Review S11 EP24: Pruning a Passel of Pals!

[Cybersai]

Not to give away too many spoilers here but...

Funny thing is I thought that final battle for the ribbon was the best Sinnoh Contest battle yet. It was almost as good as some Grand Festival battles and it was a great way to end the arc. Its a real treat for those of you who haven't watched it yet.

I actually think the Dawn Vs. Kyle battle was the horrible one, which for you dub-only fans, you'll see next time.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Let's just say Lisa, if you're a May fan, you may be the one complaining about two weeks from now lol.

Hehe, I see what you mean now. XD

And the next episode will certainly be interesting, that's for sure. ^^

 

[Dogasu]

Today we're going to find out Kaito's dub name.

Based on his Japanese name, I have predicted Cain. Kenji-girl predicted Kyle (though I don't want another one).

I can also see him being named Rodney (for some reason) but it's pretty unlikely they will choose this name.

Well, there is also a (very, very, very slim) chance they will keep Kaito. I just hope they don't name him Kite. It would suck.

Who says Kaito's dub name first gets a cookie!

I never, ever, understood why people get excited over stuff like this. Why is everyone so eager to throw away the actual names of the characters in favor of a bunch of Anglicized names chosen by a group of people in New York? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Kairyu]

A disappointing episode in the music department, only 5 pieces kept -.-.

They replaced both of the battle-bgm in the Ash vs Kyle battle, which of course, totally ruined it. Even 4kids kept the battle music, wtf PUSA? Why keep removing the battle music when you've got zero decent tracks for battles :/

The only good thing about the dub of this ep was to get to know what Kyle was saying - he was quite evil

 

[Maxim Posthumus]

I never, ever, understood why people get excited over stuff like this. Why is everyone so eager to throw away the actual names of the characters in favor of a bunch of Anglicized names chosen by a group of people in New York? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

Yeah. That just proves how bored we (or maybe just me) are...

But aside from being extremely bored, I also like naming a lot. I know it probably sounds kind of strange to you but I really do like naming. Naming in different languages or creating names for characters is cool.

 

[PDL]

I never, ever, understood why people get excited over stuff like this. Why is everyone so eager to throw away the actual names of the characters in favor of a bunch of Anglicized names chosen by a group of people in New York? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

It's only Maxim that really cares about that particular character's name.

But since it's been going on for over 10 years now so it's kind of a tradition with the Pokémon anime.

Also, what's really so super-special-awesome about names from "Glorious Nippon"? Does coming from Glorious Nippon automatically make them a thousand times better then amercian names?

 

[Jorah]

A disappointing episode in the music department, only 5 pieces kept -.-.

They replaced both of the battle-bgm in the Ash vs Kyle battle, which of course, totally ruined it. Even 4kids kept the battle music, wtf PUSA? Why keep removing the battle music when you've got zero decent tracks for battles :/

The only good thing about the dub of this ep was to get to know what Kyle was saying - he was quite evil

"Last Battle!" from movie 6 is one of my favourite battle music, and they didn't keep Twinleaf Town music when Ash and Pikachu were speaking at night either. I like that one because it sounds like a flute and really peaceful haha.

 

[Geodude]

It's only Maxim that really cares about that particular character's name.

Indeed. And rather annoyingly, I might add.

Unless there's something somehow noteworthy about it, a dub name, especially of a one-shot character, is pretty dang trivial and nothing to get excited about.

 

[Casual_Furi]

PUSA and 4kids don't think the original names and music are good enough for American kids. They have to correct the mistakes that those silly Japanese made. Who does Japan think it is, with their language that Americans don't understand! >(

 

[Yash]

Six pieces. Pretty standard. I did like how for the first time in probably forever, PUSA kept the "night time Pokemon center" piece, here it played when Ash tells Brock about seeing the lake spirit (I forget which one he saw - Azelf?).

 

[Dogasu]

Also, what's really so super-special-awesome about names from "Glorious Nippon"?

Um...because they're the characters' actual names as chosen by the people who actually make the show.

 

[PDL]

Um...because they're the characters' actual names as chosen by the people who actually make the show.

True, but once the show goes overseas, it's out of TV Tokyo's hands. It's in the hands of PUSA/Nintendo of America's hands then.

I should actually talk about the episode:

Um, I kinda liked the whole explaination of the lake legendaries near the begining, and the battles were pretty good.

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

I'm glad for once they didn't have Brock interrupting the battles every 10 seconds to give us stupid explanations.

Am I the only one who thinks the PokeDex descriptions are completely useless? "Lanturn's lights can be seen in deep waters" (or something like that). Oh wow, thanks PokeDex! That'll help me! Zoey even had to tell them it's part Electric.

The background music was okay... it fit for most of the scenes and they used the original music where it counted the most.

Why was the Pixie plot dropped immediately? Dawn was like, "I'll ask Rowan about it in the morning," the morning comes, and nothing happens.

 

[poke07]

episode review

This was a pretty good episode.

BGM

Spoiler

I really liked the use of BGM at the end of the episode. I LOVED how they made a big crescendo at the end when the narrator stopped talking.

A lot of the PUSA music was good in this episode too. However, I thought that the music played during the Aqua Jet/Ice beam scene was COMPLETELY inappropriate. It was not dramatic at all.

