The Curtain Rises! The Alola Pokémon League!! (1071)

[Twilight-Kun]

Ilima is pretty much like XY Ash though.

Not even remotely true and anyone who has actually watched the show for even five minutes would know better

 

[Doppelgänger]

Team Skull are kind of implied to be homeless and have alcohol problems when you reach Po Town in the games (the bottles and the passed out members on the floor).

They have an addiction to Burn Heal.

 

[AznKei]

Not even remotely true and anyone who has actually watched the show for even five minutes would know better

Llima acts more effeminate compared to XY Ash.

Looks like Serena might be considering team Ilima since SM Ash "isn't acting like the Ash she knows".

I dunno, almost every girl seemed to idolize Aria more except Serena, so I would expect the same on how she'll act to Llima.

 

[wolf jani]

So I decided to start watching the anime again now that the league is starting. And this episode was meh. We've gone a long way from the greatness of the first few episodes. This is a reversal from XY where beginning was meh but the later parts were great.

 

[R0shan]

Disclaimer: I found out that that Manalo Conference is currently going on. I've only seen a few episodes of Sun & Moon and some battles from the series that I could find on YT. Therefore, I'm quite OOTL and not too familiar with some characters and their Pokemon.

It was a decent at best introduction to the league. The lack of any barrier to entry to participating in this league conference rather diminishes the importance and grandeur to this tournament. This villain, Guzma, had the quickest and most generic evil backstory I've seen in a long time. If his motivation is to become stronger, how does being righteous stop him? Wouldn't using Z-moves make him strong? Odd reasons to explain why he went rogue. A Battle Royale, which would be out of place in almost any other previous region league conference, makes sense considering SM's comedy and eccentricity.

More random thoughts below:

• That was the most generic anime OP song I've heard.
  
• The boys go to the battlefield, and the girls go shopping, how..stereotypical.
  
• Bewear has a child? I've missed out on a lot.
• Lillie looks different? I'm assuming she had this look before earlier in SM?
• Mallow caught a Shyamin. When did that happen? She has a brother too?
  
• These gangster have to be Youngster Joey levels of terrible if they got beaten that badly by Team Rocket.
  
• A children's choir singing the ending song? Not a bad song though.

 

[Mr. Reloaded]

The Shyamin isn't really hers, it got separated from its group and she's really just holding onto it until it goes back.

 

[AuraGuardian448]

Just like his silly introduction, yeah Guzma you're sure going to "destroy Kukai's dream" and "make sure he never holds another league" by merely becoming Champion. Also, what happened to "I won't fall for that trick again"? Great job.

I'm just going to ignore that weak backstory with Guzma, Kukai, and master. It's, Turtonator and others are just so forgettable. Rival having a fully evolved Decidueye is no surprise. Alright, I did forget about Llima, but he's had so little reappearances and I've taking long hiatuses with the show.

Lol at previews showing that Pikachu girl having entered the league.

 

[LilligantLewis]

I forget how excited I get when leagues start until I saw the beginning of this episode and I got chills down my spine. The league is the main thing I care about in every generation.

At first when they went to the battlefield and it had no lines painted on I thought it was a mistake until it was revealed that there’s going to be a BATTLE ROYAL 151!!!!!

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Boy, can't wait for all those 151 pokémon to get fleshed out and have amazing battles

:3

 

[Soaring Pikachu]

One thing I will say about this region relative to the others is that they do a lot more with the funny facial expressions. In a certain sense this episode is a huge deal because it marks the start of a new Pokemon league! I also found it pretty amusing to have Team Rocket be the targets of another evil team but then in a dramatic twist, the Trio's past battle experience actually gave them enough of an edge to win for a change.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Decidueye is awesome. Shame Ash never got one.
Is is just me or starting from this episode on even in Journeys Ash's dub VA sounds more high pitched?