Board 8 > Anagram rates Pokemon part 7: This is now technically the seventh topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

I really will update this when I get back to LA.

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Started: July 6, 2005

On another binge. Please excuse the comments on episodes that were covered awhile ago.

This is an awful episode by its own merits, but don't forget that it's also the season finale.

Except that this anime isn't broken up into seasons in its native Japan (or possibly it is, based on when they change the theme song, but that doesn't match up with the dub anyway), and the dub simply goes with 52 episodes to a season unless there are fewer than 52 episodes needed to get to the end of a series, or at least they've done that ever since season 3. So this being the season finale was completely arbitrary.

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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher
Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?

Anagram posted...
Why include him if he's no longer the champion, though?

Because he was the champion at the time they made that episode. I'm guessing that at the time, they were going strictly off of Ruby and Sapphire, and then by the time they actually got around to the last few gyms Emerald had come along and f***ed everything up.

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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher
Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?

TsunamiXXVIII posted...
On another binge. Please excuse the comments on episodes that were covered awhile ago.

This is an awful episode by its own merits, but don't forget that it's also the season finale.

Except that this anime isn't broken up into seasons in its native Japan (or possibly it is, based on when they change the theme song, but that doesn't match up with the dub anyway), and the dub simply goes with 52 episodes to a season unless there are fewer than 52 episodes needed to get to the end of a series, or at least they've done that ever since season 3. So this being the season finale was completely arbitrary.

Stop ruining my complaints with completely legitimate points.


TsunamiXXVIII posted...
Anagram posted...
Why include him if he's no longer the champion, though?

Because he was the champion at the time they made that episode. I'm guessing that at the time, they were going strictly off of Ruby and Sapphire, and then by the time they actually got around to the last few gyms Emerald had come along and f***ed everything up.

That makes sense, I guess. I don't know when the Steven episode came out relative to Emerald's release, though.

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Started: July 6, 2005

The 14 movie is going to air in Japan tommorow
I wonder if there will be suckers that will watch both movies?

janembaman posted...
The 14 movie is going to air in Japan tommorow
I wonder if there will be suckers that will watch both movies?

Well duh. The difference could be one line of dialogue and people would see both.

... In fact, I'll have to, probably.

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I dont see why Emerald should **** up the anime though
the anime did not let Platinums developments get in the way much either (we did get Charon and Looker though)

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There's no real explanation other than poor planning and not caring, man.

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Anagram posted...


This changed absolutely nothing from the second one except breaking up one tier into two tiers.

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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher
Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?

Where's Armaldo?
"Who are you calling criminals? What we do is take from others and give to ourselves!"
Score: 3/10

The heroes are going to Whales Island, a nature preserve that hasn't changed "in a thousand years!" Really? It's remained unchanged since the middle ages? You're going to make this claim when you clearly show a city on the island?

Do you have any idea how much a city changes the surrounding area? It doesn't only affect the area with buildings, and this island isn't that large. And if it's a nature preserve, why are random children allowed to come to the island with no adult supervision? God, we're thirty-seven seconds into the episode and already nothing makes sense.

The heroes decide to train at a beach, and May excitedly announces that Bulbasaur has learned petal dance after an enormous amount of work. I, uh, I wasn't aware you were trying to teach it petal dance, there, May. Seriously, the episode acts like this is as significant as when Pikachu learned iron tail, but that had multiple episodes of build up, this is brought up out of nowhere.

Max encounters a Cradily, so May checks the pokedex for information on an extinct pokemon it shouldn't know about because when could that information ever come up in her travels except in a situation like this that could not have been predicted. I mean, they didn't put Blaziken in the Johto pokedex, and it's a lot more likely that Ash will be a traveler than an extinct pokemon. Well, in any case, when the heroes tell him that's impossible, because it's not like they've encountered extinct pokemon multiple times in the past (well, May hasn't, but still), he runs into the forest and they follow him, quickly encountering Professor Proctor, his wife Annie (who calls her husband "Proctor," so either she refers to her husband by her own last name, or he goes by "Professor Proctor" like I would go by "Professor Adam").

