Boring and looong. I loved the swablus though. The escened of Team Rocket sunbathing were totally unnecesary, as well as the 'inside the cave' escenes.
Another filler.
Yeah, because those cave scenes didn't do
anything to help differentiate Mukuru from Ash's other pokémon, and it would have been
so much more relevant to see Ash and co. wandering around the wilderness instead!
And seemingly pointless scenes involving fan service? Why, the animé has
never done
anything like
that before! *cough*MARCHOFTHEEXEGGUTORSQUAD*cough*
And yes, I agree. Character development and pokémon evolution certainly DOES equate to filler material!
Anyway~
I really liked this episode. For one, the animation was lovely, but I expect as much from anyways. There are one or two
minor slip-ups, but it's no different from the kind of mistakes Iwane and co. usually make, and I
really love his drawing style. It's a lot more 'cartoony' than a lot of the other animation directors, and it allows him to experiment a bit more with character expression and movement.
But anyways...the episode itself was great fun, if somewhat standard to a certain degree. Mukuru, the dear blessed brain damaged thing, got it's final moment in the spotlight, and I for one thought it made for a perfect last hurrah.
Mukuru's new found personality was a welcome treat, and I was honestly surprised at how well it was handled, especially since the poor thing has had such a small amount of focus up until this point. It's leadership abilities and planning skills were quite impressive (although they did remind me of Noctowl's first episode a wee bit), and as likely as it may be, I hope they manage to incorperate this into Muku
bird's personality too. I think it would prove to be interesting in a 'Turning Over a New Nuzleaf' scenario, for example.
Though if I may say so, I thought Mukuru's evolution felt far too much like a last minute tack-on. It'd been nice if the lil' guy had been a little more involved with that Team Rocket bout instead of Bonsly. I know Bonsly evolves in the next episode and all, but his involvement really didn't make much sense at all. But it's a minor complaint.
And of course, you had all the little in-betweens as well. If I'm quite honest, I actually
did laugh at Female COTD's introductory scene and I was amused by Brock's ineptitude. It's made me realise that all Brock
really needs for those little skits are some good facial expressions and over-the-top animé poses and he's all set. Compare Greggle poisoning him in this episode to Greggle poisoning him in, say, the Pokétch ep. The difference in 'funny' is quite noticable.
Random points of interest;
-She may have been the unholy spawn of Bugsy and…uhh…wasserface new gym leader. But she was still cute.
-I agree with The Benmeister. Team Rocket do seem a lot more competent as of late. You have to give 'em props for a trap like that, especially when it manages to net them
that many pokémon.
-Did anyone else notice Hikari's 'WOAH!' expression as the group slid down into that trench? I thought it was amusing~
-The way Meowth said 'Mukuru' was cute.
-Hooray for the ever changing voice of the all powerful Mayor McCheese.
-Gotta love that Fearow poking it's head out of the ground before the earth explodes and a shower of birds fly through the resulting hole.
-Jessie in a bikini wins. Who needs Hikari when you've got a
real animé babe to model swimsuits.
-You've also gotta love the stereotypical animé villainess laugh demonstrated by Jessie as Mukuru was blown back by Dustox's Gust.
Unless of course you're Ashy-boy. Because then you can't really like
anything Jessie related, ne?