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Review HZ141: READY GO! Unite Battle!!

What a fun episode. Where our gang battling out at the Unite. So glad they win. If not it will be travesty of the episode.

Also, with Zapdos making appearance to make the team restore their power is underwhelming. Sadly, it rush to end it. Hope for two episode instead of one.

Overall rating: B+
 
View attachment 244310 Ditto is now part of the title screen, and Skeledirge looks so done xD
Quaquaval got replaced with a ditto this time after Skeledirge got replaced with said ditto last week, they think the ditto is part of the team
1781870968155.webp
 
Yeah Ditto changing in the title screen is going to be a fun recurring gag.

I don't play unite, nor am i planning to start, but this was still fun. A lot of dynamic action, and nice teamwork.

Captain Pikachu was an absolute MVP of this match. It was quite interesting, seeing him act as a DEX type tank, kiting everyone, while all the DPS were going after the goals and Zapdos. Meowscarada baiting the mobs with flower trick was funny too.
Although i do pity the wild mons.
Imagine this: you are just chilling in your normal living habitat, and then one day, you just wake up in the middle of a stadium, out of nowhere, and some unknown high level mons are beating you up. Pretty horrifying
 
An alright episode. I don't have a lot to comment about it, instead I'm much more interested in the preview for the next one. We're going back to Lumiose and finally meeting with Navi! Wonder if the story will be any close to the events of ZA? Mainly wondering due to the blue glow around the Prism Tower in the opening. By the way Emma now has her appearance from the game (which means she went from her teen-looking self to her adult detective appearance in only 1 or 2 years).
That preview actually looks like it's cramming a lot of things into one episode: meeting back with Emma, searching for a Carbink, meeting with Navi, meeting with Ivor and fighting him, as well as Ditto shenanigans. I think Roy and Ivor won't have a full fight, instead it will probably be a short misunderstanding due to the Carbink or Ditto. Although if they're using Mega Evolution I might be wrong. I just don't think there will be enough time for these two's battle, so maybe they will rematch in another episode, similar to what happened with Master Mayonnaise?

... speaking of the guy, he'll probably reappear again. I think we're entering a Lumiose Arc with more episodes centered around Navi, until she decides to travel with the RVTs. They would have to really butcher her introduction to make her join the team in a single episode's length.
 
Doubl - Echo said:
An alright episode. I don't have a lot to comment about it, instead I'm much more interested in the preview for the next one. We're going back to Lumiose and finally meeting with Navi! Wonder if the story will be any close to the events of ZA? Mainly wondering due to the blue glow around the Prism Tower in the opening. By the way Emma now has her appearance from the game (which means she went from her teen-looking self to her adult detective appearance in only 1 or 2 years).
That preview actually looks like it's cramming a lot of things into one episode: meeting back with Emma, searching for a Carbink, meeting with Navi, meeting with Ivor and fighting him, as well as Ditto shenanigans. I think Roy and Ivor won't have a full fight, instead it will probably be a short misunderstanding due to the Carbink or Ditto. Although if they're using Mega Evolution I might be wrong. I just don't think there will be enough time for these two's battle, so maybe they will rematch in another episode, similar to what happened with Master Mayonnaise?

... speaking of the guy, he'll probably reappear again. I think we're entering a Lumiose Arc with more episodes centered around Navi, until she decides to travel with the RVTs. They would have to really butcher her introduction to make her join the team in a single episode's length.
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I don't think it's going to be an arc; everything will be resolved in a single episode.

We already have about 5 episodes of this new phase of the anime, meaning there are still 20 to go, and they haven't even introduced half of everything that's in the new opening.
 
I like that they explained how Unite Battles worked simply and mostly in the beginning and then it's just battles from there without explanations in between. The showing aspects of the battles was also good explanations. Since these aren't traditional Pokemon battles, the animation quality did go up a bit, but there are still montages due to limited time.

I like how Shining Oceans have unique designs and their Pokemon choices are interesting. I like that, despite there being two girls, the Clefable belongs to the orange-haired guy and not the girl with the buns.

Though, I do wish they did more with Professor Phorus and Erbie--heck, the former doesn't even have her VA credited.
 