They have a laboratory of Cradily and Armaldo, and explain that they've cloned them from ancient fossils. Proctor's dream is to clone enough pokemon to turn the entire island (which already has a city on its coastline, mind you) into an amusement park. You might be thinking that I'm going to make a Jurassic Park joke here, but let's be honest, if the technology actually existed, someone really would make Jurassic Park in real life and be completely heedless of the consequences. Probably Disney. The only thing that bothers me here is that Ash supported another scientist who found some ancient Omanyte but decided not to make it public because it would be bad for them to not live naturally, but Ash now has no problem with the opposite.

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Proctor introduces the heroes to an Anorith about to evolve (even though pokemon evolution has always been largely unpredictable), but Team Rocket steals the new Armaldo with the deadliest of their weapons: an ordinary net. Armaldo frees itself, but it now hates humans, attacks everyone, and runs out of the lab. The heroes chase it down and find it trying to eat some apples, and send Beautifly and Forretress to talk to it because they're all bug-types, and as we all know, bugs don't prey on other bugs. It attacks them anyway, and Proctor figures out that Armaldo is searching for berries like the ones it ate "centuries" ago. Proctor knows some ancient berries exist on one spot on the island, and they find Armaldo again.

Team Rocket captures Armaldo again, so Proctor tries to free it and gets his ass completely kicked. Pikachu can't affect Team Rocket's tank with electricity, so it's up to Bulbasaur's petal dance to save the day, knocking rocks off a cliff to break the tank. Since they saved it, Armaldo now trusts the humans and blah blah blah. The narrator mentions that the heroes saw an Armaldo come back to life before their very eyes, which did not happen at all, which means he didn't watch this episode. I've never envied a narrator before.

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Started: July 6, 2005

A Cacturne for the Worse
"If you insist on throwing the word 'adorable' around, then you'd better be talking about yours truly!"
Score: 7.5/10

The heroes are on a boat headed for Azabi Island, where May will enter her next contest. She meets Harley and his Cacturne, and oh my God, this guy is the gayest guy. I can't even try to describe how gay he is, you have to see him in action to understand. At first I thought Drew would be the only obviously gay contest rival (I mean, look at Drew), but Harley, Jesus Christ. Anyway, Harley becomes offended at everything May says, like not knowing Cacturne (even though James has a Cacnea) and thinking his cookies are "not half-bad."

The next day (I assume, it's kind of unclear), the Purika City contest (I assume Purika City is on Azabi Island) begins. Harley continues to act incredibly gay, I have no idea how censors didn't attack this guy. James is at least clearly a joke character, but Harley is a legitimate rival here. He also mentions that he went to lunch with Max, because Harley is clearly someone you want alone with a seven year-old child.

May does well in the first round, with the middle judge calling Bulbasaur "truly remarkable," which is what he calls everything so that's not really a compliment. Harley does amazingly by... standing there.

He follows up by having Cacturne use bullet seed on the floor to make a skull and crossbones, and one of the judges comments that it must have taken hours of strenuous practice. "Hours of strenuous practice" is what it took for me to become good with Captain Falcon in SSBM and beat my neighbor, so I can't say I'm very impressed by that kind of commitment if a sixteen year-old can do the same for a video game.

Looking at Harley's performance, May wonders if she'll even make it to the second round. I would make another about the unnamed extras having a chance, but I've already made that joke like four times now. Harley defeats Unnamed Guy's Azurill easily, and in the locker room, tells May her next opponent uses a Surskit, and that Surskit are slow, so moving in as close as possible before you attack is a good idea. Even though you would want to take advantage of its lack of speed by staying far away. She tries to use Harley's advice against Surskit, but its speed takes her off guard. She makes a comeback, however, and narrowly wins, realizing that Harley is a liar.

It's now May versus Harley. Harley opens with a poison sting against Bulbasaur, which is a pokemon that is immune to poison. Well okay then. When May starts winning, Harley pulls out a tape recorder that he used to record Max's conversation off screen earlier (that somehow is loud enough for the entire audience to hear even though he's on a stage) to reveal an embarrassing story about May being mistaken for a Tentacool by her mother, and uses the distraction of the audience's laughter to launch another attack. You would think Harley would get disqualified for this, but the judges don't even comment on it. Yes, in the Pokemon World, out-of-battle distractions are perfectly legal. May lets her temper get the best of her and starts attacking poorly, and Ash yells to her that she's thinking too much and needs to focus, even though her problem is too much focus and not enough thought. She turns it around at the last moment with a razor leaf/petal dance combo and wins. Harley swears vengeance, blah blah blah.

