• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

I'm Back! Nice to See You, Alola! (1126)

CMButch

CMButch

Kanto is love. Kanto is life.
WaterTypeStarter said:
Will they cover Lillie finding her dad in a special episode or in an episode of this series?
Click to expand...
I think Lillie will appear with just Ash and Go in some other region in future( not Alola) so they all find Mohn. I wonder what region will it be? They have been riding on a train. I think it will be Kanto-Johto or Unova.
 
L

LucasMV

Well-Known Member
I really liked this episode overall. The fact that Ash knew about Lei, so he keeps up with his Alola family off-screen is interesting. I wonder with how many other characters he keeps in contact off-screen too?

Also, Ash interacting with Lei and Burnet saying "Satoshi-oniichan" were by far the best part of the episode for me. Also Ash calling them his Alola family.

We also got to see TR's pokemon and Bewear, along with Ash's pokemon and a Lillie/Gladio cameo.

The only thing that would've made this episode a 10/10 instead of a 9/10 was if Ash explicitly introduced his current team to his Alola team, and we got some interactions between them. I found his Alola mon's role in this episode a bit lacking. I also expected Go to have a different reaction to seeing Ash's Alola team, like ask about them or something. But I guess he knew about them cause Ash must've told him in off-screen land, where a lot more than expected seems to be happening.

Other than that, considering this was just an introduction episode for everyone in Alola and we're guaranteed to see them again, I'm happy with it.
I'm sure we'll get a resolution on Mohn's plotline now, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered showing that scene in this episode. And we'll also have Ash and Go return to Alola at least once more, so that's at least 2 more Alola episodes guaranteed, but probably more.
 
Red and Blue

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
Would be nice if Go and Kiawe finish their battle on the future after Raboot evolves. By then Go should be strong enough to win
 
R

Rober63

New Member
CMButch said:
I think Lillie will appear with just Ash and Go in some other region in future( not Alola) so they all find Mohn. I wonder what region will it be? They have been riding on a train. I think it will be Kanto-Johto or Unova.
Click to expand...
I read a theory about that, you can see some mountains when Magearna indicates the route and looks a bit similar to what we saw in The Crown of Thundra DLC, but it's probably just a coincidence...
 
RafaSceptile

RafaSceptile

Well-Known Member
Rober63 said:
I read a theory about that, you can see some mountains when Magearna indicates the route and looks a bit similar to what we saw in The Crown of Thundra DLC, but it's probably just a coincidence...
Click to expand...

It can be just indirect promotion to The Crown of Thundra DLC
 
RafaSceptile

RafaSceptile

Well-Known Member
Well, this was the very first episode of Pokémon Journeys (outside of the last week of December when most animes never transmited) in reach to the top10 of the Weekly Japanese anime ratings.

Remember that Pokémon shared Schedule with Chibi Maruko Chan 2nd highest weekly anime with 5 times more rating. Hopefully Pokémon increase its rating with its new Schedule on Fridays.
 
J

J. D. Guy

Well-Known Member
Spider-Phoenix said:
I had mixed feelings today.

I like the bit with Raboot messing with Pyukkumuku than getting his duo. It's slowly coming back to his Scorbunny days which I like.

Completly missed the bit with Journey's team eating with SM. Shame's on me this time.

Is it or did Sophocles lost some ponds? He seemed less fat. As someone who did beat obesity I'm legitmately happy for him.

Anyway, as for overall thoughts, putting them on spoiler since I won't rain on everyone's parade by being the one grumpy old man

This episode is... I have no freaking idea what to make of it.

It's not a bad episode by any means. It's good at what it does. But there's something that it that throws me off.

Playing favorites.

You can clearly see how much this episode treats Ash's return to Alola as a big deal. Compare and contrast to the visits to Johto, Sinnoh, Hoenn, Unova and Kalos and you can clearly see what I'm talking about.

I mean say if I was a fan of DP, all I get is a Piplup and Croagnuk loosely similar to the ones from DP right down to having the same VAs despite not being the same ones? If I like Hoenn, all I get is a random tournament called Battle Frontier? From Unova, I just get random desert number 697 and I'm told it's on Unova? The only thing I got from Kalos is Korrina, of all people?

And from Johto I get Ash suddently forgetting he was in the same spot he had visited before?

I could cope with those. Kids show. Continuity must be avoided. That's healthy and at least prevents Pokémon from suffering the same fate as american comic books.

But then Alola gets exactly the kind of treatment I want all the other regions I have an attachment with whether I knew them from the anime, the games, the movies, the mangas or all of them to have? So that does mean all of the previous shows I love so much mean nothing because they aren't that recent?

Granted I know it's because Alola just happened to be the most recent and the kids who are watching current show, probably did watch SM. But why for Alola I get an episode written by its former main writer - Aya Matsui - and even directed by Daiki Tomiyasu, the director of SM series himself? Meanwhile who wrote the first trip for Hoenn and for Sinnoh? Michihiro Tsuchiya and Deko Akao, all of which started off on Journeys. A quick look on Bulbapedia reveals the animation direction have been done for people whose earliest credits are SM.

Also, what Kalos and XY got during SM days again despite being the most recent at the time?

Now you are getting?

Granted, not all animation directors who've worked on past series are still working or are avaliable (or willing) to do it but I do believe we DO have staff who's worked on them still doing (or willing to do) something for the show besides Iwane. For example, I bet Tetsuo Yajima could make time to direct a Kalos trip episode or at least take some part on it. If I recall Yuyama managed to direct episodes of the show despite being fully committed to the movies and being the main director after all.

