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Mega Evolution VS Gigantamax! (1175)

Feelitstill23

Active Member
Ash: has two fights where he learns that getting in close with Grapploct is a bad idea

Also Ash: tells his pokemon to get close to Grapploct, then acts surprised when they get ensnared a third time

Also REAL dick move to tell Pikachu to relax and submit to Grapploct, shortly followed by it getting brutalized by Close Combat
ash should’ve told pikachu to use thunderbolt. if he can use thunderbolt after being tossed up in the air by metaross, he can do the same with grapploct
 

Litleonid

Well-Known Member
The Good
+ The animation was on point. When the Dream Team is behind an episode, you can always expect some outstanding animation.
+ That Mega Lucario vs Gigantamax Machamp battle was everything I hoped it would be.
+ Glad they remembered that Gigantamax had a limit.

The Bad
-Sitfetch'd being the fall guy...They did Sirfetch'd dirty and it sucks cause I love Sirfetch'ds battle style and Sirfetch'd doesn't get to appear often.
-Lucario vs. Grapploct was too fast for a rivalry they built up.
 

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
Well, so much to my theory of gaining a Steel-typing cutting Lucario's life shorter against Bea. Not only did it do so well enduring everything thrown at it and pretty much being a Mega Evolution prodigy, it even used a Steel-type finisher against a type (allegedly Bea's real ace) that resists it.

Fighting is strong offensively against steel, but doesn't resist it.

Offscreenland is where the great stuff in this anime happens but also the place the Lucarionite resides.

I was never a fan of how pokemon had to hold mega stones during XY since some went WAY over the top with it.

I mean Alain's Charizard and it's freaking chest plate for example.
 

Feelitstill23

Active Member
The Good
+ The animation was on point. When the Dream Team is behind an episode, you can always expect some outstanding animation.
+ That Mega Lucario vs Gigantamax Machamp battle was everything I hoped it would be.
+ Glad they remembered that Gigantamax had a limit.

The Bad
-Sitfetch'd being the fall guy...They did Sirfetch'd dirty and it sucks cause I love Sirfetch'ds battle style and Sirfetch'd doesn't get to appear often.
-Lucario vs. Grapploct was too fast for a rivalry they built up.
not to mention it didn’t get a win as a farfetch'd the last time it battled bea
 

Giblepower

Active Member
I'm personally not a fan of Sirfetch'd being a fall guy here, but it is what it is. I'm just hoping that half of his team won't be permanent fodder to hype up Lucario/Pikachu/Dragonite. 'Twas pretty cool seeing Lucario learn a steel-type move, finally. That boy needed more diverse moves.
 

Soniman

Break the Limit
This is battle to me was the opposite of Volkner where the finale is a little underwhelming but everything leading up to it was very good. But here the finale was mostly solid but everything else was lame as hell. Normally I'm glad about good switching usage but here it was just used way to much so no battles got to really breathe, way to quick and unimpactful. Even with more context I was not happy at all with Sirfetched's loss, it has such a cool way of fighting but we barely got to see any of it before it went down in one hit, but hey Im glad Pikachu got a win it really needed that. Grapploct got shafted hard because again it's one shotted by its rival Lucario the minute the Battle starts so that big conflict ends on a wet fart it's just so laaaaaaaame. The only thing I really liked before the finale was that unique quick attack strategy wish we saw more of that during battle

Machamp vs Lucario was pretty good like I said but even then I had issues like when Machamp uses its big giant attack Ash doesn't even think of a clever way to dodge or reduce damage he just makes Lucario sit there and take it and.....it works and that's it. LAME. You could've done so many interesting things with how Ash could possibly confront that attack and they chose the quickest, laziest way possible. Graaah.

This battle as a whole just frustrates me, every Bea battle has frustrated me to some degree, what a shame. 6/10
 

Zweilous

Go-ing for Gold
The Good
  • Sirfetch'd's shield-throwing technique was cool, and it adds another layer of play for him. Glad it won't stick to just its sword. Its whole battle with Machamp was great for it.
  • One thing I like about this series' Ash, is how he talks. He keeps inserting sounds into his sentences to try and describe things. Like how he said his head explodes with ideas, or how he made those sounds to try and help Scorbunny learn Ember.
  • We got a smile out of Bea. Good to see that she could feel the pressure, and not just Ash.
  • I liked seeing the shields trigger to keep the smoke away from the audience. It was a nice tough.
  • The show has an unwritten "3 moves = 3 turns" for Maxes, which is nice.
  • I loved seeing Machamp look for critical points on Lucario, and it was a great way of showing its power-up in action.
  • Ash and Lucario were so in-synch, they shared body motions. That was such a great element.
  • In the end, I really liked the dynamic between Ash and Bea, and seeing him slowly earn her respect over time. The rivalry is probably over, but I hope we see more of her again.

