Review JN122: The Semifinals I: "Overwhelming Victory"

[P_S_B]

How did 'lost kid at the League' become a checklist item? It started with Axew, continued with Chespie, was finally done properly with Mimo only for them to slip back to Axew-level crap now. The inevitable Paldea one had better be more Mimo and less random filler kid.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

For a month out, a pretty poor start to liven things up in the PWC. Ignoring that, this would probably be a 4/10 regardless, cause the battle moments we got were alright.

Spoiler

At the start, I was actually quite happy to see they were going to have Cynthia have somewhat of a story to parallel against Ash’s. I thought Leon’s battle might get cut quite a bit, but I didn’t think they’d waste as much time as they did. Ironically, this is something Journeys hasn’t done enough of, and is one reason why I think majority of the battles are flat - we’re just thrown into the midst of it without characters having something between them.
The layering of their traits, however, don’t desire much, achieving the bare minimum through the good-ol’ Cynthia is like Ash’s selfless and traversing frame of mind, which is something we totally haven’t seen before (Leon, Diantha, Steven, Brock, Dawn, Goh, Iris, Professor Oak, and basically everyone who exists in the show).
Also, the egg plot-line isn’t that intriguing. Despite them trying to say Garchomp and Lucario were Cynthia and Ash’s destiny, that could be applied to literally any case of an egg hatching (yes, Ash’s was unique, but still), and is not a personality trait to signify anything about the two. Iris raised a certain baby Axew after it hatched from an egg in her village a few days prior, so why wasn’t that highlighted in her fight against Cynthia…it doesn’t mean anything special. It just seems forced.

Then, alongside my already disappointed demeanour of the character-building opportunity being wasted, they proceed to show that the little girl is missing and I’m thinking, “Oh…oh, no, Journeys, please. What are you doing?”
After that phase of the episode, we finally get to Diantha v Leon, and again I’m thinking, “Bet Diantha is already four Pokemon down…are you kidding me.”

I felt fed up. What was the point in Diantha v Lance if this is what they do with her afterwards? How does she go from being shown as a strategist against Lance, to losing four Pokemon against the exact same opponent? Where’s her ability to adapt, learn and notice moments from its style and draw a suitable counter? What, she didn’t prepare for the one Pokemon we’ve actually seen Leon use, besides Charizard? That is appalling writing of her capabilities.

Leon, I don’t even know what to say. Is there anything to actually note about him? He’s just an Alain-style bulldozer, with a motivation (finding humanity’s next level of strength/wondering if it’s out there) that’s barely touched upon. Why not have Leon show his disappoint subtly, pondering on the fact that other people are no-where near him. But, it’s brought up once, and I imagine it’ll get thrown in the mix hazardously against Ash. I can’t get into him.
Also, “I was just lucky.”, he says after using only three Pokemon to hammer a Champion. There’s being modest, and then there’s that. All he has to say is you fought well.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Y'all need to chill, because the "lost at the league" bit was literally less than a minute long - they found her almost immediately

Cynthia's backstory was infinitely more pointless and they spent more time talking about Lucario's backstory than either of them

And the way people ragged on the battle I thought it would maybe have 30 seconds, but no, it was... actual battles; I get they're a rarity in PM19 but at least criticize them properly

I call hacks on Charizard powering up Gardevoir's hijacked Hellfire with Airstream and then somehow breaking through it with a regular Hellfire though - that was nonsense

I got a good laugh out of the announcer declaring the start of Diantha's comeback... and then Leon sends out Charizard

 

[Mr. MoonStone]

I'm a few episodes behind but decided to check things out and I just...this is precisely why this season is my least favorite. Just awful execution, awful writing, and awful viewer experience. And the Japanese side of the fan base is ripping this episode to shreds online...some of the most liked posts on there are heavily criticizing not just the episode, but the entire PM2019 series and staff.

 

[Singaporean]

What an awful episode to missed the opportunity for Leon vs Diantha battle for two CotD to look for Gossifleur that evolve to Eldegoss. Also, Leon's Rillaboom sweeping all Diantha pokemon except Gardevoir. Before a major flop showdown with Leon's Charizard Gigantamax.

Overall rating: B-

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Leon's Rillaboom sweeping all Diantha pokemon except Gardevoir

Hawlucha and Tyrantrum took down Dragapult; though yes, Rillaboom shrugging off four pokemon's attacks is really, really stupid

 

[Kurolegacy]

You know, it’s kinda funny with how much they try to build up this whole destiny thing with Ash and Lucario as a parallel to Cynthia and Garchomp. Gonna be real awkward when Ash dumps Lucario off at the end of the series into retirement just like so many before it, turning it into a glorified cheerleader in the future.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

You know, it’s kinda funny with how much they try to build up this whole destiny thing with Ash and Lucario as a parallel to Cynthia and Garchomp. Gonna be real awkward when Ash dumps Lucario off at the end of the series into retirement just like so many before it, turning it into a glorified cheerleader in the future.

