Battling & Getting! Mewtwo Comes Back (1135)

[Pokecatgirl]

Cool review dude!. What makes you think the writers will bring Mewtwo back?

Well they did buy rights to use M1 Mewtwo (best Mewtwo) and purchasing the rights for even a single character is extremely expensive. If they spent all of that money, they're definitely going to get their money's worth. I give the episode a 9.5 out of ten as there should have been more familiarity between Mewtwo and Ash.

The fact that Ash recognized Mewtwo at all and the fact that the official Japanese Anipoke twitter out right said it confirms that Mewtwo Returns is canon. Though I wished there was a little more references to continuity, I am very pleased with this episode.

 

[nuzamaki90]

Cool review dude!. What makes you think the writers will bring Mewtwo back?

Because Mewtwo was used as a sort of roadblock or testing ground to show off Ash and Go’s current progress on their journeys. Since Mewtwo is now another towering wall for both of their respective goals, he’ll appear at least one more time to show how far they’ve come. Ash can’t become the strongest trainer if he can’t beat the strongest Pokémon and Go can’t catch Mew or all Pokémon without catching Mewtwo first.

 

[kamineko23]

Just finished watching the episode with sub, and my thought was: "That's it?!"

I believe this episode (especially with all the marketing behind it) was to increase the amount of viewers watching the show. All they hyped to us were about Mewtwo's return, but instead the content was just around 50% of the whole episode. They also managed to include two Goh's captures, which in my opinion just a "red herring" for the purpose of this episode.

Watching this episode felt like looking at a huge promo banner for a Black Friday sale with a teeny-weeny asterisk (*) of "terms and conditions apply" beside it, which you only aware of when you've already paid for the product.

Also, I just don't get it about Goh's explanation from the sub about his dream is to "catch and LEARN more about Pokemon", but many of his catchings were "just because" like the one just happened with the Krabby. What's with the "learning" more about Pokemon if what you did was just throwing the Pokeball when the Pokemon's jumping to you while you're crossing a tightrope? I just wish to see more of his "learning" about Pokemon rather than just "catch and forget" in future episodes.

 

[Joltik-Kid]

The fear we all had if Ash had gotten Lucario in DP has been renewed in Journeys thanks to today's episode. Pikachu being a fall guy in a Mewtwo episode? That's blasphemy. Where the hell was Gengar for this one? lol

 

[Kazuniya]

Also while that battle was immensely satisfying, I don’t like the Pikachu disrespect this series. When it comes to strong foes this saga, Pikachu has been smacked around and it’s starting to make me mad. How did Pikachu get one shot while Lucario and Cinderace took a barrage of hits? Come on now. I was most looking forward to Pikachu getting one good Thunderbolt on Mewtwo before kicking the bucket but this was just sad.

Because Pikachu taking out legendary/pseudo-legendary Pokemon once per gen isn't enough?

 

[dman_dustin]

I was referring to the out-of-universe reason for why the battle between Mewtwo and Satoshi and Gou was conceived.

They literally said why. Mewtwo is a Pokemon so Go was going to battle to try and catch it, Mewtwo said it was the strongest Pokemon so Ash wanted to battle.On top of the Mewtwo's similiarity to Mew, it would make sense as shown why they ran into Mewtwo, or are you ignoring they went to find Mew and weren't looking for Mewtwo?

If you mean why did the episode exist to begin with? That's a question that can he asked about anything that I question the validity of why anyone would ask.

Why is Ash the main character?
Why did Ash travel with Misty, Brock, Tracy, May, Dawn, etc?
Why did Ash lose to Alain?
Why do they give Pokemon to characters just to release them?
Why did they give Ash Farfetch'd and Go Sobble in such a stupid illogical way while misleading the audience into thinking Ash was getting Sobble. In other words why did they feel Farfetch'd was a godd Galar Pokemon for Ash over a starter?

If the writers simply wanted Mewtwo to show off and impress the audience, I think they could've done so through a different scenario like I suggested before, rather than by having Mewtwo toss around Satoshi and Gou's Pokemon like rag dolls.

I fail to see why its impressive to instantaneously blast off Team Rocket when the protagonists already do that [if the plot doesn't demand a longer fight). Especially when the episode was clearly about Ash and Go and their goals a bit more than just only about Mewtwo and what Mewtwo can do.

I get the criticism of the lack of continuity I guess I'll never understand the criticism of the fight. Since any other powerful legendary Pokemon would've done the same kind of thing.

For example, Rayquaza would just use Hyper beam instead of shadow ball and while it wouldn't toss them around it would definitely blast them away.

 

[BobbbidyBob]

The fear we all had if Ash had gotten Lucario in DP has been renewed in Journeys thanks to today's episode. Pikachu being a fall guy in a Mewtwo episode? That's blasphemy. Where the hell was Gengar for this one? lol

DUUUUUUUDE Gengar, you are right!!! Ash YOU DUMBO!

