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A Tiny Trio on a Big Adventure!! (959)

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen
Well, it was nice to see Stoutland again. And seeing Lana drag Ash off instead of Mallow.
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
so in the end, this whole thing is bounsweet's fault for sneezing lol.
It was Rowlet's fault for trying to make the moves on her (sweeping her off her feet). :p

Bounsweet did do something in this episode that kickstarted the plot.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
Some people were hoping Bounsweet would do something in this episode. Well, she did--she kicked off the entire plot of the episode by sneezing. :p

And then heli-kicking Rowlet into the bubble. Was expecting at least a 'whoops' cartoon expression from it...any sort of character for her. Why must the Mallow squad constantly be the load? Oh well, two episodes to go hopefully.

I don't get why people complained about the animation for this one, it was pretty on form, if much more Americanized and bouncy than usual, not that it made it bad, just WAY more lively.

Good episode though had to feel sorry for Rowlet getting passively smacked around by the other Pokemon non stop this episode (and then ticking off Popplio by hanging out with the ladies. XD). A bit of a nitpick but I hope this doesn't become TOO much of a habit. Rowlet isn't obnoxious enough to get kicked around the others without it looking more like outright bullying (Piplup and Oshawott were arrogant pricks, while Chespin was a little brat that dished out as much abuse and vitriol to Pancham as vice versa, Rowlet is just spacey and doesn't even try to fight back).

Calling Meowth vs Litten rivalry. Personal relatability, plus being physically and emotionally humiliated, PLUS Meowth remembers last time. It's not just another Pokemon that pwned him. Funny single sweep battle. Litten must be resistant, even Pikachu flinched in his with Meowth despite winning. Litten just walked off bored. (Still a lot more of Meowth trying to battle this series I notice, and nothing of poor Wobbuffet).

I liked Stoutland acting as a voice of morality this time and appealing to Litten's nicer side. It seems to know Ash means well too. Looks like it wants it's moody little disciple to open up to it's empathy.

Of minor notes, intrigued Meowth managed to command Mareanie. Guess not all Pokemon are as restrictive as Ekans and Koffing (that or you know, they got sick of his 'top cat' shtick :p). Also TR converting to joy when realising they're blasting off. And Rowlet and Popplio BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS from TR of all people after destroying their evil satellite scheme. XD
 
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Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
Good episode though had to feel sorry for Rowlet getting passively smacked around by the other Pokemon non stop this episode (and then ticking off Popplio by hanging out with the ladies. XD). A bit of a nitpick but I hope this doesn't become TOO much of a habit. Rowlet isn't obnoxious enough to get kicked around the others without it looking more like outright bullying (Piplup and Oshawott were arrogant pricks, while Chespin was a little brat that dished out as much abuse and vitriol to Pancham as vice versa, Rowlet is just spacey and doesn't even try to fight back).

IMHO, Rowlet didn't get smacked around that much in this episode. Also, to be fair, some of the problems Rowlet and Popplio encountered were due to Rowlet's overreacting--for instance, the balloon popped because Rowlet kept zipping around, rather than holding still, and popped it with its beak. I don't think "Rowlet abuse" will become too much of a habit.

I do appreciate that this episode showed that Popplio, despite it almost always being cheerful and easygoing, does have its limits. I think it was ticked off at Rowlet hanging out with the ladies because that was a distraction from their mission of returning to their Trainers.

Sometimes I think the anime holds itself back from some serious animation potential.

[spoiler='Cause it's creepy][/spoiler]

No thanks. Those faces are the stuff of nightmares right there. Or that's fan art drawn by a shounen manga artist that somehow made its way into the Pokémon anime. :p
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
IMHO, Rowlet didn't get smacked around that much in this episode. Also, to be fair, some of the problems Rowlet and Popplio encountered were due to Rowlet's overreacting--for instance, the balloon popped because Rowlet kept zipping around, rather than holding still, and popped it with its beak. I don't think "Rowlet abuse" will become too much of a habit.

Half way in though it seemed to kind of transition into trolling though, eg. bouncing his bubble onto the river and watching him slip around. Rowlet at worst sulked over any turmoil Popplio caused him (a lot of which was much more on purpose) so it was harder to buy Popplio as the long suffering one.

I mean yeah, though, the rest of the series has been reasonable with Rowlet and balancing his badass or comic relief/butt monkey elements, so I'm hoping it will stay as before otherwise.