This episode was okay but for Harley. The guy is incredibly entertaining.

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Started: July 6, 2005

Claydol Big and Tall
"Dance like an eggplant!"
Score: 4/10

The heroes are traveling through "the Valley of Destruction," which is actually pretty nice, and see a huge pokeball on top of one of the mountains. They meet an old man, "Sigorni, the Sage of Azabi Island!", and just imagine if this happened in real life. If you met an old guy who introduced himself as "Charles, the Sage of Los Angeles County," tell me you wouldn't walk away as quickly as you could. He offers to tell the heroes the legend of the giant pokeball, which has been passed down for generations, even though when Professor Oak was a child they used old-fashioned metal-and-wood pokeballs and the pokeball is clearly a normal, modern pokeball, just enormous.

Centuries ago, in the Time of Destruction, a great and powerful Claydol "the size of twenty normal Claydol" (but it's clearly hundreds of times bigger than a regular Claydol, by the way) was sealed within the pokeball, but an "evil stranger" released the force. For seven days, it roamed at will, destroying everything on the island that it saw. A great sage appeared and summoned a second giant pokeball "from another dimension" to trap it and left it in a lake. Team Rocket overhears all of this and goes to the lake to free the pokemon because hey, why not? Claydol starts moving toward a nearby village, and the sage wonders if it'll attack the village. The heroes decide the only option is to use the remaining giant pokeball, but since it's too big to move, they need to draw Claydol to the mountain. By the way, I love how they have no problem with trapping a living being for a thousand years, they're completely cool with it. They never attempt to reason with it or anything, they just immediately try to trap it again.

Team Rocket offers to help, secretly planning to steal Claydol for themselves. After various failed attempts, the sage consults the ancient texts, which tell him that Claydol was created when a maiden used water on a regular clay doll, so they decide to dress up Jessie, May, Meowth, and Wobbuffet as maidens, completely missing an opportunity for James to crossdress. They dress each one up in a different fetish outfit (Jessie = ballerina, Meowth = cheerleader, May = nurse, Wobbuffet = maid). It knocks all of them away except Wobbuffet: the sage then realizes that the Claydol isn't fooled, it just has a thing for Wobbuffet (ew). Wobbuffet then distracts it for long enough for the rest of them to push the giant pokeball off of the mountaintop and catch it.

Team Rocket attempts to steal the pokeball with their balloon, but it's too heavy, and they only succeed in dragging it to the lake, rendering the events of this episode completely pointless.

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Started: July 6, 2005

Once in a Mawile
"There's nothing like walking to the pool and having a Lombre leering at you."
Score: 3/10

A really boring episode. A girl, Samantha, has a Mawile that falls in love with Brock's Lombre, who isn't interested. Mawile spends the entire episode trying to get Lombre to fall for it, but it ignores it. Finally, Lombre sneaks into Samantha's backpack for absolutely no reason and steals a water stone that she has for absolutely no reason, and evolves. Ludicolo falls in love with Mawile, who isn't interested in a pokemon the size of a human and instead falls for a random guy's Psyduck.

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Started: July 6, 2005

they sure love repeating plotlines

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htaeD posted...
they sure love repeating plotlines

For a while, Hoenn was actually doing really well with the filler, which makes it all the sadder.

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Started: July 6, 2005

That poor giant Claydol.

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Beg, Burrow and Steal
"Prepare for trouble, we haven't officially met! The twerps know us, they're doubly upset!"
Score: 2/10

Have you ever wondered what alignments the main characters are? Ash is an obvious Chaotic Good, Misty and May are probably Neutral Good, and Brock is probably Lawful Good simply because he's the most composed and responsible of the protagonists, the one least likely to leap into danger. Max and Tracey are hard to place because of their relative lack of personality traits beyond "annoying douchebag" and "useless douchebag," respectively.

James is probably True Neutral; he's a thief, but that's all he is, and he usually opposes the more evil plans his teammates come up with. Jessie I'd call Chaotic Evil, though an incompetent one. Meowth... Jeez... Lawful Evil? He's the main character most inclined to think of plans, albeit terrible ones.

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Started: July 6, 2005

What in the world did that writeup have to do with that episode?

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It was probably so terrible that a random talk is better than it's writeup

But still,he should havd mentioned the mistake they did in the Trainer Choice

GenesisSaga posted...
What in the world did that writeup have to do with that episode?

