Review S15 EP20: An Amazing Aerial Battle!

[garrison-san]

BW068 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Ash is ready for his gym battle against Skyla. As per her gym's unique system, he shows her the three pokemon he intends to battle with in advance - Pikachu, Tranquill and Krokorok. Skyla almost rejects the challenge altogether, believing that her victory is a foregone conclusion, but is finally persuaded into battling Ash by her grandfather Miles. Things get off to a shaky start for Ash, however, when Skyla's Swoobat gives his Krokorok some serious trouble. Will he be able to turn things around and earn his Jet Badge?

 

[Ishida]

Interesting the dub didn't state that Tranquil used Wing Attack instead it used "Attack Now" which is a new Gen VI move I think

 

[matt0044]

^I guess TPCi figured out that they don't use that attack in the games.

 

[DashingFox]

@Fullbring; I lol'd xD

I really loved this gym battle. Definitely my favourite up to this point. I love how since Clay's Gym and onwards battles seemed to have really improved this saga.

Tranquil has always been a favourite of mine on Ash's team so seeing the spotlight shine on her was extremely pleasing.

This gym battle reminded me of 2 things:
1. Aerial battles in the anime can really be a visual treat. Flying-types have so much more space to maneuver than non-fliers so the possibilities of the strategies used are far greater. Add in Iwane as the animator and everything is perfect
2. Pikachu losing Volt Tackle for Electro Ball is still retarded. I wolud've loved to see Swanna just try to use Aqua Ring as a shield against a fricking Volt Tackle Two long range electric attacks in Pikachu's moveset is redundant and laaaaame.

All in all though, lovely episode.

 

[Serperiority]

It was a pretty nice episode here. Very interesting and action-packed. I like how this battle changed the way Skyla battles.

The battle itself was awesome. I guess it's more interesting in a flying-type battle as there's more room to battle. Lots of chasing here and there, and I imagined it as an air battle with actual planes. As if, "Ahh!!! We got hit by Aerial Ace!!! Losing altitude!!!" Unfezant's evolution was pretty cool and she is pretty fast.

In this episode, I barely noticed that Iris and Cilan basically just talk to teach viewers things about battles, type disadvantages, etc.

 

[Kairyu]

2. Pikachu losing Volt Tackle for Electro Ball is still retarded. I wolud've loved to see Swanna just try to use Aqua Ring as a shield against a fricking Volt Tackle Two long range electric attacks in Pikachu's moveset is redundant and laaaaame.

I whole-heartedly agree. Give Volt Tackle back please

And as far the episode goes, I have not seen the dub of it and I never will due to its craptastic music, but after having watched all eight gyms, this gym battle still stands firm as the best one in the region.

 

[Satoshi_Pikachu]

@Fullbring; I lol'd xD

I really loved this gym battle. Definitely my favourite up to this point. I love how since Clay's Gym and onwards battles seemed to have really improved this saga.

Tranquil has always been a favourite of mine on Ash's team so seeing the spotlight shine on her was extremely pleasing.

This gym battle reminded me of 2 things:
1. Aerial battles in the anime can really be a visual treat. Flying-types have so much more space to maneuver than non-fliers so the possibilities of the strategies used are far greater. Add in Iwane as the animator and everything is perfect
2. Pikachu losing Volt Tackle for Electro Ball is still retarded. I wolud've loved to see Swanna just try to use Aqua Ring as a shield against a fricking Volt Tackle Two long range electric attacks in Pikachu's moveset is redundant and laaaaame.

All in all though, lovely episode.

Not to mention Electro Ball is a terrible move, while Volt Tackle was pretty strong AND it looked cooler. Plus it's the signature move of the Pikachu family... Ah, well, at least the anime can make Electro Ball look strong, even if we know it isn't.

 

[WatcherMark]

I think it's pretty clear that the writers of BW really suck when choosing moves for Pokemon... as evidenced by this episode, when Ash's Unfezant learns Aerial Ace (despite three of his Pokemon already knowing it, including his last two flying-types) when everyone was willing for it to learn Sky Attack.

