Jessie VS James! A Battlefield of Love and Truth!! (1074)

[Agstrek]

Lillie and Gladion's battle should've been the major focus of this episode especially because Lillie wanted to battle Gladion in the poni arc.

Their battle was fine, but I think Jessie Vs James should've been swapped for Lillie Vs Gladion', which would allow it to be longer, and I think Jessie Vs James would work fine as a shorter battle. This would've made the episode a lot better than it ended up being.

Sophocles Vs Mina and Kiawe Vs Acerolla were alright.

Overall, it's an ok episode.

 

[lolipiece]

I'm awake this week, so normal length thought post! By which I mean it won't be any different than before.

Sophocles vs Mina. I expected from the preview material that Vikavolt would overcome Ribombee's speed by using its jaws to clamp down and keep it from moving. Nice that my prediction was right. Good use of Pokemon anatomy.

James vs Jessie. I can't really say much since I don't know what they're saying. Wobbuffet's fighting style is really unorthodox, so there's only so much they can do with it. Still, the strategy of using Spike Cannon repeatedly made sense. It can only Counter so much, obviously.

Kiawe vs Acerola. Mostly fighting with the occasional strategy. One I liked was Marowak using the flames from Shadow Bone to stop the Shadow Punch. Alolan Marowak are able to do that. My favorite part was Marowak being frozen by Cursed Body. The shot of it standing still and looking around awkwardly has meme potential. Also Kiawe and Marowak dancing was cute.

Gladion vs Lillie. It was short, but that's fine. This isn't the end of their stories, after all.

Lillie may have lost, but she still showed the potential to become strong one day. Perhaps strong enough to beat Gladion? Also, Snowy used Snow Cloak for the first time. It's a good Ability for her defensive fighting style.

I was expecting Guzma to face Sophocles or Kiawe next, but Lana's fine too. It just means her inevitable League victory will be all the more sweeter.

Also unexpected, Rowlet outright asking a random bird Pokemon to get its family here. I thought Toucannon would've come on its own volition.

When you have freaking Kiawe vs Acerola get 3x more screentime than Lillie vs Gladion (a battle between two very important characters of the series), then not really sure what you can really expect from this so called "League" afterwards.

The writers are just honestly doing their best to show how badly they can actually screw up in this League.

Oh no. The minor recurring character got a single episode where she got more screentime than a main character and a major recurring character.

Said characters who are getting more battles after this (Gladion) and are getting an arc that'll conclude the story they've had since the very beginning of the show (both).

 

[Red and Blue]

So what was the purple move Ribbombee used against Vikavolt? Pollen Puff?

 

[Almighty Zard]

you know I've always envisioned a Vikavolt doing that to someone, clamping them with it's pincir's and blasting them point blank.

Guzma vs Lana eh...well I guess this means those complaining about last weeks episode will be happy when that match comes for Guzma shall deliver upon the fandom's vengeance for Mallow's defeat

 

[Jangobadass]

Waiter, there's been a mix-up. I think I have a Best Wishes episode in my Sun & Moon...
"Actually sir, the writer's use the same recipe for SM's battles that they did for BW's."
Oh...

 

[Xuxuba]

I will only review the ones i was originally interested in and thought they had potential, cuz the other ones were pretty much irrelevant.

Jessie x James: They just stood around and repeated the same moves over and over again. People here are saying there is only so much they can do with these pokemon, but why even put these pokemon against each other if they knew it would lead to such a boring battle then?
The battle also lacked emotional value. I feel like they could have focused more on Kojiro standing up for himself and stopping Musashi from bossing him around, but throughout whole episode it seemed like Kojiro cared nothing about the battle and only showed any real interest when he was too bored and tired from the fight and Mareanie would refuse to give up.

Gladion vs Lillie: The battle started out nice, but then it ended as soon as it started. This is the problem with 1x1 battles and putting so many battles in a single episode. There is barely any time to handle the characters and it becomes extremely harder to make any classmate look like an actual treat, because even if they put out a fight at the beginning, the battle will just have to end as soon as possible at the last minutes, making the opponent defeat them with just a few hits which makes all the trouble they went in order to make them look strong on the first minutes go to waste.
Also like others said before they should have focused more on this battle. Out of all the battles in this episode, this was the one that could have lead up to the most development, since it could have been a way of Lillie showing to Gladion that she was not a little girl anymore and that she doesn't need to be protected by him (which kind of was, but they barely touched upon the subject...).

