All Eyes on the Future! (896)

[the1stpkmnfan]

This was definitely one of the best episodes of Season 18, probably the entire XY series up til now.

Ash VS Olympia is already in my top favorite Kalos Gym Battles. The coordination was good, and the animation was on point. They even used Pikachu in a reasonable way without stealing the spotlight from Frogadier and Talonflame.

Ash and Serena getting updated PokeDex's was nifty. Good detail!

Olympia predicting the future of what's to come has got chill going down my spine. Augh, I'm so excited for the next season! This is the season 18 finale, right? CN doesn't promote this stuff well.

 

[Soaring Pikachu]

Normally I do not pay much mind to special effects but everything was really well done here. The background scenery I especially liked but that might be because I am also a fan of the outerspace, high tech looking landscapes. To make it even better, the battle was also a good showcase for Ash's and Olympia's teams.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Either Frogadier and Talonflame are very resilient, or Olympia's Meowstic duo have really low attack power that forces them to continuously bang their opponents with no breaks. Even getting Frogadier paralyzed for the second half was needed... Did the female use five moves?

I don't remember Talonflame getting that small, or was it just me?

I think using Pikachu like that was sort of cheating on Ash's part. I bet he wouldn't have won the battle if Pikachu was shooed away to the peanut gallery (or Olympia let him keep him around due to being psychic/hype machine material to even the odds).

As for that Psybeam/Water Pulse showdown... Ash, did you forget you have a Talonflame whose speed was surely maximized by now that could have picked on the last Meowstic? Oh wait, let's make it epic to make people forget.

AG callbacks aside, it was a good Gym Battle, I guess. I still like Viola's gym fight better, followed by Valerie's.

 

[Alola Adventurer]

Augh, I'm so excited for the next season! This is the season 18 finale, right? CN doesn't promote this stuff well.

Yes. Pokemon.com lists the episode as Season 18's finale:
http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-episodes/18_45-all-eyes-on-the-future/

 

[Perfect Zygarde]

Well we got another look at Ash-Greninja, and it wasn't a silhouette this time which is great. We also got a look at Zygarde for the first time although it was more of a shadow of Zygarde. Well now all we have to do is wait until next saturday for Zygarde's official anime debut.

 

[OshyHikari]

Augh, I'm so excited for the next season! This is the season 18 finale, right? CN doesn't promote this stuff well.

Yes it is the end of the season. Next episode starts the XY&Z series and dub Season 19. It was natural they were going to end the season here because XY&Z is a new phase and it would make sense to wait until the next dub season before XY&Z episodes get dubbed.

And, this means Season 18 ends as the second-shortest dub season, with only Season 13 (DP Sinnoh League Victors) being shorter (34 episodes). The last dub season before XY (Season 16, BW Adventures In Unova) ended with 45 episodes.

 

[Water_Dragon trainer]

This was a pretty good episode. It wasn't one of Ash's best gym battles, but very decent.

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

A good gym battle here for Ash and Olympia. It was a good episode to finish off the season. With all that done, it's time to look forward to XY & Z and the Mega Evolution Special Act IV (thankfully the special is next week). It shouldn't be that too long of a wait until we get to XY & Z.

 

[Darkness Angel]

Easily the best gym battle of Kalos by far totally enjoyed the whole Ash-Greninja thing and the ending sets up the next series.

 

[Ѕhiny Missingno]

Wait, Male Meowstic had Prankster? Isn't this the first time a Pokémon has been confirmed to have a hidden ability outside of Darmanitan?

Meowstic and Talonflame had pretty weird voices, though.

 

[nickdt]

The Dream Team strikes again. This gym really proved that both Talonflame and Frogadier are bros and that in battle, nobody can stop them if they fight alongside eachother.

 

[Royal_Qeca]

Did the female use five moves?

No, as discussed previously here:

- The female Meowstic used Thunder Wave, Dark Pulse, Future Sight and Psyshock.

- The male Meowstic used Helping Hand, Light Screen and Psyshock.

 

[thetamale]

Olympia's VA is without a doubt one of the best I've heard over the last few years of the franchise. The animation, the story, the characters, this standard is possible.The music has been great too over the past couple episodes, the mystical themes with Sableye et al

Creative strategies and attacks and movements are a huge draw to me, I want to see Pokemon move the way they can't in games. Like the art in the TCG I want to see creative exploration, sometimes a high ask for a children's show but as this 2-parter has proven very achievable.