I couldn't think of anything funny other than a comment about an underground tunnel having light in it.

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Started: July 6, 2005

From: janembaman | #170
It was probably so terrible that a random talk is better than it's writeup

But still,he should havd mentioned the mistake they did in the Trainer Choice

He did give it a 2/10, which is below what he usually gives awful episodes.

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"First time I got punched in the face, I was like "oh no", then I was like "this is a story"."

Teddiursa is better against Psychic attacks than Poochyena's
According to the Trainer's Choice

Well, Teddiursa has a moon on it, and the moon is a symbol of night time, and night time is dark, and Dark is dark, so it makes sense when you think about it logically.

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janembaman posted...
Teddiursa is better against Psychic attacks than Poochyena's
According to the Trainer's Choice

Well, Mightyena is an irredeemably bad pokemon, where Ursaring is merely substandard, so there's that.

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Started: July 6, 2005

uppp

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Will post more soon

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Absol-ute Disaster
"Why wait here for a disaster when you can be part of one?"
Score: 4/10

The heroes come to a wooden bridge over a fast-moving river. The bridge breaks for absolutely no reason (gasp) and Pikachu is left hanging.

Now, setting aside the fact that Pikachu's arms are clearly too small to have enough strength to lift itself up by one arm like that, here is a list of things the heroes could do other than have Ash recklessly dive to rescue Pikachu:
1. Have Swellow grab Pikachu
2. Have Corphish, who can deal with any amount of water, rescue Pikachu and then locate the two of them downstream
3. Have Grovyle, who is athletic and capable of wall jumping, jump over, grab Pikachu, and jump back
3. Have Bulbasaur grab Pikachu with vine whip
4. Have Beautifly use string shot to wrap Pikachu up and then pull the string shot to yourselves
But Ash recklessly dives to rescue Pikachu, of course. He succeeds, but the bridge is destroyed, and they see an Absol standing in the wreckage of the bridge, Ash declaring that he's heard of Absol before and May checking it out on her pokedex. After all, they've never seen an Absol themselves. Nope, never. They're definitely never seen an Absol before. Not even once.

Some villagers show up and drive Absol off, complaining about how the wild Absol in the mountains nearby are destroying their bridges. They say that the pokedex says they only foreshadow disaster, but-- wait, if you already know that, how can you think that ah screw it. The villagers have hired expert Absol Hunters, which of course are just Team Rocket disguised in safari gear. Don't worry: Team Rocket will be completely irrelevant in this episode and does nothing.

A village kid named Nicky accuses them of not really being hunters because... uh... he just knows? I mean, he's right, but the writers give no reason for him knowing. Nicky's big brother Gordon (who looks like a cowboy even though the rest of the village is obviously Japanese) went to find the Absol a while ago and never returned, so he runs into the mountains and no one stops him. If Nicky's actions seem weird and disjointed to you, don't worry, that's only because they are.

The heroes follow him, and Nicky tells them the full story: Gordon wanted to catch an Absol to prove they don't cause disasters and left the village, and sent word back that he'd found evidence, but never returned. The heroes also learn about the spring that exists underneath the mountain.

They quickly locate an Absol and Gordon. Gordon tells the heroes his full story: he rescued an Absol he was fighting, so he now believes Absol aren't evil. No seriously, that's it. That's his story. He wanted to see Absol in other regions to confirm that they also aren't evil, and has only now returned. Don't ask why he didn't tell the villagers he was leaving, or why he didn't call them on the extremely common videophones in the Pokemon World, or why he didn't just send a letter, because Nicky's predisposition for weird and disjointed actions is apparently genetic.

Just then, Brock realizes the underground spring that feeds the rivers nearby is going to flood for completely unexplained reasons, and indeed, the very moment he says this, the spring overflows and rushes toward the village, so Absol and the heroes attempt to move a huge rock in its path to block the flow. They barely succeed, and the river diverts into two smaller rivers heading away from the village, no doubt flooding other towns.

This episode actually does have strengths, but the actions of the Characters of the Day make very little sense and bring it down.

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Started: July 6, 2005

next few epiosdes are better
at least thats what my memory tells me

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I need to get caught up on B/W again. This mini Don Battle tournament looks interesting. I think it has Bianca, Trip, Langley, and that sommelier girl Cilan fought. Is this the first time all three main characters have had recurring rivals? I don't remember Brock ever having one, but I don't really know anything about the Battle Frontier or Sinnoh stuff.

