I really liked this episode, it was dialogue-heavy at some scenes so I probably didn't appreciate the episode as much as I could have but it was good. Hands down N is becoming one of my favorite characters, why? Mainly because of how much he went through for Wargle's sake this episode. He shows an unselfish and considerate nature of the Pokemon, not in the Satoshi way, but in his own way. TP and N were my favorite antagonist of the game, in the game he comes off as more cryptic and delusional in PokeSpe he comes off as more antagonistic and psychotic. In the anime he comes off as being heroic with a hint of man-childish behavior, not unlike his game counterpart but still has a natural feel to it. It's hard to explain.
You can especially feel the emotion during the first scene where N gets backslashed/bitten by Nero and Bianco's Habunake and Zangoose, that mainly has to do with how good his VA is. In all honesty I thought N's VA did an excellent job and in-comparison to more popular VAs like Mamoru Miyano, I'll never understand why the latter is so popular. MamoMiya just seems so standard and I never understood why he was so popular aside from being a Japanese Jonas Brother-type idol, Aoi Yuki is a pretty newbie VA I know, but her VAing never came off as good as Yuichi Nakamura's in this ep. I just really liked the Wargle's grateful nature, knowing just how much turmoil and pain N was going through. His interactions were great and he meshed well with Satoshi-tachi, I also really liked how at the end Dento starts to talk about the marriage between the four of them. XD
Bianco and Nero weren't standard grunts, they're anime exclusive but they stand-out in their own right. One of my problems with Galactic, Aqua, and Magma grunts and TR agents is most of them just seem like general copies of each other with the same exact Pokemon. Mostly the ugly-looking bats. These two grunts were rather badass, I like how their names are Italian for black and white and they have two Pokemon that are black and white. It was nice to see Zangoose and Habunake not trying to kill each other given they supposedly have been feuding for generations. Cool to see Doryuzu get a win, he hasn't had one in a while, Iris clearly was going for a second KO with Zangoose which was unsurprising.
The small reference to Iris's development back in Langley's debut episode originally went over my head, though it was nice that once Doryuzu was tiring Iris considered his feeling and returned him to his Pokeball. N saw that and seemed to might have developed a little from seeing a trainer care for their Pokemon like that, given one of Iris's past flaws was that she couldn't understand her Pokemon very well, specifically Doryuzu and the Ononodo from her young childhood. I also liked the moment where N was examining Satoshi and Pikachu during the bout with Zangoose, I personally would have preferred seeing Satoshi use something other than Pikachu however.
I think the writers really got N down and this is exactly what I mean when it comes to the quality of an antagonist and not the quantity. Team Galactic were underwhelming and anticlimactic but the writers seem to be doing well by TP. It was nice seeing my favorite Isshu bird, he kinda looked high throughout this episode which was amusing. I really liked the bond he formed with N. N's intelligence with getting into the truck, making a plan, and also his athleticism were amazing. It reminded me of how he's a prodigy in the games.
Overall, it was another great TP/N episode.
Almost forgot, loved the fact that N was freeing a Wargle from TP. Because eagles represent liberation.
