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Review HZ048: Shine! The Brilliance of Fire and Art!

Finally, Roy gets a big win for once in his life... even if Nemona handed him another L at the start.

A fun episode where once again Nemona and Brassius are the highlights (Brassius even cracks a smile at the end) and it's good to see more of Hassel too.
 
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In a shocking twist, Dot adopts Wattrel and gives him purpose!

Similar to last episode, despite having so much happening, this episode didn't feel rushed and I enjoyed all 3 parts: Nemona battle was well done, Pawmot stretching was adorable. The art projects were really cool and reflected each kid's character (even Roy forgetting Wattrel).

The battle was more straightforward than Katy v Liko, which is why I feel like Katy comes off as a more threatening gym leader so far. It was nice that Fuecoco was on his way to defeat Sudowoodo before getting the tera type advantage.

Will need subs to understand if Roy's task was similar to Liko's or was it just to win the battle.
 
What an awesome episode for Roy winning against Brassius that he lose to since First Arc. But not without patriating event of night art.

Overall rating: B+
 
It seem this “terastallizing at the right time” tests are incredibly easy. The real highlight here is Fuecoco finally defeating another pokemon.
 
Kurolegacy said:
I gotta wonder just what Roy’s advanced test is gonna be since they allowed him to win in this battle. Feels a bit redundant having him come back to do the same thing all over again.
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Either its a different gym leader or a 2v2 instead of a 1v1.

Anyways, For some reason i never realized that, yeah you can totally be screwed over in a pokemon battle due to random natural weather changes.
 
Articfoxgamez said:
Either its a different gym leader or a 2v2 instead of a 1v1.

Anyways, For some reason i never realized that, yeah you can totally be screwed over in a pokemon battle due to random natural weather changes.
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Maybe its a 2v2 and the Wattrel episode is the next battle with Wattrels time to shine.
 
Very enjoyable episode. I really liked seeing the training of Roy and Fuecoco and they really surprised me with how well they faired against Nemona. Honestly it's crazy that the rain throwing Roy and Fuecoco off their game is what led to their loss, rather than being outright overpowered. The art competition was cute and it was great seeing the Pokémon working with their trainers. Liko's Pokémon painting together was super cute and the Arboliava painting was a nice reference to the adventure that came from their first visit to Artazon. I love that Dot actually used Wattrel to help her out with her project. Honestly, I think hers was the best out of all of the kids since it was interactive with the Pokémon that helped her. Roy's Charizard candle sculpture was also really cool.

Now for the highlight of the episode, Roy's battle with Brassius. I really enjoyed seeing Roy's growth from his first battle to this one. It was cool to see Fuecoco now on a near equal playing field against Sudowoodo, versus being completely dominated before. It was great seeing Roy use the lessons he learned from previous battles to gain the upper hand over his opponent. I'm so thrilled that he finally won a major battle and passed his Terastal Test. I'm excited to see Dot's training moving forward. 10/10 for me.
 
I did love that it looked like Roy was just spamming attacks like we have come to expect of him when he is under pressure but then we saw there was a method to his madness (Who knew rock-types could sweat?) and took advantage of it.
 
This episode had a confusing message, but I think it was about Roy breaking out of his one-track-mindedness and brute-forcing everything. He's got this incessant desire to battle and win, but it makes him closed-off from absorbing the hints in his environment, and from trying different things. Out-of-the-box thinking is the more straightforward thematic topic, but it's kind of narrow if you try to apply it to Roy's character as a whole, so I think one-track-mindedness is more appropriate. I don't think he's gonna beat literal Rayquaza if he tries to just force his way to victory with Flamethrowers—he's gotta learn to use his head.

Or maybe this is a stretch, because it feels like something isn't adding up in this episode. The process of Roy figuring it out was also super-corny, with every realization he has being said explicitly and out-loud. But in any case, he's finally becoming a character, instead of just a sidekick! Now he just needs to stop neglecting Wattrel :tentacruel:

Parting words:
  • That music during Roy's battle with Brassius is AMAZING, so jazzy, I want to buy it pls
  • Liko's Pokémon making footprint art is so adorable :bulbaLove::bulbaLove::bulbaLove:
 
My favorite scene of this segment with Move Set Headbutt clash after Ash's Pikachu and Leon's Charizard did that emerge victory:
Screenshot 2024-05-04 231446.png
 
A good episode for Roy development.

It was great to see Roy learn to pay attention to his environment more and what can be discerned from his opponent rather than just trying to brute-force a win every time. I like how Roy saved Flame Charge in order to throw Brassius off. I'm happy that he was able to beat Brassius after he lost his original match and he was a good teacher in this episode.

The art contest was fun and everyone is shockingly good at art. Like, Liko and Dot's were actually really good.

It was nice to see Hassel and Alex show up.

Also, I just thought that if Sango and Onyx are taking the Terastal course, shouldn't they have Tera Orbs, too? I wonder if we're gonna get to see them use Terastallization in the next big RVT/Explorers fight.

It's sad that the only reason why Wattrel did anything was because Dot needed its help and not Roy.
 
ncamara18 said:
Roy’s getting stronger…..
I’d like to see him battle liko again soon
Fuecoco is definitely evolving very soon
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I kinda have to wonder, with Liko having lost her battle and Roy having won, depending on the result of Dot’s test will they have Liko decide to get more serious with her own training? While the purpose of these tests isn’t about winning, given their desire in this arc is to become stronger and they know the Explorers are looming around them, surely she’d want to become strong enough to be able to defeat such strong opponents as a gym leader.
 
