Having finally seen this myself:
- I love how the action started off right away. The characters didn't even get to introduce themselves to the filler girl before the trouble started.
- J is simply ruthless, attacking that girl out of nowhere and stealing Gardevoir pretty easily. When you have a Salamence + Ariados + Dorapion in your arsenal, you know you have a winner.
- Whatever organization these hunters have, they're pretty well equipped. Trucks, hovercrafts, guns that turn Pokemon to stone, good stuff.
- Is it just me or do Hikari and Brock have a death wish? Who the hell stands with their arms spread across as a truck driving 90mph is heading right toward you? Both Brock and Hikari could have been killed if the truck ran right into them instead of zooming over them on the cliff. Seriously, when you have evil people trying to make a getaway, you DON'T stand in front of their vehicle unless you want to run the risk of getting run over. I can understand Hikari being naive about it, but Brock should have known better.
- I loved how Salamence shot a Hyperbeam at TR right after they finished their motto. I LOL'd, and Meowth gets captured!
- The filler girl having a Kirlia to track down where J went was pretty neat, I thought.
- Ash and TR working together in the fortress was neat. Or rather, Jessie and James running away from the minions was funny. I LOVED the way Naetle just shot some Razor leafs at the guys trying to follow them in the shaft.
- Anyone else love the real sense of danger in this episode? During the final confrontation, a hole was made in the side of the vehicle and the air was ready to suck everyone out. I especially felt the emotion as Ash recalled his Naetle and Aipom before they went flying out to their deaths.
- Gardevoir saved everyone (yay!), and seeing Jenny round up all those criminals with that one rope was hilarious. So is that how Jenny captures criminals? Also is it just me, or did Brock not flirt with Jenny or the filler girl? I guess even he could restrain himself when something serious was going on.
- The end of the ep definitely makes it seem that J will return, which is a given, let's hope her next ep is as good as this.
Overall a really great episode that not only introduced a new villain, but we got to see several Pokemon we haven't seen in a while:
- Gardevoir (believe it or not, this is only its second episode in the anime)
- Kirlia
- Salamence (yay, it never got much spotlight outside Movie 6)
- Absol...for like 1 second before it gets stoned (ha)
- Ariados (although not special since Harley had one last season)
- Golbat...one that actually does something
- Arcanine...meh...overused Arcanine but we'll let him slide
Plus the new debut of Dorapion on top of it.
Definitely a great episode, it could have even been the plot for a movie if they threw a legendary in the equation. Shame that Hikari didn't get to do anything in this episode, but maybe we'll see more of her next time.