Not to bash those episodes, they were fine by themselves. I like them for what they are. But I kind of feel slapped into the face seeing so much care and concern for Alola while the shows I like got not much at all. The closest we got to some special attention were the first Unova and Kalos trips that having Tomioka as writer but then it's more luck because he's stuck around for so long despite having other commitments like the current Digimon anime.

I dunno, as I said the episode is good by itself but it does show the kind of potential a show like Journeys have, with the setting they have and while it's understandable why they don't go all out, it's kind of infuriating seeing such kind of special treatment specially because you KNOW there's clear favoritism in play here.

This episode also highlighted an issue I had with Alola ever since back in the day: how much writting hammers and shoehorns the idea that Alola is this oh so different, oh so incredible place without actually showing it. Because honestly after the 100+ episodes I don't see anything that really sets Alola apart from just about any other region. The one thing it had going on for it is that it was the one time where Ash wasn't focused on blazing through the region for badges and leagues and rather just stayed to appreciate the place. If I had to resume it I'd say Alola is too much "tell, don't show"

Ignoring my blatant issues the episode was really good for Goh as it show how he stands in the series as a whole and what exactly is his role in the show. Unlike previous companions, he is not a rival, glorified sparring partner or potential love interest. He's Ash's friend and his fellow researcher (pun intended). It's good as it makes a good job showing what makes Goh distinct and a stand out from previous characters.

I also like Ash blushing at the "big bro" compliment as it not just shows how deep his connection with Kukui and Burnett was, it also kind of goes back to something I've always felt was a "hidden trait" of Ash: he wanted to have siblings. I've always noticed on his interactions with May/Max, Clemont/Bonnie and even outside of that he almost seemed to appreciate this specific bond and kind of desired to have this for himself. Ash looks good as a big brother and little Rei/Ray certainly has a pretty good role model to look up to.
Click to expand...

To add to where you point out the availability of the respective series' staff and directors, consider also that voice over availability factors into this. Alola being the most recent means that its voice actors are the most reasonably accessible ones were in the various Japanese Pokemon series right now. This leads to a certain level of pragmatism that has to be factored into how the different regions have to be portrayed.

Otherwise, yours was a very insightful post. The only thing I can say I strictly (and strongly, but that's not relevant right now) disagree with is your "told, but not shown" paragraph. Other than that, good job on the good read! :D
 
Spider-Phoenix

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
J. D. Guy said:
To add to where you point out the availability of the respective series' staff and directors, consider also that voice over availability factors into this. Alola being the most recent means that its voice actors are the most reasonably accessible ones were in the various Japanese Pokemon series right now. This leads to a certain level of pragmatism that has to be factored into how the different regions have to be portrayed.
Click to expand...

As Dephender said once in another thread, they are professional VAs. Avaliability could not be that much of an issue specially since they are still working, with the only exception being May duo Kaori having health issues that prevent her from reprising her role.

For example, a quick check on Maki Makiguchi (Serena) on japanese wikipedia, has her most recent role in the Drifting Dragons anime. It's more of a matter of "We want to use this character" than whether or not his or her VA is avaliable.

The choice of "they are the most recent" is very sounding but a case can be made for SM not using any of the XY character at all despite it being recent at the time. Yet they still went all the way to bring back misty and brock who were older. Granted it was the 20th anniversary but what prevented them from using any of the XY gang at a later point?

J. D. Guy said:
Otherwise, yours was a very insightful post. The only thing I can say I strictly (and strongly, but that's not relevant right now) disagree with is your "told, but not shown" paragraph. Other than that, good job on the good read! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
dentula

dentula

Member
As a big SM fan, this was a long anticipated episode. There was some enjoyment to be had, but overall it was disappointing.

While it was cathartic seeing most of the main cast, there was so much stuff crammed into the episode that nothing was executed in a satisfying way. Obviously we will be returning to Alola at some point, so the writers are just doing a half-hazard shotgun approach to get the main cast introductions out of the way. Still, the pacing and characterization would have been way better in a 2-part format. Or just one episode in which we meet some of the cast and the rest at a later point (eg. Suiren could be off on a research vessel looking for Manaphy).

The Go and Kiawe dynamic was weird? I don't know what to make of it. The writers seem increasingly fond of putting Go on a soap box and I don't like it.

I miss those times when the assisting Rotom had personality. R-dex spoke directly to the R-phone and it didn't even respond. It's sad.
 
RafaSceptile

RafaSceptile

Well-Known Member
dentula said:
As a big SM fan, this was a long anticipated episode. There was some enjoyment to be had, but overall it was disappointing.

While it was cathartic seeing most of the main cast, there was so much stuff crammed into the episode that nothing was executed in a satisfying way. Obviously we will be returning to Alola at some point, so the writers are just doing a half-hazard shotgun approach to get the main cast introductions out of the way. Still, the pacing and characterization would have been way better in a 2-part format. Or just one episode in which we meet some of the cast and the rest at a later point (eg. Suiren could be off on a research vessel looking for Manaphy).

The Go and Kiawe dynamic was weird? I don't know what to make of it. The writers seem increasingly fond of putting Go on a soap box and I don't like it.

I miss those times when the assisting Rotom had personality. R-dex spoke directly to the R-phone and it didn't even respond. It's sad.
Click to expand...

The Episodes was a setup of all the relevant SM characters (RIP Hau) for possible future Episodes. Ofc it should be rushed if SM cast is so big and it should be tied with the original plot of the episode.
I agree about it should be a 2 or 3 part Arc, especially if SM038 wasn't so relevant and SM039 they recasted Grunt when they could use Hala.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top