Smashing with Sketch! The Fierce Poké-Ping Pong Match!! (1009)

[U.N. Owen]

Even if it is a small detail, I like how Alolan Ping Pong allows for moves. Even if it is an implication, it gives the impression that the Pokemon World is a lot bigger than it lets on because mundane rules seem to change from region to region.

 

[Satomine Night]

Except giving a Gary Stu-ish feeling about his character all the time by apparently doing everything right and receiving enormous amount of bubbly praise from everyone.

Ilima is a prodigy and a school legend. His excelling at a lot of things and receiving a lot of praise is part of the package. And really, the only ones who praised him in excess were those (admittedly obnoxious) fangirls. Ash and his friends admired Ilima, but not really in excess. Their attitude was more or less what we've seen with other characters. I can't help but wonder if Ilima would have been better received by viewers if the writers hadn't given him that fan club.

Ilima's humility was probably the saving grace of his character. A prodigious character who shows off just for the sake of showing off and basks in the attentions of his/her fan club is just annoying. Ilima only showed off what made him a legend because Ash and his friends asked him to. He wasn't even aware of most of the legends surrounding him.

Overall, I think this episode did a disservice to Ilima. Poké-Ping-Pong was not the best way to show off his character, especially not as a follow up to last episode. I would have preferred to see more of Ilima's battle skills—perhaps show Smeargle's Sketch in battle, rather than in ping-pong. Or follow up on last episode's theme of bringing out the best in a Pokémon, evolved or not. And it's still a shame that Ash never learned Ilima participated in the Kalos League; that was a golden opportunity the writers really missed out on.

 

[Dragalge]

I will also say that I'm glad Mienshao wasn't treated like a punching bag in this episode like the past in BW and XY (including Mienfoo). Yeah it still lost but at least this one was competent, even if its trainer wasn't the nicest person lol.

 

[DatsRight]

The main problem with Ilima is that his pleasant, hyper competent behaviour doesn't really bounce off of anyone but antagonists. You'd think they could get some funny jokes from hyperactive characters like Ash bouncing off of Ilima's mellowness, but we don't really get anything (in fairness, Kukui already has similar chemistry with Ash). Both his Pokemon are blandly obedient and lack many quirks as well, so they don't really compliment his personality like many of the other Pokemon teams do their trainers. As a result, Ilima spent a lot of his screen time being rather boring.

Even if it is a small detail, I like how Alolan Ping Pong allows for moves. Even if it is an implication, it gives the impression that the Pokemon World is a lot bigger than it lets on because mundane rules seem to change from region to region.

It didn't really work in DP anyway, since it was hard to differentiate moves from standard attribute of the Pokemon. They practically lampshaded that the referee looked biased against Team Rocket compared to their Marowak opponent. Here the rule book is thrown out the window, but they can at least get humour and character from that, and no one really looks like anymore of a cheat than the other (besides TR's offstage antics, speaking of which, besides Wobbuffet's sparsely used Counter reappearing, why hasn't Meowth ever used that trick with his Koban before?).

 

[SH65]

You know this ep being pointless is one thing, but making Ash the butt monkey in something he should know how to play and the fact that this and the last ep did nothing to help with the plot or the crew we have, makes me hate SM more and more.

 

[togenaught18]

Am I the only one who thinks that Kiawe vs Lana was the only highlight in this episode?

This. Im suprise with this episode because i thinked the episode would be TOO boring, but i liked the first half of this episode. Then is the boring tournament and the only thing i liked is Sketch pretty much.

 

[maartjeverhoef]

Interesting, Ilima gets hate for being XYZ Ash.

 

[SH65]

Interesting, Ilima gets hate for being XYZ Ash.

XYZ Ash has flaws, Ilima doesn't have any flaws.

 

[Daniel31]

Ash has played Ping-Pong before, so even if the rules were slightly different, there was no reason for him to not understand Ilima's explanation or for him and Pikachu to be so bad at hitting the ball.

This is what bothered me the most about this episode and that the writers didn't reference anything to Ash's past, playing ping-pong.

Other than the individual matches between the classmates in the first half of the episode, which were enjoyable (fun and humorous), I didn't really care much for this episode. 3/10

As for Illima, all I see is some wasted opportunities, like not having a battle with Ash for example, and a forgettable character (unless he comes back and does something special).

 

[Ryu Taylor]

No reference to[...]Ambipom?

Oh, thank GOD. I was dreading that awful memory being referenced to. I was just getting ready to ask if that would happen, but you answered it for me. Thanks.

I sure hope no one left for this sport like that vain and fickle ***** did back in Sinnoh.

 

[xEryChan]

This episode was not any better than last weeks. I found it to be rather boring bc of Iliama bland personality and I was so disappointed at the fact there was no reference to Ambipom.