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http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9413/cutepuppy16.png - Number of people that D'awwed: 60

He's right.

EDIT: That's to say, Death's right.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

mnkboy907 posted...
I need to get caught up on B/W again. This mini Don Battle tournament looks interesting. I think it has Bianca, Trip, Langley, and that sommelier girl Cilan fought. Is this the first time all three main characters have had recurring rivals? I don't remember Brock ever having one, but I don't really know anything about the Battle Frontier or Sinnoh stuff.

Nope. Brock gets less development and screen time than the rest of the heroes for whatever reason, a rival is out of the question.

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Man, Cilan is just way too good. Hopefully he'll stay around like Brock when we get to the new region.

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SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo.
BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.

Some_Character posted...
Man, Cilan is just way too good. Hopefully he'll stay around like Brock when we get to the new region.

He's good because he's esentally Brock

1st gym leader
Cooks the food
And is genrally knolegeable about well EVERYTHING

The only diffrence is Brock's Black

I'd say he's more Filipino

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Congratulations to Black Turtle for winning the guru contest.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snorunt
"You've got some nerve accusing us of badge burglary when we're simply snack snatching!"
Score: 4/10

Even though the heroes are on an island and the previous few episodes have involved valleys and heat, this episode begins at a pokemon center in a snowy area. As they enter the pokemon center, a wild Snorunt greets them, and Nurse Joy explains that it likes to steal things from visitors' backpacks and hide them as a prank like it's no big deal and not something that should be dealt with immediately. It then steals Ash's badge case, resulting in the eight billionth "Ash has lost his badges" scene. It plays with the badges and messes with Ash for a few minutes before running into the forest nearby with Ash in pursuit. Sadly, a blizzard rolls in and the rest of the humans are trapped in the center.

Outside, Ash chases Snorunt even though he could easily just send Swellow after it. Snorunt nearly gets itself killed playing around when the ground collapses under it, and Ash rescues it by tackling a huge rock and falling unconscious. Snorunt builds an igloo around him and the two start to bond, but Snorunt steals Ash's hat and runs back to the pokemon center. I like how Ash doesn't freak out about his hat being stolen like he did when Primeape stole his original hat. Snorunt guides everyone to Ash's igloo once the blizzard dies, and just as it's about to give the badges back, Team Rocket captures Pikachu because why the hell not. The heroes launch a snowmobile off a ramp and then throw Snorunt up to the balloon to stop Team Rocket using icy wind... instead of just using Swellow.

In the ensuing battle with Team Rocket, Snorunt defeats Cacnea and Seviper, and when Nurse Joy tells Snorunt to give Ash his badges back, Snorunt asks to come with Ash because it really likes him. Christ, Snorunt, do you know what happens to the things that like Ash? Just ask Bayleef. Snorunt challenges Ash to a battle, and Ash uses Pikachu instead of Torkoal because I don't even know. Ash catches Snorunt and Nurse Joy goes back to being a hermit with no friends who works by herself in the ass-end of an obscure island, communicating only with her family by phone.

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Deidox43 posted...
Some_Character posted...
Man, Cilan is just way too good. Hopefully he'll stay around like Brock when we get to the new region.

He's good because he's esentally Brock

1st gym leader
Cooks the food
And is genrally knolegeable about well EVERYTHING

The only diffrence is Brock's Black

No, I actually checked this out. Brock is just a tan Japanese guy, or at least Asian. The only characters who are actually black are Iris and Lenora.

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Anagram posted...
Deidox43 posted...
Some_Character posted...
Man, Cilan is just way too good. Hopefully he'll stay around like Brock when we get to the new region.

He's good because he's esentally Brock

1st gym leader
Cooks the food
And is genrally knolegeable about well EVERYTHING

The only diffrence is Brock's Black

No, I actually checked this out. Brock is just a tan Japanese guy, or at least Asian. The only characters who are actually black are Iris and Lenora.

