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Review HZ139: Secret Metamon Rhapsody

What a chaotic episode as It should be. Also, glad of it join with Rising Volt Tacklers following the getting back the
Squawkabilly little statue. That Diana giving to Liko.

Meowscarada so cute for worrying sick if it got digesting inside of Alolan Muk.

Overall rating: C-
 
That was a wild ride. I liked the wildlife style commentary/narrator about the pokemon, and the reference to the game opening text.
The ditto was cute, but yeah, definitely somewhat mischievous. I was really glad the statue was recovered. Meowscarada crying was such a heartbreaking sight...
But all of that makes me wonder how Muk stomachs really work...
 
This Ditto is voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi who voiced Katy (and also Domino from the Mewtwo Returns special)

However, Mitsuishi also voiced Duplica's Ditto way back in the OS era, so I do wonder if having her voice a Ditto for this arc is a callback.

I can't believe Sailor Moon is a Ditto
 
It's been a while since we had a Pokemons-of-the-ship episode. Even got the narrator back for this. This was fun! I thought this was going to be closer to the Pecharunt episode, with Ditto causing havoc, but instead we got all the Pokemon from the ship trying to hide him from the humans. More importantly: CHUBBY LYCANROC HAS RETURNED \o/!! And Murdock is trying to murdock him with Tamato Berries. Poor thing.

Like last episode, we got a ton of character moments, and that was lovely. Ult's stone collection is back, with his hilarious attempt at adding a massive boulder to it, but also the very cute ending of Ditto shapeshifting into a rock to sleep peacefully in Sableye's arms. Special mention to Cap who spent the episode trying to decide between two identical nightcaps, before deciding to throw away both of them (he's better with the captain's cap anyways).

I can't believe I'm saying this, as someone who always preferred plot-centric episodes, but Horizon's "fillers" are absolutely amazing right now, they're bringing lots of smiles, I hope they keep going.
 
This episode was a lot of fun! I really like it when we get episodes where we mainly get to see the Pokémon interact with each other, and since their body language is the only way the writers have to convey to the audience how they're feeling, they have to focus on highlighting their physicality, leading to much better characterization on display! I've always appreciated how the Brave Asagi has been a home for wild Pokémon and felt that they have not been given the proper attention when they have a lot of potential for unique interaction between each other and the RVTs, as well as how they can be incorporated into the overall story. Pokémon Horizons has had an issue throughout where the Pokémon themselves have often felt neglected or underdeveloped. I would partially pin that problem, especially in the latter half of the series, to how focused they became on advancing the shonen-esque Raqua plotline, but it has generally been an issue from the beginning (I'm sure we can all recall how it practically became an ongoing bit how Wattrel was so nonexistent). I think the decision to have the RVTs ride an airship itself was a really smart decision for a multi-region series, setting themselves apart from and making their travel feel more natural than in Journeys, where they generally skimmed over the actual traveling so they could get straight into the plot (Not that I think that was a bad decision either, since Journeys had more of an episodic structure. Just that Horizons taking a different direction is good for having their own unique identity). The Brave Asagi being a symbol of freedom and flying toward the horizon is a great thematic vessel, figuratively and literally. But I feel like they haven't used it to it's fullest potential that would make it feel like an iconic and foundational aspect of the series, and part of that I think is that the wild Pokémon aboard the ship gradually began to feel like set-dressing instead of Pokémon with individual personalities, many of which have an actual job to do to keep the airship running smoothly that made it feel really alive.

So I'm happy that this episode focused primarily on the Pokémon and their personalities, and they really nailed it because it was the most purely fun episode we've had in a while (and they still managed to incorporate an emotional plotline into the episode with Meowscarada feeling guilty about accidentally throwing away the Squawkabilly statue.) I really liked how they showcased just how welcoming the Pokémon are onboard the Brave Asagi. They accepted Ditto as one of them immediately and did everything they could to make sure they wouldn't be found because the RVTs were cleaning out everything that wasn't needed, which was a smart plotline to facilitate the slapstick antics of this episode because it gave the Pokémon a justified reason for wanting to hide Ditto. From trying to hide Ditto by shoving them down Skeledirge's mouth (and Skeledirge seemingly afraid he actually swallowed them), to Ditto pretending to be a new Maushold child, helping Lycanroc by becoming their mouth to eat the berries, there was a lot of unique visual jokes, and they even gave Ditto a nice characterizing moment where they pretended to be the statue after it was lost, and eventually helping retrieve the real one.

