An Island Kahuna is Born! Ash's Grand Trial!! (1052)

[KibaLG8]

Man this just solidifies how I feel about this series as a whole. It was an alright battle. It could have been better though, I mean, just one Pokemon each? Rowlett learned 2 moves and didn’t even participate in any trials since then. Litten evolved into Torrecat, learned Flame Charge, Revenge, & Fire Blast, and still wasn’t used in any trial whatsoever. Lycanroc got its 1 VS 3 against Nanu, its fine where its at.

Wasn’t Pikachu being the Star of the Last Grand Trial confirmed from the I Choose You manga from like 2 years ago?

But how disappointing, this is the most i’ve been disinterested in the anime. Best Wishes was bad but at least ALL 9 of his Pokemon got battles in gyms. Ash has 4 pokemon and only 2 of them are getting focus.‍ This episode gets 1/10. And that 1 is only because he got the Steelium-Z(Meltan?) or for Pikachu’s Iron Tail?

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Bad battle or not, as FlygontheRavager noted you guys can't act like it hasn't been long established in the anime that getting a Ground type wet allows Electric moves to hurt them. Offhand I recall Brock's Onix, then it happened again with that Piloswine during the Pryce gym battle.

 

[Afrodisiac]

Remind me again why Rowlet wasn’t used?

Who?

Anyway.

I'm not mad about the whole anime-only mechanics. It's anime. Going straight off game mechanics would be boring af.

But i'm mad that it was a boring battle. I don't care for Pikachu, 1 vs 1 is anticlimactic for the final threat before the league, and Hapu's team had so much potential like I would've loved to see Ash battling against Golurk and Flygon. Alas..

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Ignoring how bad the battle was, since apparently Ash cheated.......oh sorry the writers decided to purely use ANIME only mechanics to allow Ash to win this battle.

Can we talk about how cool it is, that apparently (based on the images), Ash (or Pikachu) was allowed to actually choose a Z-crystal for winning. That I think was at least the best part of the episode, that I could see.



Anime mechanics or not, there should've been NO WAY that would've worked.

Why?

Water/ground type Pokemon EXIST. There's no reason to believe that a Pokemon "naturally soaked" would've somehow overridden an existing type.

There is a reason why "Soak" is a Pokemon move, or in fact in reference to an ability. It makes sense for a Pokemon move to temporarily override a Pokemon's type, since the entire "soak" move is about oversaturating the Pokemon with water so it becomes the water type.

Don't think it's "fair" to argue a ground type taking a swim qualifies it as a water type and therefore weak against electricity.

Especially with a Pokemon like Stunfisk, which has to SPECIFICALLY use camoflauge to actually change its type.

This, is just a stupid justification for a stupid outcome for a stupid battle, because they either didn't want to give Pikachu Splishy Splash and because they insist on shoving Pikachu down the viewer's throats as per usual, but not in any meaningful way, you know like it's specialized Z-move, what we can't get a story about that? We have to deal with it being used constantly with no reason then they have nothing better to write about.

It's getting annoying, and I only tolerated it SOLELY because of its exclusive Z-move, because I thought it was REALLY neat that only Ash's Pikachu can use its exclusive Z-move, as it was made just for them. Instead we get Gigavolt Havoc after another, and just unnecessary Pikachu focus for no reason other than because the writers are incapable of writing for the other Pokemon (possibly), or they just care (which I'm leaning towards to, given how the series has been portrayed as a whole).

So I take it Nanu is Ash's best Grand Trial, maybe tied with Olivia? Because this wasn't even anything but a random episode, where Ash gets a steel type z-crystal.

It's not like this is exactly what happened with Onix back in Kanto. Oh wait.

 

[nuzamaki90]

Wew. That was bad.

 

[mehmeh1]

Fun battle with cool strategies, bit too short and I maintain my position that this should've been a 4v4. Also, I'm now 100% team meltan

 

[Kintaro]

It's not like this is exactly what happened with Onix back in Kanto. Oh wait.

You'd think battles have come a long way from an ep that aired back in 1997.

 

[DatsRight]

Well, looking at it, it didn't seem bad as AN EPISODE. It was pretty damn underwhelming for A GRAND TRIAL however. It definitely should have used both of Hapu's Pokemon and it felt like Ash hadn't really gone in there with any strategy despite knowing about Mudsdale's Stamina. Him trying to outspeed it with Quick Attack BEFORE getting his inspiration may have made sense at least. Pikachu looked like he kinda no sold that Z Move as well.

Liked getting some non-Ash slapstick in this episode (with Lana's group getting electrocuted being a Chekhov's Gun of all things), and stuff like Brionne loving the tidal wave that wipes out everyone. I dunno why but that super chill shot of Kiawe and Sophocles also comes off as really funny for some reason. Not a whole lot of Shaymin however, just standard cute stuff. You'd think they'd want to elaborate on it a little.

