“The Eighth Wonder of the Sinnoh World!” Review Thread

[Mijumaru]

Ash’s eighth gym battle is finally here! After all these episodes of waiting, we finally get back to Sunyshore City for our much anticipated gym battle against Volkner, the gym leader.

[63cohen]

... Finally?

[Electivirus]

Holy crap, Electivire needs to get into Track & Field. O_o

Also, the animation seems a bit... weird.

Pikachu actually manages to beat a member of the Ele- family for once.

[Ambipom666]

... Finally?

I look at it this way. Ash used a Chimchar against Candice. By the time he reached Volkner, it was already an Infernape. But I like this episode.

[Mijumaru]

This was a great episode. However, one of the things that dissappointed me was the fact that Jessie kept complaining about her hair.

[Ampharos King]

Imo, this was one of my favorite gym battles in the entire anime.

Pikachu gets his first win against a member of the Electabuzz family. He was extremely lucky that his Static ability activated in timing to Electivire, lowering the Speed it gained from Motor Drive. It was because of this that Pikachu was able to counter the slow-moving Electivire. This ability played a critical role in deciding the match. Had it not been activated, who knows if Pikachu would have won?

Then again, the paralysis effect of Static was only as effective as the end of the match. Tired from its fight with Electivire, Pikachu lost to Volkner's Luxray (whose electric-type moves were so powerful that it was able to push Pikachu, a pokemon that resists them, back).

Other than this, Infernape completely dominated the match. It singlehandedly defeated Volkner's Jolteon with Mach Punch. Infernape was unable to get an upper hand on Luxray until its Blaze ability activates. After that, well, it is a complete berserker. Infernape's fire-type attacks were so powerful that it grazed the ceiling and the wall behind Luxray. Luxray didn't stand a chance.

I didn't mind that Torterra had to act as the fall guy, just to show that Volkner teaches his electric pokemon moves that enable it to battle against pokemon that resist them (especially Ground-types). Especially since Ice Punch is 4x super effective against Torterra.

Team Rocket's presence in this episode was kept to the bare minimum. Their only purpose was to inadvertedly switch the electric power off so Infernape's activation of Blaze could be more epic. Speaking of which, Infernape has complete control of Blaze after it evolved.

If I have heard it correctly, it seems that Suzuran Island is called "Lily of the Valley Island."

[The Miniryu]

If I have heard it correctly, it seems that Suzuran Island is called "Lily of the Valley Island."

Well it was Lily Something.

Overall it was a great episode.

But we have to wait a month for the league??

[Mijumaru]

But we have to wait a month for the league??

The league would begin sometime around November 27 - December 4. So the answer is yes.

[Miju Miju]

Well, I woke up at 7 AM to be able to watch this, and they thoroughly took an episode that reeked of badass-ness in Japanese and butchered it.

First, after watching the Japanese episode, I got tired of hearing Team Rocket's lame puns.

Next. Infernape vs. Luxray. In Japanese:

Infernape gets knocked out.
Lights go out.
Infernape activated Blaze.
Infernape goes berserk and flamethrowers everything.
Infernape turns to Ash after Ash yells to calm down.
Infernape walks to Ash while Ash mutters, "I....I.....I believe in you."
Infernape smiles at Ash, and The Greatest Everyday begins playing in the background.
Badass scene begins.

In English:

Lights cut out, Infernape activates Blaze, goes berserk, flamethrowers the walls.
Infernape walks toward Ash, as Ash says, "I've got this covered. Yeah, you know I believe in you."
Infernape nods and smiles at Ash.
Random music without lyrics begins playing.
I get bored enough that I miss half of Infernape's fight.

Seriously. That scene was the reason I looked forward all week to watching this episode in English. Throwing "We Will Carry On" in the background in place of The Greatest Everyday would've completely sufficed. I just want to know....why. Why change it?

This makes me concerned about other badass moments in the rest of the league. I won't spoil that for people who don't want to be.

But, last, they changed the Pokemon League location from Suzuran Island to a new island. It sounded like Liliapaly Island or something. Hopefully someone caught the official spelling with closed captioning.

As for the league, I made this schedule up a few weeks ago:

Barring no pre-empting and a straight run through to DP191:

10/09/10 177 Grand Festival Finale
10/16/10 Heatran Pokemon Ranger
10/23/10 178 Meowth Ep
10/30/10 179 Sunyshore Gym
11/06/10 180 Kenny/Jasmine Ep
11/13/10 181 Buck/Claydol Ep
11/20/10 182 Ash's Pokemon reunion
11/27/10 183 Ash Vs Nando
12/04/10 184 Paul Vs. Barry
12/11/10 185 Ash Vs. Conway
12/18/10 186 Ash Vs. Paul P1
12/25/10 187 Ash Vs. Paul P2
01/01/11 188 Ash Vs. Paul P3
01/08/11 189 Ash Vs. Takuto
01/15/11 190 Doctor Brock Ep
01/22/11 191 DP Finale

I tried catching the league location also. It sounded like Liliapally or Lily of the Valley. We need someone with closed captioning that caught it, otherwise we'll be waiting a long time for the spelling. Is there a repeat of this episode sometime in the next day or 2?

[Thingamajig]

Well considering Suzuran is Japanese for Lily-of-the-Valley, it's probably a direct translation. Strange choice to keep the name exact, though. It's a bit of a mouthful.

[Miju Miju]

Well considering Suzuran is Japanese for Lily-of-the-Valley, it's probably a direct translation. Strange choice to keep the name exact, though. It's a bit of a mouthful.

In the scheme team, ash told Scott, "Well, I just got top 8 in the EverGrande Championship" but saying, "I just got top 4 in the Lily of the Valley Championship" doesn't roll off the tongue well

[J J M]

Well considering Suzuran is Japanese for Lily-of-the-Valley, it's probably a direct translation. Strange choice to keep the name exact, though. It's a bit of a mouthful.

TPCi's been doing this a lot lately. Though this begs the question whether it's really all that necessary to use literal translations. Yeah, yeah, TPCi is pretty faithful when it comes to these things but come on.

[Mijumaru]

TPCi's been doing this a lot lately. Though this really begs the question whether it's really necessary to just translate all the names and use it exactly...

Well, sometimes their sense of creativity goes beyond (supposedly) and they come up with their own names for locations.

[Islander Princess]

I heard Lily of the Valley. May be a direct translation, but I'm not a fan of it. Too much of a mouthful. Oh well, it does sound pretty, haha.

The battle was pretty good. Infernape is badass, I for one always liked the bezerk blaze moments, but it's nice to see him get it under control. I liked the part where it looked like he may have been going to attack Ash, and everyone was like silently freaking out. But then Ash had to ruin it by using the phrase, "we're cool." Oh man XD

I like Volkner and Flint. They're cool guys, haha. I think Volkner is my favorite gym leader in Sinnoh (with Byron coming in a close second for his obbsessive love of holes and defense XD)

So now we just have a little bit of a wait before the League!!! Can't wait for that to start up.

Oh, and one thing that really bugged me about this episode. Dawn in her stupid little cheerleader outfit. It's honestly one of the most annoying things ever to me in the anime. Not to mention it just makes me hate her even more. I don't know, I just find it unecessary. She can cheer for Ash without the ridiculous get up.

[The Fighting Misty]

Oh, and one thing that really bugged me about this episode. Dawn in her stupid little cheerleader outfit. It's honestly one of the most annoying things ever to me in the anime. Not to mention it just makes me hate her even more. I don't know, I just find it unecessary. She can cheer for Ash without the ridiculous get up.

It's just one of her personality quirks. It goes along with the rest of her personality, such as the dresses, etc.