Having said that, I'll never understand people who think that certain elements of the show being different will alter how the storyline plays out. Pikachu's attack would always have been deflected... if he had used Volt Tackle instead of Electro Ball, it would have either been blocked by Aqua Ring or Swanna could have used Hurricane to blow him away. It's not as if he would have defeated Swanna and Ash would have kept Tranquill until it's next appearance in Roxie's Gym.

Anyway, this is a pretty good episode. Hate that the music got replaced during the battle between Tranquill and Skyla's Unfezant, turning it from exciting to dull. On the other hand, I didn't hate the use of the Rival Destinies instrumental towards the end.

Also, seems the dub writers caught the move error in this episode and removed the reference to Wing Attack. Of course, this now means that Tranquill's wings glow for no reason but I'll take that over a move error. Kudos to the dub for that.

 

[Sweenix]

Amazing Episode!!! although unfeazants design has a little to be desired..

 

[Spikemeister Sandeep]

In the gym battle, Krokorok was defeated tooo early and oly because of one flying attack i.e. Air Slash! I think its illogical! cuz i dont think Swoobat was powerful enough to defeat kroko using oly Air slash. If it had used Brave bird or Sky attack or hurricane, i would have accepted this fact but it was jusy an Air Slash! I think its weird, Wot do u think? :/

And Tranquil surprisingly evolved in the Battle so Skyla was actually right about her Air Battle prediction coz she considered Tranquil in her prediction & not Unfezant u noe, that means she was actually correct! Do u get my point? Wot do u think guyz?

 

[DracoMan]

And Tranquil surprisingly evolved in the Battle so Skyla was actually right about her Air Battle prediction coz she considered Tranquil in her prediction & not Unfezant u noe, that means she was actually correct! Do u get my point? Wot do u think guyz?

Not necessarily. The idea of Pokemon evolving during a gym battle was established back in Season 1 and shown multiple times since. An experienced gym leader might have considered that as a factor in predicting the outcome of a battle. Then again, Skyla couldn't see too far past type matchups, so I'm not surprised that she never saw that coming.

And speaking of type matchups, I just realized something: when Pikachu battled Swanna, Skyla had an effective defense against electricity set up, so she actually understood the concept of a Pokemon being able to win despite having a type disadvantage. So why was she giving out badges based on whether or not her opponents had the advantage? Shouldn't she have figured that she could've won a battle even if she were at a disadvantage, and that her opponents could've done the same? She should've realized from the beginning that her "Air Battle" concept was too flawed to be viable. I guess she got so wrapped up in bush piloting that she forgot how to be a gym leader.

 

[Sweet Veil]

I enjoyed the scene where Skyla imagines Swoobat being too high up for Krokorok and Unfezant scaring Tranquill.

Swoobat taking out Krokorok like that was annoying, he had Crunch as well as Stone Edge so he had a doubly advantage against Swoobat, yet he got his ass kicked by one Air Cutter. I guess it's okay since this is his first gym and he really hasn't had any training. Interesting way of countering Stone Edge even though Swoobat still ended up getting pelted by the CGi Rock-type move. Tranquill's win over Swoobat seemed a tad too quick for my taste but, not outside the spectrum of belief since Krokorok at least weakened it for her, plus she was fresh at least. It just bothered me seeing Flying-types being taken out by other weaker Flying moves. I'm just going to assume Tranquill's Super Luck + Air Cutter is what caused so much damage since it's a pretty high crit situation.

