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Old 11-08-2012, 11:55 PM   #1
Talon87
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[Anime] The Sacred Beast Formes Advance! Isshu's Greatest Crisis!

Well we haven't done one of these in a while. Let's give this a try again.

Warning! This post contains full spoilers for the thirteenth episode of the second season of Pocket Monsters Black & White: Best Wishes! Not much point in putting the thread's opening post in a spoiler tag so this warning's all you're gonna get. Well, that and a courtesy set of carriage returns.




























The episode picks up where the previous one left off: Giovanni has managed to summon a mirror by way of an ancient ritual requiring Meloetta. Using this mirror and the physically-compelled Meloetta, he plans to summon the three guardian deities of Unova, known as "genies" in the West, and use their power to conquer the region.

Those of you who don't watch the show but are here reading this thread anyway are probably wondering, "Man, people still watch that lame cartoon?" But to be honest, what took place in this episode was in many ways what fans have dreamed of for nearly fifteen years:


A direct confrontation between Giovanni and Ash. As far as I know the two had never come face-to-face before the previous episode (BW S2E012) but in these two episodes we've seen Ash not only come face-to-face with the leader of Team Rocket but at least partially (if not fully) recognizing that he is the Boss and getting his ass soundly handed to him too. When Giovanni invites Ash to try and stop him, it's the dream of just about every boy and girl who loves Pokémon. How it holds up for adults leaves quite a bit to be desired but for the kids things don't get any better than this.


The problem with this epic confrontation between the boy hero and the leader of one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the world is ... well, the problem is that weenies defeat demigods. You have a Golurk and a Pansage taking on Landorus in his tiger forme. You have a Champion's Garchomp and a high-level Dragonite taking on Tornadus in his bird forme. And you have Pikachu -- yes, Pikachu -- intercepting an electrical attack from Thundurus in his ... I-don't-know-what form? ^^; But yes, you have weenies taking on regional deities and holding their own 2-on-1 or even 1-on-1. (Garchomp and Dragonite get a pass, I'm willing to give you that, but fucking Pansage. -_-; ) Not only is Pikachu unharmed by Thundurus, he's actually gifted all the electricity that Thundurus just hurtled at him. And he uses that energy to launch a visually breathtaking attack against Giovanni but one which offends the adult frontal cortex. ^^; "Seriously? " you'll find yourself asking. "Ash's Pikachu once again saves the day? The same Pikachu who loses to Weezing and Arbok or Dustox and Mime Jr.? The same Pikachu who gets KO'd in gym matches in the first round? That Pikachu is fighting 1-on-1 against Unova's kami trio in their beast or therian formes?" It's a bittersweet plot point. On the one hand, Pikachu fans will love it because it establishes that Ash's Pikachu is one hell of a special Pokémon. On the other hand, Pikachu haters will hate that the yellow electric wonder has yet again been equated with Mighty Mouse.

Despite Pikachu destroying the ceremonial pedestal, Giovanni remains embued with the ancient power of the temple and now, without Meloetta there to mediate the link between him and the temple, he quite literally goes mad with power.


Not exactly what Team Rocket had planned.

This again is something which I think the kiddos will find flippin' amazing but which most adults will be left disappointed with. On the one hand, yeah, it's totally cool to see Super Shredder Giovanni. Even an adult can appreciate that. But on the other hand, it was anti-climactic to have Pikachu defeat Giovanni ... except he's not yet defeated ... only to then ...


"We'll save you, Sakaki-sama!"

... have Jessie, James, and Meowth make a loyal dive for their beloved Boss not even five minutes later, severing the link between Giovanni and the temple and thus restoring him to his senses. It would've been a whole lot cooler if, as the sneak peeks for this episode made it seem like, Giovanni had been stood on the edge of a well and Jessie, James, and Meowth had dived after him, desperately trying to save their master's life while endangering their own. Instead, this was a pretty tame case of Giovanni's life being in danger -- it pretty much wasn't -- and they easily restored him to his senses, no trouble. Still, the gesture all on its own is pretty cool. It's nice to see how far this bumbling trio has come, all thanks to the shot in the arm their characters all got at the start of the series several years ago.

Other stuff I forgot to mention ... well, there was the bit with the ocean starting to freeze over in a way that looked very similar to the ice in the Black & White 2 video games ... but it lasted all of one episode. -.-; And of course there was Meloetta parting ways with our heroes this episode, leaving behind a heartbroken Oshawott. But really, this episode was all about the Giovanni vs. Ash confrontation and the big farewell to the Rockets. Which reminds me! They headed back to Kanto! Does this mean Team Rocket is being retired from the anime? Well, not so fast there, pardner! 'Cause ...


... they wouldn't have asked the kids to text in a vote like this if Team Rocket wasn't coming back. And given who will obviously win this vote (Wobbuffet, no contest), it seems like the days of Serious Face Team Rocket could be at an end and groan-inducing, moan-inducing Comic Relief Team Rocket could be coming back. I have missed Wobbuffet (The puns! The puns!) but I have not missed Comic Relief Team Rocket in the slightest. (Dine on that contradiction. ) So I dunno what to make of this news. But one thing is clear: for the immediate future, Team Rocket is back in Kanto, thousands if not tens of thousands of miles away from Ash.
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Old 11-09-2012, 12:15 AM   #2
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I think this would have been more exciting if Giovanni was actually in his element as a crime boss (waaaay back in Indigo) instead of acting like a shaman. It seems kind of un-characteristic for the smooth mafia boss to get his hands dirty with a divine ritual. Makes me think back to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Donovan never directly interacted with the supernatural until the end, where it showed off his lack of knowledge was really bad.

