Review BW033: The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!

[Necrozma]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

After watching the subbed version I can certainly say both Iris and Doryuuzu developed in this episode.

Iris, a girl who hates being criticized and hates to lose is forced to admit to herself how what she did was wrong, she basically puts the blame upon herself rather on someone else. (remember when she said in BW009, "are you in bad mood again?" thus implying the problem was in her Pokémon) She confesses her feelings to her very first Pokémon thus allowing to the bond she and Moguryu once had to to restore once again.

So, to anyone who says only her Pokémon developed and not Iris herself in this episode, you're pretty much wrong.

 

[Grave-E]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

First off; Where did all this stuff about OHKOs come from? While it's true that Iris won her 99 battles, there were no mentions in the subs that the duo were taking out each trainer with one hit, nor that Mogurew wasn't on the recieving end of any attacks. Indeed, we even see it landing more than one attack on a Crimgan.

- I'm liking how they dived straight into the action with this episode. Langley shows up from absolutely nowhere, and things kick off instantly. Granted, as a result we don't really learn all that much about her other than the fact her 'mons were thrashed in the Dragon Village, but I suspect this is something that will be explored later in the series. In a way, she's perfectly mirroring Iris' initial lack of backstory. I have a feeling the 'Dragon Buster' has a lot more in common with the aspiring 'Dragon Master' than she believes.

- I love the fact that Langely's response to Iris' 'kodomo ne' is essentially 'No shit, Sherlock!'
Her confusion towards Iris only owning a single dragon type was also pretty funny, given how it's something that a lot of you guys have discussed since our resident jungle girl's debut debut
Y'know, for all the flak she's recieved, I see a lot of potential for this rivalry. Throughout their encounter, both her and Iris are taking potshots at each other, and I personally thought it was pretty entertaining. I hope that's something they expand upon in the future, as I'll bet it could be a lot of laughs.

- While Tunbear looks significantly cooler in the show (GEDDIT?!), I do think it's a shame that we weren't treated to it's signature quirk of creating fangs and claws from ice., especially since the dex directly references it.

- Did anyone notice that the lines representing Doryuzu's toes actually extend all the way round it's feet? It occurs so often during this episode that I have a feeling that's what they're supposed to look like.

- I said so a while back, but I really enjoyed Iris' backstory, and that there were finally some 'jungle girl' antics that I thought were handled well. Iris fighting a pokemon in hand-to-hand (uhh...foot to claw?) combat is something I've wanted to see before the series even began, so it was awesome to see that incorperated into her eventual befriending of her first pokemon.
Drayden brought up her knowledge for battling during their encounter, and she mentions that she learned a lot from the pokemon she lived with in the forest. It's not quite the 'raised by dragons' angle that the game hinted at, but I thought it was a nice touch, and a good way to make her aptitude for battling seem a bit more believable.

- Dent had a pretty small part in this episode, but regardless, it was good to finally see something even slightly linked to his skills as a sommelier.

- Poor Iris got the wrong end of the stick. She thought Doryuzu had given up and lost all confidence, and over time did everything she could to encourage him and try to restore his belief in himself, but that was never the issue at all. Her inexperience as a trainer and failure to understand her pokemon's limits cost her Doryuzu's trust.

- Have we ever had a trainer specifically point out that a lack of long-range attacks could put their 'mon at a disadvantage? If not, it's cool to see something like that actually addressed.

- "Doryuzu, you don't have to battle anymore if you don't want to. Let's run over the plains, pick fruit and play, just like old times" ;__;

- The final battle against Tunbear and Doryuzu was pretty much just the two of them trading blows for the most part, but damn, it was an awesome brawl. Power fights can be seriously fun to watch.

 

[Karamazov]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

- While Tunbear looks significantly cooler in the show (GEDDIT?!),

I dunno. As much as I like the thing, Beartic had a frosty reception in this episode.

You know the drill: Iris and her mole dig their way into no good, and she got more than she bargained for in her duel with Langley. Nice to see that Excadrill thought Iris was cold as ice, willing to sacrifice their love.

 

[Hassel]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Finally saw this episode. I agree that Doryuzu forgave Iris way too suddenly, but I don't think that made the episode bad at all! The scenes with Iris&Doryuzu were all very sweet and heartwarming, but gosh did I hate the bitchy COTD. I rarely hate any characters in Pokémon, but this one just deserves to be slapped. I hope she appears later just so that Iris can kick her ass. :B

 

[Masurao]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

So she learned and trained with the Pokemon in the wild? They didn't specify that she beat "99 trainers", so I guess those victories came from mostly came from training in the wild Pokemon. At any rate, if the subs were right IIRC Cilan said something about her mishandling of Excadrill as a trainer. I guess that could indicate that it's not all on Excadrill at least. Langley is still kind of a bitch, though I chuckle at her refusing Iris's request for a rematch just to see her reaction. I'm guessing Iris will beat her later with Haxorous, as she didn't really seem to mind tying with a type that wasn't steel.

