December 16th: SM101 - Fire it Off! The Twin Sparking Gigavolt of Friendship!!

[Dephender]

Due to a certain incident, Satoshi and Pikachu got sent to an unknown location. There's not a soul to be seen there, and the city is in ruins... After learning that a massive Ultra Beast caused all this, the two decide to fight alongside Zeraora and its companion. Will Satoshi be able to help these solitary fighters?

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The place Satoshi and Pikachu got sent to was a ruined city without a soul to be seen anywhere. Once they learn that the reason for this is the presence of Akuziking, which eats absolutely everything, they resolve to fight alongside the Zeraora and Trainer that they met there.

Screenplay 米村 正二 (Shōji Yonemura)
Storyboard 浅田 裕二 (Yūji Asada)
Episode Director 浅田 裕二 (Yūji Asada)
Animation Director 岩根 雅明 (Masaaki Iwane)
Animation Director 志村 泉 (Izumi Shimura)

http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/pokemon_sunmoon/

Big news for Pocket Monsters Sun & Moon! Incredibly enough, the mythical Pokémon Zeraora is going to appear! Zeraora uses super powerful electric moves; What kind of prowess is it going to demonstrate? What?! Zeraora and Pikachu will have a fully powered battle?! Which of them will win? And believe it or not, we'll also give out Zeraora merchandise for 4 weeks straight! Details will be announced during the episodes! Zeraora will be appearing on December 9th and December 16th!

 

[i2i]

Zeraora appearance continuing to the next episode has me curious on what else is going to happen beside the battle between it and Pikachu.

 

[Xeogran]

Hopefully Guzzlord plot is in the middle of this. The place they're in kinda looks like his Ultra Space.

 

[Darthlord7]

Yep that seems to be Guzzlord's world. It looks like Ash ended up in a post-apocalyptic era after his battle against Tapu Koko in SM100.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Looks like the second part of the Zeraora battle. Maybe it could be a good way of introducing Guzzlord and for some reason while Ash gets on an Ultra Wormhole back to Alola, Guzzlord pursues Ash through it, triggering a call from Lusamine to go to the Ultra Guardians base.

 

[Zoruagible]

Oh please have Guzzlord show up....
Though he should really appear after Pheromosa and Kartana

 

[Mega Altaria]

Oh please have Guzzlord show up....
Though he should really appear after Pheromosa and Kartana

Maybe they could have Pheromosa and Kartana show up from different Ultra Wormholes from the Ultra Wormhole Guzzlord arrived from. It would be great to see a big Ultra Beast crisis start off from there.

 

[Red and Blue]

Oh so this is a two parter? If so this Zeraora and his trainer may not show up at the league after all. Also I'm amazed Pikachu is lasting this long in the battle

 

[345ash-greninja]

Wells looks like Guzzlord is gonna show up here. So well, I guess another UB appearance likely done here as well. With Zeraora being in this episode and being related to all of this, this definitely looks set to be quite an exciting episode.

 

[DatsRight]

Another solo-Ash mini arc. It looks cool but seriously when are the companions gonna get some screentime here?

 

[Xuxuba]

Another solo-Ash mini arc. It looks cool but seriously when are the companions gonna get some screentime here?

Companions? What is this? Is it something you eat?

 

[345ash-greninja]

Oh so this is a two parter? If so this Zeraora and his trainer may not show up at the league after all. Also I'm amazed Pikachu is lasting this long in the battle

Curiously why do you think that this trainer might not show in the League? Literally what is the info we currently have about the episode that makes you think so?

Another solo-Ash mini arc. It looks cool but seriously when are the companions gonna get some screentime here?

Well...I find it quite hilarious at this point that you're looking more for the companions' development when Ash's Alolan team isn't League ready and isn't fully developed in the first place. The Alola League is approaching day by day, so developing Ash's Alolan team via focus episodes on his current team members, especially Rowlet, plus 1/2 more captures for him, honestly that's more important at this point.

And we all know that Lillie is eventually gonna get focus episode when she gets a Z-ring and learns how to use Subzero Slammer cuz she has the Icium-Z.

