Will the Z-Move Work?! Challenging the Grand Trial!! (953)

[Vipsoccermaster]

And so the tenth episode of Sun & Moon, featuring Ash's Grand Trial against the Melemele Island's Kahuna Hala, aired today in the United States. Great battle episode, and like LilligantLewis said, it is a 2-0 sweep for Ash. Nice of Ash to bring in his classmates for the celebration party, despite them not having any lines of dialogue. Too bad Ash didn't get Fightinium Z, but then again, he doesn't have any Pokémon that knows a Fighting-Type move, so he gets another Electrium Z instead. The daily streak of new episodes has unfortunately come to an end. Now we must wait weekly (Saturdays) for new episodes to air in the United States.

Also! VS screen! So happy to see one this Generation and like its new design. Without spoiling anything else, can you guys tell me, now that the first one has shown up, do they show up more frequently in other battles, or are they reserved for the grand trials (aka only 4 appearances all gen which would suck)? I kinda feel like one should have already shown up in the butler battle if they were being used the same way as Gen VI....

It seems that they are unfortunately reserved for the Grand Trials. There have been no previous battles or future battles to take advantage of the unique VS screen.

 

[Frozocrone]

Wow! Can we call this a 2-0 sweep for Ash!!!! Rowlet just fell asleep not fainted!

Also! VS screen! So happy to see one this Generation and like its new design. Without spoiling anything else, can you guys tell me, now that the first one has shown up, do they show up more frequently in other battles, or are they reserved for the grand trials (aka only 4 appearances all gen which would suck)? I kinda feel like one should have already shown up in the butler battle if they were being used the same way as Gen VI....

In the original version, the Vs screen read out Grand Trial. So I'm assuming they're reserved for Olivia, Nanu and whoever the fourth ends up being.

 

[NPT]

TPCi's been quite edit-happy lately. They changed the japanese text on the VS screen to english VS text, and as usual got rid of all the japanese texts during the Z-move scenes.

Anyway, this time 5 pieces of original BGM were kept in the dub, which is slightly better than the last episode... but not good enough. Especially since they didn't keep the epic movie 18 track when Pikachu uses the Z-move. Also, the awful dub music dosen't help.
Music Kept (5):

• Title Card
• Alola Wild Battle theme
• Alola Trainer Battle Theme
• Movie 17 BGM - Diantha vs Wikstrom (Sinnoh Gym Leader Battle theme remix)
• Sun/Moon Title Screen theme

TPCi really should keep more japanese BGM from the movies in the dub.

 

[DatsRight]

Ooh, they actually kept the Sinnoh gym theme? Well that's a nice change. One can hope some of the Kalos music might remain then. Granted I'm more disappointed NEITHER versions used the Kahuna theme.

 

[Bguy7]

Where was Team Rocket!? That's twice in the past four episodes that they haven't appeared. They haven't even done anything important in the past four either. This disappoints me.

Anyways, I guess this would explain why the battle with the Totem Pokémon wasn't long and drawn out, they didn't want two such battle in a row. I guess that's alright. It was interesting to see how Z-Moves are going to be used in real battles, and I was surprised that Ash used a Z-Move that wasn't Gigavolt Havoc. I did find it odd that they didn't have all of Ash's friends watching the battle though.

TPCi's been quite edit-happy lately. They changed the japanese text on the VS screen to english VS text, and as usual got rid of all the japanese texts during the Z-move scenes.

Are you upset that they replaced Japanese text with English text in an English dub? What kind of sense does that make? Of course they replaced Japanese text, the entire point of a dub is to translate it. How do you have a problem with them doing there job?

 

[LilligantLewis]

Though that doesn't explain Rowlet being able to defeat Crabrawler, other than it's turning into a ninja owl.

Peck was super-effective, and Bubblebeam and Power-Up Punch are both not very effective

It seems that they are unfortunately reserved for the Grand Trials. There have been no previous battles or future battles to take advantage of the unique VS screen.

In the original version, the Vs screen read out Grand Trial. So I'm assuming they're reserved for Olivia, Nanu and whoever the fourth ends up being.

