Review S14 EP34: Gotta Catch A Roggenrola!

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garrison-san

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BW034 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Ash and friends are enjoying a picnic when they are menaced by an unusually eratic Roggenrola with a strange device afixed to its back. What does this have to do with the local Pokemon Center recently losing its water supply? And how are Team Rocket connected?

(To dicuss this episode in an environment free of all spoilers from episodes which have aired in Japan, please check out the discussion thread in the Spoiler-Free Zone.)
 
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Rahgenolla? I've been pronouncing it rohgenrolla. Tough? No, it just knows how to dodge. Wait...Sturdy is going to make pokes unable to faint in one hit in the anime, too? Well, that won't help it much other than saving it from deus ex machinas. I don't have much else to say.
 
IMO this episode was boring, both the original and dub... but Roggenrola had a good voice xD
 
After many highly productive episodes of non-appearance, I guess Team Rocket's had their Awesome Villain License renewed, and I am happy.

This particular episode has the TRio acting possibly more dangerously and viciously than they had been even in the pre-Castelia episodes, and the writers and animators seemed to deliberately accentuate this.

The energy beam weapon they build that is powered by enslaved Roggenrola and their wanton use of it against the protagonists, Pokémon and human alike, nearly puts the TRio in Hunter J style territory. Better yet, the reference to the machine being designed by Dr. Zaeger (SP?) once again ties back to the notion that Team Rocket is actively trying to take control of Unova by force and that Jessie and James are a key part of this, a notion that's sort of fallen by the wayside since the Meteorite arc fizzled in Castelia City.

Also, the NON-STOCK FOOTAGE Motto sequence helped a lot as well.

Learning this episode would be about Roggenrola, I figured this would be an uninspired "help the Pokémon of the day" episode akin to the Cottonee episode which fell back on nearly EVERY "help a Pokémon of the day" convention to have been written previously, and which featured a totally negligible Team Rocket appearance which served as pure time filler and had Jessie, James, and Meowth resorting to flat out Sinnoh style antics.

This is how to do an episode about the protags encountering a new species of Pokémon that revolves around the new creature's abilities and special attributes without making it a fill-in-the-blanks "Help the Pokémon" filler episode that could have just as easily have been about any other Pokémon at any other point in the series.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, making Team Rocket an OCCASIONAL and unexpected test of the protag's skill (or having them in the background advancing a LARGER threat to the protags) and not a daily, easily dealt with nuisance so that it's actually a big deal when they do appear on screen is probably the best thing to happen to the new series, as it basically makes time for every other improvement (like the recent focus on trainers literally TRAINING their Pokémon aside from merely doing practice battling) possible.
 
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I gotta admit, Excadrill popping out with his awesome pose, with lightning shooting out of him, only to be told to dig a hole, was pretty funny.

But I thought it was a good episode. Sure, it has it's problems, but sometimes all you need is a few decent battles, nice animation, and a giant doom weapon for a reasonable good time.
 
I liked the fact that Tepig was shamelessly whored out. ^^_

Adn Roggenrola's voice is....Well, it is.
 
Roggenrola's voice made me LOL!
I guess it's kinda cute though.

I only watched this from half way in, and the plot of the episode was so dry I couldn't really pay attention. But I'm glad Tepig got a battle.
 
I liked the episode. But did anyone else notice how "phone it in" Mr. Garrison sounded?

And no, not THAT Mr. Garrison...
 
Purim said:
I liked the episode. But did anyone else notice how "phone it in" Mr. Garrison sounded?

And no, not THAT Mr. Garrison...
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Seriously? They named Tuttle Mr. Garrison? Wow, that's kind of distracting. :p
 
I kind of liked the music which was used during the Team Rocket's motto! I seems like they're the heroes. But, while I enjoyed the music used during the motto, I hope they don't start changing it, this may have worked out perfectly this time, we know how TPCi works and I don't want them to ruin mottos.

And, again, the lines of the motto sounded very weird (due to some pauses by the voice actors) because of how bad the motto was translated. If only they had done the "Future! (...)" and "Universe! (...)". TWO SENTENCES are supposed to exist where there is only one in the dub!

