The Extracurricular Lesson is on Mareanie?! (955)

[LonelyShadow]

The comedy was on point during this episode, I actually laughed my *** off with those 'romantic' shots of James and Mareanie before he capture it.

So Team Rocked finally defeated Ash, yay. I would’ve gotten upset if he managed to pull some BS in order to win with the two only Pokémon he has on hand in such bad conditions, thankfully, it was Bewear who appeared along with its hit or miss running gag to ruin Pikachu's assassination. Never do that again in the middle of such an important moment, thank you. Nitpicking aside, it was a pretty good episode c:

 

[Satomine Night]

-The whole scene where everyone's splashing water and playing together was really fun!! Even Lillie's egg is jumping for joy! So great to see Mao chan encouraging Lillie to get in the water but sadly, we didn't see Kiawe back up the guys! Bounsweet, you merciless leaf blower!! Rockruff is too cute... :3

The beach party scenes were some of my favorites this episode. We didn't get to see Kiawe back up the guys, but you can hear him shouting, probably as he gets splashed by someone. And Rockruff is absolutely adorable. We need to see more of those big, sparkly eyes. ^_^ (Oh, Kukui, please let Ash add that adorable puppy to his party!)

-Koffing, Golden Meowth, and Ekans!!! Them throwbacks!!!

I didn't mention this in my original post, but I thought that was a really nice touch--and a nice bit of continuity. I think this counts as another instance where the writers remembered past Pokémon.

 

[Darthlord7]

I loved this episode more than I expected!Nice interactions between the classmates during the beach moments.That Cloyster was savage it hid inside its shell and after that it left then spat Jessie's pokeball lol.Those Mimikyu-Meowth moments always crack me up.Mareanie is in love with James,because he resembles his first lover.TRio finally beat Ash but Bewear took them away lmao.Still weird to see TRio beating Ash after watching the show for so long

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Cut Ash some slack.

Double battles are basically extinct alongside the very, very, very, very short lived Triple Battles.

 

[satopi]

The beach party scenes were some of my favorites this episode. We didn't get to see Kiawe back up the guys, but you can hear him shouting, probably as he gets splashed by someone. And Rockruff is absolutely adorable. We need to see more of those big, sparkly eyes. ^_^ (Oh, Kukui, please let Ash add that adorable puppy to his party!)

It's amazing on how Rockruff doesn't do much but it still steals the spotlight when it appears due to how adorable it is in its scenes. And Prof Kukui is looking slick reading a book.

I didn't mention this in my original post, but I thought that was a really nice touch--and a nice bit of continuity. I think this counts as another instance where the writers remembered past Pokémon.

I know the Golden Meowth reminded me of when Meowth was thinking of learning Pay Day back in OS. Those lures brings back memories.

 

[diakyu]

Man, Team Rocket's pokemon so far are such an improvement over the last two sagas. They're not just soulless machines! Or in XY's case, soulless machines with glimpses of personality every now and again.

 

[CelebiAS]

Best episode so far. No doubt.

 

[Jason3b93]

I liked this episode, and I hope TRio catches the Bewear soon. Jaime is a nice character and the tradition of a Pokémon attacking/hugging him is back hehe.

A minor complain that I have: Ash is losing too much. Well, in the last two episodes he won the trial and the fight against the kahuna, but he is losing in everything else. Even in swimming! I hope they balance it better in the future.

And a complement: this group of companions is so fun! I already love Kiawe, Mallow and Lillie and the Sophocles (Sophy for short) is growing on me. Just Lana that still seems to be just there doing nothing for me.

 

[Satomine Night]

A minor complain that I have: Ash is losing too much. Well, in the last two episodes he won the trial and the fight against the kahuna, but he is losing in everything else. Even in swimming! I hope they balance it better in the future.

Well, to be fair, Ash's strength is battling, not swimming. It's not like he has spent most of his life on an island surrounded by bodies of water in which to practice swimming. Also, Kiawe is taller and he is probably in better shape just from working on the family farm, so I'm neither surprised nor disappointed he beat Ash in a swimming race.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

A minor complain that I have: Ash is losing too much. Well, in the last two episodes he won the trial and the fight against the kahuna, but he is losing in everything else. Even in swimming! I hope they balance it better in the future.

Please, man. He's a ten and a half-year old.

 

[dman_dustin]

Alright having seen the episode, Ash....losing I'm pretty sure was primarily for Comic Relief, not indicative of anyone's strengths or weaknesses. I'm pretty sure it was just to set up Bewear coming in and stopping them from being "victorious"

Or if it was some kind of indication of strength, Mearanie's initial strength before being a Team Rocket Pokemon, just so it looked good enough to be caught by Team Rocket aka Ash. I'm pretty sure if this was just a standard episode, Ash wouldn't have done so poorly. It was just for comic relief of Team Rocket being surprised they did so well, and for Bewear to ruin it.

