Finals I: Torrent (1218)

[Starswirl Pikachu]

(+1 for the surprise Piplup and Dawn appearance)

And so after a long road, Ash reaches the final tournament battle vs Leon! Pikachu leads for Ash and Leon sends out Cinderace. So to avoid confusion with Goh's team I'll just refer to them as "evil" variants. (even tho Leons not really evil or anything)

At first glance it looks like an even match but evil Cinderace is able to nullify electric attacks, thus forcing Ash to switch out Pikachu. While not going as far as Cynthia did, Leon shows his smarts and wisely changes out his mon as well. Next up is Gengar vs evil Inteleon. I think it is kind of neat that the audience can sorta tell that Leons pokemon are at a higher level than Goh's counterparts appear to be. (or maybe they just happen to look that way?)

In any case, evil Inteleon gives Gengar a royal thrashing for some time and shows off a pretty nice interpretation of an Aqua Jet spin move. At this point Ash manages to successfully G-Max Gengar which puts the battle much closer in terms of strength level. Eventually G-Max Gengar is able to knock out evil Inteleon but not before taking on even more damage of its own. Ash did good by getting one of Leons team to faint first but Leon quickly evens the score by knocking out Gengar with an Ice and Psychic combo from Mr. Rime.

Good battle so far, lets see if Leon can keep his winning streak here or if his over confidence with the slight rule adjustment will lead to his downfall?

 

[Red and Blue]

Too bad they waited until the end for Gengar's Cursed Body ability to activate. That would have been extremely useful in earlier battles.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Too bad they waited until the end for Gengar's Cursed Body ability to activate. That would have been extremely useful in earlier battles.

The curse of RNG struck

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Started my rewatch of Ash vs Leon today and man, this opening episode was soooo good
I really love the buildup to it, the Tucker introduction of Ash will always be iconic but this is such a close second for me. They hype up Ash so good here, ofc the Alola mention but also how the commentator hypes him up by beating Cynthia and Steven too, and especially how the crowd goes absolute wild for him. Chloe being surprised by that while Dawn was unfazed is peak.

This episode really is a perfect summation of Ash and Dawn's best friendship, the way Dawn cheers again for Ash like Sinnoh was so nostalgic.

I know the finale is really famous for the sharp designs and crisp animation we get, but man this episode also is remarkably an improvement. The designs are so crisp here and Ash looks so good when he grins upon Cursed Body activating here lmao. He really felt like a Champion on equal grounds here

Also, I really like how Leon flashes back to his first pokemon battle, which we later learn he had actually lost. Him being undefeatable being a whole competitve side thing only and not actually true was such a great way to humanize him in the anime