Blue Saturday
Unfurl your Blessed Wings!
Overall, I did not care for this episode. Cheren had a pretty cookie-cutter personality and interactions and actions.
The battle was rushed, Mijumaru was made out to be a joke. I admit, maybe I jumped the gun a bit before on Mijumaru. It's not like he's been in favorable battling conditions when he loses, I mean he lost to Bel's Daddy's Hihidaruma which is a Pokemon he had since his youth, he lost to Baoppu just to show off how Pod had become more competent, he wasn't going to beat a fully-evolved Dragon in the Isshu League, and this episode he lost to show off that Cheren was a competent new Gym Leader. But, still, how does he go from tanking moves left and right in the League to being beaten by one Thunder Fang from a Haderia? Not to mention it seems like all the development he got to learn to battle without his hotachi has now gone to the gutter and he never actually utilized any of it. He has Aqua Jet, Hydro Pump, and Tackle too which would have more than sufficed. I'm a huge Mijumaru fan so it sucks to see him portrayed this way, losing in a comedic fashion no less. It seems like whenever he wants to battle or is cocky/confident he gets checked rather easily. I guess it's not the first time a Water-type has had a few loses in a row, like Buoysel back in DP. The writers went to the trouble of having this battle being in the opening and it was complete poo. I also think it's kinda weird we see Cheren and Satoshi battling in a cathedral with N in the group but that wasn't the case at all this episode.
The battle was rushed, Mijumaru was made out to be a joke. I admit, maybe I jumped the gun a bit before on Mijumaru. It's not like he's been in favorable battling conditions when he loses, I mean he lost to Bel's Daddy's Hihidaruma which is a Pokemon he had since his youth, he lost to Baoppu just to show off how Pod had become more competent, he wasn't going to beat a fully-evolved Dragon in the Isshu League, and this episode he lost to show off that Cheren was a competent new Gym Leader. But, still, how does he go from tanking moves left and right in the League to being beaten by one Thunder Fang from a Haderia? Not to mention it seems like all the development he got to learn to battle without his hotachi has now gone to the gutter and he never actually utilized any of it. He has Aqua Jet, Hydro Pump, and Tackle too which would have more than sufficed. I'm a huge Mijumaru fan so it sucks to see him portrayed this way, losing in a comedic fashion no less. It seems like whenever he wants to battle or is cocky/confident he gets checked rather easily. I guess it's not the first time a Water-type has had a few loses in a row, like Buoysel back in DP. The writers went to the trouble of having this battle being in the opening and it was complete poo. I also think it's kinda weird we see Cheren and Satoshi battling in a cathedral with N in the group but that wasn't the case at all this episode.