Hm, well I would say this episode was subpar to the debut. Usually only the debut seems to be good, then there's a dropoff, then there are bypassable episodes, with a select few good to watch inbetween.
+ Mega Drain. Monster ball hit. Bickering. Pokemon incorporation.
- Distorted figures. Character incorporation. Several oddities.
Naoshi as filler was interesting (or maybe he'll be recurring). As a non-main character, there was good incorporation and no significant imbalance. He wasn't cheesy either.
Even though Hikari was smart enough to figure out that peck would be super effective on grass types, in the anime it is a terrible choice because it forces the user to charge into the opponent. (This was different than Nagi using peck, which was done after the distance was closed, and after Oosubame lost flight control). Seriously, going with bubblekousen would have been much better. Unless they suddenly throw in grass types absorbing the water or something, explosive bubbles seem the way to start the battle.
Then again with Pikachu winning with Iron Tail (and Thunderbolt being really effective in terms of net damage), it further applies that "level" or "experience" or "strength" probably is much better than a peck that forces a melee condition (and peck is also weak offensively that it probably never finishes the opponent either). Obviously both steel and electric attacks are not very effective, but no it was really useful if not too useful.
So so far, Pikachu is imbalanced in the sense that Iron Tail is one hit KOing things (particularly baby classified pokemon). (Okay fine, it one hit KO'd Pochama with Thunderbolt)
If Mega Drain was that good (it's not straightforward, doesn't look dodgeable, fires quickly, recovers a lot, and looks like it's homing too!) ... then Giga Drain is like more flashing (note in-game animation) with 1.5x power ... but what makes me interested is how Absorb would be half as good xP (and it's terrible in-game).
The bickering was at a fair level. Though, D/P tends to have lots of exaggerations to things. It's a nice concept but also rather pointless. And yes, bickering with Haruka in AG was actually less frequent by a large amount since Haruka is not one that even has a tendency to argue (and it's not preferences either. Haruka's context of arguments were more of personal tastes, but Hikari's seems to be of flaws or something different)
Hikari going straight for the Grand Festival doesn't make sense. It explains the contest intent, but it doesn't explain the decision to not go for gyms. Seriously, go dual! Obviously dual will never happen with a main character due to role specialisation, but at least Hikari has more battle intent than Haruka. If Hikari doesn't implement some kind of kickass system to contests that is new and tasteful, then her route would indeed be a disappointment. Unfortunately contests is also the component that can break her character. With components of this episode, concern should arise.
Pochama having that super low move pool of three attacks is quite limiting. Hikari really needs a secondary pokemon.
And yes I'd agree that Hikari's condition to join travelling wasn't really 100% sure thing. Then again, that occured for both Kasumi and Haruka, so thinking that makes it less bothersome. And no, Haruka did not need Satoshi. Travelling with Satoshi simply makes travelling more convenient and results in new possibilities in what can be learned during travels.
Pokemon still are being incorporated well. Though, obviously this was not a showcasing episode. Since that has not started to brew, I am not bothered by it yet. So, D/P has yet to have the giant flaw that both mid-Jouto and mid-Houen had. To avoid D/P having excess amounts of that, throw in TG XD
Distorted figures only applies to sometimes weird drawings in the sense that the characters look out of proportion.
Obviously Hikari has components that could be considered similar enough to Haruka and Kasumi, but never enough effect to be specifically a rehash of either. An obvious difference is calling the professor or mom, which the other girls I believe did not really do (and if they did, not that often).
The group effect didn't seem that strong either. Takeshi being support is normal, Satoshi being Satoshi is normal. However, aside from the bickering, having the characters around at the same time doesn't seem very meaningful.
A lot of context in the episode also felt somewhat redundant.
Pokemon using their pokemon cry (or saying their name) I don't recall occured that often while being returned (under something disappointing like a loss or a failure to find something). It's like they're speaking while being returned, sort of like an interruption, haha. Kind of depressing (but good in the sense that you do sense the sadness, I guess)
I also guess that the only way to make Hikari flawed is either by indirect "nerfing" or just mistake prone. Haruka's flaw in battle was being blank. Shrug, I prefer a flaw that's more creative (I can't recall all the Kantou Satoshi flaws though, but some of those were better).
Since Hikari is running the group effect, you get less of the ditsy component, so this episode had like no chance of things like slipping off the road, sliding down a small hill, running over a rock, not watching the road, or ninja evasion.
Hikari also wasn't as physical as her debut, though I suppose only her debut could contain so much of it reasonably. There is almost no need to apply any anime faces, any Pochama bickering, or any rapid movement. Nearly all of Hikari's debut abilities are non-existant in episode four due to the group and group incorporation effect. This I find this a tremendous weakness.
Oh but the music is D/P is very nice! Opening I suppose was good, and the ending was really good (doesn't seem fitting for this episode though, but it was very fitting for the debut ... well the 3rd episode end of it). Music score within episode felt like a definite plus too.
Yes, the flaws of the implementation of Hikari start to brew. Her independent effect I thought was much, much better. Her group effect seems subpar to that of Kantou Kasumi. Haruka's implementation had more of a needs effect, but wasn't too much different.
Perhaps I'll look into a different episode when it comes out.
I do like how there are larger sequences of events. Even though the episode title was all about Hikari's first battle, it still incorporated several different things. Though, it wasn't as rapid fire as the debut.
D/P definitely has a different feel (until semi-reshashing events occur), but sometimes it feels really distorted too. It ignored quite a lot of things. It was like there's nicer music score and better incorporation of things, but there didn't seem to be a large strength in plot. It feels like a mix of many different things that did not necessarily correlate to one another.
Eh, currently the group effect seems awkward. That's what I think for the most part.
EDIT: Is it me, or has the rocket gang so far for the most part "self destruct"? In the debut, the ballon explosion was self caused. The mech destruction was also self caused. This time, the wind blew the cover off naturally, but it was not caused by the main characters. They've been blasted off for a total of like two times, but the ruining of their plan was never caused by their opposition.