Oh. Well that's sad. Here's how it went down for me with VS screens:

When they were first introduced in XY01, it was my favorite visual change to the anime of Gen VI. Yes, I liked them even more than less stock footage and more dynamic backgrounds. At the time, I assumed it was a permanent change to the Anime, not just for one generation.

Through the first seven episodes of SM, I thought the only reason they hadn't appeared was because of no legit battle. I fully expected one to show up at the beginning of the butler battle in ep8, and when it didn't, that's when I first considered that they had been dropped after just one generation. And then unfortunately today I raised my hopes back up again, only for them to be dashed again.

They're a really cool visual feature to have before battles. I hope they return in Generation VIII.

With that said, I am glad they still exist in some battles -- and the new design they have for the Grand Trials is really cool!

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Welcome to the "Let's Glorify Ash" half-hour. First off, your diploma for saving our food (that we don't share with certain Pokemon)! Don't go thinking we hand these over to every Grand Trial challenger!

Second off, a clean 2-0 sweep to reduce any kind of tension for the island's most powerful trainer of all!

Third off, let's fix your utter lack of Fighting-type moves by hijacking the Fightinium for an Electricium (did I spell that right) Z-Crystal from the deity of the island obsessed with you!

...Ahem.

So basically Belly Drum was used as an excuse to end the battle much sooner, since Pikachu wasn't doing so great. One Iron Tail to the knee and one Z-Move later, sumo wrestler is flung back. No bruises for Pikachu, even if he could have been knocked out by that Z-Move.

Is Hala's hometown deserted or does he like living in such barren towns? We're holding a GRAND TRIAL and the only one who bothered to come was Kukui (who's not even a resident of the town itself!)? Even the games bothered to have people around for Hala's Grand Trial (unless having people around would have glorified Ash even more).

I dislike the fact Hala's main Crabrawler was sidelined for Hariyama of all things (at least back at Kalos Korrina had an excuse to replace...or outright forget her Hawlucha). I also dislike how his battle was turned into a 2-on-2 unlike his 3 team members from his in-game team. Worse yet, the Grand Trial was already finished in such short time...

I don't know. I just don't like this episode to be even decent enough.

Spoiler: From current Japanese episodes

After this, Hala becomes pretty much dead, there's not a single mention of Hau, and the "plot" is almost not there.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Well, well, Ash needed only one try to beat the first Kahuna. Looks like he held onto what Kalos taught him, battle-wise. Props to him.

I still want to know who Hala's English VA is, because he's very good. And as always, Sarah Natochenny hit it out of the park.

I can count the Japanese version's advantages over the dub on only one of my hands. One such advantage is the Z-Move text, which I guess I still have to concede to the JP version. However, I was very happy to see that the VS screen got a text edit instead of a text erasure. At last, TPCi takes the chance given to them by OLM (whom I still suspect preemptively makes these edits with the expectation that foreign versions will fill them with their language's equivalent terms). That was my favorite change made to the episode.

Even though I think Ed Goldfarb has never composed a single bad track for the show, I can admit that if I were to list the genres he does best, I'd have to put battle themes in last place. Again, they sound good; it's just that his other compositions are better. At least, this is what I thought throughout XY. Now, for SM, his battle music has really been stepped up. I mean, WOW, did this episode's battle music sound great! And I can admit, Akhil Gopal (the dub's music editor/assistant composer) made some great calls on which JP music to keep (check with NPT about which tracks were kept).

And now, at last, all English-speaking countries are all caught up when it comes to airing dub episodes.

 

[Vipsoccermaster]

Third off, let's fix your utter lack of Fighting-type moves by hijacking the Fightinium for an Electricium (did I spell that right) Z-Crystal from the deity of the island obsessed with you!

Unfortunately, you did not. Second c and i are not needed. I spelled it correctly in my previous post.

And now, at last, all English-speaking countries are all caught up when it comes to airing dub episodes.

True, although currently, we are 17 episodes behind Japan.

 

[NPT]

I forgot to this in my last post, so I'll say it now.... I'm so glad Team Rocket wasn't there to steal screentime or inturrupt the battle. I simply can't stand those morons.

Ooh, they actually kept the Sinnoh gym theme? Well that's a nice change. One can hope some of the Kalos music might remain then.