I do appreciate that this episode showed that Popplio, despite it almost always being cheerful and easygoing, does have its limits. I think it was ticked off at Rowlet hanging out with the ladies because that was a distraction from their mission of returning to their Trainers.

Probably. Wanting a three way is a more fun fan theory though.

No thanks. Those faces are the stuff of nightmares right there. Or that's fan art drawn by a shounen manga artist that somehow made its way into the Pokémon anime. :p

Didn't they have a similar shot in an XYZ episode? If this escalates into a running gag imagine what the next one will be....
 
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mystic9899

Pokemon fan
lol my favorite moments in the episode were whenever popplio kept getting ticked off by rowlet for snoozing, being smooth with the ladies, etc.
 

Janovy

Banned
Anyone noticed this plot hole?

Apparently Popplio's balloon is too weak to hold a human, but in the fight vs Team Rocket it had no problems carrying Jessie and James into the sky.
 

Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
Anyone noticed this plot hole?

Apparently Popplio's balloon is too weak to hold a human, but in the fight vs Team Rocket it had no problems carrying Jessie and James into the sky.

I noticed that, too, but I'm just going to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and Popplio's balloon-producing skills leveled up in the face of a crisis. When nothing is at stake, its balloons are too weak to hold a human, but when the stakes were high, it was able to bring forth powers it previously did not have (or did not know it had). I guess that would be the Pokémon equivalent of an adrenaline rush?
 

mystic9899

Pokemon fan
Anyone noticed this plot hole?

Apparently Popplio's balloon is too weak to hold a human, but in the fight vs Team Rocket it had no problems carrying Jessie and James into the sky.

well, it was able to carry ash for a few seconds back in episode 5. maybe it can do it, but just not perfectly.
 

Frozocrone

Miraculous!
It's this kind of episode that makes me wish...

Why doesn't the forum update its anime avatar selection every episode?

We're still waiting on XYZ but I would love to have Ash/Lana/Mallow reaction faces as my avatar.

Did anyone else like that skat music when Rowlet and Popplio were flying?

Anyone noticed this plot hole?

Apparently Popplio's balloon is too weak to hold a human, but in the fight vs Team Rocket it had no problems carrying Jessie and James into the sky.

Ssshh...I'm just going to say it improved over the episode when Rowlet was bouncing around all over the place inside.
 

Yuugis Black Magician

Namaikina Imouto
Well I was mostly joking :D

The fact that Sun and Moon anime utilizes a simpler art style does make for good animation but it also means less money to be spent on said art, meaning that money can be invested in something else (like this movie, especially since it marks the 20th anniversary and they wanna go all out).

I do think that the new art style is mostly there for animation purposes, but the cynic in me tells me it's also because it seems cheaper somehow. Maybe I'm wrong. :D

It is actually the opposite. Beginning with XY the franchise was allowed 20-30% more in-between animation drawings (douga) than prior series. In-between animation pays by the drawing, 200-300¥. Rookie key animators start at 4,000¥ per cut (they use the English word 'cut' to describe what we might call a 'shot' in live action). In other words, animators are not paid based on time. Big studios like OLM will likely also pay their animators a salary, but even big studios don't have many in-house animators, so that is not a factor that need be worried about. Subcontracting is actually more expensive than taking the time to do everything in-house. This is why the quality of animation in series produced by Kyouto Animation is so high: they have the money (and smart producers) to take the time to do darned near everything in-house, so they wind up getting more for their money.

Anyway, the switch to simpler character designs has more to do with making it easier for animators to draw expressive animation quickly. Your average tweener can draw fifteen in-between drawings a day, but the less lines there are to worry about the easier it is for them to draw more. Conversely, your average key animator can normally finish two cuts a day, unless your name is Iwane Masa'aki and you can do an entire episode's three hundred cuts in six weeks. The simpler the character designs the more an ambitious key animator can exercise their ambition by drawing extra key animation frames to help control the timing more precisely. Of course, this hasn't stopped the key animators from putting effort into individual key frame drawings. The facial expressions for Sun & Moon are consistently drawn with care to evoke a sense of personality from each character. Before Sun & Moon who could have imagined that Satoshi had a sense of humor or a sense of contempt?

