Well, I have to say I am impressed, I really like how the writters have been doing stuff differently this season, and I can´t remember, at least recently, and episode as emotionally powerful as this one, it was a joy to watch it and I hope better things come in the future, well done Pokemon anime!
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Showcase, Debut! (863)
- Thread starter Serebii
- Start date
Red and Blue
Well-Known Member
So did I to be honest. I can understand being upset over your first lost, but having a fit and crying is WAY too much and totally unnecessary.
It's not a simple first lost, it's a dreamed debut disasterously wrecked by a small pointless accident, who wouldn't feel that broken after that?.
chicorita3
Well-Known Member
I was wondering, are they going to change the clothes of Serena in the opening when she has a new performance or what? because that would be cool!
Shneak
this is a Nessa x Sonia stan account ✨
I'm pretty disappointed in the Showcases themselves. The Showcase hall and the voting methods looked pretty cool but the content itself was boring. Even the appeals of the girls who advanced to the next round were only see in still frames.
Serena's loss was awkward as hell because it wasn't necessarily her fault. I know it's spun for her to take the blame of not cutting the ribbon short enough but ultimately Fennekin screwed it up. I kind of feel sorry for her since the reason was so mundane. That being said, her transformation does seem like a dramatic step after the fact but one of Serena's traits is bottling her feelings up. Good for her for taking a stand and getting back on the horse. Or Gogoat. I like her new design a lot, especially the clothing.
I expected to learn more about Yashio but I guess they're setting her role up for later. I could already see her be the reason that Serena leaves at the end.
Anything else?... oh yeah, Jessie and Pumpkaboo were ROBBED.
Serena's loss was awkward as hell because it wasn't necessarily her fault. I know it's spun for her to take the blame of not cutting the ribbon short enough but ultimately Fennekin screwed it up. I kind of feel sorry for her since the reason was so mundane. That being said, her transformation does seem like a dramatic step after the fact but one of Serena's traits is bottling her feelings up. Good for her for taking a stand and getting back on the horse. Or Gogoat. I like her new design a lot, especially the clothing.
I expected to learn more about Yashio but I guess they're setting her role up for later. I could already see her be the reason that Serena leaves at the end.
Anything else?... oh yeah, Jessie and Pumpkaboo were ROBBED.
Red and Blue
Well-Known Member
For me, a loss is still a loss. Regardless of how it happned. My point is I felt Serena could have handled it better
Pokegirl Fan~
Liko>>>>>Ash
It happened with May and Dawn also iirc, I don't see why it's such a big deal that she cried when those 2 cried also :/
diakyu
Well-Known Member
Jessia was robbed though lol. Pumpkaboo's costume was amazing, but alas not cute enough. Maybe next time.
I feel some might be grasping hard at those straws to make these moments with Serena lackluster. She's a child, she has dreamed of this for quite some time, she failed because of an accident adding more insult, and she thought she was going to do great literally right before Fennekin trips. All those stares and the silence, I realize she probably could have trained more but try and imagine how embarrassing it must of been. Sure if it was more realistic she would've burst into tears on stage instead of the morning after but that would of made for a really depressing scene.
Are Pokemon not supposed to feel for their trainers or something?
I feel some might be grasping hard at those straws to make these moments with Serena lackluster. She's a child, she has dreamed of this for quite some time, she failed because of an accident adding more insult, and she thought she was going to do great literally right before Fennekin trips. All those stares and the silence, I realize she probably could have trained more but try and imagine how embarrassing it must of been. Sure if it was more realistic she would've burst into tears on stage instead of the morning after but that would of made for a really depressing scene.
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Red and Blue
Well-Known Member
I don't think highly of may and dawn's reactions to their first losses either. That really doesn't change my feelings towards serena's poorly executed melodramatic angst.
She has been training a lot for her performance, unfortunately she failed in a stage that didn't even let her reach the one she has been preparing for.
WaterShuriken
"I..I..Iron Tail, Pikachu."
Not if the themed performance was Beauty. Cause remember the first round is always themed. It seems Jessie did not pay attention to that detail.
ScraftyIsTheBest
No need to worry!
So I got the chance to watch this episode today, and I must say I'm as impressed as ever. This was a great episode and I love how Serena, who has been my favorite character of the anime since the beginning, is finally getting a lot of attention. This episode had an awful lot of character development for Serena, which I liked a lot. She made her debut in her first Showcase, and realistically, she was visibly nervous, though Fennekin tripping over its own ribbon in front of a huge crowd of people must have been extremely embarrassing for Serena. Shauna did great and from this episode, I finally get to see what Showcases are like, and they look to be pretty awesome (I also like the background music!). Jessie was ridiculous with her Pumpkaboo, that looked flamboyant and just ugly (Jessie was also ridiculously flamboyant herself, but she's been like that in contests back in DP lol!). Regardless, Serena breaking down into tears was a bit touching (I was holding my hands over my mouth at this scene), and Fennekin and Pancham feeling her was touching too. I liked the animation at the hair cutting, it's like she looks back to all her experiences in the prior episode, and the hair just flows with the wind. I also found it funny how when Serena came back with her hair cut short and new outfit, everyone was like "WOAH WTF!!!", but Ash liked it, though Bonnie was kind of upset. Serena really shows how much Ash means to her by wearing that ribbon Ash gave to her as a gift last episode.