The Rising Volt Tacklers end up participating in a Unite Battle against a random group of idols that happen to be highly ranked at them. Naturally, the RVTs win, going from way behind to barely ahead at the last second, thanks to Zapdos showing up and getting defeated. More importantly, Dot hiding behind Liko during their introduction was super cute and adds to the evidence for LikoDot, and we got the miraculous event of LikoDot wearing matching outfits.
 
I have never played or really seen anything substantial out of Pokémon Unite, so I wasn't sure what exactly to expect going into the episode, which threw us into the deep end with the RVTs already at the island and about to participate in a Unite Battle - followed by a classic "You must be wondering how we got into this situation" flashback to explain how they got into this position to begin with.

Considering my lack of knowledge regarding the lore surrounding Unite and how the game itself is played, it was at the very least interesting to learn those as the episode progressed alongside the different strategies you can employ to get ahead. I was definitely not expecting Zapdos crash the party out of nowhere. The RVTs' Paldean Starter Pokémon all seemed to have unique Unite Moves. Ult ended up being the MVP by predicting that the other team would attempt to steal the final hit on Zapdos. Unite Moves must be pretty strong to cause Zapdos to retreat the way they did.

I'd hate to be the other team, supposedly one of the best in the sport and they still lost to a team where the majority didn't even really know how to play the game.

The episode itself definitely felt very standalone and disconnected from the overall progression of the Arc. Like it could've happened at any point prior to the RVTs meeting Navi for the first time. Considering we still have Pokémon Sleep, GO and Pokopia animated content to look forward to, I'm curious when they decided they would adapt so many of the spinoff media now.
 
Karakuri18 said:
They're just friends. Close bonds don't always mean love.
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Society is biased towards romantic relationships being the closest relationships. Pokémon is written by people who are influenced by the same biases as anyone else. Liko and Dot are certainly particularly close. Putting those three statements together, I have more basis to conclude they are romantically interested in each other than you do to conclude they are not.
 
(Don't ?) Ship and let ship. Until it is stated outright, ultimately we are all talking about headcanons here.
Personally, like the enlightened centrist that I am (joke) I actually see them as a QPR, because I find that more interesting. And amatonormativity is kind of not that great, so I find it fun to headcanon things to make them queer but also against common expectations. Not that there is a single wrong or correct answer here.
Generally, I do believe though that there were enough hints that there are good reasons to believe that they have a relationship that goes beyond a conventional friendship.

BTW, for in depth relationship dynamic discussion we have the LikoDot thread here
 
This episode was certainly an experience to watch, as an ex-UNITE player who's played the game for years since the mobile launch and played through many ups and downs and only quit following the License Journey and moveset changes that gutted the game.

Since I was a player whom actually did play UNITE, I do like how they added in both a section of the episode which explains how the game is played - a really good introduction since most people whom watch the Anime probably never touched UNITE due to it being a MOBA, yet they still dedicate a decent portion to the battling to show how everything adds up and also give something for actual UNITE players to see.

The best part is that while the animation quality is a bit more limited, they do showcase everything very faithfully to the games, even to the point of having them being in Remoat because they just arrived here, so it would be weird to play on Theia Sky Ruins due to that map being locked behind playing the game for a bit longer. It's so faithful, they even steal Zapdos and autowin the game. That actually got a chuckle out of me because I cannot tell you how many times that has personally happened to me. I'm not surprised that the UNITE Professors barely did anything - they barely did anything in UNITE itself and their backstory was largely limited to a now-abandoned short manga that only had four issues of it released. Shining Oceans were also fun characters.

But I'll be honest, this episode was great and also very fun, but it's also very frustrating to watch. This isn't about the episode itself, but instead because of the fact that it's very clearly a ploy to advertise UNITE. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have minded if this episode was released a year or two prior. But now, when UNITE is arguably in the worst state it has ever been in the nearly 5 years of its existence after years of shitty management decisions, this episode just feels like a desperate cry to get people to play the game again.
 
Sammuel said:
I don’t think they could’ve since HZ was too knee deep in it’s plot to have them do it.
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What I'm saying is that if the episode was released while UNITE was in the state that it was a year or two ago, it would have been a lot more fitting, since all the changes that ruined the game for many including myself didn't happen back then
 
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