Brock, Cilan and the Forest Witch! (1228)

[Leonhart]

This wasn't a very stimulating episode, even with Dent [Cilan] and Takeshi [Brock] returning. I suppose that part of the reason is that I'm not a huge fan of either male traveling companion, but the crux of the issue was mostly that the plot of the episode didn't stand out from the other dozen similar episodes involving Takeshi having some sort of love dilemma. And this likely being Dent's final episode, I was expecting something a bit more interesting as well. At the very least, I did enjoy how Brimuon [Hatterene] was portrayed.

 

[DuquÊ?]

Well, Lana has a Dewpid-

Oooh, wait.

And her eevee will never become a vaporeon, for what I understood, but, eh.

Anyway, considering all, I wish Ash had brought the obligatory 4 reserves for the episode, but I suppose Cilan, Brock and the Hatterene line were too much of a management. Well, pansage could have been a simisage by now, at least. About Brock, it's his whole thing get excited by the girl of the week without give too much of a thinking about that. Not reading much into it.

Eh, so much for my second favorite Galar mon, after toxtricity and before rolycoly, but, good representation. And Ash avoiding psybeam as he was in Legends: Arceus.

Now, Ash calls hatterene out and she just stop like that? Just wish to know where this "Ash bonds with the pokemon of the day without a capture" thing will go (he bonded with hatenna, still counts).

 

[Pkjoan]

That Hattena would have been a nice capture for Ash. Same for the Beedrill in the first episode.

 

[vondecayle]

There’s not enough space to feature reserves and new captures in 11 episodes, unless it’s them in one big shot or doing nothing in the background at Oak’s lab.

 

[santiagus]

Note for myself

"Take Gryphon leaks seriously, do not take his opinions are yours"

This... was not good and the clock is ticking

Oh looks like Mr Gryphon thinks I'm an idiot for having a diferent opinion

Well MrGryphon people have different opinions and they're not idiot.

You do a good job but you're a jerk.

You're leaking Anipoke not the secret agenda, who do you think you're Julian Assange?

 

[Ignition]

Decent episode. Better than the slog that was the first episode. Seeing Cilan again is nice. Shame we didn't see him and Iris together again. His dynamic with Misty was fun but disappointed we didn't see a lot of him interacting with Brock. The plot with Hatterene felt ok. Nothing offensive but nothing crazy. Crazy how this episode gave more focus on Galar than most of JN lmao. No Chili or Cress mention but the Submas bros was a nice surprise.Best part of the episode was Pansage. Love the elemental monkeys. 7/10.

 

[KukuiFanatic501]

Little late to comment on this as I was sick

But overall an OK and fun episode.

Pretty much seeing Cilan again in an actual reappearance and him getting to meet Misty was the highlight of the episode for me, as well as seeing Ash and Brock again

No reserves used and only Pansage returning from Cilan was underwhelming, but it’s at least something.

Though Misty reacting to Cilans Connoisseur antics was hilarious lmao, and I definitely agree on peoples earlier remarks on Cilan being his best as a static character and it fitting with Gen 5s theme of differing perspectives as he did always seemed to have liked just traveling and seeing all of what the Pokémon world and life has to offer for him to learn and carry forward with him.

6.5/7 out of 10 for me.

 

[Power Up]

I've always loved Cilan, one of the best parts of BW, but these episodes have been exceptionally underwhelming. Forget even the concept of stakes or a plot, there's simply not much going on to chew on in these episodes themselves

 

[AuraGuardian448]

Brock is my favorite male traveling companion of Ash and all, but his meeting with Ash and Misty is very clearly highly contrived. Ash and Misty randomly select a Cafe, one that Brock is now suddenly and randomly working at even in the same exact region (Galar), having yet again conveniently dropped his career for a female coworker of the cafe, who right then-in-there with him conveniently receives a message from her lover, that Brock just (in)conveniently found out about, with the aforementioned text conveniently confirming he's returning home... all after Ash and Misty just conveniently stumbled into the randomly picked cafe in one of however many regions there are at this point. (Remembering the taste of Brock's cooking is a great detail, but it understandably does not excuse the contrivance.) The writers gave no damn by then having Dent conveniently turn the corner to meet them within the same region in the same location at the right time. Lol.
Not anything new to the series but you'd expect more believable writing, especially in Ash's send off series (and a point in the entire series where it's far less likely for this to happen with how many regions there are & such), and like I don't know, what happened in S&M. This spot in Galar isn't even popular for tourist.

Anyways, still remember the Brock and Dent special from BW, so it's nice to see a continuation of there meeting. Liking the consistent mentioning of Ash's friends having seen his finals match with Leon (including Misty who then proceeded to beat said Champion in the previous episode ) which I still haven't yet (will do sometime after this series).

Connoisseur/Detective Dent always nice to see (even if at some times annoying). Misty being annoyed at it is in-character and shows that much more the parallel between her and Iris. Misty's fear of bugs is always a nice reference, but the brief point Dent brought up about that bug/electric type (Joltik) was an intriguing addition.

The final conflict in the forest should have been written better. I have to assume Ash's more positive aura broke through the negative aura of the psychic type's and helped snapped Brock snap out of it; otherwise, I can't take it as seriously. Some opportunities were missed too, like 1st Gym Leader of Kanto vs 1st Gym Leader of Unova, or showing off a new capture from either of them (like Dawn's Quilava back in BW as one of many examples), etc.

