Connect to the Future! The Legend of the Blinding One!! (1033)

[LilligantLewis]

Wow they just said the name of the episode with NO THEME SONG WTF

Did that happen in the original?? And why???

 

[Lord Starfish]

Wow they just said the name of the episode with NO THEME SONG WTF

Did that happen in the original?? And why???

You know that long Poipole montage with no dialogue near the end of the episode?
That was the "opening credits" in the original. Like, all those shots of Poipole stumbling around in Alola before meeting Ash and Pikachu were taken straight out of the opening they'd been using for the past 40 episodes. So yeah, the episode title being given with no opening theme preceeding it is true to the original.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

No title screen, huh? The title's only just said by Ash at the point I'm assuming the title was overlayed in the JP version. There isn't even an opening in this episode.

Kukui slipped a bit into his Masked Royal voice when doing the Z-Move. That was clever.

Matori got grounded by Tapu Koko. That's my favorite Alola Legendary.

The montage of the light being given to Necrozma had another use of the stars theme (heard in the Minior episode among others). That was spectacular. And right before the montage was a moment of actual silence. Dub music advocate that I am, I admit the dub needs more of that. Oh and the montage of when Poipole stayed behind got the new best track of Ultra Adventures. It's always the best idea to treat super-important scenes like this with the utmost care, and that's exactly what Mr. Goldfarb did. As a result, we got the most emotional moment the show will ever have all weekend.

I was curious as to how the dub would handle the ending to this episode, with the Mirai Connection sequence... I just saw what they did:
The sequence itself is kept completely intact, without credits, and the song is replaced with instrumental music that sounds like it was presumably made for the scene.

All things considered, that's probably the most sensible way they could have handled it. And, I mean, I'm happy, because it means I now have the ending to this episode without credits! And I do like my creditless scenes.

In regards to this, one more thing I have to say about the montage sequence: as much as I prefer its dub self, the JP version would have won if Mima would've just waited until this episode to use Future Connection in an episode proper. Legit query to all reading this: wouldn't that song have meant more and given more impact to this scene if this was the only time within an episode proper that it was used? Really think about it. Future Connection was used for:

a Dewpider trying to find a new home
a baking montage
Lycanroc kicking its aversion to dirt
Pikachu defeating Mimikyu
Z-Move fireworks
playing with Minior
Steenee evolving
and finally Poipole's goodbye.

Doesn't anyone else think that seven prior uses removes a lot of its uniqueness and lessens the impact of an important scene? Said scene was the eighth time that song was used. It should've been the first and only time.

But anyway, this arc was neat. And yes, I think Ultra Adventures should've ended on this episode.

 

[Ignition]

No title screen, huh? The title's only just said by Ash at the point I'm assuming the title was overlayed in the JP version. There isn't even an opening in this episode.

Kukui slipped a bit into his Masked Royal voice when doing the Z-Move. That was clever.

Matori got grounded by Tapu Koko. That's my favorite Alola Legendary.

The montage of the light being given to Necrozma had another use of the stars theme (heard in the Minior episode among others). That was spectacular. And right before the montage was a moment of actual silence. Dub music advocate that I am, I admit the dub needs more of that. Oh and the montage of when Poipole stayed behind got the new best track of Ultra Adventures. It's always the best idea to treat super-important scenes like this with the utmost care, and that's exactly what Mr. Goldfarb did. As a result, we got the most emotional moment the show will ever have all weekend.

In regards to this, one more thing I have to say about the montage sequence: as much as I prefer its dub self, the JP version would have won if Mima would've just waited until this episode to use Future Connection in an episode proper. Legit query to all reading this: wouldn't that song have meant more and given more impact to this scene if this was the only time within an episode proper that it was used? Really think about it. Future Connection was used for:

a Dewpider trying to find a new home
a baking montage
Lycanroc kicking its aversion to dirt
Pikachu defeating Mimikyu
Z-Move fireworks
playing with Minior
Steenee evolving
and finally Poipole's goodbye.

Doesn't anyone else think that seven prior uses removes a lot of its uniqueness and lessens the impact of an important scene? Said scene was the eighth time that song was used. It should've been the first and only time.

But anyway, this arc was neat. And yes, I think Ultra Adventures should've ended on this episode.

Definitely agree with you on the use of Future Connection

 

[Lord Starfish]

Yeah, the show has had a tendency to overuse its opening themes as insert songs. I don't personally think it takes away from how perfectly fitting it was for this scene, but... yeah it probably would have been more effective if this was the first and only time it was used for that purpose. The same can be said for the current opening, assuming that they do what I'm hoping they'll do and use it as the ending theme to the final episode like what they did with Volt in XY&Z. It would be an appropriate use of the song... but it would probably have more of an impact were it not for the fact that, already, said song has been used in-episode at least twice. (Possibly more, but I can only remember two instances off the top of my head.)

