The Cerise Laboratories Become a Target! (1167)

[Ultra Beast Lover]

So we've now had Sobble caught by accident, evolved to Drizzle on its own in the lab by shooting a berry, then basically hid in a cave and trained itself at night. What a terrible treatment for a starter.

The writers really are going out of their way to give Goh freebies here without having to do the work. Even Mudkip had more work put into it by Brock

Watch, Grookey's gonna evolve by blinking.

 

[Pokemonfan5]

Watch, Grookey's gonna evolve by blinking.

He is probably going to use a move first time after evolving

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

Why didn't Pikachu do anything to help Drizzile fight Kecleon?

 

[Soniman]

Even Mudkip had more work put into it by Brock

Even then it only reached Marshtomp by the end because it made logical sense when Ash and May put way more work into training their starters than Brock did (who didn't really have a reason to). It didn't reach Swampert "just because", those were the days

 

[DeltaGod770]

Is it just me or did this episode put a emphasis on valuing the wrong thing this episode? Like I get it, Ash and Goh spent a long time gathering that data and Goh was upset it's been stolen. But that's the thing, data is just data. Losing it doesn't suddenly erase the experiences and bonds Goh has developed after all this time with his Pokemon. Idk, it just feels imo like this episode had an opportunity to have a deeper message than what was provided to us.

As for Drizzle's evolution...meh. As many have already stated, it was way too rushed and needed more time to show Drizzle training and working alongside Goh to be meaningful. Alas, that's the norm for Journeys at this point. Overall, 5/10 episode for me.

 

[Pteranodonte]

Still better than last week episode.

 

[NeoDude-5000]

2 Galar starters fully evolved. 1 to go and maybe another mid-stage puberty moment.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Well, this is just another undeserved Pokemon Goh gets by doing absolutely nothing. The fact these keep training by themselves and offscreen should be a dead give away that the writers can't honestly think of believable situations to have them gain actual justified experience. However, Drizzile is the worst offender of the bunch.

Also, what the hell is wrong with this episode's structure?

1) A Kecleon manages to enter a building through the window, Grookey style. Is there no security in this damn lab with the Suicune? It's like Cerise really wants to get robbed by TRio.

2) There's a hell lot of Pokemon in there able to sniff out a thief. Ash even has his aura-seeking dog he used 2 episodes ago to detect someone.

3) Why is Goh such a crier in this episode? He literally was sad the data he helped to gather was stolen, but the truth is, said data was just him flinging a ball to anything that moved.

4) Drizzile's evolution being really badly written, of course.

5) Ash being absolutely useless in this episode. What is wrong with you, man? You used to be the guy who always jumped down to your death from the top of a tower, but you're just...standing around, reacting to stuff.

At this point, I can only continue rolling my eyes at anything Goh gets.

 

[elrato]

Ya'll trying too hard to knock on an episode that you haven't even seen with subtitles yet.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Ya'll trying too hard to knock on an episode that you haven't even seen with subtitles yet.

I'm pretty sure not even that can salvage the poor execution now. That won't make a lick of difference.

 

[Dragonsoldier77]

Oh right i’ve been kinda confused about this since the summary, but did they ever specify what ‘data’ was actually stolen?

We don’t really see the boys do actual meaningful research or data taking. So is it supposed to be the dex entry they get after captures or something? But pokedex already comes pre loaded in the anime so i have even less clue.

 

[PAndrews]

Is it just me or did this episode put a emphasis on valuing the wrong thing this episode? Like I get it, Ash and Goh spent a long time gathering that data and Goh was upset it's been stolen. But that's the thing, data is just data. Losing it doesn't suddenly erase the experiences and bonds Goh has developed after all this time with his Pokemon. Idk, it just feels imo like this episode had an opportunity to have a deeper message than what was provided to us.

As for Drizzle's evolution...meh. As many have already stated, it was way too rushed and needed more time to show Drizzle training and working alongside Goh to be meaningful. Alas, that's the norm for Journeys at this point. Overall, 5/10 episode for meme.

One could also question why there are no backups of the data to begin with. Goh obsessing over it like that when the actual Pokemon are still there also just strengthens the "he just views them as collectables and a collection and doesn't care about them individually" problem

The training would have been infinitely better if it was revealed Goh or one of Ash's pokemon had secretly been training Drizzle at night over a couple of episodes vs Goh effectively dumping it in a cave and it doing all the work Goh should have been doing and now he has a free fully evolved starter he put literally zero effort in.

And if this is the new status quo that anything can evolve without actual training or the trainer even being present then how about handing Ash some freebies and evolve his old pokemon at Oak. Give him the Blastoise, Feraligator, Meganium, Garchomp, Emboar & Scrafty (among others) he should have gotten back in the day (would also justify using them in his remaining Hyper and Master class battles)

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Oh right i’ve been kinda confused about this since the summary, but did they ever specify what ‘data’ was actually stolen?