I did not care for the Ping Ping matches between the classmates. It just felt like it was thrown in there as a time stall for Iliama’s ping pong match.

Once again, Team Rocket were thrown in the episode just for the sake of having them in the episode. I did not miss them last week or the week before. Their scenes made no sense to me. Jessie enters the ping match with Wobbuffet against Iliama but before you know it, here comes Bewear to scoop them and carry them away. Can they just go already? Please?

All in all, this episode was a pretty bad filler. 5/10

 

[Leonhart]

Satoshi seemed somewhat confused by the rules of ping pong, which was strange since he had played the game in Shinou. Ilima shined once again, and his Doble was amusing. I was happy when Ilima left the cast, however. He just wasn't a good fit from my point of view.

 

[Zyar]

I'm all for Team Rocket being in episodes 'cause I don't have a biased hatred towards them like other people, but even I have to admit they were severely mishandled here. I miss older episodes where we'd actually get a scene of them reasoning why they want to enter a competition and planning stuff for that purpose, instead of having them suddenly show up out of nowhere in the tournament... And they didn't even last. They could've given them a more important role OR not include them at all and let some of the twerps take their place instead.

Boring episode with boring character of the day. I did like the resolution though (and Kaki and Suiren's match). I just felt like Ilima's character could've been used much better in general; still, I don't hate him. He's cute and nice but good riddance!

Edit: Oh yeah, and it was stupid how they HAD to make Ash the one saying "I'm not sure I understand" when Ilima explained the rules. They could've made anyone else say it... ANYONE, they had five different options... and they still chose Ash... the one WE know has played ping-pong before AND was not bad at it.

 

[Zoruagible]

*smh*
This is why Hau should have been a main character. Better yet why not make Lillie act confused on the subject? Not the guy whose played it!
Pokemon being able to use moves was just stupid. That shouldn't be allowed in games, especially using z-moves when the other side doesn't have them. *glares at that baseball guy* That was just cheating.... and people actually liked that stupid episode for whatever reason.
And of course the time Mallow gets to win something it was in a cheap stupid way....

Ash being the butt monkey seriously needs to stop, it's not funny. Never has been. If you hate Ash, I can see you liking it....
I love the TRio dearly, but they had such a pointless appearance. They didn't even get a fair shot at winning like usual, I can't wait until the day they win something again... I loved how Jessie had an actual good disguise though, wearing a wig instead of just the TRio restyling their hair. It makes their disguises more believable, I hope they do that again.
The latter half of the episode was entirely pointless, let's sit and watch somebody who has literal no importance to the show play ping pong! *yawn*

Ilima was dull, flawless, and annoying. The stupid fangirls made him even more annoying, they were cool when Gary had them but Ilima? lol no
The only good thing to come out of this stupid arc was them expanding on one of the Team Skull members Tupp's past.
0.5/10
Whole Ilima arc as a whole - 2/10 even worse than DA

At least Korrina's was good and involved a FLAWED character! -__-

Ilima won't be missed.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Not really a good episode to me. The first half was good and I liked the matches the main cast had against each other. They were brimming with creativity and I loved how the pokémon could use moves. Sweet Scent to distract the opponent, Iron Tail to smash hard, and ending with Lana vs Kiawe with all kinds of fun stuff like Z-moves, feints, bonemerang saves, and so on. But after that we went to the tournament, and sadly it just didn't deliver on the buildup. Smeargle and Ilima were distractedly boring in how they played and there wasn't really any creativity seen from any of their matches. They've got a Smeargle which could have sketched all sorts of moves in the past to really go nuts with the insanity, but they didn't do that at all. Last week Ilima still worked because they made fun on his flawlessness and exaggerated it to ridiculousness for fun, but in this episode they didn't make it funny and then he becomes very bland and boring as a character.

I'm guessing he'll come back for the league, but probably not before that.

 

[NPT]

...after last week's terrible episode featuring the oh-so-perfect prodigy Ilima as the main focus, this week we got ANOTHER terrible episode with him taking central stage again. And of course, Ash just HAD to act like a complete moron. Wow, Way to go, writers.

Gen 8 PokéAnime can't come soon enough.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

At least Korrina's was good and involved a FLAWED character! -__-

But then again she overstayed her welcome and that was just as bad that balanced things out between her and Ilima's short but perfect focus.

 

[SH65]

Can someone tell me why does Ilima have 2 eps when he dosen't matter in the long run?

 

[DatsRight]

I still favour a handful of Korrina or Ilima episodes over a truckload of generic COTD episodes the previous series done. At least it's still developing on the games.

I do agree the main characters needed that spotlight as much, but I can't blame all of their shortcomings in development on what is not even half a dozen episodes. They should have done something with Serena or Mallow long before either series side character was introduced.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Can someone tell me why does Ilima have 2 eps when he dosen't matter in the long run?

To tell the audience he exists and the oxygen he exhales cures common colds.