Quoted for truth; I also guess we have no reason to think Shinji is a beginning trainer... Look at his skills as a trainer, c'mon! IMRO, he's far a most experienced trainer than Ash is. Shinji rocks and I see no reason for people to dislike him and/or argue about his appearences. Some people just complain a lot about pointless things.
- Nozomi
Nice to see someone agree with me =]
They did mention he just started around when Hikari did
My Japanese knowledge isn't that good but I'm sure I would understand it if they said Shinji is a begginner and I don't think they said so =X
(irc, and I wonder if that's the same Hikozaru as in DP 1?)
One last thing: are you saying that Hikozaru is not the same one that ran out of the lab? That's new to me.
No it isn't
I think it's really hard to believe that in between the little time was after after Hikari chose Pochama and left Shinji came chose Hikozaru then caught Elekid that amazingly well trained and caught 3 Mukkuru and learned to battle very well
And as I said - if I recall correct than Shinji introduced himself to the Professor meaning they never met before so Shinji probably caught Hikozaru as a wild Pokémon like a lot of other wild starters we saw
but I think he might of had Elekid with him wayy before that. Perhaps he has a very tough and strict father who trained him (Gabster: OMIGOD< IT IS AJEKI!!!!!!!).
This is also may be the reason why Shinji started to treat Pokémon like that... let's hope they really will let us know the reason and that it will be something interesting like that
EDIT: And Hyota sure looks angry when he's giving over the badge.
No he isn't - he just gave him the badge then Shinji took it and said "thanks"
Does it really make a difference? We never found out if Drew was just a beginning trainer in AG, and he was far more skilled/talented than May was.
Shinji is just one of those Smogon freaks who spend their days analyzing the stats of every Pokemon. That's why he's done so well.
Do we have to compare Shinji and Drew? don't get me wrong - I understand why you would compare the two considering they have the same role on the show but they doesn't MUST to be EXACTLY the same and we don't need to try and compare everything with May when it isn't related to her at all...
If we must to compare them- May was a begginer herself when she met Drew and Drew obviously was more experienced but it is less important to know if Drew also started his journey only a little before May or already traveled a lot before because anyway it is logical and easy to accept that he is better then her
But now we see that Shinji has good straregies and he really seems to be much more than a begginer trainer
And I'll qoute myself: "in this episode when Shinji hear that the gym is a rock type he frightened a little and said that he goes to the Pokémon center - maybe there he contacted his home/someone that take care of his old Pokémon and took back Azumarill for this battle?" it is possible that this what happened... we can't know for sure just how we can't know about Drew but here it seems to be more important because Ash is already an experienced trainer unlike May who just started when she met Drew
The only rival we know that didn't start before Ash was Gary, and he started at the same time as Ash and was better than him at the start too, so what's the difference?
The difference is that if two people start at the same time it is logical that maybe one will get ahead of the other
But when we have an experienced trainer then we think that the rival should also be at least a little experienced and not a begginer and what I said about the possibility that he contacted someone to take back Azumarill let me think I'm right and he isn't a begginer
Also if they wanted him to be a begginer why they didn't simply show that he get his first Pokémon from the professor? and that whole thing about them saying how "special" his Elekid is...
He's a rival. Rival characters are always stronger than the heroes. Gary, Drew, and Nozomi were all better than Ash, May and Hikari. Even if Ash has been training for a long time, Shinji is a rival, thus that makes him talented and a strong rival to Ash.
And this doesn't have anything to do with the possibility that Shinji really is an experienced trainer and the possibility that this time we will get to know that for sure...
You know, that seems to be the case many times, where the Pokemon that should be disadvantaged wins. Yeah, that's right! They try so hard to show that
type doesn't always matter, that in essence, they show that type never matters.
But it is logical to see alot of Pokémon with disadvantage win at battles
There is much more other than the Pokémon's type like the moves he use, the strategy the trainer thinks of, how well the trainer knows to make the surroundings to help him and more
Types are not everything... but sometimes we does get to see that the type helps
EDIT-
What does Shinji keep saying when he returns his Pokemon?
If I recall correct then for Azumarill it was something about how useless it was and for Hikozaru he probably said something similar
I liked that remake of the old Johto battle song.....
Me too =]
And it's really late here now so I think I'll go to sleep... good night
