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Review S15 EP05: A Maractus Musical!

Iteru

Iteru

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BW53 - A Maractus Musical!http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/BW53

Ash, Iris and Cilan encounter three Maractus performing a dance routine with their nearby trainer, Toby. After seeing one of the Maractus mess up and introducing themselves, they learn that Toby and the Maractus are practicing their routine so that they can perform in the Musicals in Nimbasa City. Hoping to perform in a local contest before going to Nimbasa, can they get their routine perfected in time with Ash and his friends' help?
 
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I watched the first few minutes of this and, knowing it wasn't that great of an episode based on the reviews from the Japanese version, I didn't get too excited.

What really drove me off was Toby's voice. It was just so... stupid-sounding and grating. Didn't sound like a voice any normal person would speak in.

And what a surprise, the Japanese episode actually made a pun in their title and the dub title has no pun whatsoever. How I miss the puns. You'd think this sort of episode would have a lot of possibilities for silly titles.

But yeah, Toby annoyed me so much that I actually changed the channel and watched Dan VS The Bank instead. And I think I was better off for it. :')
 
Since I'm the one who's been taking a stroll through the Pokemon time capsule, I think I'll be the one to highlight the source material:

This ep ripped off "Flower Power" and "I Politoed Ya So!" with a little bit of "The Bells are Singing!" as well as every ep when Brock performed that stupid song of his ad nauseum to stall for another performer. Like most ripoffs, this ep didn't live up to its predecessors. And speaking of time capsule, we got to see more of stupid S1 Ash, eager to challenge the next gym even though he was in the wrong city. As much as Iris' "What a kid!" line annoys me, the problem is that she's usually right. Why are TPTB doing this to Ash? At least Cilan didn't arbitrarily declare himself a [fill-in-the-blank] connoisseur.
 
Shinneth said:
\

What really drove me off was Toby's voice. It was just so... stupid-sounding and grating. Didn't sound like a voice any normal person would speak in.

But yeah, Toby annoyed me so much that I actually changed the channel and watched Dan VS The Bank instead. And I think I was better off for it. :')
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At this point, the dub director was probably thinking, "Let's just give him any voice, stupid or not. The writers at ShoPro clearly didn't care so why should we?" I wouldn't blame him if that was true.

@DracoMan - What does TPTB stand for?
 
matt0044 said:
@DracoMan - What does TPTB stand for?
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The Powers That Be.

Also, normally I'm very tolerant of the voices - even the ones that aren't very good - of the TCPi era. Sometimes I even think 4Kids had more grating voices in certain areas. But Toby's voice... it really got to me for some reason. It reminded me of another character's voice that I also find very annoying - Bren from Monsuno. It's a stupid show with stupid characters and stupid voices, but Bren caused me to hate the perpetually squeaky, high-pitched weak-sounding whiny voice that no guy would ever realistically have... and sure enough, Toby had the exact same kind of voice.

I suppose I have sort of a limited capacity for tolerance of voices that really get on my nerves. And I have a feeling I really didn't miss much after turning the channel around the time the Musicals were being referenced.

But yeeesh, I too was facepalming at Ash being more moronic than he should be for thinking he was in Driftveil City just so Iris could use her unfunny and annoying catchphrase at him. I swear, I don't recall Ash in the past couple of series being so quick to assume shit like this. In BW, it feels like Ash does this "Yay! We're in <insert name here> City!! Where's the Gym?!" with Iris saying "No we aren't gawd you're such a kid" shtick all the freaking time. It's getting old. Just like most of the other running gags in BW.
 
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Really odd that the singer sang Black and White instead of Rival Destinies, I know the latter is a duet, but they could have recorded a solo version of it than use the outdated song.

I got very bored watching this episode, I'd have liked to see a bit more of the other performances as the COTD's performance wasn't interesting enough to warrant a whole episode. I'd also have liked Ash to complain about how Toby was treating the mini-Maractus - even if they aren't introducing Plasma/N yet, it would be good to be laying the groundwork on Ash's perspective towards Pokemon - he's someone you'd expect to get angry about people mistreating Pokemon, not just stand back and offer to help look after the event.

It'd be nice if they actually did something about the two issues pointed out - the little one being scared of heights and the others having weak arms. That's not solved by having a triple battle - how about doing some training exercises? Instead we got several painful minutes of Pokemon making noise.

I was also a bit confused about the Musical relation - Toby called it a Pokemon Performance Show or something, not a musical - which was quite different in its execution a few episodes ago, and makes the episode title all but wrong. Also - at all points involving a rainbow they were below it, not over it. Regardless of what they do in the anime with musicals, they could at least be consistent in defining them.
 