 

[AznKei]

Alright, like the last episode I'll rank from worst to best.

James vs Jessie: Worst to me, mainly because of what Wobbuffet could only do, reflecting its foes attacks while staying static. So Mareanie won by constantly shooting its Spike Cannon until Wobbuffet's Counter break.

Lillie vs Gladion: It was short. Lillie is a good strategist, but it wasn't enough to overcome Gladion's raw power and endurance, even after his Umbron took Snowy Z-move attack. And unlike the other fights, Snowy didn't have whirly eyes on its defeat, as it was mostly sighed that it lost and let its trainer down.

Sophocles vs Mina: It was pretty good although scripted into Sophocles favor because how much damage its Vikavolt took while Ribombee was pretty much OHKO despite taking Zap Cannon at point blank range while getting trapped at Vikavolt's horn.

Kiawe vs Acelora: The best to me. A large portion of the fight was about Marowak getting stuck from Gengar's Cursed Body but it was a good thing it endured it until the move wears off. Otherwise Gengar getting beat makes sense as it's bulky and got hit by its weakness as well.

Outside of this, I like how Bewear and Stutful were doing synchronized swimming together while their audiences (Pokemons) are cheering on. They don't seem to bother to get TRio back, probably because TRio told them that the Pokemon league is important. I also like Rowlet getting fired up for the upcoming battke against Hau's Decidueye.

Good episode, better than the previous one imo.

Jessie x James: They just stood around and repeated the same moves over and over again. People here are saying there is only so much they can do with these pokemon, but why even put these pokemon against each other if they knew it would lead to such a boring battle then?

Because Jessie's other Pokemon Mimikyu would only go against Pikachu, so it would probably be uninterested against anyone else forcing Jessie to forfeit the battle.

 

[Xuxuba]

Because Jessie's other Pokemon Mimikyu would only go against Pikachu, so it would probably be uninterested against anyone else forcing Jessie to forfeit the battle.

Not necessarily. That problem could have lead up to the development of Jessie and Mimikyu's relationship, with Mimikyu starting to fight other pokémon too after seeing how much this mattered to Jessie.

Right now, Jessie rarely acts like Mimikyu's trainer and Mimikyu rarely acts like Jessie's pokemon. It was about time they addressed this issue, but they chose not to.

Besides, even if it was somehow impossible to develop their relationship, it is not like Team Rocket HAD to fight each other. Musashi could have fought against Mina, while Kojiro could have fought against Sophocles for example.

 

[Lord Starfish]

So what was the purple move Ribbombee used against Vikavolt? Pollen Puff?

Yes.
It also used Psychic later... For having such a brief showing, that thing was packing some pretty powerful moves.

 

[mehmeh1]

I'm fine with how the lillie vs gladion fight went tbh, lillie may be book smart, but she's not very experienced, and unlike mallow and lana, she doesn't have the firepower to back that up, so a quick stomp was expected. I'm somewhat disappointed at jessie vs james though, the choreography was what I expected from mareanie vs wobbuffet, but jessie and james should've interacted a tad bit more there, soph and kiawe had good fights though, which I liked

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

So is Bewear already aware of his favorite people in the world tricking him?

Acerola and Mina got robbed. I find them more interesting than nutty Kiawe and flatter than paper Sophocles.

Should have found that Soul Heart early, Lillie. You got owned by a Pokemon that has crap attack stats.

 

[Bortgreen]

Pretty okay battles, but of course I wasn't be expecting Sinnoh/Kalos League level things from the start.

Sophocles vs Mina: Interesting even if a bit spammy, Sophocles moving while commanding Vikavolt reminds me of XY where this was more frequent. It was nice to see more of Mina too, she already done more than in vanilla SM game

Acerola vs Kiawe: I'm not sure if it was a league episode or an Ultra Guardians one with all the reused footage. But at least the footage itselft was good, with Acerola being cute as always and the nice Marowak Shadow Bone animation. Also Gengar's Cursed Touch was shown I guess, it's nice to still see abilities in the anime.

