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Mallow & Lana: Bittersweet Memories! (1002)

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Is that the pokémon centre birthday theme from the games that played during the first flashback when they first arrived at Mallow's favourite spot? I love that theme.

This was a fun episode. Drampa is such a funny pokémon, I still have no idea how it can fly but whatever. And little Mallow and Lana are so adorable.
 

Mega Altaria

☆~Shiny hunter▢~
Is that the pokémon centre birthday theme from the games that played during the first flashback when they first arrived at Mallow's favourite spot? I love that theme.

Pretty sure it was the Pokémon Center Birthday Theme from the Gen 6 games. Yeah that theme sounded really nice.
 

Lord Starfish

Fond of owls
This episode made me think of My Neighbor Totoro. This incidentally makes it the second Sun & Moon filler episode that's given me Studio Ghibli vibes, the first being the end of episode 29.

Not much else to really say though. It was cute, but not overly memorable.
 

Aleh

«Last Hope»
Such a cute episode, everything was cute, the Pokémon, the characters, younger Mallow and Lana, the animation was on point too.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
The episode was cute. I liked finally seeing some backstory with the students prior to meeting Ash, makes him feel less all eclipsing like he sometimes felt in some previous series. They played off the two characters' quirks nicely enough as well, it's just a shame Lana and Mallow don't frequently show as much chemistry in present day.

Other than that though, it felt....limited. Like besides the backstory and the brief reunion, there wasn't much more to be done with it. Even the TR interruption I couldn't really begrudge because they weren't really getting in the way of anything much bigger. I will at least say that while it was a pitiful TR encounter, it was at least funny in doing such, with their poor disguise, an original newly animated motto and the twerps' and even Drampa's 'I'm out, man' reactions instead of just being boring props who don't foil their humour. THIS is how you do TR epic fails.

I could argue they could have used the opportunity to give the Steenee and Popplio some character time, maybe TR could have put up a better resistance and the two girls could have returned the favour after all these years by fighting them off. Even in terms of the Pokemon interactions, Pikachu was usually the scene stealer (though even the other Pokemon got in more gags at the beginning of the episode).

Anyone notice Charjabug going 'Oh a piece of candy....oh a piece of candy....oh a piece of candy...' at the start? XD
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Jijilong was larger than I expected, which I guess shows my lack of Pokemon size knowledge. Overall however, the setting of the episode was pretty lackluster, but it was still pleasant to see how Suiren and Mao interacted with each other. The Rocket-dan scenes were appealing, too.
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
Terribly boring episode. The TRio were the only amusing part about this but nothing really happened until the last two minutes. More Giovanni fantasies are always appreciated, those should always be an occurrence like the AG days
Kid Mallow was adorable, Lana was just as annoying as her older self.... don't understand why people like her.

I really hope this Drampa doesn't appear again, I never liked the species and this failed to convince me otherwise.
Just let Mallow have her own episode already, annoying seeing her forced to share with her relatives and friends when Lillie and all the rest can have an episode to themselves all the damn time!

2/10
 

Ryu Taylor

Unwavering beliefs. Richter Taylor is my name now.
To be honest, I was hoping Pokemon's return would start with a better episode than this. I mean, it was nice enough, but not really all that memorable. The one glowing positive I can give to this episode is that music playing over the flashback of Mallow and Lana playing with Grandpa Forest.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
Um, excuse me, Lillie and Lusamine went SHOPPING together, and we don't get to see it?!? I'd say that their relationship was far from fully fixed when we last saw them, so imo this is part of that healing process and I would have liked to see it.

Did the Spinarak shot (where Spinarak came down from the tree branch) remind anyone of the similar shot in the Johto Journeys theme song where the tree is shown from the same angle and Spinarak is spinning on the trunk? It reminded me of it so much that I right then and there paused the ep and watched the Season 3 theme.

Lana saying "K" right before trying the Haban Berry for the first time reminded me of a moment Bonnie said K in a Gen VI episode, but I can't remember which one.

The WTP was placed perfectly in the episode right when Rotom figured out who it was. Was it placed similarly in the original?

Oddly, I noticed the words NEW EPISODE weren't written under the Disney XD logo for the first half of the episode, and not until after the WTP for some reason.

Mallow and Lana should have known his name was Drampa by the fact that he was saying Drampa.

Wow, Seviper, Ekans, and Pumpkaboo cameos!

Team Rocket's baby thing was so stupid
 

Lord Starfish

Fond of owls
The WTP was placed perfectly in the episode right when Rotom figured out who it was. Was it placed similarly in the original?
Yes. They even had Rotom being the one speaking during it, in the exact same freaked out tone it had while going "I GOT IT!" The dub and the Japanese version do have the commercial breaks at the exact same spots, as far as I know.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
LilligantLewis said:
Um, excuse me, Lillie and Lusamine went SHOPPING together, and we don't get to see it?!? I'd say that their relationship was far from fully fixed when we last saw them, so imo this is part of that healing process and I would have liked to see it.

