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The Curtain Rises! The Masters Tournament!! (1204)

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Watched this episode with my boyfriend after a night of drinking so I could find some enjoyment in the forsaken battle lol

Positives:
+Hop finally appears and they add him to the opening. Wish he appeared earlier though.
+I like that they’re building off the radio episode with TRio’s reporter facade here. Idk if I like or hate their outfits though. I hate Morpeko but can’t deny it eating furiously in the background of every scene they’re in is funny.
+Ash and Iris’s reunion was cute especially given they have more enthusiasm than everyone else in the room.
+Alola Champion Ash!
+Go being hyped for Iris, Hop surprised he knows her, and her grin with Ash was cute.
+Pikachu looking at Leon knowing he’s the one who’s going to take him down.
+Cynthia’s “Go easy on me, ok?” to Iris
+Steven’s “so I finally get a chance to battle you” to Ash
+Ash wanting to watch in the crowd is so in character even though I kind of wish he was there with the others.
+Lance noticing Steven is on good terms with Alain.
+Iris’s picture with Diantha and Cynthia
+Rillaboom vs Chesnaught was a decent match. Loved seeing GMax Rillaboom and Chesnaught spin around like Sonic.
+Grookey being hyped to see its potential final form
+Rillaboom using Acrobatics reminds me of DBZ.
+Sycamore!
+Seeing Malamar again was cool.

Negatives:
-Wasn’t Alain more friendly with Ash? I don’t expect him to be screaming in excitement but he just glares like Ash is on his hit list.
-The rest of the battle was awful. No need to repeat what others have said but this was such a bad way to bring back Alain even as someone who dislikes him.

Neutral/other points:
  • It’s funny seeing Go and Hop together when people were saying the latter wouldn’t appear thanks to the former.
  • The referee saying that there’s no limit to how long a match can be makes me imagine someone coming in the PWC with a full stall team.
  • Weird that Jessie of all people acknowledges Alain.
  • Forgot that Rillaboom can learn Acrobatics (all the Galar starts can actually)
  • Pikachu cheering for Alain’s Charizard feels cute yet weird. Also lmao @ “we’ve battled Alain’s Charizard before”
Decent episode outside of most of the battle. Even if I found a lot of it to be disappointing, it is still nice to see the PWC reach its climax. Also nice seeing some of my favorites like Cynthia, Leon, Iris, and Hop. The interactions had some nice callbacks and were genuinely nice. That battle doesn’t give me hope for the rest of the tournament but we’ll see. 7.8/10: too much Charizard
 

Illusio

No words, only rage
Reading the comments I was expecting this episode to be awful, but it wasn't that bad. OK, it has bad pacing, but it's not even bottom ten of this season.

The first half is pretty good. I would've liked some interaction with Alain as he left XY as more friendly, but the other champions had good banter and moments. Iris fangirling over Diantha and Cynthia and getting a selfie was really cute.

Second half is where it falls apart. Surprisingly the best part of the battle is the Grass Starters as there was actual strategy on both sides and they even had Chesnaught, the most forgotten starter, put up a good fight. Yeah he got one-shot but up to that moment it was a star. After that it was just one-shot after one-shot and that was just bad. If the rest of the battle had the pacing of the grass fight it would've been a good battle.

Anyway, hopefully the next battles are better. They have the episodes to themselves so that's already an improvement, but whether they use it right is the real question.
 

Gale_

Member
The fact that Leon decided to Gigantamax his Rillaboom at the very start of the battle shows that he wasn't taking on Alain too seriously. He knew for a fact that he was about to sweep the poor guy.
 

deliaketchum

Well-Known Member
Willing to bet had this been Virgil or Tyson going up against Leon and getting smoked, none of this discourse would exist. Hell, if had been a powered up Gary, or a participating Paul, this wouldn't exist.
Thank god its not paul or gary. Journeys would have ruined their character. Paul loosing to Leon like this would have been more unbelievable If they want Ash to go toe to toe with Leon.
 