Also will every single episode with legendary Pokémon going to consist of Goh trying to catch it and failing? Cause it just got old.

 

[ShadowDragon16]

Goh is quite a Anomaly, it amazes me how dumbed down they made the Pokémon in this series where Goh can just throw a ball and catch a Pokémon. This really throws out the battling aspect.
This makes me wish Ash had a drive for this series, for example I wish Ash and Goh would compete for a Pokémon like Ash wants to add a Pokémon to his team to get stronger instead of Ash just being there and really doing just well nothing.

I love how people credit Goh for catching Eternatus when like most of his captures he didn’t do anything other than throw a ball at the end after being weakened by the wolves.

I honestly don’t understand Gohs goal, he wants to capture mew so he catches all Pokémon to understand them, like full the dex but isn’t the dex already filled in in the anime?

 

[dman_dustin]

Also, I just don't get it about Goh's explanation from the sub about his dream is to "catch and LEARN more about Pokemon", but many of his catchings were "just because" like the one just happened with the Krabby. What's with the "learning" more about Pokemon if what you did was just throwing the Pokeball when the Pokemon's jumping to you while you're crossing a tightrope? I just wish to see more of his "learning" about Pokemon rather than just "catch and forget" in future episodes.

He didn't mean instantaneously, he meant studying the Pokemon at the lab or working with the Pokemon on his terms at his desired pace.

And while for episode we view it as Catch and Forget we do know in-universe thanks to the Sakuragi lab panic episode that it is not a catch and forget.

 

[BobbbidyBob]

You guys are right, the anime and its characters could be better , especially at THIS point in time, but perhaps we are being a little harsh, I mean they did have Ash win the league and are trying something new (more or less) for the first time with Journeys, it only took them some years but eh. Credits for finally trying XD

 

[nuzamaki90]

Because Pikachu taking out legendary/pseudo-legendary Pokemon once per gen isn't enough?

Journeys has just been really inconsistent with Pikachu’s strength and it’s downright jarring. Pikachu was basically whooping every trainer’s ass in the beginning of the series but it’s been downhill ever since Ash lost to Leon which also threw me off. I realize Leon is muh ultimate Pokémon trainer but Pikachu was being so overwhelmed by Leon’s Charizard and I just found that ridiculous lol. First Charizard, then Golurk, Raichu, Matori’s grunts, Grapploct, Zapdos, and now Mewtwo. You really can’t tell me that Cinderace and Lucario taking on Mewtwo’s attacks one after the other while Pikachu getting one-shot by a single Shadow Ball makes sense, without me looking at you funny.

I get it, this is meant to show off Lucario and Cinderace in action. They are the spotlight Pokémon after all, but if it’s at the cost of Ash’s stronger Pokémon getting dumbed down, I don’t want it.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I am flummoxed that an Iwane battle episode had mediocre animation

They somehow made Mewtwo boring

I understand that subverting expectations is the hip new thing, PM19, but you didn't have to go THAT far

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Well yeah, I honestly understand the criticisms. I won't go as far as to say there was no continuity, that's just completely false, ash clearly recognized Mewtwo and it was the original Mewtwo appearing. I would have liked more continuity yes, but just because you didn't get all the continuity you wanted doesn't mean you can claim this episode had none, it's the ho oh episode all over again

I do agree they should have cut the first segment down and focused more on Mewtwo. I don't get the Pikachu jobbing complaints though, didn't you guys hate how much screentime Pikachu got?

 

[BobbbidyBob]

According to my research the only fans who loved this episode (some even claiming to be their favorite so far) are Satogou fans. I guess it was for them in the end Loooll XD

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

To be honest, this episode operated on the same level as the Alola reunion episode.

In that absolutely nothing of value was gotten from the returning characters, but its only goal was to back on nostalgia hype without properly using it. I mean, holy crap, Pikachu got screwed, and this is the Pikachu that beat a Tapu.

...And there's also the fact both of these episodes had roughly the same premise. Kids head to area, Goh catches stuff, a returning character judges one of them about being worthy for something, they lose in the battle, and the day proceeds as normal. It felt cheap.

 

[Dragonsoldier77]

To be honest, this episode operated on the same level as the Alola reunion episode.

In that absolutely nothing of value was gotten from the returning characters, but its only goal was to back on nostalgia hype without properly using it. I mean, holy crap, Pikachu got screwed, and this is the Pikachu that beat a Tapu.

...And there's also the fact both of these episodes had roughly the same premise. Kids head to area, Goh catches stuff, a returning character judges one of them about being worthy for something, they lose in the battle, and the day proceeds as normal.