I enjoyed Roggenrola's voice. I thought that Roggenrola's Japanese voice was very similar to Meowth's voice (so much that in that motto scene I had no idea if it was Roggenrola crying or Meowth speaking)
 
PTOldMan said:
And, again, the lines of the motto sounded very weird (due to some pauses by the voice actors) because of how bad the motto was translated. If only they had done the "Future! (...)" and "Universe! (...)". TWO SENTENCES are supposed to exist where there is only one in the dub!
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But if you remember, James paused further into his line than Jessie did. There were too many lip flaps before his pause for him to only say the word "Universe."
 
Team Rocket said:
But if you remember, James paused further into his line than Jessie did. There were too many lip flaps before his pause for him to only say the word "Universe."
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You know, this thread made me realize for the first time why they write in "stall lines" in the beginning of Jessie and James lines in the dub motto, such as "We bring..... the blinding white light of evil into your future!", becuase of the way the restructured the motto itself in the translation.

Really the only time in the dub they get the chance to deliver the motto without such writing conventions to accommodate the lip flapping is the very first time they deliver the motto in "Enter Iris and Axew", all the other times they have to add stuff to justify the pauses. Its a shame really because I actually like the way they translated the motto itself, and the one time they can deliver it flawlessly without causing technical constraints with the animation is the very first time.
 
Is it wrong that I absolutley LOVED Roggenrola's voice. It was so cute and perky. Something you wouldn't expect from a walking rock. I REALLY hope it evolves into a Gigalith. I wonder how they would do the evolution-by-trade thing in the anime, and it still ends up being Ash's pokemon. I guess we'll have to see in the future.

It really was refreshing that now Excadrill is a usefull addition to the gang's pokemon. Iris' pose was cool IMO.

I laughed when Oshawott KO'd itself on the table. It FINALLY got the move down, and the next time it uses it it hits a table and faints....Oh Oshawott you
 
Torterra Trainer said:
Is it wrong that I absolutley LOVED Roggenrola's voice. It was so cute and perky. Something you wouldn't expect from a walking rock. I REALLY hope it evolves into a Gigalith. I wonder how they would do the evolution-by-trade thing in the anime, and it still ends up being Ash's pokemon. I guess we'll have to see in the future.

It really was refreshing that now Excadrill is a usefull addition to the gang's pokemon. Iris' pose was cool IMO.

I laughed when Oshawott KO'd itself on the table. It FINALLY got the move down, and the next time it uses it it hits a table and faints....Oh Oshawott you
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More or less my sentiments.

Except, I didn't like Ash's reaction when Roggenrola first appeared. It seemed rather obvious that Roggenrola needed help, and Cilan at the least noticed this.

I also didn't find the title to be particularly accurate, or exact, rather... even though Ash at the beginning wanted to catch Roggenrola. (Catching Roggenrola ultimately didn't seem like a "feat"--it was acquired in an easier manner than Iris's Emolga. I think I may have lost track of the Roggenrola at the beginning even, and that Ash may have caught another Roggenrola... I was drowsy when I watched the episode though.)

Oh, Tepig was strange (weak?) in this episode, and Roggenrola seemed weak as well at the episode's end (as to how it seemed in the beginning, blocking Oshawott's Water Gun attack). Ash's commands to Tepig I found baffling--Tepig really needs another kind of move, perhaps Wild Charge, or maybe Head Smash. I'd doubt that it would ever get Grass Knot, unless all of the Unova starters belonging to Ash learned it.
Serperior99 said:
Well, it was an okay episode. Roggenrola was great. I like how he/she/it walks by hopping around.

TRio was perfect. They had a really good machine there.

I loved the part when Cilan was all, "My delicious fruity creation was ruined by Roggenrola's destruction time!!"

It was a great episode overall.
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Post below me--I agree with the sentiments about the Cilan statements, TR, and Roggenrola as well.
 
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Well, it was an okay episode. Roggenrola was great. I like how he/she/it walks by hopping around.

TRio was perfect. They had a really good machine there.

I loved the part when Cilan was all, "My delicious fruity creation was ruined by Roggenrola's destruction time!!"

It was a great episode overall.
 
a lil nostalgic on the title. But it was a filler like any other. I can't give it any more than a 1

1/100
 
Though the episode was rather boring, I absolutely loved Team Rocket in this episode! They came across as being very badass in how they used their machine and kept firing it towards Ash and them. I can't remember them doing anything like that in a while, so I was very impressed to see them being used well
 
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