We don’t really see the boys do actual meaningful research or data taking. So is it supposed to be the dex entry they get after captures or something? But pokedex already comes pre loaded in the anime so i have even less clue.

Goh was crying because the proof of the stuff he caught was taken, basically. (Never mind the fact he still has his Pokemon with him... Weird, I know.)

Data? What data? We don't even see the lab rats studying his mons.

 

[G4Pokefan]

Been a long while since I posted on these forums but I just had to say that this Goh worship the creators got going on is way too much. Let Goh catch majority of Pokemon and have him usurp Ash's record list of pokes by one whole season. have him get all the starters this Gen, heck have Goh have all the evolved forms of the starters. Another thing they never let Ash do in the 23 years of the Anime. The main reason why I have not got into the Journeys series and for the first time in 20+ years I want this Gen to hurry up and finish. Gen 8 mainline games and the anime to me have been the most lackluster in the series.

 

[PAndrews]

Goh was crying because the proof of the stuff he caught was taken, basically. (Never mind the fact he still has his Pokemon with him... Weird, I know.)

Just further cements the fact he's a hoarder who views Pokemon as collectables like baseball cards and cares about his collection as a whole and doesn't care about them as individuals.

This was a perfect opportunity for him to say its alright since he still has the pokemon and the memories but instead he cried over the box no longer being ticked in his Pokedex

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Just further cements the fact he's a hoarder who views Pokemon as collectables like baseball cards and cares about his collection as a whole and doesn't care about them as individuals.

This was a perfect opportunity for him to say its alright since he still has the pokemon and the memories but instead he cried over the box no longer being ticked in his Pokedex

When Drizzile evolved, he was happy...

...for its entry getting recorded in his ghost phone.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

I know a lot of users joke about it but has anyone legit checked Go's Gary Stu levels? I know it seems like a weird ask but I am serious. I would check it myself but I'm watching the dub which is slowly coming out on Netflix so my info is likely lacking and I get so bored with most of these episodes that I don't want to rewatch.

I'm asking because at this point I think he might be someone's self insert. I don't have proof, the most proof I have is that Go catches Pokemon with ease and has all of the starters. But, especially with this anime, that's not really proof of being a self insert. Also, I'm just curious.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Is there no security in this damn lab with the Suicune?

Suicune hasn't been at the lab since it left at the end of its episode though

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

What a mediocre episode. Darn, so many things wrong today, so many logic holes, it's completly impossible to bring myself to like it. Guess that since Ash got that terrible episode with Pikachu being OoC, the writting thought Goh was duo a terrible episode too? Nothing on it made sense and while I can see what they were going for with Drizzile's development, it feels... Completly shallow and devoid of meaning. The handling of the evo for Ash's Farfetch'd might have not been perfect but it's miles better than whatever they thought up here.

I like Goh, but this evolution was poorly done and barely feel earned. Even the Goh/Drizzile connection came out as forced since Goh barely interacted with his own pokémon. I mean, they do on off-screen realm but, man, it's hard to feel anything for something so poorly focused, poorly constructed and poorly handled. I like Goh as a character, but what they've been doing with him is flat out terrible. I really want to know what on Earth they want out of this show? Goh's development being wasted, the new development of Ash's goal being wasted, returns being wasted with nonsense (how I hate what they did with Dawn's return)... My God, get yourself together, OLM. If I didn't know better, I'd think you are purposedly trying to kill the show.

All in all, it's just a case of what would be a good idea and an unique concept that's completly destroyed and ruined by bad writting and terrible planning.

I haven’t watched the episode but is that seriously the music they used? Wow it sounds bad and doesn’t fit.

BGM was super weird and unfitting. Seems something like the dub would come up with.

Why didn't Pikachu do anything to help Drizzile fight Kecleon?

Bad writting.

Or scratch that, it's more awful, terrible writting.

Just further cements the fact he's a hoarder who views Pokemon as collectables like baseball cards and cares about his collection as a whole and doesn't care about them as individuals.

This was a perfect opportunity for him to say its alright since he still has the pokemon and the memories but instead he cried over the box no longer being ticked in his Pokedex

I'm a Goh fan and even I can't justify the bad writting made with him today. The only logical reaction he should've had is calling Cerise and the aides out on something as simple as "are you telling me you didn't make a back-up? You don't encrypt files with sensible data? Or are you really writting letting the passwords be visible?". His parents own an IT company and he's had some hardcore tech gear on his home.

 

[RushKei]

Just further cements the fact he's a hoarder who views Pokemon as collectables like baseball cards and cares about his collection as a whole and doesn't care about them as individuals.

This was a perfect opportunity for him to say its alright since he still has the pokemon and the memories but instead he cried over the box no longer being ticked in his Pokedex

Kind of ironic that his reasoning for all these captures and evolutions are to better understand them in order to get close to Mew, and yet he stll barely understands the ones he has so far.

I blame the bad writing and execution, but imo to make him more likable, at least put more effort into him actually trying to connect with them. Not just the usual brief interactions.