 

[AznKei]

Sure the logic behind Ash winning is lame, even reminded me when he fought against Brock back in Indigo League, but at least they showed that Ash pays attention of the battlefield and some past events like when Ash & Lana were spraying water to each other earlier, so everyone else were suprised about his unique strategies, in which past companions such as Clemont admires.

Speaking of spraying water, in seems that Lana and her Pokemons enjoyed to get wet unlike the rest during the Grand Trial, so I kinda like these reactions. And Kiawe didn't bring his Turtonator with him unlike the rest of the cast with all their Pokemons, he's probably too bulky to be shown, I dunno.

Ok episode overall, even though the Grand Trial itself isn't as good than others before.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

And now the league... It is rather silent around that subject

 

[Hanto]

That was the most anticlimatic final gym battle ever! Since OS we had some many memorable battles during final part of badge quest such as Blaine, Clair, Juan, Volkner, Wulfric and even Roxie... Now the SM totally screwed up the total score of pure awesomeness. Hapu had some much potential as both strong trainer and cool character to demonstrate Ash and his classmates the reason Kapu Rehire chose her as the new kahuna. She should be more experienced than Kiawe (future kahuna-in-training), smarter than Lillie and Sophocles, stronger than Ash etc. She should inspire other trainers, not being a pushover who loss her first official battle with ground type Stamina owner to unevolved electric type!
The SM series just ruined the whole concept of pokemon with proper battles and training. We have got screwed Island Trials system: only Melemele one was accurate to game version, in Akala Ash battled only one Totem pokemon, Poni and Ulaula had no Totem pokemon at all :/ And Grand Trial with Olivia was the best battle of the series cause Nanu with 3 vs Lycanhog and Hapu with 1 vs 1 are meh. Torracat got nothing while has 3 new moves to show off and no Z-crystal at all, meanwhile Pikachu and Lycanhog got all the spotlight. Rowlet is dead unevolved garbage and comic relief -_-

 

[Epicocity]

It's not like this is exactly what happened with Onix back in Kanto. Oh wait.

Are you saying the series should allow a concept that hasn't been used in 20 years and has been heavily mocked since it first happened in the first place, used as an example of why Ash is an idiot in battle?

 

[Red and Blue]

All I wanted out of this episode was for Ash to get the Steelium Z so I'm satisfied. Also happy he didnt give up Iron Tail and Quick Attack

 

[DatsRight]

I have to say I would have been way more unimpressed if Pikachu DID learn a new move mid-battle, which would almost certainly have fallen into the usual formula of him getting clobbered until the DEM power boost occurred and instantly gave him the upper hand, thus a completely plot armoured victory. At least this approach forced Ash to be clever and strategic to take control, if completely on-the-fly.

 

[JC317]

This battle reminded me of how that one episode Meowth defeated Brock's Onix by dumping two buckets of water on it and then used Fury Swipes...

Sure, when Meowth does it, it's called cheating; but when Ash does it, it's called thinking outside the box

 

[Bortgreen]

Ignoring how bad the battle was, since apparently Ash cheated.......oh sorry the writers decided to purely use ANIME only mechanics to allow Ash to win this battle.

The rest of the comment was okay, but about this, Ash uses anime mechanics like almost every gen
In Gen 1 they did the soaking thing too, in Gen 3 the Thunder Armor(that was the weirdest one), in Gen 4 Ice Jet and Counter Shield, and in Gen 6 Ash Greninja(yes, he started as anime-only)

 

[Kintaro]

Why do the writers insist on keeping Iron Tail? It's a move Pikachu learned in the beginning of AG before the Roxanne Gym battle...literally 16 years ago now back in 2003. I don't get it, it's like the only relic of the AG era still in the anime. Why is a move from 16 years ago still kept all this time over anything new?

 

[Dragalge]

Why do the writers insist on keeping Iron Tail? It's a move Pikachu learned in the beginning of AG before the Roxanne Gym battle...literally 16 years ago now back in 2003. I don't get it, it's like the only relic of the AG era still in the anime. Why is a move from 16 years ago still kept all this time over anything new?

It uses its tail and the only other option for a physical tail move it can learn iirc is Slam which is less impressive. =p

 

[GiddyupGal]

Why do the writers insist on keeping Iron Tail? It's a move Pikachu learned in the beginning of AG before the Roxanne Gym battle...literally 16 years ago now back in 2003. I don't get it, it's like the only relic of the AG era still in the anime. Why is a move from 16 years ago still kept all this time over anything new?

quick attack has been around even longer...

 

[mehmeh1]

The rest of the comment was okay, but about this, Ash uses anime mechanics like almost every gen
In Gen 1 they did the soaking thing too, in Gen 3 the Thunder Armor(that was the weirdest one), in Gen 4 Ice Jet and Counter Shield, and in Gen 6 Ash Greninja(yes, he started as anime-only)

x-scissor breaking trick room is a better gen 6 example tbh (though the only ones I have a problem with are the sprinklers and TA because the former was accidental and the latter was a DEM