I would say the alola episode still fulfill what it sets out to do. Which is introduce go to alola, from the land to its people. So having go just going about was fine, as ash didn't need a major catch up with alola and the cast as well. Ash didn't need to do anything for to bring up nostalgia since they are pretty recent. Here though? The goal was to set mewtwo as a high bar for the boys to aim for, but half of the episode served nothing to contribute to that. Then during the meeting ash still doesn't have any agency, and doesn't do anything to actually contribute to the nostalgia hook angle.

 

[BobbbidyBob]

Actually from what I remember the Alola episode has a cool Goh character development scene about his bond with Ash which I personally thought it was neat. It never got mentioned again...(unlike his dream motto) but still something unique that happened in terms of exploring Goh’s character. Ash did nothing dat true XDXD

In this episode however it seems they go backwards and downright throw to the trash their development as trainers and back to square 1.

 

[LucasMV]

Well, this episode could've been a lot better. I'm glad to see Mewtwo again, but if we didn't know that this was M1 Mewtwo we wouldn't be able to figure it out from the episode alone.

Ash recognized Mewtwo, sure, but Mewtwo didn't explicitly recognize Ash. It doesn't make any sense. How many humans has Mewtwo interacted with since last seeing Ash? Probably not many, since it's always away from people and has been on an isolated island for who knows how long. So Mewtwo not even calling Ash by his name to actually acknowledge that he remembers him feels wrong.

Feels like they didn't want to go full on with the continuity and left it vague enough so people who know can somewhat interpret that Mewtwo also remembered Ash, but not explicit enough so that they don't have to bother explaining how they know each other. Because using those minutes to show Go using a Caterpie when they could've just flew above that swamp on Dragonite, was somehow more important.

So much wasted potential. Not to mention Pikachu being one shotted by Shadow Ball, which was fine until Lucario and Cinderace were NOT one shotted by Shadow Ball. I'm with the others in this, the disrespect for Pikachu was annoying. I'd like some consistency for once. I guess that's just too much to ask.

One good thing is that Mewtwo completely wiped the floor with them. He wasn't even damaged one bit. At least they got Mewtwo's power right.

All in all, this episode should've had them meet Mewtwo as soon as possible, then have Mewtwo explicitly recognize Ash and either him or Ash briefly explain how they know each other (not even with flashbacks) and then the battle, but this time without Pikachu getting screwed in favour of the pokemon of the moment. Then it would've been an actually good episode.

This was a decent episode, but again, so much wasted potential.

 

[BobbbidyBob]

Well, this episode could've been a lot better. I'm glad to see Mewtwo again, but if we didn't know that this was M1 Mewtwo we wouldn't be able to figure it out from the episode alone.

Ash recognized Mewtwo, sure, but Mewtwo didn't explicitly recognize Ash. It doesn't make any sense. How many humans has Mewtwo interacted with since last seeing Ash? Probably not many, since it's always away from people and has been on an isolated island for who knows how long. So Mewtwo not even calling Ash by his name to actually acknowledge that he remembers him feels wrong.

Feels like they didn't want to go full on with the continuity and left it vague enough so people who know can somewhat interpret that Mewtwo also remembered Ash, but not explicit enough so that they don't have to bother explaining how they know each other. Because using those minutes to show Go using a Caterpie when they could've just flew above that swamp on Dragonite, was somehow more important.

So much wasted potential. Not to mention Pikachu being one shotted by Shadow Ball, which was fine until Lucario and Cinderace were NOT one shotted by Shadow Ball. I'm with the others in this, the disrespect for Pikachu was annoying. I'd like some consistency for once. I guess that's just too much to ask.

One good thing is that Mewtwo completely wiped the floor with them. He wasn't even damaged one bit. At least they got Mewtwo's power right.

All in all, this episode should've had them meet Mewtwo as soon as possible, then have Mewtwo explicitly recognize Ash and either him or Ash briefly explain how they know each other (not even with flashbacks) and then the battle, but this time without Pikachu getting screwed in favour of the pokemon of the moment. Then it would've been an actually good episode.

This was a decent episode, but again, so much wasted potential.

( Puts glasses on)Not truuuuuuue, Mewtwo was shown at the end of Mewtwo returns lurking in a big city and numerous times in the same city, meaning he must have observed many hoomans. ;D XD

 

[LucasMV]

( Puts glasses on)Not truuuuuuue, Mewtwo was shown at the end of Mewtwo returns lurking in a big city and numerous times in the same city, meaning he must have observed many hoomans. ;D XD

Yeah, but he wasn't exactly interacting with them. Also I imagine it'd be hard to forget a kid that literally threw himself in the middle of your battle against Mew. I figured that would leave a somewhat lasting impression, y'know.

Oh, I forgot to mention. I lol'd so hard when Mewtwo asked Go just how is it that catching every Pokemon will lead to Mew. Thank you. Mewtwo asking what we've all wanted to. Go's answer was better than I expected, but it's still some weird logic tbh, since Go intended to catch Mew during this episode regardless of not having caught (and learned about?) every other pokemon yet.