I enjoyed seeing Tranquill evade that Air Slash assault from Unfezant. Pikachu calculating when Ufenzant would get close enough with Aerial Ace and smacking it with Iron Tail looked nice, so did Electro Ball and the execution. I really liked the use of the floating objects, using Quick Attack to go through those floating hoops and nailing Swanna like that was smart thinking from Ash. Bubblebeam, Hurricane, Aqua Jet, and Brave Bird was a pretty cool choice of moves for Swanna. Lastly, the bout between Swanna and Tranquill. Unfezant is ugly as shit, such a awkward design, Tranquill looked much better. Aerial Ace, Quick Attack, Gust, and Air Cutter? Why? I'm getting tired of seeing Aerial Ace, why not Sky Attack or Morning Sun? Ditch Quick Attack or Aerial Ace please. The air chase scene was pretty sweet at least, I guess that was an amazing aerial battle. Skyla was pretty cute and I loved that method of using Aqua Ring to block Electric-type moves since we learned it's something her gramps did back in his younger days.

Air Battles seemed to be proven right for the most part. She based her result off of the Pokemon Ash had at hand. Therefore, she was not wrong. Ufezant wasn't apart of her airing, plus Tranquill was clearly getting her ass kicked by Swanna and was worn out by Ufezant and only was saved by her evolution. Sure, I guess you could say "It shows she shouldn't make predictions without giving it a try" but still Air Battles pretty much seemed to have a 100% success rate, when Tranquill isn't getting lucky especially.

So, all in all, this battle was aight I guess. Here's hoping Unfezant and Krokorok get better treatment in the future. I noticed Skyla's catchphrase was changed to "Take Off!" instead of "Come Fly With Me!". I prefer "Come Fly With Me!", so that was annoying.

 

[X-Strike]

Even though Skyla's voice annoys me, it wasn't a bad episode; I enjoyed the battle.

 

[Moe]

I liked how 'Unfezant is unable to battle' sounded, not sure if that was deliberate but it certainly sounded to me like both of the 'un's got a bit of extra emphasis.

The one thing that really annoyed me here was 'Ascend quickly' being repeated about 10 times in the battle - they could have varied things a bit more, there's plenty of ways to tell a bird to do some flying. The fact Swanna seemed to stay in Brave Bird mode for about a minute while being chased around was a bit strange, you'd think that would tire it out very quickly to stay blue that entire time. Just making that clear and showing Swanna getting tired might well have helped make it seem a bit more justified for Ash's Unfezant to win. I did like the camera in those flying scenes though, that's something that's good about having two flying types battle eachother, if only situations like this would mean Ash recalling Noctowl and Staraptor (I wonder how her air battles would go when there's no clear type advantage or evolutionary level difference?).

It is kinda rude of Ash to be demanding a proper battle when everyone else waited in line and very strange that the other trainers would be of the view that they would rather watch a battle with someone else than get a badge for sending three Pokemon out - kinda makes me wonder how serious a lot of them are about collecting all the badges. Another annoying thing is how badly the dub does at those group of kids situations, they always get terrible voices, though considering groups of kids are horribly annoying, that might be an accurate portrayal.

I'm disappointed Krokorok fell so quickly. Snarl would be a good addition to his moveset to help it have a better chance from a distance, because Stone Edge seems to be totally useless. At least he didn't lose his sunglasses this time, but Ash choosing a Pokemon so ill equipped to battle a flying type doesn't help his argument against Air Battles.

I agree with the above about Volt Tackle, though I did like the transition from an iron tail to electro ball that Pikachu did, a very smooth motion and a good way of showing Pikachu's skill. That said, you'd think that by now Ash's Pikachu learning Return in place of Quick Attack make it unbeatable. Either way, I'd like to see something change in Pikachu's moveset by the end of BW.

 

[Torterra Trainer]

I just have to say I absolutely loved Skyla and all her amazing little quirks. Although ascend quickly was getting on my nerves pretty quickly. Man, what I wouldn't give to be able to turn a move like Aqua Ring and use it to block Thunderbolt in the games.......

 

[BladeLight52]

The replacement music during the battle between Tranquill and Swanna was dull, unexciting, and lost all of the excitement for me. Most of the battle music during that fight was from Arceus and the Jewel of Life. Another disappointment was the replacement of the Best Wishes Instrumental. Whether I saw this coming or not, I stand by my statement.