Jessie vs James: Shorter and simpler than I expected, but it was nice to see Wobbuffet battling for real again after years. Also even though it made sense with the context, the Wedding March was one of the most unusual battle music I ever heard in the anime.

Gladion vs Lillie: More predictable than Ash losing the League. At least Lillie tried do to something, but the battle was exactly the expected of such an uneven match. I feel bad for Lillie, she is a nice character but deserved more development in the anime

The only thing that bothers me is that the battles in this league are either stomps against trainers with very low battle experience(Lillie and maybe Mallow) or comebacks. Sophocles, Kiawe and James(and others from the last episode) all started losing, but somehow managed to take the lead and won the match. It's very common in anime as a whole, but it actually makes the battles very predictable.

 

[Red and Blue]

Honestly if Guzma was never going to face Savage Spin out I would have rathered Mina had won. It would have meant a female trainer aside from Lana advancing to the quarterfinals

 

[AznKei]

Not necessarily. That problem could have lead up to the development of Jessie and Mimikyu's relationship, with Mimikyu starting to fight other pokémon too after seeing how much this mattered to Jessie.

Right now, Jessie rarely acts like Mimikyu's trainer and Mimikyu rarely acts like Jessie's pokemon. It was about time they addressed this issue, but they chose not to.

Besides, even if it was somehow impossible to develop their relationship, it is not like Team Rocket HAD to fight each other. Musashi could have fought against Mina, while Kojiro could have fought against Sophocles for example.

They would be an interesting development you wrote. But I never trusted the writers, so I wrote it in a way that this is most likely what they would do instead.

 

[Dragalge]

Why would anyone want to prolong a battle like Gladion vs Lillie when the winner was already obvious? At least the other matches in this episode could have gone either way.

 

[Zoruagible]

Kiawe vs Acerola is the best battle hands down! Everything else.... eh.
I like the TRio battle, but it was basically spamming until Wobbuffett's counter broke. No new evolution, which is quite sad. Especially as we never saw Toxapex in the right coloring!

Somehow I had a feeling Kiawe and Soph would be paired together. Feels weird not having Guzma battle the guy with the Bugnium though, would have made Soph getting that and not Electrium feel more meaningful... hopefully we get Ash vs Kiawe in the next round.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Someone please explain to me how every single competitor, even Samson, somehow battled better than Mallow and didn’t suffer from a sudden anxiety attack lol?

Because Mallow isn't a battler?

 

[Xuxuba]

Why would anyone want to prolong a battle like Gladion vs Lillie when the winner was already obvious? At least the other matches in this episode could have gone either way.

I disagree. I think most of them (if not all of them) had very predictable winners too. Like Bortgreen said, these comebacks are fairly common in anime, so Sophocles, Kiawe and James winning against their opponents was something to be expected.

If every battle in this League were short just because the winner was obvious, then this arc would've been 2 episodes long. There is more to a battle than just the outcome anyway. I mean, everyone knows Ash is going to win against Hau, but they can still use that time to develop Rowlett.

 

[Lord Godwin]

The battles were quite ok but we missed another chance to showcase some of the remaining Z-moves (like Fairy, Ghost or even Poison via Umbreon).

I'm also dissapointed Kiawe is not Fighting Lana. On the bright sodę, Guzma will crush her.

 

[nuzamaki90]

Because Mallow isn't a battler?

That doesn’t make any sense. How do the other trainers count as “battlers” while Mallow doesn’t? Why would she be the only member of the cast that isn’t a “battler”, especially since Bounsweet evolved, she’s had one of the strongest Pokémon on the cast not counting Ash and Kiawe’s. Hell, they all TRAINED TOGETHER so there is no excuse for how everyone but her suddenly have battling knowledge.

If Lillie could take advantage of Snow Cloak, why couldn’t Queenly Majesty have played a part in Mallow’s battle? Everyone, especially Mallow knows that Lana’s shtick is bubbles, so why couldn’t she implement a strategy to counter that?

And for a League that’s being praised for its “superior” writing, they really dropped the hard ball with TR and the Aether siblings battles.