This was a rather "meh"-worthy episode. I was on my laptop for the whole time, so I wasn't paying attention much.

The Maractus were pretty cool. I like how they sounded. Couldn't figure out why a Triple Battle would help.

Ash was really stupid at the beginning, you know what I'm talking about.

Pretty interesting backstory. Like how he wants the musical to bring the town back alive.

(Toby?)'s voice wounded pretty irritating to me. But I could live with it.
 
I actually enjoyed this episode. Ironically, I thought I would hate it. But, I do think the episode as a whole was pretty good (for a filler, at least). The other performances toward the end were...interesting to say the least, and the scene near the beginning where the trio's Pokémon were trying to play music was pretty funny. I actually thought the combination the Maracti did was pretty neat; it kinda reminded me of Contest appeals (which, ironically, I didn't care much for). Plus, the little one (Tussie, was it?) was super-cute. :D

....there's just one problem I have. How did a rainbow form at the very end...without any rain in sight?
 
Serperiority said:
The Maractus were pretty cool. I like how they sounded. Couldn't figure out why a Triple Battle would help.
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They had to bring it to anime format somehow. And yeah, the Maractus were really cool. Toby, however, could use some testosterone in his voice before thinking of anything music related.
 
matt0044 said:
At this point, the dub director was probably thinking, "Let's just give him any voice, stupid or not. The writers at ShoPro clearly didn't care so why should we?" I wouldn't blame him if that was true.
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Actually they care quite a lot this season. They'll usually listen to the original and try their hardest to get a voice that's as accurate as possible. I'm not sure what happened with Toby, though. Maybe someone was sick?

I heard Maractus in PokePark 2, but I still love their voice. <3 It's so cute and doesn't disappoint, because Maracacchi had adorable voices too. The routine is also fun to watch, as well as watching them try to help the Maractus get it right. But that doesn't seem to match what the majority of you think. :XD2: But that's alright.
 
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I felt that the music selection (change) for the Maractus' performance was a bit off. It didn't seem to go with the routine.

I liked the Maractus' names, especially Tessy. I was very shocked to see the singer doing Black & White instead of Rival Destinies.
 
What a horrible replacement for Contests this is. Just thank the writers for not turning this into a full fledged quest for one of the main characters. This was bad enough.
 
Oh god, that voice. What were they thinking? Tobio sounded SOO enthusiastic but Toby is just bleh. utterly disappointed

However, before this episode, Oshawott's dub voice was just a nuisance to me, honestly. But it actually sounded cuter in this ep. And Cilan, could you BE any cuter? "It's Dancing Time!"

I am definitely disappointed but overall, it was a fun episode. A cute filler alongside Donamite, that is all I want! :)
 
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I love'd Oshawott, Emolga and Pansage in this episode

Did anyone notice how the woman singing black and white lips were completely out of sync?

Apart from that I really love this episode
 
Moe said:
Really odd that the singer sang Black and White instead of Rival Destinies, I know the latter is a duet, but they could have recorded a solo version of it than use the outdated song.
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Maybe they dubbed this episode before the Rival Destinies theme song was finished. TPCi does dub their episodes pretty fast.
 
Well, honestly there's not much that I can say about this episode. It was a classical and solid filler that followed the well-known scheme. The plot and especially the solution at the end were a bit too predictable for my taste, though.
There are only two aspects I'd like to pick out: First, the heroes' Pokemon trying to make music was really cute. They could have spared us Ash's, Iris' and Cilan's dancing performance because I can't help but think that it gave the whole episode a childish touch. But that's a rather minor point if you ask me. What I really have to criticize, though, is Toby's terribly high and squeaky voice. Come on, that boy wants to save his beloved home town (a very respectable goal!) and that's why he deserves something better.

All in all, not a particularly interesting episode but decent entertainment nevertheless.
 
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Iris' dance made me want to laugh out loud uncontrolably, and guess what, it did. Cilan's little Ra Ra Rasputin dance was hilarious as well. I wasn't quite sure what Ash was doing, just floundering around I suppose.

Everyone has said it, but I have to say it too. Toby's voice was unacceptable for someone that looks about 11 or 12, or even older. It literaly hurt my ears.

As Gliscor'd said, I can't believe this replaces Contests. Musicals are SO STUPID. The Pokemon just dance and make noise. How does that even come close to the awesomeness of Pokemon Contests?
 
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