Simple character designs, more drawings, the best production schedule in the industry (key animation finished five months before airing) and the freedom to exercise one's own creativity are the three promises that Sun & Moon (and to a lesser extent, XY) has made to animators. As a result, with Iwane Masa'aki's already legendary legacy for the franchise behind it, OLM Producer Kato Hiroyuki has offered talented staff a genuine sandbox of dreams to play with. There's a great wealth of talented staff now working on the series, too.

Series Director Tomiyasu Daiki (storyboarded for The Origin, Series Director of Generations, Assistant Series Director of XY & Z)
Asada Yuuji (long time storyboard artist and episode director, since Episode #3 of the first series)
Iwane Masa'aki (the longest-running good animator, usually does solo key animation episodes but also works on Natsume Kunihiko's episodes and now on Nanba Isao's debut as animation supervisor on Sun & Moon #16)
Oohashi Aito (XY & Z #35)

(XY & Z #37)
Kameda Yoshimichi (first became known for his fights in Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, now something of the current generation's Kanada Yoshinori in terms of skill and charisma)
Fujii Shingo (A big name web generation animator)

To see the trailer for the twentieth movie look so dull (as dull as all of the other films) is just really disappointing. It's amazing that the weekly animated series feels so much more fresh and alive than a film of all things.
 

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen

There is such a thing a too expressive. There are times when Sun/Moon overdoes it. The films usually go above the quality of the weekly series, but I feel like the trailer for the movie is deliberately trying to recapture the old-school feel of the first episode, a task at which, in my case, it succeeded. And it's weird to compare them anyway as the styles don't match up.
 
The animation looked incredible throughout this episode, Jesus.

I did not like how Litten just came out of nowhere, but that 'epic' showdown between it and Meowth sort of makes up for that. I would've expected to at least see him put up a fight to the lvl 6 starter, but OK.

My favorite thing about this episode is how all of the protagonists' Pokémon contributed in some way to keep the plot moving, except for that thing on Mallow's shoulder that started the whole issue in the first place, of course.

So Team Rocket once again falls in love with another Fire type starter, Incineroar for Infernape deluxe edition 100% confirmed. /s
 

DotKU

Champion
This was a pretty entertaining episode. I love the personalities the starters have, and it gets more and more exciting as we get closer to a Litten capture. The music was on point too.
 

Daniel31

HopingGaryReturns
Alright, so in BW we had Axew with Dragon Sneeze and in SM we have Bounsweet with...Sweet Sneeze!??

Anyway, Rowlet randomly falling asleep whenever still makes me laugh. However, I did feel bad for it though at times, being knocked around all episode, feeling scared/nervous when they first run into old Stoutland, having that thing around itself the whole time, etc...poor Rowlet :(

What's with the girls all a sudden grabbing Ash's arm and dragging him (3 times now?), instead of just asking him to go along with them? I mean I do find it funny, but still... :p Was nice to see that Stoutland remembed him and then Ash at the end asking Litten about Stoutland. Also thought the moment when Rockruff goes into Ash's backpack looked adorable.

I really liked Popplio and Rowlet's interactions in the balloon and when they're falling, was comedic. Actually, I liked all the Pokemon's interactions throughout this episode! Oh yeah, Jessie's face just keeps looking more evil every week (the way she looked when they wanted to capture Rowlet and Popplio at first). Nice one-shot on Meowth btw Litten.
 

diakyu

Well-Known Member
Yeah, for what was essentially a filler this had stellar animation at points. Helps that it was just a fun episode all around. Rowlet is absolutely hilarious to me lol. And if that final scene at the sunset didn't scream "future capture" between Ash and Litten than I don't know what would.
 

Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
What's with the girls all a sudden grabbing Ash's arm and dragging him (3 times now?), instead of just asking him to go along with them? I mean I do find it funny, but still... :p Was nice to see that Stoutland remembed him and then Ash at the end asking Litten about Stoutland. Also thought the moment when Rockruff goes into Ash's backpack looked adorable.

Rockruff is shoring up to be one of my favorite of Ash's Pokémon. Just about everything it does is cute, but its cuteness doesn't feel forced. It actually feels rather natural, as it's just acting like a typical, very sociable dog.

It was nice that Stoutland remembered Ash, and it seems to have a good impression of him, as well. Perhaps my theory that Litten's distrust of humans might stem from Stoutland being mistreated by them is wrong (which I'm totally fine with), and Litten's distrust of humans is just due to its nature as a Litten.
 
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