The Meh
  • What the hell was that vibration strategy with Pikachu? It was so dumb. Still, it's a defensive strategy that Pikachu should use again in the future. At least, it should; the anime tends to forget valid strategies.
  • Steel Beam's a meh move to learn, but whatever. It spices up Lucario's set. I just hope it keeps Double Team. This show needs to incorporate status and indirect moves more often.
  • When will the show release another OST collection?
  • We're definitely seeing Mega Lucario again. That transformation sequence screams Future Recycled Footage.
  • Ash's jump in rank was about par with his previous jump, if just a little less. That was kind of weird; there was a way bigger rank gap between him and Volkner. But the PWC rankings are partly based on how one does in battle, and not just a calculation based on rankings, so.
  • "You should only meet Leon on the battlefield" is such a weird quote, when Ash was decorating cakes with him 4 episodes ago.

The Bad
  • Sirfetch'd needed a win more than Pikachu. Honestly, Pikachu should have sat this match out and let Gengar have a chance. Pikachu already won the Volkner match, it didn't need this.
  • Sirfetch'd lost way too quickly, too.
  • ASH WHAT THE HELL. Why does he insist on having Piakchu use close-contact moves on Graploct? It didn't work in the last two matches, it didn't work at the beginning of this one. He clearly did it because the writers wanted Pikachu to lose.
  • Lucario tanked a lot this match, even taking super-effective hits. This isn't an issue for me because the show does this all the time for dramatic effect. But it did leave a sour taste in my mouth to see Machamp's ultimate, most powerful move basically have no effect on Lucario.
  • Machamp should have Gigantamaxed later on into the fight. Even if it kept its power-up, de-Maxing during the fight made it seem much less threatening.
The battle was honestly pretty weak; a lot of Pokemon fainted very quickly, Ash's strategies were all over the place, and Pokemon were as fast or as slow as the scene needed them to be. It cleaned itself up for the final match-up, but even that could have been done better. It's pretty disappointing, especially compared to the fun battles Journeys has given us in the past.

Now that Bea's rivalry is probably done, I wonder what Ash will do now? It's pretty late to introduce a new rival, though the show's developed a nasty habit of introducing rivals late into the game and not developing them enough. I guess, bring on Bede, Hop and/or Marnie?
 
Not much to say regarding the first clash between Sirfetch'd and Machamp, but it does tie into an overall point later. The real meat of Sirfetch'd battle is with Hawlucha and can I just say, it was much much worse than I had previously thought. It's onscreen for literally around just 2 minutes. How can anyone say it's performance here was impressive? It's supposedly " cool " Brutal Swing amounted to nothing as Hawlucha just brushed it away with a dodge and it goes down incredibly fast after blocking Machamp's Bullet Punches and a Flying Press to just the Crossroad Killing/God Bird clash. Yes, I am perfectly fine in calling his performance here jobber level with absolutely nothing to really write home about. So much for " Leek Master " lmao.

I don't know if " rushed " is the right for word it. It's just horrible all around. We're at around the end of the Hyper Class now and this is the team that Ash is seriously going to be taking further? Dracovish has nonexistent onscreen presence in battles inclduing even in general " filler " episodes and doesn't have a character besides " heehee I'm a whacky dragon " and it's one win against Iris now 20 episodes ago. Gengar is not much better. It has similar character problems to Dracovish. I guess it has more battles, but I'm unsure if there's really much to praise there. At the very least I'm glad its get a Gigamantix so despite my significant concerns in how horribly rushed it will be, there's some potential for salvaging that trainwreck. I wish Dragonite had more of a character arc like Goodra did, but I'm completely willing to excuse more of its problems that I've outlined before because it has a fun personality and has had at least more of a battle presence as well as a general onscreen presence in random episodes. Sirfetch'd has had a character arc, but his performances have left me increasingly concerned that its been tossed to the wilderness.

Moving on...

Pikachu versus Hawlucha is pretty good, not much to say here besides a nice use of strategy by Ash and Pikachu. The only point I have with it and its tied with the Octopus battle is that it's incredibly frustrating how much battle opportunities Pikachu takes up. It's left the rest of Ash's Pokemon scrambling and clawing for very few times to shine and its contributing to how weak and underdeveloped much of them feel.

And of course, Lucario gets rid of the Octopus in one move. Great. Very compelling. So much for that rivalry. " Breathtaking exchange " my ass.