Aw, Dent left the gang, but it's to be expected that this special series will intentionally focus on Ash... and his original friends. Latias (unsurprisingly) showed up again. I mainly hope Ash catches it (and not that it matters too much, but he doesn't even know any notable person with one either). Give the guy a true legendary capture already. (Go has/had a Suicine, and Ash has temporarily owned legendaries and commanded them.) Latias is one of the most fitting ones for Ash, always has been. (Though that said I'd pick something else for him if it weren't picked already, as I wouldn't want it to take away or share major features with Charizard and Noivern, and certain others too).

 

[TheCrazyMaster]

Well, this episode saw the return of not one, but two returning companions. So how did it do? Pretty okay I thought.

The episode starts with giving us a fairly basic setup of Ash and Misty wandering a city in what looks like Galar looking for a place to eat, before later revealing that Brock was working at the restaurant that they decided to eat at. Right off the bat, I love the fact that they recognized that the food they were eating tasted familiar, as it shows how familiar they are with Brock's food after having traveled with him for so long. Also, Brock giving up his dreams to work for a girl that he likes?
...
....
.....
Yeah, yeah, Brock is definitely the type of person who would do that, I mean it's Brock. I also found the reveal that she actually had a fiance and Brock's reaction to that to be hilarious, and Brock's reaction reminded me of his trauma with Professor Ivy, and overall I found him to be pretty in character this entire episode. Going back to how the OG trio are so familiar with one another, it felt nice seeing that he's so familiar with Ash that his actions were enough to break him out of Hatterene's hypnotic trance.

After him we had the return of this person.
Wha- no not Dawn...

YEET!​

CILAN!!!! Now, his introduction into the episode didn't feel particularly forced. Him just happening to casually run into Ash while going about his day overall felt pretty natural, since that pretty much happens in real life quite often. I overall feel like he was portrayed quite well this episode. His Pokemon connoisseur skills seem more or less the same as they were back in B&W, but were pretty much forgotten about very quickly after he evaluated Misty's Psyduck. I liked his overall interactions with the the other characters and it was nice to see him congratulate Ash over his WC victory. I'm glad that Ash finally knows that Brock and Cilan have actually met before and that he was fully aware of his tendency to fall for women, and it was nice to see him be the one to come up with a way to cheer up Brock. I also found his interactions with Misty to be pretty amusing, such as only recognizing Misty as "the spare" (also further cementing that Misty's sisters are more famous than her), and I liked how he questioned her regarding how she would react to a Water/Bug type. Honestly their dynamic kinda reminded me of his and Iris' dynamic, which makes sense since Misty and Iris are pretty similar personality-wise. His detective time also returns this episode, and if I recall correctly, Cilan wasn't exactly the best detective back in B&W, so it was nice seeing him using his knowledge on Hatterene to actually deduce what was happening to Brock.

Speaking of Hatterene, I like how each member of the Hatenna line was accurately portrayed according to the Pokedex this episode. I especially loved the portrayal of Hattrem and Hatterene, as they both have some pretty dark Pokedex entries, and this episode was pretty much like "yeah, yeah, these things are Psychopaths, they're not cute at all..."

Other than that, I found it pretty disappointing that we didn't see any of Ash's reserves this episode. I get that it wasn't exactly necessary to see them this episode, but considering we only have so much time with Ash Ketchum left, it was kind of a letdown nonetheless. I feel like Ash's Noctowl would've been perfect for this episode for instance.

Other than that, I don't really have anything else to say, it was a pretty enjoyable episode overall. So until my next review, best wishes!

 

[Almighty Zard]

I really like that Cilan got a final episode, was really good.

though I thought he and Brock had met in hoenn, not jouto, my bad either way.

again though like I mentioned in another thread, James and Meowth don't sound the same, and If so I know why...

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I blame Cilan for being a leftover who couldn't be used in Journeys for no good reason that led to us all pulling our hair for other returning companions appearing yet again.

 

[Sham]

The fact that best companions got one of the best returns in the series means things are how they should be.

 

[Starswirl Pikachu]

I cry foul on this off screen traveling stuff. It feels like days of adventuring has been skipped or at least what could have been several episodes. Granted there is less need for Ash and company to explore and catch new pokemon but this approach just appears lazy next to earlier journeys. Previously it seemed like Ash was near Kanto and then suddenly they have gone much farther away then that but its only been one episode?! Where is the transition?

Some would say that the odds of randomly running into Brock are astronomical but math aside, the gang is reunited once again and even Cilan makes it too! The backstory for why Brock is there and what happens afterward fits well with his personality. I would not call this a bad episode but relative to past seasons there does seem like a slight lack of larger focus. Although to be fair it is still early so some of that is forgivable.

 

[DuquÊ?]

I blame Cilan for being a leftover who couldn't be used in Journeys for no good reason that led to us all pulling our hair for other returning companions appearing yet again.

MPM as a whole is just leftover of unused Journeys scripts.

To be quite honest, you can skip MPM entirely and nothing is actually lost.

Except fora thing or two in the last episode, but, anyway!