ANAGRAM RUININ MAH DISBELIF

sorry been playing way more TF2 than is advised for daily intake
and by that i mean OMGDISGAMBESTGAMEVAR

I really have nothing to do right nao:(

man Ash shoulda caught Snorunt in gen4
Glalie is so not worth it

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Do I Hear a Ralts
"Prepare for trouble, little miss smarty-pants! Make it double, your Ralts has no chance!"
Score: 7/10

The heroes are derping around when Max hears someone cry for help. Rather than tell the others this, he runs off while thinking to himself "No time to explain!" even though he can easily explain as he runs. He eventually comes to a sick Ralts (don't worry, we'll never get an explanation as to why only Max could hear it cry out), and they decide to take it to a pokemon center. Team Rocket tries to steal it by pretending to be its trainer and family,

But when Ash scans Kirlia with his pokedex, it reveals Kirlia is actually a Meowth. I have to admit that this is actually a fairly clever reveal. They have a battle, and it was at this point that I realized that Team Rocket officially has too many recurring jokes. There's the Team Rocket motto, blasting off again, Wobbuffet popping up at inopportune times, Chimecho coming in on the motto at the end, Cacnea attacking James... they really need to weed out some of these jokes.

Team Rocket proves to be more on the ball than usual and actually puts up a real fight, so Ash sends Max and Snorunt ahead to the pokemon center while the rest of the heroes hold Team Rocket off. Even though Brock is the logical choice because he's the oldest, can run the fastest (remember that he and Ash once caught up to a truck), and knows something about pokemon medicine.

Eventually, the real Gardevoir and Kirlia show up to take it away, but Max persuades them to let him take it to a doctor even though he'll be taking it to a nurse. They then teleport away even though they could just take Ralts and teleport to the pokemon center, and we know pokemon know what pokemon centers do because of the episode where a Shiftry kidnaps a Nurse Joy.

Max finally makes it to the pokemon center, but in a stunning twist, Ralts dies. Max tried his best, and he learns that some things are just out of his control, and that while he can always do what he can do, he can't alwaysno I'm just screwing with you, of course it survives and is completely cured in a few hours.


Max gives Ralts back to Gardevoir and Kirlia, and they sadly part ways in the fifty-third "Someone bonds with a wild pokemon and forces it to leave him for its own good" plotline. What's especially confusing is that Max offers to catch it when he's older and officially a trainer, even though we know children younger than Max can still catch pokemon and they still qualify as trainers, like that one kid who accidentally caught a Bellsprout. Ralts then telepathically says "Promise me, Max, promise me you'll come back and get me" even though it never displayed the ability to speak before, the Gardevoir and Kirlia weren't able to speak, and it's my understanding that it takes a tremendous amount of effort to learn to speak, to a point where even most legendary pokemon don't possess the ability. So now the list is: Meowth, who spent years learning how to speak, a Slowking and Lugia in charge of watching over the balance of the elements in the world, Mewtwo, and random-ass Ralts. Okay then.

This is actually a surprisingly good episode, especially considering that it focuses on Max, who is generally the most annoying protagonist on the show. You really get a sense of bonding between him and Ralts as he tries to save it, and even though it doesn't really make sense that he leaves it in the end, it's still a solid episode.

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Wasn't there also a Lapras that communicated with Ash telepathically? And there was that Gastly that turned into a Venustoise.

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mnkboy907 posted...
Wasn't there also a Lapras that communicated with Ash telepathically? And there was that Gastly that turned into a Venustoise.

Whoops, I completely forgot about Gastly, but in fairness, that Gastly was implied to be hundreds or thousands of years old. And I don't remember a talking Lapras, could you be more specific?

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Started: July 6, 2005

Not really. I just remember a scene where Ash is underwater and there was a Lapras communicating with him. Maybe I'm remembering wrong.

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http://i50.tinypic.com/23qx00.jpg
"First time I got punched in the face, I was like "oh no", then I was like "this is a story"."

The Great Eight Fate!
"Such a colossal waste, opting for money over the gift of exceptional pokemon."
"Exceptional pokemon don't pay the bills!"
Score: 5/10

Ash begins the episode by announcing that he'll soon earn his eighth badge, even though this will actually be his twenty-eighth badge. Once they reach Sootopolis City, they see some fireworks and go to investigate: Juan is putting up a water show for the city, showing off pretty much every single water pokemon in Hoenn.

Team Rocket attacks with yet another electrical net, but Juan is so good that it doesn't matter, and he blasts them off easily. You ever wonder what normal people think when Team Rocket blasts off? "Oh Jesus Christ, those guys were crooks, but Juan just knocked them thousands of feet into the sky and they're going to hit the Earth dozens of miles away, Jesus Christ, I didn't like those people either but Juan just killed them!" And then Max just laughs at them like some sociopathic little child.