Anyways, I hope we can continue to get episodes that are this fun and focused on expressive characterization.
 
Eclipsical said:
They accepted Ditto as one of them immediately and did everything they could to make sure they wouldn't be found because the RVTs were cleaning out everything that wasn't needed, which was a smart plotline to facilitate the slapstick antics of this episode because it gave the Pokémon a justified reason for wanting to hide Ditto.
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I’d ask why did the pokemon all thought the RVT were going to throw out Ditto when they should know better that they like Pokemon and would understand them but I guess then we wouldn’t have a plot.
 
Eclipsical said:
I would partially pin that problem, especially in the latter half of the series, to how focused they became on advancing the shonen-esque Raqua plotline, but it has generally been an issue from the beginning (I'm sure we can all recall how it practically became an ongoing bit how Wattrel was so nonexistent).
Click to expand...
I’d say it was halfway present in arc 5 but started to happen in arc 6 where there were barely any filler episodes to show the Pokemon or any of the main characters individually.
 
What I realized today is that the Pokemon on the ship are just as bored as the humans were once the Laqua plotline concluded. No more new, exciting places to visit. No more battles for real stakes. Only as much wandering around nature (or concrete hideaways) as there is around the Brave Asagi's landing spot. Captain Pikachu dgaf anymore and spends a whole day trying on sleeping caps (I thought this is a foreshadowing for a Pokemon Sleep inspired episode, but apparently not). So when a cute prankster showed up of course they (almost) all fell in love immediately.
Sammuel said:
I’d ask why did the pokemon all thought the RVT were going to throw out Ditto when they should know better that they like Pokemon and would understand them but I guess then we wouldn’t have a plot.
Click to expand...
This is kind of a plot hole here, at this point accepting strays and misfits into the fold is the RVT trademark. Skeledirge, Maushold, all the "secondary" Pokemon of Liko, Dot and Roy should know, they joined the crew basically by saying "hey, strange ppl I like u and u helped me how about I fly with u" "ok." Only closer to the episode's end, when Ditto caused all kinds of mayhem*, was it justified to think that the humans might not want a troublemaker on board.

*[most of this by the Pokemons themselves trying to hide Ditto :swirlix: sooo them being defensive for Ditto also makes sense, they realize it's not its fault but theirs to a degree so Ditto shouldn't be punished - as if anyone ever wanted to punish it]

Also a piece of character dev for Meowscarada. Ditto caused her to do the one thing she fears the most - hurt Liko in any way. But now Meowscarada moved past trauma, learned her worth, found trust in others etc and after a lil' meltdown went on to try and fix the mistake with help of friends instead of running away as she did back when she was a Sprigatito.
 
They made Lycanroc plump again, nature's healing...

The mons being the center of this episode was such a treat and a half, wished we had more of these tbh since it offered so much to their characterization
 
Sammuel said:
I’d ask why did the pokemon all thought the RVT were going to throw out Ditto when they should know better that they like Pokemon and would understand them but I guess then we wouldn’t have a plot.
Click to expand...

LegendsCelebi said:
This is kind of a plot hole here, at this point accepting strays and misfits into the fold is the RVT trademark. Skeledirge, Maushold, all the "secondary" Pokemon of Liko, Dot and Roy should know, they joined the crew basically by saying "hey, strange ppl I like u and u helped me how about I fly with u" "ok." Only closer to the episode's end, when Ditto caused all kinds of mayhem*, was it justified to think that the humans might not want a troublemaker on board.
Click to expand...

It's not a plot hole. They overheard Murdock saying they didn't have any room to bring something new on the ship and misinterpreted what he meant.
 
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