I am hyped for Zygarde and Team Flare. I was wondering if Frogadier was going to evolve in this episode but maybe suddenly becoming immune to psychic type attacks would have been an anticlimax. I know Greninja is coming but I don't know when, I only watch the anime in English and try to be surprised when I can.

 

[Pikachu52]

It seems this episode has been given some positive reviews here. I'm not surprised. It was a complex battle and it certainly did show some interesting and clever strategies on Ash's part.

Personally I don't care for gym battle episodes as they tend to be just 20 minutes of the battle with limited exchange between the characters. I also don't really like Frogadire or Talonflame. I preferred Ash's Unova team to the Kalos team. Therefore I really don't have much to say.

I only have three points I want to make.

1. I'm personally disapointed that Pikachu got stood aside again - hopefully he gets the starring role in the final gym battle
2. Talonflame and Frogadire came out of this looking a little too overpowered. They were hit several times including two direct hits from future sight, which probably should have knocked them out. And how exactly were the Meowstic able to get thrown into their own future sight without fainting. The battle should have been a lot shorter than it was.
3. Awww. Pikachu was so cute when he was acting as a Metronome.

I'm not going to bother rating this episode because it was just a battle and Pikachu didn't participate. Hardly anything special for the series final. Shame it couldn't have been Oshawott instead of froggy.

 

[Orton155]

So the series finale is finally here and it certainly didn't disappoint. First, I really like Olympia because the way she speaks gives her gravitas. It almost like she is greater than a normal human being and she has ascended to a celestial being (ok I'm getting carried away). My point is that she comes across as an elder and as a gym leader she is there to teach Ash lessons and that makes it much more believable.

The battle itself was so dynamic. However, Frogadier and Talonflame seemed really resilient in the battle almost and I do think it may have been a little too much. That is my only complaint though as I thought the battle was well balanced with each side taking the lead multiple times. I was really impressed with Ash coming up with the metronome to time the future sight but I thought Olympia would have caught onto that. Lastly, that end sequence with Frogadier was brilliant but I did think it had a Dragonball Z style to it which made it seem less impressive.

Anyway a great episode for the finale. Onto the next series!

 

[Zoruagible]

It was a great battle but I hate how yet again Talonflame stole a battle from Noibat. Noibat deserved a gym battle more than somebody whose been in them all.

And I loved how Team Rocket appeared again in the end. "Maybe some yahoo's yapping about us."
9.5/10

 

[Pikachu52]

It was a great battle but I hate how yet again Talonflame stole a battle from Noibat. Noibat deserved a gym battle more than somebody whose been in them all.

I agree with you that Noibat hasn't gotten enough attention since it's two introductory episodes, but I think it was the right choice not to have it in this gym battle.

Talonflame and Frogadire are two of Ash's strongest Pokémon for his current team, and they had a hard time against Olympia's Meowstic. Noibat has only recently hatched and hasn't had a single gym battle yet. How on earth is it supposed to have beaten those two Meowstic.

That being said, it does seem like Noibat won't get a gym battle at all. If Ash's last gym battle is against Wulfric, which it almost certainly will be, it's unlikely Noibat will be used as he would be at too much of a disadvantage against ice type Pokémon. Hopefully we'll get to see more of Noibat during the Team Flare Arch and at the league.

 

[Janovy]

It was a great battle but I hate how yet again Talonflame stole a battle from Noibat. Noibat deserved a gym battle more than somebody whose been in them all.

Are you implying that Noibat would have lasted more than 5 seconds in this battle? Because it wouldn't have.

Frogadier needed a competent partner and if Noibat had battled, Noibat would be the obvious weak spot and Frogadier would have had to spend all the time protecting it. Not to mention that Noibat could never carry Frogadier on its back. Seriously, let's be realistic for a second, Noibat would be completely useless and would probably go down super fast.

 

[UltimateNinja]

The dub is still horrid, marked by terrible voice acting, poor music replacement composition, and wooden and stiff dialogue, but the Japanese Version was average, though the Ash bond with Frogadier Father-Son Kamehameha style moment shows how lacking in creativity the Series now is in general.

All anime are copying ideas from other animes, so what's the point? After 20 years of the anime series, you shouldn't be suprised about that. Especially they are doing that since the beginning and anime series like One Piece are still copying scenes from DBZ.

 

[Nothingjustgo.]

Oh wow wildfire is gonna attack kalos?