Unless against all odds Lucario becomes a permanent presence on Ash's team just like Pikachu, but let's be real, if Greninja didn't get to stick around despite bing given a special transformation based on Ash, then what chances of defying the usual fate of non-Pikachu mons does Lucario realistically have?

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Unless against all odds Lucario becomes a permanent presence on Ash's team just like Pikachu, but let's be real, if Greninja didn't get to stick around despite bing given a special transformation based on Ash, then what chances of defying the usual fate of non-Pikachu mons does Lucario realistically have?

Greninja should have stayed with Ash and swept the Alola League and beat Tapu Koko. And then sweep the PWC and make Leon look like a joke (with some help from Pikachu and Charizard and Sceptile)

 

[pharaohyami5000]

Overwhelming Victory? This was underwhelming nonsense!!

So instead of extending this one episode into at least 2 episodes (yeah, 3 would have been nice, huh), we get 2 episodes of recaps. This is strangely similar to how DP pulled this with their 2 clip shows that could have extended the Tobias match and the last episode. Man, they couldn't successfully turn the still shots shown here into animated shows in time, huh? If what people said are true about the original plans for Masters 8 Tournament to be mostly still shots unless it's Ash's fights.

I only wanted Diantha to expose Leon's full team at least. She got half of the job done, but just the ones we know of already.

 

[kantoskies]

The writers trying to pull every single trick up their sleeve to make us believe that Ash's bond and strength with his 100 episode old Lucario is a match to a Garchomp that Cynthia has had since childhood will never not be funny.

This is the same show that pulled every trick up their sleeve to make us believe that Satoshi's bond with his 100 episode old Gekkouga was special enough that he got a once-in-a-lifetime evolution that was Totally Not Mega Evolution Because It's Just So Special You Guys, that was so intense that Satoshi felt the physical pain of his Pokemon and shared a heartbeat with it. And the fandom ate that up, this is nothing compared to that.

(since they didn't want Alain to fight Ash for some unknown reason).

The reason being this doesn't need to be Kalos League 2.0.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

The reason being this doesn't need to be Kalos League 2.0.

So instead Alain’s fate ended up being something worse than Kalos League 2.0.

 

[Gopal]

I like how Leon used Hellfire to encircle the gardevoir so that she cant dodge/escape.

 

[Lanstar]

"Overwhelming Victory", The title of this episode says...

In reality, it would more accurately be titled, "Underwhelming Story", wouldn't it?

(Sorry, I couldn't help it)

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Kids do deserve better but like I said before, it's not really worth complaining about it. If you want to do something about it, then maybe join (if possible) the staff making the anime or just give a constructive criticism. It's better than just whining about the unfairness of it.

Most people ARE giving constructive criticism on here. I feel that the blanket classification of most of the complaints here as “whining” is slightly demeaning when a lot of the criticism is well meaning, well phrased and generally polite.

If you’re on a forum where people deeply enjoy and discuss something, complaints and criticism are bound to be there. Just because one is not on the staff team doesn’t render their complaints worthless.

 

[JinksChow]

What I meant was just this is pointless complaining, every time I come to this forum or seribii or any forums at all is that the proper & polite criticism gets drown out and lost by all of this pointless whining but it is what I expected given this is the Internet we're talking.

Anyways, enough about dooms & glooms. Let's talk about my criticism.

My critics for this episode is that they really want to sell Leon as this unsurmountable wall that Ash will have a time to overcome if he wins the battle with Cynthia (which I think is very likely)(#myboyashhgettingthewinshedesrves) which feels odd. Don't get me wrong, I like Leon but if the cost is making the other characters weak to make him strong, it's just not right and fair for Leon, Alain and Diantha. I say give the battle more time or an episode or two to really flesh things out and lessen on what is essentially filler we're good to go but this Journeys we're talking about. In this age where productions are a bit of a mess because of you know what, I just hope that by the time next series hits, there is no more of this what many fans call bullsh*t.

Forgive me for being blunt, but I don't really see much of a difference between the other members' "pointless whining complaints" and your "criticisms".

 

[MimeyTheKeeper]

The Best:

• Cynthia giving little kids proper advice how to become who they want in life - care, train, acquire experience, challenge - a lot of it
  • Frankly, I was wondering whether any piece of episode deserves "the best" moniker. OK, technically, even the worst episode has its best aspect, but I had trouble finding any here that would be up to par with the best parts of some previous episodes (a even those ones weren't perfect). But since forum has been mentioning Pokémon being show for kids again, I would say kids getting some realistic life advice by proxy counts as the best part.

