran orders her Lunatone to use some ice attack on the three, which freezes them into the shape of a big "R." Finally, Satoshi's Pikachu uses Iron Tail, sending Team Rocket blasting off again.

-Later, we see Jin in the shuttle, attempting another take-off. This one is a success, and one of the twins comments that their dad can now search for pokemon in space. They then tell Satoshi that they're ready to fight, and the narrator tells us that Satoshi's battle for the seventh Houen League badge has just begun!

And that's it. Of course, since I didn't see the first half of the episode, a lot of the events/motivations for the events that happened are unclear to me. I plan to be able to watch next week's episode (since I missed both the fight against Senri and Nagi, and I'll have returned back to the States by the time they get to the eighth gym battle).

Characters (in order of appearance)
Musashi=Jessie
Kojirou=James
Yajiron=Baltoy
Masato=Max
Fuu=Tate
Satoshi=Ash
Heigani=Corphish
Ran=Liza
Takeshi=Brock
Haruka=May
Wakashamo=Combusken
Houen=Hoenn
Senri=Norman
Nagi=Winona
 
Awfully lax security at the Space Center.

I liked the sibling interactions. From Fuu and Masato commiserating over being treated as little brothers and Ran and Haruka teasing them, and Fuu and Ran's synchronized "Masara Town no Satoshi-kun" (twice!), to Haruka and Ran's "How DARE you do this to our little brothers!?".

Technical issues relating to the launch on the other hand... this was almost as bad as the show's rendition of mountain climbing. Given how many hours I spent playing a game known as "Project: Space Station" back in the days of the Commodore 64, I've got a fairly good idea of how a launch goes. This wasn't it.
The solid rocket boosters should not have separated until after they'd finished firing. If they had separated when they did, they would have gone up, not down, and wasted one hell of a lot of energy.
The external tank should not have separated until the shuttle was nearly in orbit.
When the external tank separated, where was the fuel for the main engines coming from?
That was not a point where it would be possible to abort the launch, even with the Yajiron stopping the shuttle temporarily.
Last and worst, who in their right mind tries to land a shuttle with the engines still firing? When they're running, the rocket is accelerating. The last thing you want to do when bringing something in for a landing is speed up.
 
Murgatroyd said:
Awfully lax security at the Space Center.

I liked the sibling interactions. From Fuu and Masato commiserating over being treated as little brothers and Ran and Haruka teasing them, and Fuu and Ran's synchronized "Masara Town no Satoshi-kun" (twice!)
Does that essentially mean "welcome to Masara Town Satoshi,"?
 
Pokemon Fan said:
Does that essentially mean "welcome to Masara Town Satoshi,"?

You would have thought so, but that sounds rather like 'Masara Town's Satoshi', suggesting that Satoshi is from Masara's Town, which of course, he is not. Unless Masara is Pallet. :P

Unless the 'no' in this has a different meaning.
 
Masara Town no Satoshi = "Satoshi of Masara Town". Or, to use the dub names, "Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town".
 
Murgatroyd said:
Masara Town no Satoshi = "Satoshi of Masara Town". Or, to use the dub names, "Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town".

Ah, thank you. I pretty much got it right then. Proof that my Japanese is improving. ^_^o
 
Murgatroyd said:
Masara Town no Satoshi = "Satoshi of Masara Town". Or, to use the dub names, "Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town".
But what was the context? Why were Fuu and Ran saying it? Were they introducing him to someone or showing off psychic abilities? (the former being most likely).
 
I was wondering how old are Fuu and Ran supposed to be? I've looked at images of them and they appear to be roughly Ash's age, but I thought you had to be older to be gym leaders.
 
The overall impression I got was that they were older than Satoshi, but not by more than a year or two.
 
Murgatroyd said:
to Haruka and Ran's "How DARE you do this to our little brothers!?".
So would that, plus the general way Liza treats Tate, mean that although they're twins, Liza is like, a few hours older or something? I've heard of that before...where one twin is slightly older, and the younger one never hears the end of it. Nice characterization. :-)
 
Geodude said:
So would that, plus the general way Liza treats Tate, mean that although they're twins, Liza is like, a few hours older or something? I've heard of that before...where one twin is slightly older, and the younger one never hears the end of it. Nice characterization. :-)
Actually, I think Murgatroyd said that Liza was about five minutes older or something. But yes, she never lets him hear the end of it. :-)
 
We don't know whether Ran is older by minutes or hours. I wasn't the one who said that.
 
And Sabin refering to Edgar as "Big Brother" despite the fact that Sabin is by far the most intimidating (size-wise) twin ;-)
 
Murgatroyd said:
We don't know whether Ran is older by minutes or hours. I wasn't the one who said that.
Well, the point is, *is* she older?
 
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