Review JN014: First in the Isshu Region! The Raid Battle at the Ruins!!

Below average Terrible episode... very surprising, considering Tomioka wrote it.

The writers have Gou continue to get Pokemon without putting much (if not any) effort into it, only this time he also got two Powerful Pokemon (unlike his weaker captures in the past) despite not deserving them. In Golurk's case, he pretty much freeloaded off the efforts and hard work of other people, shameful. And somehow those Pokemon are instantly all smiles, fine and dandy with that, similar in character to the rest of his captures whatsoever... you'd expect a powerful guardian like Golurk would have been different, and not become a statue/bird perching spot at Gou's zoo. The raid battle was fine, the end result was not and ruined its overall image.

And how could Tomioka make Ash forget about Ground invulnerability to Electric types? You'd think if we're moving Ash into a more competitive environment, the writer would tread carefully instead of making rookie mistakes like this. This part is made even worse when Ash himself pointed out the Ground-Electric issue.

Although the new characters were cool, especially the shiny hunter, I don't see any reason to care about them given their CotD nature.

Fantastic episode for GO caught Cofagrigus Sandile and Golurk especially the raid battle allowing the researcher or excavation group to get rich. It really very shamed now that the stream live site is no longer available and had to scrumping anyone that have the guts to live stream on Youtube now.

Overall rating: B+

ASH: "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

*uses Thunderbolt*

GO: "Ash, you do know it doesn't work on Ground types right?"

*Ash face faults for the 100th time*

PIKACHU (thoughts): "Why... why must you do this to me Ash?"

The electric vs ground thing would have been less of a sticking point if Satoshi hadn't pointed out to Pikachu earlier in the same episode that Meguroco/Sandile is a ground type so electric moves wouldn't work! Did he just... not hear Go say that Goloog is a ground type or what?

The shiny hunter kid was a funny reference to the shiny obsession sub-culture of the fandom. I wish we'd get to see him again because I feel he definitely has more to offer.

I liked Pikachu clapping for Hibunny when it landed a hit in the first half of the episode though, v. cute.

Watchable, but not Tomioka's best output. Oh well, never mind.

ii kanji said:

The electric vs ground thing would have been less of a sticking point if Satoshi hadn't pointed out to Pikachu earlier in the same episode that Meguroco/Sandile is a ground type so electric moves wouldn't work! Did he just... not hear Go say that Goloog is a ground type or what?

The shiny hunter kid was a funny reference to the shiny obsession sub-culture of the fandom. I wish we'd get to see him again because I feel he definitely has more to offer.

I liked Pikachu clapping for Hibunny when it landed a hit in the first half of the episode though, v. cute.

Watchable, but not Tomioka's best output. Oh well, never mind.

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What makes that Sandile moment even worse is the fact that Ash has experience with the line from the fact that he owns its evolution.

The 3 COTD can't do anything against Golurk.
Gou's Scorbunny and Beedrill got one-shotted.
Before being switched out, Pikachu was able to make Golurk kneel with its Iron Tail.
Dragonite was able to go toe-to-toe against Golurk with Dragon Claw.
Gou only contributed with Darmanitan's Overheat together with Dragonite's Hurricane in the last minute.
And Gou end up being the one catching Golurk.
I'm definitely salty about this.

Egakor said:

The 3 COTD can't do anything against Golurk.
Gou's Scorbunny and Beedrill got one-shotted.
Before being switched out, Pikachu was able to make Golurk kneel with its Iron Tail.
Dragonite was able to go toe-to-toe against Golurk with Dragon Claw.
Gou only contributed with Darmanitan's Overheat together with Dragonite's Hurricane in the last minute.
And Gou end up being the one catching Golurk.
I'm definitely salty about this.

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So Go has upgraded from perfect captures to mooching off of the work of others. Did Go even need that last capture? He already got 2 in that same episode.

