Review S14 EP21: The Lost World of Gothitelle!

[Iteru]

BW21 - "The Lost World of Gothitelle!"

Still on their way to Castelia City, Ash and his friends reach the Skyarrow Bridge which is covered in a mysterious fog. Deciding to cross, a Gothitelle suddenly attacks and transports them back to the foot of the bridge! Why did Gothitelle attack them, and why does everything not seem so right after being transported?

 

[Yoshi-san]

Pretty sad episode. I got a bit misty-eyed there.

 

[Jukain]

"I'm just a little excited." I can't help but think they broke the fourth wall. Yeah, that's some thick fog. I was expecting a Marley like voice. BTW, YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!!!!!! I have a thing about learning what something was like in the past. I'm actually surprised to learn the Sky Arrow Bridge is not that old, but that's because I'm thinking New York and those bridges are as much as over 100 years old. This ep is okay, especially seeing how powerful Snivy is, but I am disappointed in the story.

 

[Ampharos King]

This storyline may seem dismal and boring to some looking in from the outside. Does it truly matter that a COTD and a wild Gothitelle were forced out of their ferry business just because a giant bridge was constructed? This Gothitelle may have been upset for "no good reason," because it was still invited to assist Sally at her uncle's factory. I felt that the Gothitelle merely wanted to see Sally again, and was reassured that the young girl was able to take care of herself. It was a very heartlifting storyline, and this episode proves once again that the memories of a human and a pokemon interacting with one another are truly precious and irreplacable. As far as the overall plot is concerned, Ash and co. solved a problem in order to cross the Skyarrow Bridge into Castelia City. There was truly nothing out of the ordinary happening here. The bridge's presence had to be incorperated somehow into the plotline, and it turned out that the young girl and the wild Gothitelle's lives were changed forever after the bridge was opened for public access.

There were numerous benefits to watching this episode, as well. For one, after a long hiatus of overdue appearances, an Officer Jenny has finally contributed to the plot in some small way or fashion. It was a relief that the Officer Jennys in Unova were given a variety of pokemon such as Swanna to attempt to clear the bridge of its fog. And second, Ash's Snivy finally gets a long overdue battle appearance. Snivy had yet to battle a truly powerful opponent since her devastating loss against Trip's Frillish 11 episodes ago, and even though she had failed to defeat the Gothitelle herself, Snivy was able to inflict at least two blows against the pokemon. Considering that Gothitelle is a fully evolved pokemon with years of battling experience, it was a commencement for Ash's Snivy to endure a battle against such a pokemon.

I felt that this episode was mediocre yet necessary to help truly convey the Skyarrow Bridge's worth in the anime. I was not overly impressed with the execution of the episode, but I am still relieved that the writer managed to tie the pokemon's presence, the COTD, and the bridge's past history (in the anime) in a decent, all-around plotline. Even in the games, the Skyarrow Bridge really isn't that old. The oldest bridge constructed in Unova in the games is the Village Bridge, and one of the descendants of the bridge's constructor mentioned that the "Village Bridge was constructed over 200 years ago." Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that the Skyarrow Bridge is as "new" as the anime had made it to be.

 

[SuperTrainStationH]

This is a GOOD and worthwhile Character of the Day Episode, the plot nearly reminded me of something worthy of one of the Pokémon movies. This is also an episode that benefits greatly from the absence of Team Rocket, as cool as they are now.

Having just walked the Brooklyn Bridge a week ago for the main purpose of sharing the experience with other fans and relating it to the Skyarrow Bridge in Unova, I was really looking forward to this episode, and for me it really delivered.

EXCEPT THEY NEVER USED THE SKYARROW BRIDGE THEME FROM THE GAME!

Come on, use of the Skyarrow Bridge theme in this episode was a no brainer, its what made crossing the bridge in the game such a memorable and exciting moment!

Another criticism is the way that Cilan cued Ash to battle Gothitelle to maybe make some headway, its not like he isn't a gym leader with multiple Pokémon of his own, they could have handled that a bit better.

It's also strange that they say Gothitelle needed to see that girl "grown up" to come to peace with its memories, as though to suggest Gothitelle hadn't seen the girl since she was little when the ferry closed, yet we clearly see the Gothitelle went with the girl when she moved and lived with her, so how long had the girl been in college studying medical stuff without having returned home even once to see Gothitelle?

 

[Serperiority]

Overall, it was a good episode even though the gang kept on pointing out the obvious. Great story about the Skyarrow Bridge and the ferry. Snivy finally had a time to battle after a while.

 

[Hellwarden]

Really melancholy ep. Basically told you to appreciate your memories of good times, but there is a danger to that. This is the first time any Pokemon Trio has ever fallen into a somewhat realized dynamic world, isn't it? Ash fell into Larvitars' unconscious, and a Ninetales made a mansion appear somewhat modern, but this is the first world the Trio could actively change wasn't it?

 

[PDL]

EXCEPT THEY NEVER USED THE SKYARROW BRIDGE THEME FROM THE GAME!

Come on, use of the Skyarrow Bridge theme in this episode was a no brainer, its what made crossing the bridge in the game such a memorable and exciting moment!

They did use the Marvelous Bridge theme though, Which I thought was far more fitting since it has a mysterious tone to it, much like this episode.

