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Review SM054: Shine, Z-Power Ring! Super Full-Force 10,000,000 Volts!!

I actually felt the intended tension in the first half of the episode, but by the second it had evaporated and I had to laugh at the SatoPika Z move because it was such an arse-pull.

Lusamine's motivations & role have been extraordinarily weak and I think this is the fundamental flaw in this arc, resulting in it being quite difficult to emotionally invest in her rescue. For comparison, I feel the story peaked in the episode with the Silvady flashback because we have been given a number of reasons to care about Lillie.

How come Kukui wasn't more worried that the schoolchildren who are under his care had gotten sucked into a time/space/reality warping hole with who knows what dangers inside, that they didn't know how to reopen?

Nice TRio scene.
 
I get the writers wanted to get to the end of this story for whatever reason, but I don't see why they had to shove it all into a handful of episodes like this. Why not introduce Lusamine and co earlier on in the series so this was actually impactful? I wasn't too thrilled with her character being changed like this and of course it's up to Satoshi to save the day because this is the Pokemon anime and what's creative storytelling? But I guess the target audience likes it so its not that big of a deal
 
Weird episode. I can't say simply say it was so-so, but rather it was good at times and not so much at others.

Mallow, Sophocles and Lana make a pretty nice trio as characters IMO, I enjoyed their scenes a lot. That said, I think the episode peaked when Ash tried to approach Lusamine, and once again the music helped a lot with that. The scene where Gladio and Lillie find their way over the poison was pretty clever too.

On the negative side, Lusamine's character and her dynamic with Lillie feel like such a clusterfuck at times. Is she acting like that just because she's being controlled or is she totally letting herself be taken over by Nihilego? I know things here aren't supposed to be black and white and that's fine, but the way their relationship is being handled makes it look kinda messy more than anything else. I haven't finished USUM yet but it sorta looks like they're trying to mix both SM Lusamine and USUM Lusamine into one character and it's just not working quite right.

The 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt scene was totally epic, but the execution was totally forced.

And by the way, seeing Litten's Fire Fang on Lilligant made me miss the XY animation.
 
Nicolas721 said:
It's not a DEM because it solved everything, it's a DEM because it appeared out of nowhere.
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IMO the worst part is Ash and Pikachu stealing the spotlight from Lusamine's kids and Nebby, it just screams "we have a new Z-move to show off so here's some forced promotion." If Lillie and Gladion had commanded Nebby to attack and it knew Sunsteel Strike out of nowhere it wouldn't even have bothered me.
 
Watching the episode with subs, we get to understand the important things the characters said.

  • When Lillie climbs up the rock that Lusamine had made and walk up to her, Lillie yells, "I hate you!" which caused Lusamine to stop her rampage.
  • Lillie says that for years Lusamine always treated her like a baby, and at the moment Lusamine is acting of a spoiled baby she have ever been. And very briefly tells her what happened in the earlier episodes.
  • Lillie reveals that Lusamine had been doing research on the Ultra Beasts for a long time, possibly started sometime shortly before Gladion was born to when Lillie was very young.
  • Lillie then says that Lusamine is a strong person, but at the moment can't move on her down because she's being controlled by Nihilego.
  • After Lusamine half concisely goes to reach for Lillie after Lillie encouraged her that she can get out, and Nihilego angerly regains control of Lusamine and attacks Lillie as Silvaly rescues Lillie. Gladion calls it a monster.
  • Gladion tells Ash and Lillie that just like how Lusamine wants to learn more about the ultra beasts, Nihilego might be trying to learn more about humans.
  • After Lillie tells Lusamine that she knew that she's strong, Lusamine tells her and Gladion that she feels like that she was living in a nightmare.
  • After Ash tells Rotomdex about the 10,000,000 volts z-move, it gets excited and wants to learn more about it.
  • After the kids and Lusamine gets back into the real world, Team Rocket funnily enough called the ultra wormhole a "nice hole". They clearly know nothing about it and how dangerous they can be.
  • When Sophocles shows Ash, Lana, Mallow, and Kiawe the ultra space rock that he picked up and took with, surprising them. They wonder why he took it with him, Sophocles tells them that he took it with him as a memento of their adventure.
  • Lana goes to tell Sophocles, that the rock he got will get him possessed by an ultra beast, scaring Sophocles and making Ash, Mallow, and Kiawe scared and worried for Sophocles's safety. Lana then tells them that she's kidding, making them all releaved.
  • Sophocles yelled at Lana for making him panic for real.
Little that all of the kids except maybe Gladion and Lillie know, only Nihilgo is the only ultra beast that can possess anyone, and there are more dangerous ultra beasts to worry about later. Maybe the rock that Sophocles found is foreshadowing more things to come in the future, and might have some kind of role that will start up future events. Or just this one thing that will never be seen and mentioned ever again.
 