This episode would have been so much better if the COTDs who weren't the shiny collector were replaced with the Rocket duo. Kojirou could have confirmed whether or not he got that Kamukame last week and Musashi using her Sonansu in a raid battle would have been a great way to make a joke about always getting stuck with a Sonansu Trainer when you try Sword & Shield raid battles offline.

The Shiny collector's name makes a lot of sense. It's nice to see that kind of reference to the Pokémon fandom.

Dogasu said:

This episode would have been so much better if the COTDs who weren't the shiny collector were replaced with the Rocket duo. Kojirou could have confirmed whether or not he got that Kamukame last week and Musashi using her Sonansu in a raid battle would have been a great way to make a joke about always getting stuck with a Sonansu Trainer when you try Sword & Shield raid battles offline.

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That would have been awesome maybe in the future...

I hate that Wobuffet guy, but much worse is the Magikarp douche in a 5 star raid.

Also why did he catch the Golurk? Dragonite did the job there.... Also Scorbunny is so weak, even Meowth could kick his ass

santiagus said:

Also Scorbunny is so weak, even Meowth could kick his ass

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They are really reflecting the games with this one. Scorbunny is the weakest starter of the three.

I'm starting to wonder if the Unova region itself has some sort of power that drains intelligence out of Ash and Pikachu's skulls whenever they visits it?

An episode for establishing Dragonite's moveset.....and that's it.

...

BigDocFan said:

Ash ordering Pikachu to use Thunderbolt against Golurk (surely he remembers it doesn't work)

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He was too excited at that moment so he made the wrong decision. Even Ash himself realized that after the attack.

BigDocFan said:

Pros:
Three characters of the days with 5 Pokemon between them
Pokemon being immune to moves they are immune to

Cons:
Ash ordering Pikachu to use Thunderbolt against Golurk (surely he remembers it doesn't work)
Go catching too many Pokemon too easily
Go catching Golurk instead of Ash

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I am pretty sure even Go realizes that throwing a Pokeball at Ash's doesn't work in terms of capture.

Was initially worried about the idea of fitting three different COTDs into one episode, but honestly, it actually worked pretty well. Each of them had their own unique quirk to set them apart, and they didn't hog too much screentime to the point of being obnoxious, thus leaving enough focus on the main duo. The additional variety of Pokemon that they brought to the table was welcome as well. Also, I'll be surprised if the girl isn't related to Milo in some way; the resemblance is uncanny.

I share the same sentiments with Gou as with almost everyone else in this thread. Darmanitan's capture was the usual first-try battle-less capture (despite it being a fully evolved Pokemon), and he had absolutely no trouble using it in battle almost immediately after capturing it. At least Sandile took some damage before it got caught, but Scorbunny was the one who attacked it without being ordered by Gou, so... yeah, I'm only giving him half of the credits for that one. (EDIT: Nevermind, Gou did order Scorbunny to attack it, so yeah, credit where credit's due.) Golurk going to Gou instead of Ash made me a bit salty too, considering that the latter did more work than the former in terms of weakening it.

Ash ordering Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on Golurk gave me PTSD flashbacks of Hapu. Seriously writers, this joke ain't funny anymore, stop doing it. That aside, the rest of the Raid Battle was pretty decent and enjoyable. Seeing Ash use Dragonite in battle was cool, Dragon Claw and Hurricane are nice additions to its moveset. The reference to the Golurk cannon from Pokepark 2 was a nice little detail, too.

Overall, this episode was rather... eh. There's a whole bunch of good stuff and bad stuff, but I still found it somewhat enjoyable regardless. I never thought I'd see the episode when a main character was much more annoying than 3 COTDs combined, but there you have it.

VetProf said:

Also, I'll be surprised if the girl isn't related to Milo in some way; the resemblance is uncanny.

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Her outfit at least is 100% based on Pokémon Rangers from Unova games. That much is certain.

VetProf said:

The reference to the Golurk cannon from Pokepark 2 was a nice little detail, too.

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That's also appeared in the anime before.