 

[Bguy7]

Wow, I can't express how let down and disappointed I feel right now. This arc started so strong and had me very excited to see where it would go, but then every episode just got worse and worse. I never expected the final episode would be such an anticlimax. Nothing exciting happened. We just watched overly prolonged scenes of everyone "sharing" their energy. That's not exciting. Ultra Necrozma wasn't even on screen for more than a couple seconds, and Team Rocket had absolutely no purpose in this arc. I was fully expecting Team Rocket to have some sort of way to control Ultra Necrozma, and that's where our big finale would come from, but no, both sides of that plot just got cut off abruptly. And despite the fact that this entire arc was centered around Necrozma attempting to absorb energy from Solgaleo and Lunala, we barely got any grand-scale Legendary battles at all, just the most simple possible ones. I'd still much rather have episodes like we've had in this arc than we have in general in Sun and Moon, but compared to the Nihilego arc, this was just all around disappointing. I really did think this one would be the better of the two. This is especially disappointing because I am a big fan of Ultra Necrozma, and due to Gen VII's strange ways of doing movies, we're never going to get a better chance to see it in action. I guess I have to hope for a sequel arc in the finale of Sun and Moon.

As for some more random topics:

Very novel having no opening theme or title card. I do believe that's a first for the series.

And was that the "mother and daughter" characters that recur throughout the series? If so, I think that's the first time one of them has had a speaking role in quite some time. I think this would also only be their second or third appearance in the main series, as they tend to only cameo in movies. It's interesting that they seem to be appearing more often as time goes on.

With Poipole, am I correct in saying that Ash never once battled with it? If so, then I really don't think we can consider it a member of his team any more than we can consider any of the random Ultra Beasts he's captured, or recurring Pokémon that traveled with him for multiple episodes like Larvitar or Meloetta. I expected Ash to release it, but I figured it would actually serve as a member of his team before the point. Bit of a bummer.

 

[LilligantLewis]

"I'M ALL OUT OF PLANS" LMAO Ash you idiot

The solar eclipse didn't really seem to impact the arc in any way.

I liked the Team Rocket theme music

That was kind of too easy to take down a Mega with just one move. Rushed battles in this ep

The hand signal sending energy like a Spirit Bomb was just #animelogic

Ash and Gladion using Z moves simultaneously with Solgaleo and Lunala was beyond epic

I can't believe Ash has only 4 Pokémon this late in a generation

Just wanting to ask if this is the last villlain arc of this series or there are gonna be more in future because if this is the last then I am very dissapointed.

There has to be a Team Skull arc; they're not going to just end the anime without a single appearance from either ya boi GUZMA or Plumeria.

Malasada's anime dubut

Who is Malasada?

Giovanni is still out there, Tapu Koko didn't kill Matori and her squid, the don still wants Necrozma, this isn't the last we see of him or Poipole. Once Giovanni comes into play himself... we will get another shot at Necrozma and his big z move.

Yeah, one thing I did not understand at all is: why did they set up Nanu/Giovanni involvement in SM074 if it didn't play into this arc? Especially in SM087, when Acerola told Nanu he wasn't praying properly or whatever, I thought for sure he was going to backstab and team up with TR in this arc. Both the Nanu setup in SM074, and the Matori Matrix's involvement in this arc overall, turned out to be totally irrelevant. Giovanni didn't even show up!! Why did he call Nanu?

Poipole’s goodbye being so random and so rushed the classmates were actually rushing Ash to say bye to it so they can leave, it was all just bad.

Kiawe was so rude! I was shocked!!

Flare>>Galactic>>Op Tempest=>Necrozma>>Plasma>>Magma/Aqua>>>Aether

What about Lugia 3-parter and RED GYARADOS/Lake of Rage 2-parter?

Anyway, let me do mine:

9. Operation Tempest
8. Ultra Necrozma
7. Team Plasma
6. Team Flare
5. Team Magma/Aqua
4. Aether Foundation
3. Red Gyarados/Lake of Rage 2-parter
2. Lugia 3-parter
1. Team Galactic

Dub: No episode title shown, but Ash still announces it via voiceover.

In the Disney XD airing this past week in the United States, the title did appear on the screen. Almost not believing what you said here, I had to go to Bulbapedia and look under trivia, and indeed, oddly it appears it was just the US that had the title on screen, not other dub regions.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Who is Malasada?

Hala's grandson, named after the only word he can say

Clearly he's in fact a pokémon and is secretly promoting Gen VIII

 

[LilligantLewis]

Hala's grandson, named after the only word he can say

Clearly he's in fact a pokémon and is secretly promoting Gen VIII

Thanks I didn't know that.

 

[Bguy7]

Ash and Gladion using Z moves simultaneously with Solgaleo and Lunala was beyond epic

I feel like this is something I want to address. Yes, I would agree that Ash and Gladeon teaming up to use Z-Moves with Lunala and Solgaleo was cool, and conceptually it sounds very epic, but in practice I think it just kind of fell flat. The animation used for the Z-Moves felt very average, especially for Legendary Pokémon, and since it wasn't used in battle, it didn't really seem like anything all that interesting.