Juan agrees to Ash's challenge and takes them on his ridiculously luxurious boat to his gym, recounting how he used to be pokemon contest champion, and tells the heroes that his philosophy is that you should have art in all of your actions, which is probably why he's sacrificed his peripheral vision in favor of a popped collar up to his eyes.


They eventually reach the gym, and the judge (who looks suspiciously like Revolver Ocelot) explains the rules: use two pokemon in a double battle, and then use your remaining three pokemon one-on-one each. May is confused by all of the rules and realizes that this is why Sootopolis is the "last gym." Wait, you do need to challenge gyms in a specific order? Since when? Gary challenged the Viridian Gym when he didn't have badges from same gyms as Ash, I-- oh screw it, I'm looking for continuity where there is none.

Juan leads with Sealeo and Seaking, so Ash sends out Pikachu and Torkoal. No, but you believed it, didn't you? It wouldn't be out of character at all for him to idiotically use Torkoal in a water gym. No, okay, fine, he uses Pikachu and Snorunt. Seaking can disperse electrical attacks with its horn, and Sealeo counters with blizzard. What does Ash do? He has Snorunt use icy wind to freeze the blizzard. I don't even know what that means, but they explicitly say that. Sadly, Snorunt gets knocked out easily, but Pikachu is still up.

Cut to Team Rocket. James is dressed up like Juan, declaring himself "fabulous," and yes, that is his exact word.

Ash sends out Corphish, and basically through muscling through Juan's attacks, knocks out both of Juan's pokemon. They then send out Luvdisc and Grovyle. The episode ends with a cliffhanger as Grovyle is hit by a sweet kiss, the least threatening attack name ever. I'm serious, being hit by a "fluffy bunny doll" attack would be more threatening because at least that could kind of hurt if was thrown hard enough.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

yeah that to be continued was just odd

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FC 1849 0634 8041
Boring sig is boring

From: Anagram | #190
Max finally makes it to the pokemon center, but in a stunning twist, Ralts dies. Max tried his best, and he learns that some things are just out of his control, and that while he can always do what he can do, he can't always

Wow, I actually believed you.

...I am ashamed.




You just don't understand art.

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"FOR MY 3N3M1ES, 1 W4S M34NT TO BR1NG 4BOUT TH3 1NH3R3NT R3TR1BUT1ON FLOW1NG FROM TH3 R34L1TY M4D3 BY TH31R 3V1L THOUGHTS " Terezi Pyrope, Homestuck

Lord Bob Bree posted...
From: Anagram | #190
Max finally makes it to the pokemon center, but in a stunning twist, Ralts dies. Max tried his best, and he learns that some things are just out of his control, and that while he can always do what he can do, he can't always
Wow, I actually believed you.

...I am ashamed.

Mwahaha, you think they'd kill a pokemon outside of a movie? They won't even say "die" outside of the movies.

... Bizarrely, though, they actually will show blood. A few episodes show someone bleeding.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

pokemons worse than Bleach confirmed

edit: they kill plenty of people tho in movies

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FC 1849 0634 8041
Boring sig is boring

Eight Ain't Enough
"James must be believing he's the real Juan!"
"Seems more like Don Juan to me..."
Score: 5/10

Oh, Pokemon. Will you never cool it with your high brow references to classical Spanish literature?

Rather than recall Grovyle, Ash yells at Grovyle to start attacking again, and is rewarded by Luvdisc knocking out Grovyle with a water gun attack. Wow, that's... that's a pretty embarrassing loss for Ash's current most powerful pokemon. Normally, Ash tells pokemon he recalls after they faint "Good job," or something like that, but this time, he doesn't say that.

Ash sends out Corphish to fight Luvdisc, and after really cool battle that would be very interesting to read about but very difficult to describe, Corphish defeats Luvdisc. I have to admit, Luvdisc actually is reasonably badass here, and I'm saying that as someone who counts Luvdisc in his bottom three pokemon.