However, I still feel it's a bit too soon for Iris to have such a powerful Pokemon. As I said before, it would be like if Ash had Sceptile on him, with Oshawott and Scraggy. It seems like Excadrill growth would be stunted given the development Emolga, and Axew need.

 

[Yoshi-san]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

I'm pretty sure that Doryuuzu's power would be stunted since not battling for several years. Also power is never the same with Pokemon like Pikachu was able to beat a Regice but lost a an Elekid a few episodes later...not a good example but it's there.

 

[Hellion]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Found a translation for the episode's dialogue and while some of the things that had been reported to have been said in the episode, such as the 99 wins being OHKOs, apparantly turned out not to have been true, as I rewatched the episode, quite honestly, I felt that those minor details didn't really affect my initial opinion of this episode and Iris's backstory, some even highlighted my earlier points.

- That the 99 wins weren't OHKO or trainer wins doesn't really matter, it's still a 99 straight wins with no loss, and some of those wins include beating evolved wild pokémon and adult trainer with fully evolved pokémon in a tournament, which is something that is totally unprecedented on the show for a kid Iris's age. It made her seem like a prodigy, which was even further highlighted by Shaga asking Iris if she had studied battles intensively, implying that he was impressed by Iris's knowledge and skills and that level of aptitude could only be reached by intense studying and training, but no... Iris didn't do that... she was "taught" by being friends with all the woodland creatures, making it even plainer that the writers want to portray her as somewhat of a natural at battling.

- The cause of Doryuuzu's problem left me cold, because ultimately, it both felt very forced and that the problem was all Doryuuzu. Iris didn't act any different than other trainers when faced with a tough opponent; she told Doryuuzu to do its best and encouraged it to go on, much like we saw Ash, May, Dawn, etc. do a gazillion times. Yet now this is suddenly a problem. Doryuuzu was still able to battle; it simply didn't want to because he knew he would lose (which... hello broken aesop...) Dento explains Doryuuzu's reaction first by partially agreeing with Iris that he was shocked by the loss, but also because it now felt distrustful of Iris because she did... what we've seen a lot of trainer do and that was never a problem in the past unless the pokémon was physically unable to battle (which wasn't the case here). It made it seem like they forced this to now, after all this time be a problem, but the end results still left the feeling in me that Iris acted like any other trainer while Doryuuzu misread her intentions. But the moment that takes the cake for me was when Iris said, "I didn't try to understand your feelings. And yet, all I ever did was telling you do to your best." Awww that's such a mistake Iris and a deep flaw, instead of trying to understand that your pokémon was freaked out by the idea of fighting a pokémon stronger than him because after 99 wins he still hadn't lost, you kept being encouraging and supported him, you awful awful person...

- I was hoping deep down that someone would have called the hell out of Iris for deliberately putting her pokémon in arm's way and hurt him, baiting Langley into attacking Doryuuzu... really?

- Also, Iris finally reveals that since she started traveling, she's been trying to encourage and talk to Doryuuzu, but since it wasn't set up and we never saw her do it, it really had no emotional impact whatsoever.

So yeah, really... this episode is the one where the writers try to really create a pathos around Iris, an emotional appeal to the audience... but, they've pretty much half-assed it by showing Iris be knowledgeable and competent and never treated her like she'd done anything really wrong in the first place, which then made my getting emotionally invested in the character impossible. This episode still bored me.

 

[Masurao]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Yes, the 99 wins was excessive. Given how "weak" she seemed in the first 35 episodes, the way they wanted to portray Iris being on a similar level to Ash was a bit jarring. I honestly believe they did it. because given how this series won't be as long as the past ones, they don't feel like having Iris really learn the ins and out's of battling like the past 2 female companions did. She's more than likely going to be the 8th gym leader at the very end of the series, so I guess they wanted to make her already competent to save them alot of writing. Poor choice IMO, but w/e...what's done is done.

Regardless, I think they just overpowered her Drilburr. You could argue that since it's her only Pokemon and she wasn't training 6+ Pokemon at a time might explain it's power....but meh.

 

[Caseydia]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

I love all COTDs! We may have never seen Doryuzu if Langley didn't come along. Which probably meant that Doryuzu would have still been disobedient by the time Ash got to his eigth badge. That would have been a problem.

 

[CrackFox]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

I loved this episode. The 'dragon buster' was pretty funny. It was definitely a good development episode for Iris and Dory.
I thought they'd let the mystery behind their relationship drag on a bit since it's really the only thing to keep us guessing about Iris's past.
I'm glad that they're just getting on with it and have already explained her story, it would have been interesting to keep us guessing about her, but it is a kids show and would have gotten boring after a while anyway.