Good:

• G-Max Charizard vs Mega Gardevoir - the combination of moves - that was pretty - well thought, inventive and well animated - something one would expect from the best trainers in the world
• Cynthia showing attention to detail and careful preparation by massaging Garchomp - I personally liked it, it is always good to show that the best trainers are best for reason and not because one just said so (I was imagining Paul learning that his famous sweep defeat for challenging Cynthia was partly due to massage )
• Cynthia's backstory - as unimaginative as it was, it at least answers some questions (for example the only champion with explanation why is she missing regional starter)
• Jessie uninterested after Gourgeist is out of match
• Is this the first time Ash actually wakes up quickly and properly using alarm clock? He must be taking this PWC very seriously.
• Dragonite showing some affection again (yep, I am really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here)

Bad:

• Here is the kicker - using "final preparation for some finishing exposition-touches before match of the century and proxy plot to expose more personality of our heroes and keep them away from match up to the final showdown" WOULD be some pretty good and mostly efficient storytelling - but it has to be done right
  • Given we will probably have just 132 episodes of Journeys, there is no time left to spend, so speeding up Leon vs Diantha just to interesting parts to leave necessary 3 episodes to flash out Ash vs Cynthia properly is reasonable. Yep, it would be better to have proper amount time for everything, but be it COVID, other problems or just poor planning, AniPoke production team has not achieved it
  • Young kids as plot device for Cynthia and Ash to interact with and reveal something more (Cynthia) is good one, but make kids interesting somehow please!
  • Apart from heavy-handed exposition for inevitable "battle of destined eggs - Garchomp vs Lucario" they could have been more efficient with them at least locking sights in one rivalry snare as omen of the things to come
• Nerfing Diantha, oh boy
  • Where to start, why on earth have her lose 4(!) Pokémon to just Rillaboom. The same Rillaboom that needed G-Max and added speed to finally finish Alain's Chesnaught and then went down immediately against his Charizard - what on Earth was that? AT LEAST switching Rillaboom and Dragapult and present Dragapult as N. 2 to ace Charizard would have been better. That is at least pseudo-legendary and we (and likely Diantha as well) have not seen it battle before.
  • The most comedic thing was, that almost perfect Pokémon to send out against Gardevoir would be Leon's Aegislash - and with his defence and resistencies it would probably been enough to defeat Mega Gardevoir (seeing as impossibly powerful even then rest of Leon's Pokémon are) and that would mean Leon sweeping Diantha even without his ace and any gimmick. He at least had the decency to put Charizard there.
  • To sum it up - have at least one more of Leon's Pokémon to go down before Charizard, give larger part of sweep to Dragapult and Charizard, show Tyrantrum! - that would salvage it at least to semi-decent battle while still maintaining goals of (1) shortening it to necessary parts and (2) have Leon win decisively without putting Diantha to shame (and be out of character)
• Goodra - someone in AniPoke team does not like this Pokémon or what?
• Leon "I was just lucky" - do not even know how to comment on this one. Leon thinks that Diantha wants his pity? I was almost expecting him to break 4th wall and say "Writers made me do it!" But even this one is not the worst.

Ugly:

• Whole Journeys have sacrificed a hell lot for inevitable Leon vs Ash match and now even this one is set up badly, what a waste
  • As I have mentioned previously, this is the only match that we look forward to in terms of "what the result will be?" - and the cost is abysmal, since we have Ash defeating Elite 4 and Champions (which was half-fantasy before) with mediocre excitement, because deep down we know it will happen. But OK, it would probably all be worth it, if THE MATCH was setup right. But it is simply NOT. Kids show or not, how we should make suspension of disbelief work and imagine Ash defeating Leon? Because that's like very needed prerequisite for match to work - believing both sides could win. It was already problematic from get-go - having the most powerful, even UNDEFEATED trainer to match. Well, against Lance and Raihan Leon won, but at least did not seem UNDEFEATABLE. Now even less so.
  • I will mention it anyways - there is ONE way how to make it work somehow and hype it where it needs to be - well 3-4 ways to precise, but again AniPoke seems to have them thrown away - the way of Charizard, the way of Infernape and the way of Greninja...

 

[UxieLover1994]

For me, all that matters is getting Ash's Dragonite from the event, as I did last night before taking part in the GO Fest Finale today. Obviously, there's problems in the anime's production (likely COVID-related) if this episode decides to (almost) skip a major battle.

This is a kids' show, but kids deserve to have quality programming and not just something tossed on the table and be told "eh, eat it, I guess?"

The “it’s a kids show.” argument is and always will be bull because it’s such defeatist argument that’s saying that kids don’t deserve actual quality and effort put into shows where they’re the target audience.

