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The Path to the Pokémon League! (008)

A.J. seemed strict with his Sandshrew but I was relieved when we saw that he did care about his Pokemon and wasn't cold-hearted.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I'll be blunt and say that I detested Akira. Not because he and Sand defeated Satoshi and Pikachu, but because he really did seem excessively cruel while he was training his Pokemon. He was like a fitness instructor and lion tamer all at once, but the effect made Akira seem like a Shinji prototype.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
I thought this was a great episodee. I didn't like how A.J. treated his Pokemon, but they were strong. I thought it was funny when Team Rocket stole Sandshrew instead of Pikachu.
 

Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
I guess AJ achieved his 100 win streak but his last win was against Team Rocket iirc so it kind of takes that accomplishment away imo lol. Anyways it's a shame we don't see him again; I would have loved to see him at the Indigo League.
 

Bananarama

The light is coming
Eh, AJ is probably the first COTD so far that I couldn't stand at all. Team Rocket pretty much saved this episode for me, especially when they were rolling around in a red ball and accidentally stole Sandshrew.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
Eh, AJ is probably the first COTD so far that I couldn't stand at all. Team Rocket pretty much saved this episode for me, especially when they were rolling around in a red ball and accidentally stole Sandshrew.

I found it funny how they mistook Sandshrew for Pikachu and snatched him up like that. :p
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I guess AJ achieved his 100 win streak but his last win was against Team Rocket iirc so it kind of takes that accomplishment away imo lol. Anyways it's a shame we don't see him again; I would have loved to see him at the Indigo League.

That's actually a good point, although Akira was probably just eager to reach one hundred wins as soon as possible, so he didn't mind that his last win was against questionable opponents. I was more confused about Akira's decision to leave his Gym at the end though, because all his hard work was for nothing.
 

Alloutℯ

Banned
AJ was a menace and for once Ash's habit of getting involved with CotD's was good since AJ needed someone to tell him off for his harsh training.
 

gentwoer

Well-Known Member
This was truly the worst episode of the Kanto saga. Animal abuse is okay as long as he claims to love them. If someone (or in this case Pokemon) chooses to stay with their abuser even when given an out there's nothing wrong. It's not as horrifying as say Family Guy's idea of handling abusive relationships but its still pretty horrifying and one of the most despicable morals in Pokemon
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
This was truly the worst episode of the Kanto saga. Animal abuse is okay as long as he claims to love them. If someone (or in this case Pokemon) chooses to stay with their abuser even when given an out there's nothing wrong. It's not as horrifying as say Family Guy's idea of handling abusive relationships but its still pretty horrifying and one of the most despicable morals in Pokemon

Akira's treatment of Sand and his other Pokemon was definitely something that I wouldn't expect from this series nowadays. Even back in OS, this kind of thing seemed hardcore.
 
Man A.J.'s Pokemon were powerful, but only because he was a slave master in disguise with his training, so I found it stunning how his Sandshrew was actually happy being with A.J.
 

gentwoer

Well-Known Member
And we get our first pure filler episode of the series, no important characters introduced, no Pokemon captures or evolutions, no gym badges, no location from the games. Just a character of the day episode that has no impact on the show and is never heard from or mentioned again outside of a cameo in the Orange Islands opening I guess.

So yeah I think the idea of the episode could have worked. After getting two participation award badges and winning 10 victories from losers who use Rattatas Ash gets an over inflated ego and gets his butt kicked by a hard working trainer. There's also I think a message about different ways of raising Pokemon. Which I guess could be a metaphor for different ways of parenting where Ash would be the liberal touchy sensitive feeling parent and AJ is the hard work builds character parent or something. Too bad AJ is an abusive douche canal. He yells and berates his Pokemon, cracks a whip at them, and makes his Sandshrew dive into water and tells it to go back in. The fact that he manages to be some how worse than Samurai is kind of amazing.

The only highlight of the episode was Team Rocket and their debating about using a song instead of a motto before realizing the motto is a classic that doesn't need to be changed (at least not until the Battle Frontier saga anyways) which is nice because Team Rocket was just kind of there the past 3 episodes.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
In hindsight, this was one of the few times when Satoshi's ego got the best of him, yet it's somewhat sad that he was gaining confidence in himself, only to have that snuffed out by Akira here.
 
When Ash was bashing AJ, I felt like he was acting dumb since AJ was so much stronger and smarter than Ash, so Ash had no right to judge him.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
FullmetalJackie said:
When Ash was bashing AJ, I felt like he was acting dumb since AJ was so much stronger and smarter than Ash, so Ash had no right to judge him.

Satoshi was just feeling bold since he had a winning streak himself at the beginning, although he was nowhere near as skilled as Akira was, which was shown when they fought.
 
AJ's winning streak seemed inflated since he shouldn't have had that many wins with only Sandshrew and a few common Pokemon on his team. Ash was a real jerk here too though because even though he was preaching about having better training methods than AJ had, he didn't have the skills to back it up. At least AJ put his money where his mouth is.
 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
A. J. annoyed me in this filler episode. I did like the "Strength Intensifiers" his Pokemon were wearing, though, since they were similiar to Macho Brace introduced much later. Ash was pretty grating, too, since he clearly wasn't a good Trainer back then. Shame he never had a chance to battle against A. J., even though they did promise to meet again at the end of the episode.
7/10
 
D

Deleted member 384931

Guest
A. J. annoyed me in this filler episode. I did like the "Strength Intensifiers" his Pokemon were wearing, though, since they were similiar to Macho Brace introduced much later. Ash was pretty grating, too, since he clearly wasn't a good Trainer back then. Shame he never had a chance to battle against A. J., even though they did promise to meet again at the end of the episode.
7/10
Ash promises so much
 
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