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Preview JN095: Farewell! The Wandering Rocket Gang!

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If that thing was a necessity, such a thing would have been better in the hands of serious TR members. In the hands of TRio, it’s just pointless since, even if their Pokémon are less predictable, it doesn’t change that they aren’t any challenge or real threat.
In my opinion it's still better than them using the exact same Pokémon and (usually) the exact same moves for every battle in a given series.
 
If that thing was a necessity, such a thing would have been better in the hands of serious TR members. In the hands of TRio, it’s just pointless since, even if their Pokémon are less predictable, it doesn’t change that they aren’t any challenge or real threat.
Exactly. The TRio's going to be bumbling criminals no matter what Pokemon they get. Remember Drapion and Scolipede? They didn't even do anything.
 
In my opinion it's still better than them using the exact same Pokémon and (usually) the exact same moves for every battle in a given series.
Is that really any different from Ash and friends though? Even if they have a slightly bigger pool to choose from, there’s not much variety from their side of things. Hell, really any action based series is typically the same things being repeated ad nauseam.

At very least in the hands of serious TR members you could get some good battles even if they end up defeated in the end. With TRio, they’re so incompetent as battlers that they could be given truly fierce Pokémon and they’ll still job every time never even so much as putting on a battle that’s entertaining to watch; being nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Just look at episode 3 of Journeys for example. They had a Tyranitar and Gyarados, 2 Pokémon that are known for being powerful, and Ash took them both solo with just Pikachu.

And on top of that, it takes away from an important part of TRio’s narrative that while they may be villains, they still care about their Pokémon and bond with them just as any other trainer does. With these gatchamon, I have no reason to even care what comes out of the ball. So not only do these gatchamon do nothing to buff the entertainment of TRio battles but they also come at the cost of the only redeeming aspect for TRio in their bonds to their Pokémon. Way I see it, it’s a lose/lose with nothing to make up for it.
 
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So the original Japanese text of the summary Dephender provided was 昔の団員であるヤマトとコサブロウ, and translating that phrase is a little tricky.

Dephender went with "former fellow gang members Yamato and Kosaburo," with 昔の being rendered as "former." That's not wrong, per se, and if you look up 昔の in the dictionary you do indeed find some instances of it being translated as "former" (昔の縁故 = "a former relationship," 昔の呼び名 = "a former name," etc.).

But, I think a much more common translation of the phrase 昔の would be "from the old days" or simply "old."

I personally feel that if the text was supposed to be former gang members then I think the Japanese would've been more like 元の団員であった instead of 昔の団員である. Therefore, I would personally translate the original text as as "fellow gang members from way back when, Yamato and Kosaburo" or something like that instead.

It's a bit tricky. And it is entirely possible that Dephender's interpretation is indeed what was intended by the author of the original summary. But I think it's still a bit too early to say definitively, 100%, without a shadow of a doubt, that Yamato and Kosaburou are no longer in the Rocket-Dan.
 
I'm not going to say one way or another if I think the Rocket trio will leave after this series; I think the status quo has been shaken up so much that anything is possible. However, if they are truly leaving I would want that to start being set up sooner rather than later, so it will be interesting to see if that's the case here or if this is just yet another "end of the Rocket trio" fake-out.

This is a minor nitpick but it's weird seeing Yamato and Kosaburo with more OS-style highlights in their hair while Musashi and Kojiro are stuck with the weird SM-style highlights. Makes me hopeful that if the trio sticks around for the next series their designs will be refined a bit more.
 
Is that really any different from Ash and friends though? Even if they have a slightly bigger pool to choose from, there’s not much variety from their side of things. Hell, really any action based series is typically the same things being repeated ad nauseam.

At very least in the hands of serious TR members you could get some good battles even if they end up defeated in the end. With TRio, they’re so incompetent as battlers that they could be given truly fierce Pokémon and they’ll still job every time never even so much as putting on a battle that’s entertaining to watch; being nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Just look at episode 3 of Journeys for example. They had a Tyranitar and Gyarados, 2 Pokémon that are known for being powerful, and Ash took them both solo with just Pikachu.

And on top of that, it takes away from an important part of TRio’s narrative that while they may be villains, they still care about their Pokémon and bond with them just as any other trainer does. With these gatchamon, I have no reason to even care what comes out of the ball. So not only do these gatchamon do nothing to buff the entertainment of TRio battles but they also come at the only redeeming aspect for TRio in their bonds to their Pokémon. Way I see it, it’s a lose/lose with nothing to make up for it.
Well said. I think these writers have no idea how to show off the better parts of the Trio's characters. They're not bad people at heart, nor is Meowth a bad Pokemon. If the writers can't be bothered to write them well, maybe it is time for them to go. If they are leaving, I just hope they give them a proper sendoff (y'know, like apologizing to Ash and his friends for antagonizing them for all those years, then Ash and friends wishing them well in life.)
 