Juan sends out Whiscash now, and like almost every time Ash leaves a pokemon out against a new pokemon, Corphish loses. To my surprise, Ash doesn't send out Pikachu against the ground-type Whiscash, but instead uses Swellow, the only correct choice. Swellow defeats Whiscash easily enough, and Juan sends out his last pokemon: Milotic. You might think Swellow would have a chance, but nope. Ash still has Pikachu, and except for Watt, Ash has never defeated a gym leader with more than one pokemon left. Just once, I'd like Ash to win a gym match easily. Just be like "Yeah, you were tougher than the regular trainers I fight between towns, but I've fought better."

Ash uses the extremely clever strategy of "Go, Swellow!", but Milotic proves too powerful and defeats Swellow easily.

Ash thinks to himself that Milotic will block any electric attack, so he leads off with thunder. Juan lets Ash hit Milotic, only to use recover just to troll Ash. Ash quickly adopts a strategy of "use thunder/thunderbolt over and over again," and when that fails, he has Pikachu grab Milotic's hair tentacle things, throw it into the water (yes, using Pikachu's tiny arms that can just about hold an entire apple if Pikachu really tries) and shock the entire pool to finish it off.

Juan gives Ash the Rain Badge, making Ash promise to always care for the pokemon he has, even though in the near future he will Oak all of them except for Pikachu and then forget he has any of them except for Grovyle. Torkoal will sit around with Bayleef at Oak's, talking about all of the good times with Ash and pretending to itself that its master, whom it would do anything for, still cares for it. Juan also tells May that a pokemon contest is nearby, and Ash that the Hoenn League will commence in three months. Yep, Ash's declaration of being ten years old in BW definitely makes sense.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

mnkboy907 posted...
Wasn't there also a Lapras that communicated with Ash telepathically? And there was that Gastly that turned into a Venustoise.

Yep. Holiday Hi-Jynx.

And Drew's just a bishonen; they're pretty much a dime a dozen in anime and while they seem kind of gay the first few times you run into them, you quickly learn that this is just Japan being Japan and having wildly different standards for what is considered attractive. Let me quote TV Tropes Wiki for a good example of how Japan and the US have very different standards:

"Since the 1970s, cuteness has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, iconography and mannerisms. Foreign observers can find this cuteness odd because the Japanese are stereotypically seen as stoic and employ it in a vast array of situations and demographics where, in other cultures, it would be considered incongruously juvenile or frivolous (public service warnings, office environments, commercial airlines, government publications — even military advertisements).

The word "kawaii" in Japanese has a broader definition than the English word "cute". When applied to pop culture, "cute" will suffice; however "kawaii" refers primarily to the affection of a parent toward a child coupled with the protectiveness for the innocent and weak. Thus a pop cartoon character is considered "kawaii" because it exemplifies the innocence of a child and evokes general protective, caring instincts in the viewer. Other translations of "kawaii" can include "precious", "lovable" or "innocent". Cuteness saturates Japanese culture so much that one can call this "The Cult of Cute". Just like being sexy and attractive is considered desirable for Western women, this is considered a desirable trait for a Japanese woman, among other feminine traits. Women in their twenties or even thirties might use a high-pitched voice simply because it sounds cute, despite the rest of the world finding it rather weird.

Cute elements can be found almost everywhere in Japan, from big business to corner markets and national government, ward and town offices. Many companies, large and small, use cute mascots to present their wares and services to the public.

Cute can be also used to describe a specific fashion sense of an individual, and generally includes clothing that appears to be made for young children, outside of the size, or clothing that accentuates the cuteness of the individual wearing the clothing. Ruffles and pastel colors are commonly (but not always) featured, and accessories often include toys or bags featuring anime characters. The popularity of Bishonen maybe partly based on this.

Japan traditionally has had a fascination with beauty. Japan's appreciation with cuteness is a part of this trend. As a current cultural phenomenon, cuteness is increasingly accepted in Japan as a part of Japanese culture and national identity. Tomoyuki Sugiyama, author of "Cool Japan", believes that "cuteness" is rooted in Japan's harmony-loving culture, and Nobuyoshi Kurita, a sociology professor at Musashi University in Tokyo, has stated that "cute" is a "magic term" that encompasses everything that's acceptable and desirable in Japan. This is not entirely a bad thing.

Cute merchandise and products are especially popular in some parts of east Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore. In America, however, the opposite applies.

In Japanese culture, the polar opposite of this is Hentai."

--from the opening of the "Kawaisa" page. I think this pretty much says it all.

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