Now the one gripe about this episode...I legitimately have no clue what relevance Yashio (the old woman) had to the episode and what she does or why she stalks Showcases. And what makes her so well known?
Also, in regards to Serena's new design, I think it's pretty good, but I just can't help but think that Serena looks older with her new design...like she totally does not look 10 anymore. (she's 10 obviously, but she sure as hell looks older/more mature now)
This was a great episode imo and I expect a lot more good stuff from this series, hope to see Serena and Ash do well in their goals for the future, and more Pokemon! #GOODRA2015
Now the one gripe about this episode...I legitimately have no clue what relevance Yashio (the old woman) had to the episode and what she does or why she stalks Showcases. And what makes her so well known?
Also, in regards to Serena's new design, I think it's pretty good, but I just can't help but think that Serena looks older with her new design...like she totally does not look 10 anymore. (she's 10 obviously, but she sure as hell looks older/more mature now)
This was a great episode imo and I expect a lot more good stuff from this series, hope to see Serena and Ash do well in their goals for the future, and more Pokemon! #GOODRA2015
I'm completely, completely astonished with this episode.
First of all, the animation was gorgeous. I loved the designs of the other participants, as well as the auditorium where the Showcase was held. The voting system was pretty smart, but I never expected those little orbs to appear; I was expecting something like, the lights turn on the bars, and the number of lights of a single colour to be shown on a screen. My suspension of disbelief was stretched a bit, but I'm nitpicking here. Speaking about those orbs, a lot of things in that Showcase reminded me a lot of those typical Magical Girl shôjo anime, with the way all the contestants were dressed, and all the colours and movements... Y'know, it'd be awesome if one of those seemingly random contestants would later become important and be Serena's rival.
It's obvious that everything in this episode was carefully planned from the beginning of the series. The writers Pretty much everything was done right here; the pace was great, the animation was great, the drama, oh, the drama was great.
In my opinion, Serena was one of the anime's most divisive characters. For the first dozen episodes, she was regarded as a superior character to Iris, and as someone that could be compared with our first three heroines. But soon, after the initial lack of development apart from her crush on Ash, I noticed that a lot of fans started to dislike her. By the summer camp arc, her unpopularity was as low, if not worse than Iris's. She was seen as someone empty, solely motivated by her childhood crush and nothing else. But then she began improving fast. She had a new goal in her mind, and little by little she tried and managed to become more independent. She was now participating more as a member of the team. Today's episode is historic. She took a long time to start her development as a character, but she managed to progress much faster than any other of the past heroines. In little more than twenty episodes (roughly the time elapsed since the summer camp arc to today's episode), Serena grew more than what Misty, May, Dawn and Iris did in at least a hundred each of them.
I used to be opposed to her getting a haircut, thinking that it would be just a cosmetic change, possibly made to promote the next instalment in the main games series. And maybe the main reasoning from the writing team is based on this. I was expecting her to get her haircut from a stylist, like in the games; but I never ever expected that moment to be filled with such a great amount of emotion.
Today, Serena has matured as a character. And I'll be honest, I used to be among those people who didn't like her. The only thing that stopped me from outright hating her is that her only defining trait at the time was her crush, which made very different from the other characters, whose feelings for Ketchum were much more unclear.
Dawn used to be my favourite "PokéGirl". Regarding character design, I still like her the best out of the five PokéGirls. But as a character, Serena has left her and everyone else way down in the list. And Serena's new design can begin rivalling Dawn's; I didn't expect Serena to look so good. I'm not a fan of short hair in girls, but in Serena's case, it fits her so well, both in design and as a character, with her shorter hair representing a new beginning.
Also, from what I've read so far in this thread, it looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that Serena looks older and more mature with her new look. Cool!
If you were randomly switching channels and then a portion of this episode appeared, it would take you a few moments to realize that it was part of a Pokémon episode, and that's because this episode didn't really felt like your standard Pokémon episode, and I really mean that in a very good way. Today, the Pokémon anime is regarded as lazy, cheap and repetitive, by people from the very Pokémon fandom. Things like Ash's being unable to grow up and rehashed plots have kept a lot of people away. They think of it as nothing but a 22 minutes-long commercial. But things are different now. Those who think like that should look at the new things coming for the Pokeani. The XY series is really, really trying to get away from every bad thing they did, especially what BW did wrong. It's becoming much more original; heck, even the fillers tend to subvert their own tropes and even apply some deconstruction to them. They're not afraid to change things anymore.