I thought it was really sweet, especially the hug at the end. Didn't really make sense though, Dory was mad at her for forcing it to continue a battle even
though it was obviously going to lose? Ash does that at least 70% of the time. I think it got resolved a bit to quick. In a similar scenario, Ash and Charizard's relationship took a while to get back on track after it evolved, and here we're led to believe that Dory turned it's back on Iris some time ago, but all is forgotten in one episodes worth of triviality?
Meh, ok.

I loved the episode none the less

 

[pokemon fan 132]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Best BW episode so far to me anyway.Iris bond with Excadrill was touching being interesting to see more of her past and how everything began with wild Drillbur with pokemon and trainer working as a team eventually Excadrill experiencing his first lose against Drayden losing thrust in Iris because of pushing him too hard.
Nice character development or Iris because it reestablished her relationship with mole on right track being ready to admit how his disobedience was her own fault knowing that she pushed him too hard with her pokemon not wanting to fail her expectations anymore after his defeat.

Langley was way too bitchy for my taste though that can allow for some entertaining and quality character interacting with this episode possibly introducing her as Iris rival later in series posing obstacle n her road of becoming dragon master.Not so farfetched considering her occupation is to defeat dragon trainers wanting to test their strength(in other words i call her "dream crusher").

Battle against Beartic was pretty cool showing to be one strong polar bear with Excadrill being given chance for rematch settling up bills.His drill run and focus blast were quite impressive.
Only negative side for me was that whole episode did seemed little rushed and forced when reestablishing connection between Iris and her pokemon already with not much set up happening prior to that making whole thing a bit unbelievable but aside from that i liked this episode a lot.

ON 99 win account from Iris and Excadrill:Its little weird seeing Iris at such young age having so strong pokemon but i wouldnt say its unrealistic.It was established how mole was already as wild Drillbur exceptionally strong .Later on thanks to lot of training vs wild pokemon and trainers he become even better with Iris 99 wins record having credible background behind it.She had that pokemon for years befor she met Ash and Cilan and we dont know how good trainers which Iris battled with Excadrill were.Just because he beat them easily doesnt necessarily mean how they were very skilled being of lower class/quality.One of them had Druddigon but that doesnt help much if he wasnt very skilled as trainer only making Iris job easier for her with tournament being of local level.
However putting that aside im glad we got another girl since Misty who wasnt rookie when joining Ash on journey,and judging by her performance so far Iris is definitely one good battler having potential to go far.

 

[Geodude]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Anyone else think that when we finally saw a full-body shot of present-day Iris after seeing the younger Iris for so long in that extended flashback, she looked a lot older? Funny how things like that can skew your perceptions.

 

[Karamazov]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Langley is such a bitch! I like her.

 

[pharaohyami5000]

re: BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

Yes, she is. When Ash gets to battle her, it'll be for revenge from stealing his breakfast (along with the other ones).

 

[Steel_Justice]

The reason is that Doryuuzu needed a ranged attack. Only having rush and hand-to-hand combat techniques is cool in-game, but in the anime, you need a spread of different types of moves. Without Kiai Dama, a Koahari could beat Doryuuzu simply by flying above the treeline and firing water gun.

Rock slide would have been another (better) option for a distance attack.

Was there any explanation of why exactly Langley was into bustting dragons exactly? Or is that just a thing people do for fun.

I believe she's going after dragons because she lost to some dragon users from iris' village some time ago

Yes, she is. When Ash gets to battle her, it'll be for revenge from stealing his breakfast (along with the other ones).

Or if Langley insults his pokemon, we all know how Ash hates that and seeing Langley's character I can see that happening.

Is it just me or does Langley remind me of a certain blue-eyed red haired jerk mecha pilot who has Langley as a middle name?

 

[CrazyYanmega]

Or if Langley insults his pokemon, we all know how Ash hates that and seeing Langley's character I can see that happening.

Is it just me or does Langley remind me of a certain blue-eyed red haired jerk mecha pilot who has Langley as a middle name?

Ya' know, I have a feeling Ash is gonna be losing to Langley, since it seems that she is the last person Satoshi will be battling, and I doubt that the tournament will end in two rounds.

 

[Yamato-san]

so, was anyone else getting some strong Madoka vibes when Iris was talking with Satoshi and Dent about her past? I mean, usually it's kinda hard to tell that the two share the same voice actor considering Iris's hyperactive wild girl nature, but I think it really manages to stand out here.

 

[Sweet Veil]

so, was anyone else getting some strong Madoka vibes when Iris was talking with Satoshi and Dent about her past? I mean, usually it's kinda hard to tell that the two share the same voice actor considering Iris's hyperactive wild girl nature, but I think it really manages to stand out here.

Yeah, it actually does remind me of how creepy Madoka's little talks with Sayaka are except Iris isn't as soft.