I'm not going to lie, but even though I did like the mini-character interactions and bits of continuity between the participants, Alain nonwithstanding, it still ultimately felt unsubstantial for what is supposed to be Opening Episode of The Masters 8.

I just wish the episode was solely spent on the character dynamics between everyone since there's just so much potential there for actually good and meaningful fanservice that's tied into the narrative. Can't understate how much JN drops the ball with how much potential it has. It's one of the most aggravating parts about the series.

There's still potential for it considering we're getting all the battles between everyone animated and presumably the other participants will comment on the battles, but I don't have much hope for anything substantial. What aids in that concern is that there's a pretty high possibility that the losers might just get written out/disappear for the rest of the tournament. Not confident enough in that assertion to make any hard and fast claims yet, but the way they treated Alain this episode didn't give me great vibes for the rest of the tournament.
 
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Dragonsoldier77

Bittersweet Satisfaction
I'm not going to lie, but even though I did like the mini-character interactions and bits of continuity between the participants, Alain nonwithstanding, it still ultimately felt unsubstantial for what is supposed to be Opening Episode of The Masters 8.

I just wish the episode was solely spent on the character dynamics between everyone since there's just so much potential there for actually good and meaningful fanservice that's tied into the narrative. Can't understate how much JN drops the ball with how much potential it has. It's one of the most aggravating parts about the series.

There's still potential for it considering we're getting all the battles between everyone animated and presumably the other participants will comment on the battles, but I don't have much hope for anything substantial. What aids in that concern is that there's a pretty high possibility that the losers might just get written out/disappear for the rest of the tournament. Not confident enough in that assertion to make any hard and fast claims yet, but the way they treated Alain this episode didn't give me great vibes for the rest of the tournament.
Honestly i hate the fact that they put ash outside with goh and hop, because we waste opportunities for interaction with the champions to make them feel more rounded as characters and not just cardboard cutouts, and get the three boys just going ‘oohh ahhh’ at everything instead.

At worst they could’ve just brought goh and hop to the champion’s room ash ash and leon’s +1. We would’ve gotten some neat interactions still.
 

Heekful

Well-Known Member
Ash-Greninja doesn't appear even in flashbacks.
Korrina jobs to everyone she faces.
Alain is destroyed in a bad fight.
Drasna battle is one of the worst battles in all of Journeys.
Serena has barely any interaction with Ash.

If Diantha loses to Lance then gg Kalos, deserved better with Alain and Greninja.

And yet there's still people out there that think Tomiyasu doesn't hate XY (yes sorry I'm still on that because I judge what I see)

Diantha is our last hope now and it really seems like a huge 50-50 at this point.
 

BobbbidyBob

Well-Known Member
*reads the 49 pages* yep, my thoughts exactly lol
 

GLTSRY

Sorry not sorry for my smugness
Just watched this. The first half is… decent. The scene where they’re all on the field got me pretty hyped up, not gonna lie. Wish that Ash and Alain had proper interactions though.

The second half, however, was an absolute **** show and is basically blasphemy. You’re telling me that Alain, the same guy who had plans for Ash’s entire Kalos team, especially Pikachu, uses a Malamar against Leon that jobs in 3 seconds? He even said that he’ll use it to attack from afar and than rushes in with it - what was that all about?

And don’t even get me started on the Charizard debacle. MC-X was strong enough to Tank attacks from Steven’s Metagross, from Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza BEFORE starting his harsh training. And you all know what a beast it was afterwards. Now, he had years of training and supposedly got stronger like everyone else did. And I’m supposed to believe that some recoil damage, ancient power and dragon pulse from a base Charizard was enough to take it out??? You know, I wish they didn’t animate the other battles, because that was proper ****. Not only was the battle per se bad, it contradicts everything we’ve seen in XY. And also, no BLAAAAASTO BUUUUURN is adding insult to injury.

0/10 points despite the good first half. Extremely disappointing episode, and I don’t think that any non Ash battles will be better.
 
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