I thought this episode made up for the last few.

It established a theme throughout this episode, which I assume will go throughout this season that together, this group is the "greatest team" even when they're weak. One special moment that made it even more clear was when Mukoroh and Mao's Pokemon worked together, created a move to take out the final evolved form Pokemon, in which Nyabby came in to save his friends with fire fang.

When I think about it, though, this season has always been about "family," "friends," and "teamwork."

If I don't hear someone say, "Ohana is family. Family sticks together," I'm gonna feel like this season cheated us.

As for the battles, themselves, they're what I expect when everyone sort of has weakly levelled Pokemon without much attacks.

This episode did an excellent job at giving us a taste at what's to come in this series. This was their first major boss battle of the Sun and Moon series. This was their Mars/Mercury/Moon vs Jadeite. Imagine what their true final battle is going to look like later on when everyone is stronger, their teamwork is even better, and the stakes are even higher.

Lillie's moment with her mother worked so much better for me than her moment last week. I felt it this time.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. More than any other season, Sun and Moon loves its characters. It loves keeping them in character at all times. I'm going to make the same bet I've been making throughout this season: by the end of this series, its probably going to have the saddest moments.

Because I don't trust anime (no matter what age group its made for), something bad is going to happen to one of these characters that will be irreversible and its gonna tear at her our heartstrings.

All in all, I give the episode 7.9/10.
 
NeoMiniTails said:
Because I don't trust anime (no matter what age group its made for), something bad is going to happen to one of these characters that will be irreversible and its gonna tear at her our heartstrings.
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Are we watching the same show?
 
Unown Seer said:
Are we watching the same show?
Click to expand...

Good question. I don't know... Is it?

Just maybe... It is ...If it's the same show that Nyabby's best friend died, where a cubone's mother haunted a place after killed by Team Rocket, or where Mewtwo and his clone army must live peacefully in hiding because of what selfish human kind may do to them... then yes, its the same show that dealt realistically with Hikari's depression and PTSD, killed a Pokemon in the 5th movie and didn't bring them back, and made thousands of children sad when Ash's goal was so close yet so far away.

This is the same show that took away ketchup from Pikachu! Can't get darker than that!

99f7aa7d32374f49609368b0433ea3a0d7b0310a_hq.gif
 
Not to be nitpicky, but Cubone's mother wasn't incorporated into the show.

You said an "irreversible event", which usually means death with a profound effect. In Litten's case, it only took a few minutes for it to move on. Anyway, do you really think that they're going to pull another death?
 
Unown Seer said:
Not to be nitpicky, but Cubone's mother wasn't incorporated into the show.

You said an "irreversible event", which usually means death with a profound effect. In Litten's case, it only took a few minutes for it to move on. Anyway, do you really think that they're going to pull another death?
Click to expand...

Nyabby didn't just move on. Just because it isn't crying every episode does not mean it simply moved on. His relationship with the dog is why he's so close with Lyranroc.

Cubone's mother was incorporated into Origins, which doesn't have that far off of a storytelling style.

Death isn't the only thing that's irreversible. There are some things in life that people must live with and have no escape from it.
 
This arc could have been better if they didn't use Pikachunium-Z for the selling purposes. Overall, this arc was rushed as hell. Could it be for the upcoming USUM plot? I know this is for kids and comedy has taken over battles and actions here, but we can't blame it's bad, this artstyle is similar to Pokemon Origins series which is why they look different. At least they don't seem to use this kind of animation to the movie, and that's good. I mean, who would want to see this animation in the movie? Sun and moon Series will get better and better next year. For now, I'd rate Aether arc just 7/10. We have right to like it or not like it, there are some episodes that are filler and sometimes great. I hope the next year will have the other classmates catch some Pokemon, Mallow, Lana and Lillie are the only ones with a single Pokemon in their hands, except Lana who has a Lapras as a Ride Pokemon. And what's more, I want to see Popplio evolving into a Brionne, that'd be great and better developments for Mallow and Sophocles.
 
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