-Oh for gods sake Snorunt, just learn Ice Beam already. Surely it can't be THAT difficult to master. At least train it in a different fashion instead of just constantly ordering it to use the attack.
-Gonbe is just tending to annoy me rather than actually make me laugh. Stealing other people's food has been done to death, as has running off unannounced. I really do hope this 'gag' isn't featured in every future episode. And at the moment, it appears the only reason Gonbe is going to be around is to be a guinea-pig for testing pokéblocks. Pointless ~.~;
-They're STILL insistng on playing those awfully crappy pieces of music throughout the episode and the question of 'Why?' springs to mind. They've got a great back-catalog of music and some themes from the games that they are yet to use, so wtf?. I never thought I'd say this, but the music in the japanese version has been going steadily downhill over the past few months. Although, I have to say the use of 'Rival' during Masamune and Ash's competative activities was a pleasent surprise.
Complaints done and dusted. Overall, I didn't find this episode to be all that spectacular, but it wasn't too terrible either. I actually really liked Masamune as a character. Its nice for Ash to have a rival that can can provide a few laughs for us, and one that doesn't have that typical snobbish/tough-guy type of appearence. I found all of Ash and Masamune's competative little skits to be rather amusing ^^ Although, I really do wish that he'd stayed a proper rival until the end, instead of becoming more of a friend. That was disapointing~
You know, I never actually realised how down-right creepy Beldum was until I watched this episode. Its bellowing voice, the way it just rams into things, the fact that its basically a floating arm with an eye. It all equates to creepy. I hope it evolves if Masamune is going to battle in the league. Take Down would get old, fast.
Team Rocket's attack on the two trainers was pretty awesome. The last time I remember anyone being attacked by a pokémon directly like that was in the "Bulbasuar! Regain the pokéballs!" episode, in which Ash was punched in the face by a Primeape (which I assume will be edited). The way that Ash and Masanume were able to tackle a freakin' Seviper and send it flying through the air was just stupid though. Cacnea I could understand, but not Seviper...I know its a cartoon, but geeze >.>;
Less Is Morrison