As already stated, I find Giga battles to be super underwhelming and lame because of the general slowness of the battles. The battles regularly feel heavy and not in a good way. The only time I've liked them is in Twilight Wings because the super animators were able to convey a real epic scale to the battle with the Pokemon moves and the Pokemon themselves feeling like monsters.

Unfortunately, this episode was on the Journeys end of Gigamantix and not on the Twilight Wings side. Dai Steel is slow and somehow underwhelming in size and impact and the following classes are classic slow and heavy Giga battles.

Somehow though, Gigachamp's final and most powerful move is the least impressive of the lot. Not only is it slow as molasses, but the impact of the move was not felt at all. It's like a slow moving asteroid decided to nicely hit the earth. Where's the destruction or the impressive debris? Lucario withstood that attack like a champ, but makes more sense when taking account how weak the attack came across as. The bullet punches last episode came across as so much more powerful and dangerous.

The final clash and Lucario learning Steel Beam was nice though.

I haven't been a fan of Lucario's character ever since it evolved from a Riolu and I don't have much praise to offer its character arc these past couple episodes. See the other posts I've made on the topic. One word to sum it up? Bland.

Animation throughout this episode was good, besides the Giga battle. Nice sound effects and meh music. Bea and Ash's interactions throughout the episode were nice and it was heartwarming to see her smile and finally call Ash's name.
 

AznKei

Dawn & Chloe by ddangbi
This episode really had the XYZ vibe especially because of Mega Evolution, Hawlucha & Korrina. Anyways, my thoughts about the participating Pokemons:

- Hawlucha: Yeah it is different than the one from XYZ mainly because each belonged to different trainers. I remembered Ash's Hawlucha is showing off alot while Bae's Hawlucha is all serious and focused just like its trainer. It's just a shame really because I actually like the Pokemon with its luchadore theme. At least, it's pretty flexible.
- Sirfetch'd: Poor the Pokemon. I remembered how badass it is from the episode it evolved, then it got reduced into a jobber in the same level as Gengar, most likely because it's not its focus in this battle. It should redeem itself in the future battles, the same can be said with Gengar.
- Grapploct: The most entertaining Pokemon to watch among Bae Pokemons in this battle, despite not being her main one. I liked how it grabbed Pikachu than does its combos to finish that electric mouse. I thought it was well animated and dynamic. It always look threatening when it bearhugged Pikachu & then-Riolu.
- Pikachu: Yeah, it is ok. Being the mascot of the franchise and Ash's best friend, but I saw it enough what it can do in the past that I don't really care about it. Of course, it had to lose because the writers don't want it to be the MVP of this battle.
- Machamp: Bae's main Pokemon. I find it underwhelming imo. I liked the previous episode when it bearhugged Lucario with its 2 arms & punch with the other 2 arms. In this episode its mostly throwing its fists even in Gigantamax form which doesn't last long. A shame really because being familiar with Mortal Kombat, especially Goro, they could have do it more with this 4 armed Pokemon.
- Lucario: The MVP of this battle. The guy took alot of beating, mainly from last episode and it was fine when it mega-evolved unlike Korrina's Lucario freaking out when it mega-evolved for its 1st time back in XYZ. It's pretty flexible too, especially during the Mega Evolution vs Gigantamax face-off where it moves on top of Machamp massive body.

The episode is good. Lucario, Grapploct & Hawlucha were fun to watch. Machamp & Sirfetch'd were letdowns. Don't care for Pikachu.
 
D

Deleted member 384931

Guest
Realistically Lucario should been down by now. Now it suddenly learns a move, it cant by leveling up, against Regular Machamp and not Gigantamax Machamp. And how it one shotted Grapploct is an insult to Pikachu. Pikachu struggled waaaay too long against Hawlucha in my opinion. And well Sirfechted, really? 6,5/10
 

DayQuil95

Well-Known Member
I liked the battle, only have two complaints about it:
1. Sirfetch'd being the fall guy.
2. Pikachu's inevitable loss feeling somewhat forced. Not only did Ash charge in close combat once again when fighting Grapploct, but some stuff that could have been used to better justify Lucario beating Grapploct with a single hit was not used at all. Like others said, Pikachu could have used a Thunderbolt or Electroweb when he was flung away, hell, he did just that with his Tyranitar-killer-360-no-scope technique back then.
Other than that, I give the battle a 8/10, liked it a lot, probably my favorite in Journeys so far.
 

Jesusjuice

Well-Known Member
Watching Sirfetchd lose with no redemption was rough, especially as Lucario got his from beating Grapploct.