I have to admit that the producers, writers and the marketing team of the anime are not the best in the industry. But I feel that they're aiming for something different; I feel that they're really trying to make Pokémon to stand out. With Yôkai Watch being a serious threat to Pokémon's dominance in the Japanese popular culture (especially between children), the production team needs to create something more unique. They need to promote Pokémon in a way that it's not just marketing for the games. It must become its own story, its own canon, similar to what happens with Pokémon Adventures/Special. More story-driven plots, and less "monster-of-the-week" plots. This was a n excellent, story-driven Pokémon episode, and I'm sure that everyone still following the Pokéani wants to see more episodes like this one.
This episode will be one of the most remembered in the anime's history, because of how different it is, and how much development and seriousness brought. I'm not trying to exaggerate. I genuinely believe it.
Main Plot: 10 (Perfect. If you want to know why, you should read the post!)
Story development: 9 (Jessie should have progressed to the second round; with story development, I mean every event in the episode in general, including jokes and subplots, along with the way the main plot unfolds)
Music: 9.5 (It's almost perfect. I would have preferred something more techno during the Showcase, but the song in the background when Serena starts weeping lifted this rating a lot. For some reason, I don't remember if it's a song from X/Y or OR/AS)
Animation: 10 (Practically perfect for an anime episode. Sure, there has to be at least one error, but it must be incredibly tiny or unimportant, because the episode looks flawless to my eyes).
Avg. 96.25% Outstanding episode.
Edit: It's been just about 20 episodes since the summer camp arc. That makes Serena's development another bit more impressive.
First of all, the animation was gorgeous. I loved the designs of the other participants, as well as the auditorium where the Showcase was held. The voting system was pretty smart, but I never expected those little orbs to appear; I was expecting something like, the lights turn on the bars, and the number of lights of a single colour to be shown on a screen. My suspension of disbelief was stretched a bit, but I'm nitpicking here. Speaking about those orbs, a lot of things in that Showcase reminded me a lot of those typical Magical Girl shôjo anime, with the way all the contestants were dressed, and all the colours and movements... Y'know, it'd be awesome if one of those seemingly random contestants would later become important and be Serena's rival.
It's obvious that everything in this episode was carefully planned from the beginning of the series. The writers Pretty much everything was done right here; the pace was great, the animation was great, the drama, oh, the drama was great.
In my opinion, Serena was one of the anime's most divisive characters. For the first dozen episodes, she was regarded as a superior character to Iris, and as someone that could be compared with our first three heroines. But soon, after the initial lack of development apart from her crush on Ash, I noticed that a lot of fans started to dislike her. By the summer camp arc, her unpopularity was as low, if not worse than Iris's. She was seen as someone empty, solely motivated by her childhood crush and nothing else. But then she began improving fast. She had a new goal in her mind, and little by little she tried and managed to become more independent. She was now participating more as a member of the team. Today's episode is historic. She took a long time to start her development as a character, but she managed to progress much faster than any other of the past heroines. In little more than twenty episodes (roughly the time elapsed since the summer camp arc to today's episode), Serena grew more than what Misty, May, Dawn and Iris did in at least a hundred each of them.
I used to be opposed to her getting a haircut, thinking that it would be just a cosmetic change, possibly made to promote the next instalment in the main games series. And maybe the main reasoning from the writing team is based on this. I was expecting her to get her haircut from a stylist, like in the games; but I never ever expected that moment to be filled with such a great amount of emotion.
Today, Serena has matured as a character. And I'll be honest, I used to be among those people who didn't like her. The only thing that stopped me from outright hating her is that her only defining trait at the time was her crush, which made very different from the other characters, whose feelings for Ketchum were much more unclear.
Dawn used to be my favourite "PokéGirl". Regarding character design, I still like her the best out of the five PokéGirls. But as a character, Serena has left her and everyone else way down in the list. And Serena's new design can begin rivalling Dawn's; I didn't expect Serena to look so good. I'm not a fan of short hair in girls, but in Serena's case, it fits her so well, both in design and as a character, with her shorter hair representing a new beginning.
Also, from what I've read so far in this thread, it looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that Serena looks older and more mature with her new look. Cool!
