Nastina -- or whatever her cousin's name is -- is a real piece of work. Art-wise, I mean. Her character design, it's something else. It's just so mesmerizingly hideous.
Of course, James and the Giant Breasts is the highlight of the episode, and makes it worth watching. I guess Ash's "First Place In Our Hearts" is kind of d'aww-worthy, and it's great to see Oak getting out, although I could live without him showing up to save the day by suggesting that our heroes showcase all of the women on swimsuit display, up to and including Ash's mother, a twelve-year-old girl... even Jessie winds up part of this. Jessie! Wait, that's normal.
I also have to comment on how when Ash's mom asks if he's keeping out of trouble, we get a flashback to his ferry crashing into a dock. You know, it doesn't occur to Ash that a better example of running into life-threatening situations was that time like a week ago, max, where he and his friends had to escape a sunken ship before it fell deeper into a trench. Man, this anime is a real loose canon.
Next up was "Tentacool and Tentacruel", and... holy what, I don't remember this episode trying so hard to be strangely epic. What with the awkward, over-the-top, booming "giant mysterious Pokemon" monologues and a major character (Misty, in this case) taking an environmental stand, I could have sworn I was watching a super-condensed version of one of the movies. Throw in a ridiculous villain (Nastina, in this case... also, was this woman/family thing supposed to be a recurring idea or something? What the hell is going on here) and you have all the familiar trappings for "Pokemon the Movie Zero: Black-Eyed Horsea and the Mystery of Terrorism Tentacruel".
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that Nastina has a harem of 14-year-old cabana boys, each with their own unique anime hair. Collect all five on specially marked boxes of why-do-both-these-episodes-promote-child-porn cereal.
I tried typing "horsea black eye" into Google to make everyone feel really bad about poor, abused Horsea but instead of what I was looking for, I found this, so we'll close tonight's thoughts with more uncomfortable feelings.
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K | H | A | Q | Q | A | H | K
"As I predicted, your responses were as formulaic as a mathematical equation."