I actually think PUSA has been getting better with "idle" music (during "down time") but when it comes to battles, PUSA BGM really needs improvement...but it sounds like that will happen eventually (see my John Loeffler interview).

EPISODE:

Interesting. There were some good battle scenes. I liked the Pikachu/Ash reflective scene...we haven't had one of those in a while. I also thought those hotel scenes were neat. It was good seeing the "gang" in a specific place and not with a generic "outdoors" or "stadium" background.

I got really tired of that Wallace stock clip that they showed (at least twice) when he gave a comment.

Grade: A-

 

[Yoshi1001]

Speaking of the Pokedex, it's interesting that it seems to work without being pointed at the actual Pokemon (in this case, a picture of the Pokemon on the TV).

 

[Juputoru]

PUSA and 4kids don't think the original names and music are good enough for American kids. They have to correct the mistakes that those silly Japanese made. Who does Japan think it is, with their language that Americans don't understand! >(

Um...because they're the characters' actual names as chosen by the people who actually make the show.

Oh no, they made an extremely minor change that 99% of viewers won't know(or care) about! THIS. MEANS. WAR.

I never understood either side of this whole name-changing thing, to be honest. It is a name. The names in GLORIOUS NIPPON are no better or "more" official than the names in ARE NATION UNDER GAWD, AMERICA. Whining that Kyle isn't KAITO'S ACTUAL NAME is like complaining that many country's English names aren't the same as what the residents call them. You may not like it, but what the hell are you going to do about it? Go around referring to Nippon and España and Deutschland and getting angry when your average english-speaker wonders why you don't just use their English names? This is admittedly a bad example since I'm comparing the name of a nation to the name of throwaway fictional characters in an advertisment thinly disguised as a children's cartoon, but you get the point.

I understand bitching about music, paint edits, and other things that can directly impact the quality of the show, but names? Unless they name the 5th gen girl "Dumballina", I don't see what the big deal is. :/ Then again, this is the same fandom that went on ranting sprees about how it was "Diaruga", not "Dialga".

Overall, as long as I can figure out who the hell you're talking about, I don't really care which names you use, but complaining when people don't want to use that language's names(or that the names were changed in the first place)? Please.



More importantly:
-May's Bulbasaur evolved all the way! Hurrah! Shame they didn't do that while she was with the group, but I suppose they felt it was safer to make her Bulbasaur not cute anymore once she was off the crew. Also note that they remembered to have the seed in its flower. Now, if only they could be consistant in showing gender differences...

-Mysterious Azelf is mysterious. The writers actually seem to be doing something with their various plot threads this time around, so hopefully they do something good with the pixies(which somehow don't have much "character" despite representing three basic aspects of the human personality)

-Despite all the oohs and aahs surrounding this contest, I'm still pretty bored with the contests in Shinnou so far. Pity they didn't bring Harley along with May...or maybe, just maybe, the writers could have at least given Dawn an *interesting* rival by now(I fully support and endorse Conway eventually becoming one of Dawn's rivals, if only for this reason. Him being an awesome character doesn't hurt either ). Or entertaining one-shots(the latest ep in Japan did well in that aspect, but that's one Contest out of HOW many?). I'd hope that DPt's contests would get more entertaining as the series marched on, but I'm not seeing an awful lot of hope in that regard seeing as the two main opponents for Dawn have gotten tiring already. How the hell are these rivals supposed to carry our interest through the remaining contests? At least the rest of DPt(story-wise. I do have a few things to say about the state of the main characters' teams...) is good enough to make up for that.

 

[Pokemaster Justin]

I agree the name changing stuff is really pretty bickering.

 

[Dogasu]

Why was the Pixie plot dropped immediately? Dawn was like, "I'll ask Rowan about it in the morning," the morning comes, and nothing happens.

That bothered me when I saw this episode, too. It's also frustrating because she doesn't bring it up at all the next time she sees him.

Oh no, they made an extremely minor change that 99% of viewers won't know(or care) about! THIS. MEANS. WAR.

Good job on doing exactly what you're accusing me of doing.

I simply said that I don't understand why people get so eager about finding out what a character's going to be called in just one of the many dubs. Or why they're so eager to throw away the characters' names the first chance they get. OH NO KAITO WAS SUCH A HORRIBLE NAME THANK *GOD* I DON'T HAVE TO CALL HIM THAT ANYMORE!!!!! It all seems very silly to me.

Whining that Kyle isn't KAITO'S ACTUAL NAME

I understand bitching about music, paint edits, and other things

Who's whining? Who's bitching?

Again...you're exaggerating.

 

[Geodude]

Ash thought he had the battle won with that "Ice Aqua Jet", and he might have actually done so if not for the time limit, since he lost because of that instead of a KO. That's the second time that's happened to him.

 

[Cybersai]

I'm starting to think the only reason Ash was in this Contest (aside from Buizel competing) was so he wasn't standing around doing nothing this arc.

Does anyone else wonder why the writers HAVE to have Ash do something during the Contest arcs, whereas when the Gyms are airing May and Dawn just sit on the sidelines?

During both Grand Festivals Ash was also doing something, either training Snorunt or running after Aipom, and here he's competing too.

It really takes out the meaning "co-star" when Ash still does things during the Contests whereas the girls don't really do anything during the Gyms.