I’m surprised machamp lasted so long, but it would’ve been we cooler to see cross chop or submission rather than repeated bullet punches.

Metal Burst from Lucario also would’ve been a great alternative to steel beam
 

KurashiDragon

Well-known Dragonite Enthusiast
Thoughts on the episode:

I liked the Sirfetch'd vs Hawlucha fight. I liked seeing the way it used its shield for attacking and I would've enjoyed the fight more if were longer. Not a big fan of Sirfetch'd being the fall guy but I suppose someone had to be. "Ash wanted to fight with fighting types" I doubt that was the actual reason. More like, "Dragonite has aready been shown to be an absolute bruiser and it'd ruin the perfectly good plan we set up or worse, it'd be the jobber and people would complain even harder. UWU" Then Pikachu vs Hawlucha. This was really weird to me. I skipped a few episodes in the past so I think I missed a reference to a previous episode that inspired this "Quick Attack Shockwave" idea. Even then though Quick attack with its tail stuck into the ground somehow having enough power to create shockwaves that somehow have enough power to lessen the impact of Sky Attack is um..... moderately unrealistic. I feel like they could've come up with something better and more creative than that but w/e. After a quick thunderbolt kill we come up to Pikachu vs Grapploct or rather, "Ash losing all brain cells for the sake of the plot." Like Ash knows Grapploct is a powerful close range fighter that ensnares opponents that come to close before brutally pummeling them and the very first thing he commands in this fight is quick attack? Again I blame the Story people. They just wanted these next to fights out of the way for the sake of the Episodes length which is why I will not be covering the Lucario vs Grapploct fight. They clash, Lucario wins, NEXT.

Lucario vs Machamp. Yep that's a mega evolution vs Gigantamax fight alright. First, for their first ever mega evolution, it was very um.... plain looking. Nothing that made me go, "yea this was worth waiting sense the XY series for Ash's first mega evolution". More of a "Yep, that's a mega evolution" I was more impressed by the gigantamax and I'm not sure how to feel about that. Second, I'm actually surprised that they paid attention to detail enough to not have Machamp's Gigantamax wear off until after Lucario makes its third move. That was a nice little attention to detail that I liked seeing. Finally another clash where Lucario learns Steel beam, making its moveset look so very very scuffed in the process of winning the match.

Overall, I guess I have a lot to say but at the same time, this really wasn't as much of an episode to talk about as I expected it to be for not only ash's first ever mega evolution, but also the finale of Ash vs Bea that we've been following for so long. It was good. I enjoyed some moments. I think the highlight was seeing Sirfetch'd fight. I didn't realize I actually had any investment in that but when it came out I realized, "Oh yea, it's using a sword and shield. I wonder how this'll go" then being somewhat intrigued by how it was fighting until its eventual fall. I'm actually kinda curious on when it'll learn meteor assault. But that's neither here nor there. As for the episode itself.

7 / 10 It was good. Nothing to really set the bar above anything else for me which is weird. I'm curious as to how I can enjoy the episode where the plot demands Skwovet outeats a Dragonite more than an episode we've been building up to for months. Pokemon Journeys is a helluva drug. >.>
 

pardusco

"The oppression of Poké Balls."
Lucario takes multiple neutral and super effective hits as well as a million Bullet Punches to the face while Sirfetch'd gets dropped by one Sky Attack. Ash once again forgets that getting close to Grapploct is a death sentence despite battling the thing three times now. -_-

It's like the only thing that actually matters during battles now is the final 1v1. I'm also quite annoyed that a gen 4 Pokemon and a gen 6 mechanic are getting so much focus, while Galar Pokemon and Dynamax continue to be underutilized.
 

BobbbidyBob

Well-Known Member
Wow, I usually don’t enjoy battles but I loved what Pikachu did with his tail! Can we see more creativeness like that please? Lucario taking down huge Machamp with an aura sphere was meh, the rest was fine, some small character moments of Satoshi were appreciated like how he proudly confesses he just comes up with moves on the spot lol
 

pardusco

"The oppression of Poké Balls."
I gotta admit, Bea's Grapploct really grew on me. The animators did a great job at showing off how this strange Pokemon moved around, and its peculiar fighting strategy was very entertaining. Even the way it waved its arms around when not in combat was a cool touch and displayed the personality of this species. I never really liked Grapploct until now, but I would definitely make a team around it if it wasn't so bad competitively.

I would rather have had Pikachu and Sirfetch'd defeat Machamp while Lucario and Grapploct finish off their rivalry, but I guess "Mega Evolution vs Octopus" won't draw in the same amount of views.
 
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