In general, I feel like the writers of the show think that if they want a dramatic ending, they've just got to throw a Z-Move in. But that really isn't the case. It all depends on how the Z-Move is used. Using a Z-Move for non-attacking purposes, and not even making it look all that interesting doesn't really seem all that climatic.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Heck, even some battle Z-moves have been extremely lackluster lately

Radial Edgestorm and Ultimate Dragon Burn were both laughably pathetic and they didn't bother to touch up the former despite having months to do so since its last appearance

 

[LilligantLewis]

not even making it look all that interesting doesn't really seem all that climatic.

well it definitely was climatic since it directly impacted the climate

 

[Bguy7]

well it definitely was climatic since it directly impacted the climate

To be fair, in my original post about this episode, I did specifically call the ending an anticlimax instead of a climax. The underwhelming Z-Moves was part of the reason I said that.

Never mind, just realized what you actually meant. Got to love typos. Z-Moves lead to global warming. Who knew?

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

Fine episode. No opening nor the title card. That's unusual.

Lots of things were contributed here. It was nice seeing all Island Kahunas (except Poni Island), all Island Guardians (including Tapu Fini), and the rest of Alola to share and lend their power along with all the Pokémon of Alola. Z-Moves were cool, but nothing too spectacular, aside from Solgaleo and Lunala, of course. Ash and Gladion teaming up, nice. Shows that they had to put rivalries aside and help others out! The rest of the Ultra Guardians didn't appear to have done much, but they did the best they can to lend out power. It was nice to see Poipole's world returning to normal, but also sad that Poipole opted to stay and Ash had to leave it behind.

Ash, surely you could come up with a better plan than to not have a plan in mind, can you?

Spoiler: Lack of opening/title card

Is this the dub's way to fit in other scenes left out to fit in with the schedule? Probably not.

 

[mehmeh1]

Fine episode. No opening nor the title card. That's unusual.

Lots of things were contributed here. It was nice seeing all Island Kahunas (except Poni Island), all Island Guardians (including Tapu Fini), and the rest of Alola to share and lend their power along with all the Pokémon of Alola. Z-Moves were cool, but nothing too spectacular, aside from Solgaleo and Lunala, of course. Ash and Gladion teaming up, nice. Shows that they had to put rivalries aside and help others out! The rest of the Ultra Guardians didn't appear to have done much, but they did the best they can to lend out power. It was nice to see Poipole's world returning to normal, but also sad that Poipole opted to stay and Ash had to leave it behind.

Ash, surely you could come up with a better plan than to not have a plan in mind, can you?

Spoiler: Lack of opening/title card

Is this the dub's way to fit in other scenes left out to fit in with the schedule? Probably not.

it's already been said that the lack of opening/title card was because the montage at the end of the episode replaced the opening in the japanese version

 

[LilligantLewis]

it's already been said that the lack of opening/title card was because the montage at the end of the episode replaced the opening in the japanese version

and there was a title card in the US airing

 

[Soaring Pikachu]

I was fully expecting Team Rocket to have some sort of way to control Ultra Necrozma, and that's where our big finale would come from, but no, both sides of that plot just got cut off abruptly.

For the more recent episodes, I imagine that somewhere in the shows development process the creators have a "quota" of how good or bad Team Rocket is allowed to be for each season. The feeling I get here is that Mega Aggron used up most of their credit so then because of this rule they couldn't do anything else important. (I just made that up but sometimes I wonder if it could be true?)

It seems like a waste for everybody to be sending out energy in that way and then there is no Spirit bomb at the end. I guess it is forgivable since they tried to resolve the problem in a non violent way.

 

[Sonnas]

So with what happens later in the show does this 4 parter feel like filler since it feels like nothing’s changed? (except with Poipole staying behind?)

 

[Nyter]

So with what happens later in the show does this 4 parter feel like filler since it feels like nothing’s changed? (except with Poipole staying behind?)

This was definitely not a filler eps. in my book. This was an attempt to make this whole Necrozma situation as dramatic as they could (it failed to be as dramatic as the Mother Lusamine saga). But it ended with some results. The first is the legend of Necrozma. That ties in with the main series games and when that is achieved, I find it not as a filler at all. This is concrete info of yet another folklore in the Pokemon universe. The same with Lunala and Solgaleo (Although the way they transform into Dusk Mane and Dawn Wings was inaccurate to the game). Poipole leaving was to be expected and I expect another Pokemon (like "squishy" and "Nebby") to act as this role once more. It is a theme quite often beaten after dead. But in the producer's eyes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

There is so much of a light show going on between wormholes and energy sharing and Z moves, I should whipped out turntables and get this electronic dance music festival going.

And my question is... Did Lunala and Solgaleo $#!+ those Z Crystals out or something? I wish there was more background to them.

And as someone mentioned before, Ultra Adventures should have ended on this episode.

Faba and Prof. Kukui would have been more amusing to watch if they had conflicting personalities and came together to reach victory.

My rating is 7.1 out of 10

 

[RafaSceptile]

Imo, a filler episode is an episode that you can remove from the anime and nothing changes. Now, you can't remove the first 3 parts because they are the continuation of the next episode, and in the 4th part, Ash's released his Poipole, and that's an important part for a future episode.