The episode was more about Mao and Suiren anyway, so I understand why that shopping trip was cut off. I am somewhat peeved that Lilie and Lusamine's relationship barely had time to bloom, however.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
i hope boss fantasy didnt comeback reguraly, i dont want they repeat johto, AG and DP where boss fantasy is everywhere

Actually, I find the absurdity of them is what makes them funny and they're one of the few TR things I do enjoy. I do wish we have more again moving forward, and I was pleasantly surprised to see one appearing in this episode.

The thing is if Ash didn't appear at all in this episode then some people would be trying to argue that this is a special and not a actual episode of the anime because of Ash not being in it, and before you try to say that there wouldn't be people that would argue that remember there was a whole debate back in X&Y where some people didn't want to accept the XY episode Lights! Camera! Pika!(it's Japanese episode title is "Pikachu Becomes a Star!? Its Movie Debut!!""How to Pikachu the Movie! Ready! Action!!"The Thunderclap Hero! Super Pikachu!!Pikachu's Thrilling Blooper Award) as an actual episode and kept arguing that it was a special even though Ash was in it all because the episode was formatted a bit differently.

Also I'm just going to point this out but considering the fact that Ash was in every episode before this of the main anime outside of the Mega Evolutions Acts and people didn't really seem to complain about that and yet somehow people suddenly have a problem him being in this episode even though they don't seem to have a problem with him being in similar episodes to this in previous series.

I don't think anyone was suggesting that Ash shouldn't appear at all, but just that he should appear only at the beginning or end of the episode, leaving most of the episode to just Mallow and Lana, the way he has done before in some episodes, for example some TR focus episodes of the past.

Unlike Bulbagarden nobody here noticed the references to Ekans, Seviper, Dustox and Pumpkaboo? it was a nice touch :')

OMG! Dustox! I saw the other 3 but missed it!!

The dub and the Japanese version do have the commercial breaks at the exact same spots, as far as I know.

So when the dub switched from 2 commercial breaks to 3 from Season 20 to Season 21, Japan did the exact same thing on the exact same episode? I assumed it was a dub thing since it also lined up with the dub season switch.

The episode was more about Mao and Suiren anyway, so I understand why that shopping trip was cut off. I am somewhat peeved that Lilie and Lusamine's relationship barely had time to bloom, however.

I'm not saying it should have been featured in this episode, but just in some episode. I'm saying that unlike Kiawe and Sophocles's reasons, which made sense as offhand comments, this was a big deal and should not have been said as an offhand comment. Either she should have had some other reason which was less surprising, or their relationship should have been established better up to this point such that it was not surprising to me that she was going shopping with her mother.
 

Lord Starfish

Fond of owls
So when the dub switched from 2 commercial breaks to 3 from Season 20 to Season 21, Japan did the exact same thing on the exact same episode? I assumed it was a dub thing since it also lined up with the dub season switch.
Eh? No, that's not a thing in the Japanese version and I was not aware that the dub did this. But they still only have one "Who's that Pokémon" segment, right? That's where the commercial break is in the Japanese version.
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
Eh? No, that's not a thing in the Japanese version and I was not aware that the dub did this. But they still only have one "Who's that Pokémon" segment, right? That's where the commercial break is in the Japanese version.
Yes, correct, only one WTP during the second commercial break.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
I don't know about the commercial breaks, I usually watch the episodes online at RTL where it's different (RTL also skips the ending credits online for some reason). And Pokémon TV doesn't seem to run ads at all here. But this is still a fun episode in Dutch, even though they ditched the birthday pokémon centre theme. "Opa van het Bos" (Grandpa of the Forest) was a funny nickname for Drampa, and Lana calling Mallow "meisje van het restaurant" (girl from the restaurant) was adorable. Little Lana is just too adorable. The voice acting was pretty good as well. Zoë Rijk (who voices Mallow in Dutch) did an excellent job making her voice sound a tad younger for little Mallow, but still sound like Mallow. Veerle Burmeister didn't really change her voice for Lana, I think because present Lana already sounds very young in Dutch, she's still prepubescent, so her voice hasn't changed much yet.

Really love the tiny details in this episode overall. Pikachu sneezing because of Ribombee in the background, Popplio playing with Pikachu in the balloon, references to Jessie's old pokémon, Mallow covering Steenee's eyes when Team Rocket junior shows up... it's funny and it's attention to detail like this that shows that the creators at OLM care, it shows love for the franchise and that they're having fun.
 

Vipsoccermaster

Well-Known Member
Great episode in terms of learning about Lana and Mallow. Loved seeing them in their younger forms. Drampa is a fine Pokémon, although it is fun to see it play with little kids like young Lana and Mallow and now young twins Harper and Sarah. Loved how Drampa didn't a crap about Team Rocket wanting to play and instead blasted them off (sort of) with Twister after trying to capture Drampa.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I still wish that Jijilong had been caught, but since Satoshi wasn't the main focus and Mao and Suiren were instead, I guess it was a good thing that Jijilong was just a Pokemon of the Day.
 
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