The episode definitely was humorous though, so there's that. But it was slightly bizarre having jumped between Ash and friends and Team Rocket.

 

[Mr. Reloaded]

Mimikyu's power is absurd good lord lmao. Mareanie ain't half bad either, she's actually kind of cute.

 

[Jason3b93]

I'm not saying that Ash should have won the race. But almost every competition between him and his friends, he loses. And he is having trouble even for catching wild pokémon (of course, it's sort of a running gag now).

What I am saying is: despite the fights against the Totem-Trump and the Kahuna, he didn't show any signs of competence. He's a butt monkey for all the first ten or something episodes, then he is competent and then he is incompetent again.

Please, man. He's a ten and a half-year old.

So? Anime in general and Pokémon never gave much credit to character's age. He's ten years old but how long he is traveling? He's ten years old but already save the world. It doesn't matter how old he is, because I think it's weird that he is not balanced.

But I'm also investing too much time in explain this. I mean, it was just a minor complain. So, that's all I have to say.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

As noted below, given that Pikachu was getting up and was completely fine seconds later I would say TR didn't quite actually "beat" Ash here. It all would have come down to whether that last attack from Mimikyu hit or if Pikachu got out of the way (and of course whether Pikachu could turn things around afterward). But that's nitpicking a series that has always been rather inconsistent with what damage is serious to a pokemon (especially Pikachu) and what isn't (i.e. getting scratched by a Grubbin warrants a trip to the pokemon center, but getting mauled by Mimikyu is recovered from just fine).

To be fair, Ash didn't really lose, but was on the verge of defeat after Mimikyu and Mareanie destroyed Pikachu and Rowlet to the point of them being down. By the way, I'm still curious as to what that last move Mimikyu was going to use. The one where his wooden tail's cloaked in a dark aura.

Given the wooden tail actually was manipulated to grow in size I would say it is Wood Hammer. Course that normally has a green aura, but they could have changed it for this series (or just for Mimikyu).

I'm not saying that Ash should have won the race. But almost every competition between him and his friends, he loses.

Personally I was impressed that he almost beat Kiawe in the swimming race, given how athletic Kiawe looks.

<><><>

So I guess its fairly confirmed that in the anime at least you don't die if you see Mimikyu's true form, you just almost die/have a near death experience. Which leads to the question of why it doesn't just throw off the cloth to ko everyone who sees it. To which I speculate:

1. Sunlight hurts it, so in many cases it would could be just a mutual knock out if it threw the cloth off.

2. It wants to win in a fight, not just by being looked at.

 

[Shneak]

Best episode of the series so far. Team Rocket are truly saving this from being a disaster.

 

[srebak]

I will admit, it was nice to see a beach episode again, but, the fact that TR was so close to beating Ash did not sit well with me and i cannot for the life of me understand why so many people would think that that was a good thing.

Ash could have been dangerously close to losing his pokemon and this sort of thing implies that he can't defend himself against the TRio without help, how is any of that good?

It sort of spoils the episode for me.

 

[DankOverlord]

I will admit, it was nice to see a beach episode again, but, the fact that TR was so close to beating Ash did not sit well with me and i cannot for the life of me understand why so many people would think that that was a good thing.

Ash has always beaten TRio without breaking a sweat for 20 years.
its nice to see some change and have TRio be an actual threat rather than a mere annoyance shoved into whatever episode the writers could

 

[srebak]

But, i repeat, Ash was dangerously close to losing his pokemon with only a random event saving them. What if Ash had lost completely, huh, what then?

 

[Frozocrone]

Said random event still occurs...what else was going to happen?

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Ash could have been dangerously close to losing his pokemon and this sort of thing implies that he can't defend himself against the TRio without help, how is any of that good?

It sort of spoils the episode for me.

It would have been no different than any of the times Ash has had all his pokemon captured by TR and had to rely on friends or random people or pokemon to save them. The difference is he got outfought here rather than surprised by a mecha or other device.

Also, in this case TR would have been left without any equipment to get away with or even a means of holding Pikachu (poke balls don't work on pokemon owned by others, and they seemed to be out of devices). Do they even have their balloon anymore?

Let's say they did grab Pikachu and try to run off. They would inevitably get caught shortly after by Kiawe, Kukui or any number of other people. They don't really seem to have anywhere to go.

Its still a big deal that TR (or rather their pokemon acting largely on their own) managed to outperform Ash's like this, but it was far from their complete victory.