If you were randomly switching channels and then a portion of this episode appeared, it would take you a few moments to realize that it was part of a Pokémon episode, and that's because this episode didn't really felt like your standard Pokémon episode, and I really mean that in a very good way. Today, the Pokémon anime is regarded as lazy, cheap and repetitive, by people from the very Pokémon fandom. Things like Ash's being unable to grow up and rehashed plots have kept a lot of people away. They think of it as nothing but a 22 minutes-long commercial. But things are different now. Those who think like that should look at the new things coming for the Pokeani. The XY series is really, really trying to get away from every bad thing they did, especially what BW did wrong. It's becoming much more original; heck, even the fillers tend to subvert their own tropes and even apply some deconstruction to them. They're not afraid to change things anymore.
I have to admit that the producers, writers and the marketing team of the anime are not the best in the industry. But I feel that they're aiming for something different; I feel that they're really trying to make Pokémon to stand out. With Yôkai Watch being a serious threat to Pokémon's dominance in the Japanese popular culture (especially between children), the production team needs to create something more unique. They need to promote Pokémon in a way that it's not just marketing for the games. It must become its own story, its own canon, similar to what happens with Pokémon Adventures/Special. More story-driven plots, and less "monster-of-the-week" plots. This was a n excellent, story-driven Pokémon episode, and I'm sure that everyone still following the Pokéani wants to see more episodes like this one.
This episode will be one of the most remembered in the anime's history, because of how different it is, and how much development and seriousness brought. I'm not trying to exaggerate. I genuinely believe it.
Main Plot: 10 (Perfect. If you want to know why, you should read the post!)
Story development: 9 (Jessie should have progressed to the second round; with story development, I mean every event in the episode in general, including jokes and subplots, along with the way the main plot unfolds)
Music: 9.5 (It's almost perfect. I would have preferred something more techno during the Showcase, but the song in the background when Serena starts weeping lifted this rating a lot. For some reason, I don't remember if it's a song from X/Y or OR/AS)
Animation: 10 (Practically perfect for an anime episode. Sure, there has to be at least one error, but it must be incredibly tiny or unimportant, because the episode looks flawless to my eyes).
Avg. 96.25% Outstanding episode.
Edit: It's been just about 20 episodes since the summer camp arc. That makes Serena's development another bit more impressive.
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I actually think it made a lot of sense. It wasn't just that she lost, she was having fun one moment and the next moment it became a total disaster, in front of a huge audience which included her crush. This was supposed to be her big debut so the reality probably clashed heavily with her expectations.
Reminder that fear of public speaking is actually the #1 most common fear, followed by death.
jrizza88
Meteorite
Simply 10/10
It felt refreshing for me to sense human nature within pokemon vs. just seeing pokemon battle. I really enjoyed it.
On a side-note, it was her fault fennekin tripped a way. She cut the ribbon long enough for her to trip on it.
My only reservation is how they are going to make these types of episodes entertaining. I personally like battles, and wonder if that will be incorporated at one point maybe when winners who earn enough (keys?) have to prove their worth in other ways?
It felt refreshing for me to sense human nature within pokemon vs. just seeing pokemon battle. I really enjoyed it.
On a side-note, it was her fault fennekin tripped a way. She cut the ribbon long enough for her to trip on it.
My only reservation is how they are going to make these types of episodes entertaining. I personally like battles, and wonder if that will be incorporated at one point maybe when winners who earn enough (keys?) have to prove their worth in other ways?
Sonicheroesfan1
Crystal Veteran
*sigh* I knew comments like this would eventually come.
Look, like I said on the Amourshipping thread, it's the Pokémon anime that has us used to that childish feel where the characters MUST NOT FEEL SAD and if they do they just shrugg it off INSTANTLY and smile and continue like nothing happened because you know, FOR KIDS!
That's why you think it's "overly melodramatic".
I myself, by watching AG and DP, thought that May and Dawn's feelings weren't enough, not fitting to their results.
We've seen them losing their contests, we've seen Dawn's depression arc after losing 2 in a row, we've also seen sad Misty and Iris, but in my opinion, there were some opportunities when I expected the characters to cry because I thought I felt them, I felt the pain they were feeling (although obviously not on context) and they should've just let it go! (nopunheresorry)
But after 3 words from Ash or mostly no external motivation, they simply shrugged it off and smiled and continued with their lives.
Now, I'm not saying "if something bad happened to you, you should just go cry in a corner, get depressed for the rest of your life and never come out because it isn't worth it" lol, but I seriously think that going from terribly sad to happy in just a few seconds is not realistic. Seeing Serena cry just... broke my soul. Trust me, when I saw her tear on the XY movie my heart hurt... Imagine how I felt this time. I started to tear as well, it felt so sad, but at the same time something made me relieved: I finally got to see the Pokégirl cry for something she should.
And THAT was worth it.
Amen. I don't feel that this is a children's anime whatsoever. That crying scene and all. Oh god.
Anything could probably happen, which is why I'm now open to new ideas and speculations for the episodes ahead.