TPCi kept the Gym Leader battle remix in movie 17 dub as well so that's not much of a surprise. As for Kalos music, they'll probably keep the Kalos Trainer Battle theme in SM019 dub but don't expect them to keep the Snowbelle City theme in SM021 since they'd rather be using the atrocious Goldfarb music instead of retaining actual good music.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

I gotta say, I'm really loving Hala's English voice actor, he did a great job .

 

[LilligantLewis]

AuraChannelerChris, I'm not going to quote you because then I'll see what you put in spoiler tags.

But I want to respond to your saying "Grand Trial over in such a short time"

First Gym wins:
Kanto: episode 5
OI: episode 5
Johto: episode 15
Hoenn: episode 16
BF: episode 5
Sinnoh: episode 18
Unova: episode 6
Kalos: episode 6

So I don't really think episode 10 is such a short time at all, especially since most previous sagas have been episode 5 or 6

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

AuraChannelerChris, I'm not going to quote you because then I'll see what you put in spoiler tags.

But I want to respond to your saying "Grand Trial over in such a short time"

First Gym wins:
Kanto: episode 5
OI: episode 5
Johto: episode 15
Hoenn: episode 16
BF: episode 5
Sinnoh: episode 18
Unova: episode 6
Kalos: episode 6

So I don't really think episode 10 is such a short time at all, especially since most previous sagas have been episode 5 or 6

The Grand Trials are the Gyms of this generation. And we also finished a trial the episode prior.

We're effectively 1/4 done with this quest.

 

[Bguy7]

The Grand Trials are the Gyms of this generation. And we also finished a trial the episode prior.

We're effectively 1/4 done with this quest.

To be fair though, in the games, the first Grand Trial may technically put you a fourth of the way through the game, but in reality, that's not the case, due to the uneven distributions of trials on each island. I do agree that perhaps there should have been some padding between Ash's first trial and his first Grand Trial, but we're still far from a fourth of the way through the quest.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

To be fair though, in the games, the first Grand Trial may technically put you a fourth of the way through the game, but in reality, that's not the case, due to the uneven distributions of trials on each island. I do agree that perhaps there should have been some padding between Ash's first trial and his first Grand Trial, but we're still far from a fourth of the way through the quest.

Spoiler: Padding

You talk about padding, but that's ironic to bring up now.

 

[DatsRight]

TPCi kept the Gym Leader battle remix in movie 17 dub as well so that's not much of a surprise. As for Kalos music, they'll probably keep the Kalos Trainer Battle theme in SM019 dub but don't expect them to keep the Snowbelle City theme in SM021 since they'd rather be using the atrocious Goldfarb music instead of retaining actual good music.

Past series and movies tend not to equate these days though. TPCI used the Sinnoh Team Rocket theme consistently in DP and BW for example, but when it returned as BGM in an XYZ episode they took it out.

Seriously though, at least keeping most of the games music, the tracks even Western audiences would most recognise anyway, would be a decent compromise.

 

[Zoruagible]

Still think it's dumb they let Ash just take the win on his first go, and with a 2-0 sweep.... it made Hala look weak. Hala should have won the first time and made Ash have to return later for a rematch.

Spoiler: Subs Spoiler

Even dumber for the fact they had Hala go down within ten episodes and STILL aren't at Akala.....

 

[Akkipeddi]

Still think it's dumb they let Ash just take the win on his first go, and with a 2-0 sweep.... it made Hala look weak. Hala should have won the first time and made Ash have to return later for a rematch.

Spoiler: Subs Spoiler

Even dumber for the fact they had Hala go down within ten episodes and STILL aren't at Akala.....

Still think the dumbest part was the fact that a novice like Ash (in terms of Z moves) conveniently learned the Z move off screen and looked like a pro while Hala was made to look like someone using a Z move for the first time.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Still think the dumbest part was the fact that a novice like Ash (in terms of Z moves) conveniently learned the Z move off screen and looked like a pro while Hala was made to look like someone using a Z move for the first time.

And Belly Drum-boosted to boot.

 

[Janovy]

Still think the dumbest part was the fact that a novice like Ash (in terms of Z moves) conveniently learned the Z move off screen and looked like a pro while Hala was made to look like someone using a Z move for the first time.

What on Earth makes you think that? How did Hala look like someone using a Z move for the first time? LMAO