 

[Rock Captain 99]

So an UB might appear here.. Interesting!!

 

[Akkipeddi]

It's sad to say (not really), but I think we can say that the companions futures from here on out look very bleak (not like they ever had a bright future to start with, though the anime has managed to make them even more irrelevant than I expected). With Hau, Eevee and the upcoming LGPE arc, it all points to heavy focus and arcs for Ash (who himself seems neglected since he only has 4 Pokémon at this late stage of the series). Beyond that, he also needs to complete his Poni Trials, and there's the eventual League, with all this in a span of another 40 episodes. Throw in SM's incessant need for 'wacky' fillers, and you have very little time left to develop 5 freakin characters. I personally think Mallow and Sophocles are done tbh, and Lana may get 1-2 episodes where her Popplio may evolve, and Lillie with around 2-3 episodes to obtain a Z Ring and Master Subzero Slammer. Honestly, they could've done something relavant for the classmates from SM091 to SM095 (before the heavy Ash focus), but no, they chose to prioritize 5 awful fillers in a row. That about sums up as to how low the classmates are at the list of priorities for the writers.

 

[Red and Blue]

Curiously why do you think that this trainer might not show in the League? Literally what is the info we currently have about the episode that makes you think so?

Well...I find it quite hilarious at this point that you're looking more for the companions' development when Ash's Alolan team isn't League ready and isn't fully developed in the first place. The Alola League is approaching day by day, so developing Ash's Alolan team via focus episodes on his current team members, especially Rowlet, plus 1/2 more captures for him, honestly that's more important at this point.

And we all know that Lillie is eventually gonna get focus episode when she gets a Z-ring and learns how to use Subzero Slammer cuz she has the Icium-Z.

If they are in Guzzlord's dimension the trainer might be there by choice. Therefore he could be limited to the two parter.

 

[Dragalge]

You all sure this isn’t just some post-movie Zeraora promotion they want to get out of the way or something?

 

[DatsRight]

It's sad to say (not really), but I think we can say that the companions futures from here on out look very bleak (not like they ever had a bright future to start with, though the anime has managed to make them even more irrelevant than I expected). With Hau, Eevee and the upcoming LGPE arc, it all points to heavy focus and arcs for Ash (who himself seems neglected since he only has 4 Pokémon at this late stage of the series). Beyond that, he also needs to complete his Poni Trials, and there's the eventual League, with all this in a span of another 40 episodes. Throw in SM's incessant need for 'wacky' fillers, and you have very little time left to develop 5 freakin characters. I personally think Mallow and Sophocles are done tbh, and Lana may get 1-2 episodes where her Popplio may evolve, and Lillie with around 2-3 episodes to obtain a Z Ring and Master Subzero Slammer. Honestly, they could've done something relavant for the classmates from SM091 to SM095 (before the heavy Ash focus), but no, they chose to prioritize 5 awful fillers in a row. That about sums up as to how low the classmates are at the list of priorities for the writers.

I guess it's more annoying here because SM still feels like it tries to make the companions likeable. Only Mallow and Lana verge on being the 'Brock level' companion they aren't really bothered with and just have sit and do nothing in the first place. Kiawe, Lillie and Sophocles all get to have loads of character moments and bits of involvement, but feel like they're performing in a small box because the show won't let them develop and grow their teams enough to branch out. There was the start of an arc with Kiawe branching out of his tank strategy and becoming more versatile after catching Marowak, but due to not getting anymore team boosts, they can't do anymore with it. Lillie could also grow as a trainer if she got another Pokemon or Snowy took another key step.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Everyone talking up Guzzlord needs to chill before they get disappointed.

If anything, they're probably just in the anime version of Po Town.

 

[qazplmwsxo]

Prediction:This random trainer and his zeraora will not appear again after this episode.

 

[DuquÊ?]

Oh, brother, zeraora dude have a cape. That screams both "bad news" and "dream crusher". I'm at least glad he isn't a kid.

I know I shouldn't be surprised since it's SM and all, but Ash should knows better before hug the tail of a apparently perpetually pissed thundercat (pun not intented).