Anyway, this episode actually reminded me alot of the nostalgia most people seem to have from Pokémon episodes (and games) past. I sometimes get a little annoyed how they obsess over the past like that, but at the same time, I should be more sensitive to what they appear to cherish... Very poignant actually.

Although I still believe that dwelling in the past obsessively will only prevent you from making new memories to cherish for the future.

 

[chimera]

It was a pretty touching episode, but I didn't like it that much. Officer Jenny was pretty amusing, though.

 

[Ino-Chan]

I give it an average episode. Even without knowing what happened in the Japanese, I could tell what was going to happen once the gang traveled back in time.

I do like how Snivy got some footage, and we finally see an episode without Oshawott in it.

 

[Miar]

Even without knowing what happened in the Japanese, I could tell what was going to happen once the gang traveled back in time.

It wasn't time travel. It was an alternate memory world, or something.

This episode confused the heck out of me in Japanese. The dub... didn't really clarify it much
As a filler, it's kinda...... I don't know. I didn't find it so interesting.

 

[PDL]

To be honest, I'm not very surprised that people would find this episode boring, since it deals with concepts that would fly over most people's heads most of the time (Especially the target audience's, the children). Maybe it would have resonated with people more if it was about a reoccuring character instead of a CotD that we were just introduced to five minutes into the episode, but that would be kinda hard to write around.

Now that I think about it, this episode reminds me of the Baltoy debut episode in the Hoenn saga and the Xatu episode in the Jotho one as well.

 

[Hellwarden]

I guess I can kinda understand why some people could call this episode boring. The mystery of where the trio was trapped, was pretty much given away in both the original and the dub. But that's the thing, the main mystery was more about the why they were trapped. Gothitelle didn't want to let them go, because then she would have to admit the world she crafted, the world where she was happy, was totally fake.

Plus the fights between Snivy and Gothitelle were pretty well done if you ask me.

 

[¿Mukuhawku?]

To be honest, I never understood why so many people disliked this episode. I can understand people thinking it's boring, yes. But I really like this episode. It's not often we got episodes that focus more on emotion than action/comedy.

The plot was nice (though somewhat predictable), the emotion was swell (with the good music helping it), and altogether, it was a really nice episode. The scene with Jenny and Swanna was humorous, and we also got a nice (albeit short) battle between Snivy and Gothitelle. Overall, I give it a B+.

 

[Dogasu]

This is a rather talky episode, and I'm sure that a lot of the people who hated it before seeing the dub only did so because they didn't understand what was going on. I hope people are giving this episode a chance now that an English version is available.

 

[Karamazov]

Why did Ash seem surprised to see the lady in the store? When he ran into her, she was going into the store. And he told her to go in first.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

This is a rather talky episode, and I'm sure that a lot of the people who hated it before seeing the dub only did so because they didn't understand what was going on. I hope people are giving this episode a chance now that an English version is available.

As a matter of fact, I am - though I never really hated it even if it isn't one of my favorite episodes. I honestly didn't realize how much of this episode I was even missing when I first watched it in Japanese, but now everything is clear.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Last week I was hoping for a better episode this time and my wish has been fulfilled in a great way which I would have never expected!

What a wonderful episode! Yes it's true that I usually prefer action-centered plots but this one was so mature and moving alike that I couldn't help but love it.
A Pokemon cherishing its dearest memories with its friend and thus creating its own illusory world because it can't stand the pain of being lonely was a highly profound and heartbreaking theme. If every Pokemon episode was like this, the everlasting debate about whether Pokemon is a children's show would become superfluous for good!
And let us not forget Gothitelle's impressive power! Considering that Snivy couldn't even land one single hit, I was so hoping that Ash would finally catch Gothitelle. (Why, writers, why? Why can't Ash have a real badass Pokemon for a change?)
Anyways, if I were Ash, I would have caught that alternative version of Darkrai without thinking twice.

Great as it was, the plot kept me wondering though why Sally didn't simply offer Gothitelle to come with her at the end of the episode. Wouldn't that have been much easier and less heartbreaking? If you ask me there is no reason for Gothitelle to depart now that she's finally met her good old friend again. Even if Sally is a doctor now, Gothitelle could accompany her and help treat her patients. I'm sure that bandaging wounds with Psychic, for example, would be a helpful and less painful thing. Quite frankly, the farewell scene didn't make sense to me.

All in all, a wonderful, moving and mature episode and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. If only every Pokemon episodes was like this!

 

[AshK]

The CofD was definietely one of the best in a long time in my opinion. Very sad story I did fell bad for Gothitelle since she couldn't really move on right away. I liked Snivy's appearance as well and she has a great move set for a pre evolved pokemon. Poor treeko all it had was a lousy bullet seed until it turned to grovile and had that cool ninja like leaf blade.

 

[Kip]

I actually really liked this episode. I liked Gothitelle, and the CotD (Sally?). I felt it was more emotion than action, but I didn't mind that at all, I enjoyed it, really. And Officer Jenny was amusing, so there's another plus. Although I couldn't help slightly rolling my eyes when Iris told Axew to stay close to her...I mean, it pretty much lives in her hair, how much closer does she want it to get?