Japanese Episode Discussion Thread

Well it looks like Kiawe finally got his signature Pokémon from the games now, also it cool seeing Pikachu and Litten both wearing the Crown. All in all it was a good episode and I look forward to next one and I hope that Ash gets the Grass Z-Crystal.

As for the music, well to be honest I really don't care either way since I'm more focused on the story and treat the music, both Japanese and English, as a trivial bonus anyway.

The new movie was such a wonderful idea…

So the 20th Pokemon movie launched a little while ago (as I post this), and since I’m in Japan (as I wrote this), I decided to see it. Yes, I do still despise the show’s Japanese version, but since I was in Japan, I decided to take part in a Japanese pop-culture summer tradition. The Japanese version’s usual problems still infested this movie (for the most part), but what I’m going to discuss are the movie’s inherent problems that will unfortunately be passed down to all other versions (unless TPCi is willing to give it the Carl Macek treatment). So keep in mind that most of what I’ll be saying from this point on would’ve been the case even if I’d waited until the English release.

I’ll admit it was a neat idea to re-tell episode 1. Even when future news made it clear that it would be more than that, it still looked like it would be an enjoyable film. I did suspect that it would entail more than just episode 1, as that episode’s content would not be enough for a feature-length movie. I really didn’t care that Brock and Misty would be replaced by newcomers Souji and Makoto. I still decided to give this movie a chance.

So why did it fail to impress me?

First off, the general story is a complete mess that keeps losing track of itself. So, Ash is determined to seek out Ho-oh because he received its Rainbow Feather. It’s okay that the journey has all these twists and turns to it. But honestly, it would’ve been a lot better if the time spent on each of these things (the Rainbow Feather, Ash’s rivalry with Cross, Marshadow, his friendship with Souji and Makoto, his bond with Pikachu) was balanced out. I say that because it keeps feeling like the movie gives priority to the less important things. It almost borders on favoritism. Really, what are we focusing on here? Isn’t Ash supposed to be on a quest to meet Ho-oh? Isn’t he supposed to be training to defeat Cross? Can’t this movie just pick a plot point and develop it??

On top of that, the characters supporting this story aren’t all that interesting, either. As I said before, I was accepting of the idea that Brock and Misty got replaced by Souji and Makoto. And no, I’m still not joining those genwunners who mindlessly bash this movie because they’re not in it. But the thing is, Souji and Makoto are really flat characters. They’re just as flat and personality-devoid as Brock and Misty were in the show’s earliest days. It seems their goal had to do with the Legendary Beasts, but even then, they were still unmemorable. No reason seemed to be given for their goals. At least Ash had a reason for his goal: he got a Rainbow Feather from Ho-oh (and for the record, this exact same goal saves Cross from the “flat character” designation). What did the Legendary Beasts ever do for Souji and Makoto? What about the Beasts fascinates them? We are told none of this, yet the movie treats their fascination with a lot of importance. But unless we know reasons for it, it isn’t important at all. Even Souji’s backstory in which a Luxray froze to death while warming him up wasn’t as emotional as it should have been. And Makoto is (maybe) Cynthia’s daughter? What does that have to do with anything at all? As for Team Rocket, was there any reason for them to be in this movie at all? They did absolutely nothing at all. Ironically, Ash’s Butterfree ended up being the most interesting character of the movie. Why is that? Because a lot of time was devoted to him. Ash used him in battle a lot and he even got an emotional (albeit rushed) farewell scene.

So, how about the music? Well, I will admit some of it was very nice. Plus, it was even used nicely in most cases. I’m very happy that “Tears After the Cloudy Weather” got to be used for the Butterfree goodbye scene and not be suddenly cut off by the opening song that totally killed the mood. However, the best tracks generally are the ones that aren’t remixes of past music. I don’t know why this is, but Shinji Miyazaki just isn’t good at remaking his past works. The original compositions from the past sound so much better. This was a huge problem with the Japanese soundtrack of “Hoopa and the Clash of Ages” as well, so it’s a shame it returned here. But anything other than any of that sounded nice. The opening song (“Aim to Be a Pokemon Master”) and the ending song (“Oración's Theme ~Let's Walk Together~”) are also amazing. (And speaking of the ending credits, there was fanart shown during one part of them. That was very nice, and I recognized a few of them from pixiv.) If this movie ends up gaining a new soundtrack for the International release, I hope it’ll be good, too. Ed Goldfarb has not disappointed me yet (and it’s unlikely that he will), but I must admit he’s got quite the task ahead of him.

But what does a good soundtrack matter? And also, what does excellent animation quality matter? In the long run, it’s characters and story that matter the most. And since this movie failed in those two regards, I have to unfortunately say that it caused the movie itself to fail.

What a disappointment it turned out to be. I hope next year’s movie is better.

Score: 29

Also, why the Holy FUCK can Pikachu talk?!!!!

New title- SM37: Iwanko and the Guardian Deity from the Ruins of Life!

Full summary and voice cast for SM036-
SM035 screenshots: filb.de/anime/sm/035 and SM036 preview video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwPLbEg9Hhw

Full summary and voice cast for SM037-
SM036 screenshots: filb.de/anime/sm/036 and SM037 preview video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7JFIu-1omg

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Iwanko possibly evolving into a new form of Lugarugan?

This form looks amazing. I wonder what move Ash's Lycanroc will learn. Midday Lycanroc learns accelorrock (don't know how to spell that) and Midnight Lycanroc learns counter. Also, do you think that there will be A Dawn form of Lycanroc?

Preview video of Saotshi's Iwanko evolving into Dusk Form Lugarugan, from Pokenchi:

Full summary and voice cast for SM038-
SM037 screenshots: filb.de/anime/sm/037 and SM038 preview video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuG4qWc9m4

Type: Null was very agitated so Gladio had to calm it down, he is hiding Type: Null (which is why he called it out inside of a cave).

We got to see two sides of Kapu-Tetefu, the malicious side and the sweet side, it kept on switching back and forth between them.

And you all know about the evolution, I did actually start to get a bit emotional upon seeing Iwanko evolve into Dusk Form Lugarugan.