Roy loses to Nemo (as expected), Liko, Roy, and Dot, along with their Pokémon create art (although Wattrel helps Dot instead of Roy), and Roy beats Colza (the writers not being cruel enough to have Roy lose to the same opponent twice with a type advantage). Next, it's Dot's turn to pass the Terestal basics test. She has a type disadvantage so her odds of winning aren't that great but she will almost definitely pass anyway.
 
Just saw this one with full context.

Better than I thought it was, for one the episode did a fantastic job setting up the Nemo/Roy rivalry. They managed to have a friendly rival yet gave her some nice spark, voice acting and lines and chiding that created a nice little air of friction. She just shows up and says if Colza won't battle you so you can get stronger to go after Rayquaza, then battle me. She then states how she'll avoid using Terastal to be fair to Roy only for him to retort back that he doesn't care if she uses it or not. The battle serviced Roy's own growth and win over Colza but also setup Nemo, up until this point she's been complete comedy but now...she's in battle, she's locked in, she's focused, she's like Goku in a sense...a battle genius in combat but silly outside of it. Cool to see how battle hungry she is.

In the games, Nemo's character centers on recognizing the potential of her opponents and seeking fulfilling battles rather than merely overpowering them. This aspect of her personality was effectively translated into the episode, adding depth to her character as a "nice" rival champion who aims to guide and challenge her opponents rather than crush them. She was even impressed by the new moves Hogator has learned she remembers his progress and follows it closely.

I love how Roy was so frustrated for not realizing, just that sting of a loss and failure and immediately challenged Nemo to a rematch pointing out he only lost because it rained. It was refreshing and a nice flawed way of thinking, especially since this show tends to have characters act like generic goodie two-shoes all the time. But nah, it raining was BS and he felt it was BS and called it out. Also, rain in the anime completely neutralizes the attacks instead of just reducing its damage, Parmot should had been atleast hit with something. Him just not taking the loss and asking to fight again, like he's just not going to accept the KO and go about his day. But that really solidifed the fact these two are rivals, whether Nemo was holding back or not Hogator was hanging with Parmot really well, a fully evolved Pokemon belonging to a Champion ranked trainer.

The art festival portion was actually good....mostly served as a backdrop done to teach Roy to make use of everything in his environment and pay attention to everything. Colza's first lesson was that he needs to pay close attention to his Pokemon in battle, which he does but at the same time this episode added to that development that he must make use of everything with in the environment like an artists would. I also like how they did not forget the Hogator/Lizardon dream thing, the pepper croc still wants to be like Lizardon (the writers cockblocked us with the battle by having Cap do it so we'll get the two reptile fire starters duking it out, I'm sure one day)

Battle was great, it came with more being about Roy learning his lesson as a battler vs. Terastal and fittingly enough the battle went to an organic KO. I didn't understand at first but Roy was using the Flamethrower's heat that was heating up the field and causing Usokki to sweat and properly finding the genunine Usokki. He took advantage of the Flamethrowers missing but heating up the area and used his environment as it was to identify the Substitute-Usokki from the real one. Nemo points out how he had a counter for Roy's moves that he had seen already (he literally already saw Charm Voice against Nemo and knew how to deal with it as well as Stomping Tantrum in their first fight), so there really was no option but to improvise and he really pulled through on that.

The Terastallized fight was great, Colza did it because Usokki had been put in a corner and his strategy had been countered and got cocky and figured he would use Trailblaze to speed up and knock out the gator like last time. He did not count on Hogator having the Fire-type version of his Usokki's speed-up move. So Hogator avoided and overcame that previous issue in spirit and completely was able to overpower Usokki in the clash. Even Colza had no clue how he did it and inquired about that in the end how Roy figured it out. Stating how he saw everything, felt everything and created. Capping off the first portion of this development all the waaaaaaay back during EP10 of PM2023 where he learned to pay better attention to his Pokemon. Now he learns to pay full attention to his environment and look for clues, like Nemo did in their first battle where she used the weather to her own advantage.

Bang-up episode, could not ask for anything more! I'm glad this episode put so much emphasis on solidafying Roy's position as a battler and Nemo's rival at that. Colza's history with Roy definitely made this more engrossing than it would have been since it felt less like an examination by a random and two people who know one another. This episode surprisingly didn't feel rushed or slampacked, my biggest fear would be they would rush these fights with one episode but his episode was surprisngly economical with time. There were no pointless empty scenes or moments or unnecesssary comedy. The opening act against Nemo serves the the second act at the art festival and third act at the examination and it all flowed so coherently I don't know why I doubted the Horizons/PM2023 would be able to balance it all. It just goes to show you might not need multiple episodes for these kinds of episodes BUT you do need to be economical with that screentime.

Yeah, Roy snagging the W is cool but I'm honestly happy with how much this episode pushed Roy forward, he won against an official gym leader, got development, established something further with Nemo, got Terastal right, and he even got a cool scene where he once again gets to showcase how good he is creating things. It's just like the items he created to deal with Kaiden or the little picket sign he made earlier when thinking of a new move for Hogator to deal with Rayquaza (Disarming Voice) The episode exceeded my expectations, particularly in how it handles Roy's relationships with Nemo/Colza, it didn't feel like just Pokemon vs. Pokemon but Pokemon and Trainer vs. Pokemon and Trainer and Colza wasn't just a pitstop to be passed over and completed.

"Shine bright, crystallization of our dreams!" fitting catchphrase for him given his dreams of adventuring, catching Rayquaza, becoming stronger and that constant ambition and drive he's showing so much of. I figured they would have given the kids more simplistic elemental based Terastal battle cries but nope. Felt very thematically fitting. Now I'm curious what Dot's will be. Also does this open the door for a type change? I mean the catchphrase isn't tied to Fire like how Liko's chant is about "shining in full bloom" so we can get something a little more interesting like Fairy for example?

May the Fourth be with you, Royboy
 
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