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Does the Don battle tournament feel too Contest-y to anyone else?

Does the Don Battle tournament feel like a huge Contest?

  • Some parts of it do remind me of Contest or Contest battling, but not all

    Votes: 2 10.0%

  • Yes, it feels very similar to a Contest just without the appeals/point bar

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • No, it doesn't feel anything like Contests to me

    Votes: 18 90.0%
  • Total voters
    20
C

Cybersai

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Is it just me or do the battles in the Don Battle tournament feel similar to Contest battles without the point bar? The way Langely is showing off her Pawniard, the way Cilan used his hermit crab, or even the way Ash's Palpitoad battle Burungly. The only exception is Trip, who battled with brute force.

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I think the writers are unconciously writing this tournament as if its a Contest, just sans the appeal round and a point bar.

Does anyone else feel as if the battles seem too contest-ish, or is this in my head? I even feel as if Iris and Cilan's rivals could have passed as coordinator rivals if they were introduced in a previous arc.

What do you think?
 
Not really. I haven't noticed too many sparkles. They did get conditioned to writing battles with a more contesty feel in general throughout DP and that's sorta hung around a bit. Also the battles just being 1 on 1 doesn't help. Makes it ultra lame, but not overly contest like.
 
I don't know, I just recently watched the Ash Vs. Langely match again and I honestly felt like I was watching a Contest battle. It must have been Snivy's constant spinning and using Leaf Storm, and Langely's Pokemon was constantly posing and spinning in the air too.

As you said, I think the contest techniques got rubbed into normal battles without the writers realizing it.
 
The only instance I did feel it was contest-y was the leaf storm being cut into pieces and the girlish poses but other than that not really. I just feel the animation was fluid when they were dodging/using an attack.
 
Not at all, to me.

Satoshi, at least, was using Gamagaru to test him out in a battle. The battle didn't come off as too show-y.

As for Tsutarja, doesn't she always spin around when using Leaf Tornado?

But I don't think the staff is doing this intentionally, I think they're just trying to make the tournament more entertaining to watch.
 
Technically any battle in this anime can be considered a "contest battle without the point bar." Contest battles have all of the elements of a regular battle except that the judges dock points whenever a pokemon dodges or counters an attack, or uses two different attacks simultaneously in a combination.

It is important to remember that pokemon are not "static" like they are in the games. Pokemon can dodge attacks in interesting and unique ways. Snivy spinning whenever she used Leaf Storm was always present; this movement is conveyed whenever the pokemon decides to use the move. [This is similar in the case of James's first Victreebel when it used Razor Leaf. Tracey noted that the pokemon moved in an unique way before the pokemon used the attack.]

If you are concerned that the pokemon are dodging attacks too much in a way that may be considered flashy or over-the-top, then the argument should not be focused on whether the pokemon battle itself is too similar to a contest, but rather the decision of the writers to implement something extraneous in the middle of that battle that sets it apart.

There were several moments in Ash and Paul's battle in the Sinnoh League that could have been considered "contest-ty" because each of their pokemon performed attacks or dodged in ways that may have been too flashy in battles that took place in the past. Both trainers used the actual battlefield to their advantage (i.e. Paul's Electivire using Thunder on the battlefield so that boulders erupting from the ground can hit Ash's Gliscor, who was too high up for Electivire to use any of its physical attacks.)

These additional movements keep a battle refreshing and lively. It wasn't necessarily the contests themselves that introduced this mechanic. The writers had always treated each and every battle in the past in a different manner than would be the "norm" in the video games. There is an additional focus on the surroundings themselves, something that is very rarely focused upon in the games. This free roaming environment allows the writers to innovate in the middle of a battle, allowing certain things (such as Snivy lashing a small boulder on to Langley's Pawniard's spike to restrict its movements) to occur.
 
No, because they don't get penalized if their attacks aren't sparkly enough.
 
The only part that felt remotely like a contest was Komatana's battle style, but that more likely be attributed to the personality of the Pokemon and her trainer. Otherwise, I just feel like the animators were having a lot of fun animating these Don tourney battles, because the animation is very crisp in fluid without a whole lot of stock footage.
 
The battles don't seem like contest battles to me. I think the writers are just being creative in how the battles are executed.
 
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