Sad to hear about the plot armour, but it would have been better if Pokemon had internal consistency with Pikachu. Phasing out Ash and preserving Pikachu's power as a destroyer of worlds would have made this oh so much sweeter.
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Old 11-09-2012, 12:43 AM   #3
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Pokémon anime in horrible battle writing SHOCKER!
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Old 11-09-2012, 12:59 AM   #4
Talon87
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Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I think this would have been more exciting if Giovanni was actually in his element as a crime boss (waaaay back in Indigo) instead of acting like a shaman. It seems kind of un-characteristic for the smooth mafia boss to get his hands dirty with a divine ritual. Makes me think back to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Donovan never directly interacted with the supernatural until the end, where it showed off his lack of knowledge was really bad.

Sad to hear about the plot armour, but it would have been better if Pokemon had internal consistency with Pikachu. Phasing out Ash and preserving Pikachu's power as a destroyer of worlds would have made this oh so much sweeter.
The Tohoku earthquake kind of put a big dent in their original plans for Giovanni. In early Season 1 (circa episode 24) there was to be a confrontation between Team Rocket, who were trying to expand their operation into Unova, and Team Plasma, who of course were already in Unova. The trigger for this confrontation was to be an energy source called meteonite. That Giovanni was aware of meteonite so early in the plot could be argued to be evidence that this was part of his motivation for coming to Unova specifically in the first place. It was still something of a supernatural energy source (replete with underground temples that would make you think of Indiana Jones again) but I think you would have liked that better than a magical mirror activated by Pokésong. But the special ended up being canceled because of the earthquake. There was a lot of urban destruction in the special and so they just delayed it indefinitely. It's since had the result of having Team Plasma completely vanish from the plot. Also disappeared are some related characters who showed up in early episodes but have never been seen nor heard from since.

As for Pikachu's power level, to be honest the show seems to have done a back-and-forth on this over the years that's ended up pleasing nobody. In Kanto we had evidence that Pikachu was abnormally powerful. Then in Johto he started having his ass handed to him by newbies' babies. Then in Hoenn I am told that there was at least one confrontation (iirc it's versus Wattson) where the writers were like "So you want your superpowerful Pikachu back? HERE! HERE'S YOUR SUPERPOWERFUL PIKACHU!" and he raped the other guy's team, badly. As for what I've seen in Sinnoh and Unova, it oscillates. When the plot requires Pikachu to be ordinary, he's ordinary. And when it requires him to be mega-powerful, he's mega-powerful. It's the sort of writing you expect of a cartoon for young children. But you're right that internal consistency would've gone a long way. Personally, I'd have liked it, if we could rewind back this far , if they'd had Pikachu perhaps be destined to be history's greatest Pikachu ever ... but still only a Pikachu. In other words, take us back all the way to Episode 002 of the original series and change it so that Team Rocket isn't so insanely obsessed with Pikachu. But do that and you'd be changing a whole awful lot of the series' history.

Last edited by Talon87; 11-09-2012 at 01:07 AM.
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Old 11-09-2012, 02:19 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
As for Pikachu's power level, to be honest the show seems to have done a back-and-forth on this over the years that's ended up pleasing nobody. In Kanto we had evidence that Pikachu was abnormally powerful. Then in Johto he started having his ass handed to him by newbies' babies. Then in Hoenn I am told that there was at least one confrontation (iirc it's versus Wattson) where the writers were like "So you want your superpowerful Pikachu back? HERE! HERE'S YOUR SUPERPOWERFUL PIKACHU!" and he raped the other guy's team, badly. As for what I've seen in Sinnoh and Unova, it oscillates. When the plot requires Pikachu to be ordinary, he's ordinary. And when it requires him to be mega-powerful, he's mega-powerful. It's the sort of writing you expect of a cartoon for young children. But you're right that internal consistency would've gone a long way. Personally, I'd have liked it, if we could rewind back this far , if they'd had Pikachu perhaps be destined to be history's greatest Pikachu ever ... but still only a Pikachu. In other words, take us back all the way to Episode 002 of the original series and change it so that Team Rocket isn't so insanely obsessed with Pikachu. But do that and you'd be changing a whole awful lot of the series' history.
I thought we already established that the anime is stupid. Pikachu vs Latios = Draw. Then, Pikachu's next battle: Pikachu vs Snivy who has never battled = Loss for Pikachu.

Also, in that Wattson episode, Pikachu got supercharged by a robot Raikou, causing him to knock out Wattson's Magnemite, Voltorb and Magneton in one Thunderbolt each.
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Old 11-09-2012, 03:13 PM   #6
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Pikachu is pretty ridiculous. I mean if you want you can accept all the fan theories about it being 'reset' every series (Electromagnet in Hoenn, ...something in Sinnoh, and Zekrom in Unova), which I guess makes sense, but that really shouldn't account for Pikachu's experience in battle and it apparently doesn't affect his moves (though he seems to be using Electro Ball a lot more than Thunderbolt now). I mean Pikachu taking down a Latios, then being zapped by an Electric Legendary and losing to a Snivy seems balanced, I suppose.

But it doesn't account for Ash being a fucking retard every. Single. Episode. Of a new series. I still support Loki's Brain Tumour theory.

Was nice to see Geovanni totally curbstomp Ash, mind.
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Old 06-20-2013, 08:13 PM   #7
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In other words, take us back all the way to Episode 002 of the original series and change it so that Team Rocket isn't so insanely obsessed with Pikachu.
They could EASILY have sent it in a direction where Team Rocket is obsessed with Pikachu because it is destined to be the most powerful Pikachu ever.

But they didn't. Oh well.
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