What's this!? S.Suikun is about to review an episode in a serious fashion? What type of madness/sorcery is this?
Let me get one thing out of the way real quick - I have never truly liked Zoey as a character. She comes off as too much of a "friendly" rival to Dawn, and her distaste of doing both gyms and contests always came off as unreasonable to me, hence why I was hoping Fantina would show up to b****-slap her. That said, if Nando is to continue being a recurring rival, he may be the best thing to ever happen to Zoey. *cue shipping* A continued tension between the two could spark some very interesting development over the remainder of the contest arc for both characters, and may actually make me view Zoey as more than one-dimensional.
On to the actual episode, having a main character lose the appeal rounds is a surprising twist, although I guess it was a necessity if this thing wasn't going to become insanely rushed. (My prediction is that there will be another contest in Solaceon Town) Anyways, we got to see Muku.DOORBELL, the debut of Le Mustache, and the practically-forgotten Mime Jr. Though I'm disappointed that they did absolutely nothing with the training done in "Dawn, Zoey, and a Double Performance", throwing that entire episode into forgotten obscurity. Kinoshita is...still Kinoshita, people. Marginal improvement does little wonders when visual mediocrity is still abound. Unless, of course, you like your Marian and Zoey extra-anorexic.