This is a minor nitpick but it's weird seeing Yamato and Kosaburo with more OS-style highlights in their hair while Musashi and Kojiro are stuck with the weird SM-style highlights. Makes me hopeful that if the trio sticks around for the next series their designs will be refined a bit more.
I was thinking about that too. Meanwhile Matori has kept to this day the BW-style highlights, so there hasn't been much consistency about that, especially now that these three styles are being used for different TR members in the same series.
Cw4Zp4H.png
 
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I was thinking about that too. Meanwhile Matori has kept to this day the BW-style highlights, so there hasn't been much consistency about that, especially now that these three styles are being used for different TR members in the same series.
Ugggh......the SM artsyle just looks so....meh, especially compared to the other series like that.
 
Well said. I think these writers have no idea how to show off the better parts of the Trio's characters. They're not bad people at heart, nor is Meowth a bad Pokemon. If the writers can't be bothered to write them well, maybe it is time for them to go. If they are leaving, I just hope they give them a proper sendoff (y'know, like apologizing to Ash and his friends for antagonizing them for all those years, then Ash and friends wishing them well in life.)

Something tells me that this episode will be decisive and the turning point that could lead to the good writing of the TR. I think that the Seiyus of TRio certainly had to explain to the writers who these characters really are , what makes them so interesting, unique and great and that soon we will see this revival and this development… I wish it from the bottom of my heart.
 
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Here is the Seiyus' interview in "Pash" magazine, maybe there is some information about the episode?
 

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Not sure if this has been mentioned but there’s two reasons I’m so happy about the Cassidy and Butch return.

Firstly, these are the first retiring characters to not be from the games (counting Gary, Lana, Dawn etc as game characters too)

Secondly, with it seeming like they’ve quite Team Rocket - they’re the first characters that in a way, have their long absence explained. Appearing throughout Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh but suddenly never again - them having quite TR kinda goes towards explaining their absence.
 
The whole anime is seemingly discouraging of competitive Pokemon training, though it would be pretty messed up if it wasn't

Yeah.......because then everyone in the anime would be like Paul.
To be fair, the Pokémon anime didn’t exactly advertise catching Pokémon without bonding with them (yes, with the very few exceptions because I know people are itching to click "reply" and comment BUT TAUROS"). The vast majority was caught with some kind of a backstory or established bonds.
 
I just thought of a scenario idea for this episode: Maybe this time Butch and Cassidy would offer James and Meowth to work with them outside of Team Rocket ("Café Mix?") but Jessie would refuse to partner with Cassidy, run off and ensue some sort of temporary separation? …

Meowth would agree to stay with Meowzie (*she would have been rescued from the streets by Butch and Cassidy with the explanation that she had no happy future with her evil cat gang - they would explain that this rescue of Meowzie is what would have made them realize that they had no any positive future in Team Rocket too).

Cassidy would try to convince James on the side and he would be reluctant but Jessie would hear a bad bit of conversation and mistakenly believe that he wants to join Butch and Cassidy, so, she would decide to leave?

Of course in the end everyone
would realize it was a misunderstanding and reconcile… with the explanation that Jessie will never be alone again thanks to the support of her 2 best friends

(And I was going to forget a detail: in anger, Jessie would break the gachat XP)
 
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I just thought of a scenario idea for this episode: Maybe this time Butch and Cassidy would offer James and Meowth to work with them outside of Team Rocket ("Café Mix?") but Jessie would refuse to partner with Cassidy, run off and ensue some sort of temporary separation? …

Meowth would agree to stay with Meowzie (*she would have been rescued from the streets by Butch and Cassidy with the explanation that she had no happy future with her evil cat gang - they would explain that this rescue of Meowzie is what would have made them realize that they had no any positive future in Team Rocket too).

Cassidy would try to convince James on the side and he would be reluctant but Jessie would hear a bad bit of conversation and mistakenly believe that he wants to join Butch and Cassidy, so, she would decide to leave?

Of course in the end everyone
would realize it was a misunderstanding and reconcile… with the explanation that Jessie will never be alone again thanks to the support of her 2 best friends

(And I was going to forget a detail: in anger, Jessie would break the gachat XP)
Would be nice to see them settle their differences and work together, I remember a Battle Frontier episode where Cassidy gave James the chance to work with her and Butch though Butch ended up working with Jessie
 
(And I was going to forget a detail: in anger, Jessie would break the gachat XP)
Oh, I wish. There's plenty I'd like to do with this soul-sucking machine. At this point I'm near convinced that Giovanni, after seeing the utter state of the TRio in Alola, deliberately gifted them that thing in hopes that relying on rentals and thus removing the bonding aspect of Pokémon battles will make them slip towards the "uncaring criminal" role he desires in Rocket members.

Now that I think about it, this Prize Master style suits Cassidy and Butch rather more than Jessie and James. Those two never did seem like they had actual emotional connections with their own Pokémon anyway. Compare Cassidy and Raticate to Jessie and Arbok, or Butch and Primeape to James and Weezing.
 
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