Sesame Street fared well for years because the show appealed just as much to parents and older children as it did with the target audience of preschoolers, and also isn't afraid to go into difficult topics at times. Also, Arthur did an episode where the school suddenly catches fire, with the students traumatized.

There have been a lot of children's shows that have quality writing and become classics in later years, and there are children's shows with writing so horrid, even children actively avoid it and berate the few who watch it. As a child, I used to love the Madeline TV series, but as an adult, I now see it as overly saccharine with cheap animation (not to mention the bad constancy) and poor voice acting.

Kids do deserve better but like I said before, it's not really worth complaining about it. If you want to do something about it, then maybe join (if possible) the staff making the anime or just give a constructive criticism. It's better than just whining about the unfairness of it.

So basically "don't like, don't watch, don't complain" because this series is not suitable for anyone above the age of six. Even though most of the criticism we bring up are legit, and often constructive.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

After finally watching the episode, I must say I'm ok with the first part (Cynthia's backstory) but I'm still outraged at that battle which wasn't an "overwhelming victory" but just an "overwhelming nonsense"!
Whenever a saga comes to its end I keep warning about a lack of time for the really important episodes, but Journeys once again demonstrated it in the most painful way: This is what happens if you spend too much ressources on pointless fillers and then run out of time when it comes to the league / the final tournament.

As I said before, I was fine with the Cynthia-part of the episode. The kids and Ash explicitly asked her to tell them what her first Pokemon was. Given the fact that Cynthia has been around for many years now and is one of the most famous characters, I can kind of understand the writers didn't choose to tell Cynthia's complete backstory because by doing so, they would introduce her as a completely new character. Sure, I would definitely have preferred if the whole first part had been spent on Cynthia alone and not on the pointless search for a random girl. But still, those scenes dedicated to Cynthia were done very well.
Aaand, of course, let's not forget to mention how absolutely cute and amazing "little Cynthia" looked! (Well, what else would you expect from the greatest character ever? ). I'm certain Cynthia was a wonderful kid with a kind and pure heart!
So, even if the rest of the episode was terrible, those Cynthia moments saved the episode for me.

Now let's move over to the second part and to the "battle" between Diantha and Mr. DEM himself:
Just when you thought it can't get any worse than Alain vs. Leon, you should be proven wrong. I'm not talking about Rillaboom sweeping through Diantha's team which doesn't make sense at all, given that Alain was able to finish of Rillaboom pretty easily and especially given the fact that Diantha of all people isn't a pushover, either. (If I wanted to further comment on that, I'd have to get too angry but I guess I need to go easy on my nerves.)
What I really want to talk about, however, was the showdown between G-Max Charizard and Mega-Guardevoir:
Here you could clearly see that Diantha was strong enough to counter Leon/Charizard and to make them sweat. Also, it was finally shown that G-Max Wildfire can indeed be overcome. Diantha was controlling an extremely powerful combination of three(!!) moves (G-Max Wildfire, Max Airstream and a mega-evolution powered Psychokinesis). This combination would clearly have had the potential to defeat Charizard. And just when you thought the writers are finally doing the right thing, Leon pulls another DEM card and we're supposed to believe that one single G-Max Wildfire can easily blow away that powerful combination of moves and defeat Mega Guardevoir.... This must have been the most terrible and cheapest writing for a long time!
Honestly, I'm sick of the writers trying to shovel the message down our throats (at all costs) how powerful Leon allegedly is, even if that means his battles will defy any logic, are implausible, cheap and terribly written and that not even the best strategies of his opponents can do anything about it. It really hurts and I'm sick and tired of damn Leon destroying the whole tournament! That's why I can't wait for Journeys to end, so we'll never have to see that guy again. Actually, I don't even care about Ash vs. Leon anymore. All that matters to me now is Cynthia vs. Ash and I'm putting all my hopes into it that it'll be the most epic battle!



By the way: Do we really need that annoying discussion whether Pokemon is a kids show?? If it were, I'd be pretty strange for adults like us to watch it and regularly put our hearts and souls into it on fan pages like bulbagarden or serebii, wouldn't it?
It's a show for all generations, not just for kids (who don't get many of the more mature allusions anyways)

 

[Handy Man]

Can I just say how toxic it is that Leon says “You made me sweat time and time again. I was just lucky today, that’s all.” when he beats Diantha 4-0? If I were Diantha, I would feel terrible that I didn’t stand any chance against the #1 seed. Leon saying that just rubs salt in a wound, it’s just rude to downplay your victory in front of the loser like that. Leon has a disgusting ego that deserves to be destroyed, but if other regional champions can’t hold a candle to him, then Leon will be encouraged to keep flexing on everyone. What an aggravating character.