“A Real Rival Rouser!” Review Thread

[Hellwarden]

To be fair, I think Torterra did cause Drapion a fair amount of damage with his energy ball and leaf storm.


I honestly wonder if the poke who beats it in the next ep could have done so without Torterra's help.

[PDL]

For those saying that Paul's Drapion is overpowered... It is actually a pretty savage Pokémon and I've heard of some people using it to break the Battle Tower. I don't exactly remember how, but I do remember Acupressure being involved.

But yeah, it's silly to think that the anime has to follow the game's rules down to the letter. So what if Gliscor got affected by Toxic Spikes, it's not illogical to think that Pokémon that can fly need to land at some point.

[Masurao]

Masurao: "Kakkoii"かっこい means "cool," it can also mean "attractive" or "stylish". If you wanted to talk about someone you had a crush on you call that person "kakkoii." Barry/Jun meant he was cool, Hikari/Dawn probably meant Piplup n Kengo/Kenny were handsome.

Okay sure. I was kidding anyway lol.

Anyway, I still liked how Ash got rid of Toxic Spikes. Of course they threw in the "NO!" in there.

[Contrary]

For those saying that Paul's Drapion is overpowered... It is actually a pretty savage Pokémon and I've heard of some people using it to break the Battle Tower. I don't exactly remember how, but I do remember Acupressure being involved.

That just reminded me of my little Snipey. mars's Purugly will never walk in a straight line again.

@ Trainer_Gabriel: Ninjask are notoriously poor at taking hits.

Has Torterra ever won a battle on-screen? I think he did well in the first two Gyms, but I forget.

[Paulisthebest]

Ahh, yet again Torterra is beaten swiftly and is shown to be a total fall guy for this battle. Honestly if something as big as Torterra were running up at you as fast as the Rock Climb, I doubt you could stop it from all of its momentum. I was pretty surprised Drapion held it up for that long.
Dig+Flare Blitz was an ingenious combination that I wish you could do in the games since I hate spamming Toxic Spikes! I thought that the Frosslass battle was pretty good. I only wish Snow Cloak worked as well as it did in that battle for me in Platinum! Overall this was a great battle that was worth the LONG break.
Just have to wait another week for the next episode! :(

Haha, yeah I was thinking that Froslass was holding a Brightpowder as well to increase its ability to not get hit! Wish it worked that well in the game as well. However, Snow Cloak was in action, but remember that it is also a ghost type so its natural for it to move around "shadow-like" like Gengar against Buizel or when Pikachu battled Agatha in Viridian Gym (it can't learn Shadow Sneak but see how it traveled like a shadow on the ground against Pikachu well it is the shadow Pokemon).

Glad they used Hail/Snow Cloak like Koya used on his Mamoswine in the magna.

That just reminded me of my little Snipey. mars's Purugly will never walk in a straight line again.

@ Trainer_Gabriel: Ninjask are notoriously poor at taking hits.

Has Torterra ever won a battle on-screen? I think he did well in the first two Gyms, but I forget.

Yeah, I have a Drapion on my team in Platinum. I don't think Paul's is overpowered. I know that those things have tough Defenses. I know its ability is never revealed, but you can say what you want I think its Sniper.

Torterra has low Sp. Attack (well in the games dont know about the show...) and it was going against a Dark/Poison. Ninjask do have that low Defense like a Froslass, both are fast and can land powerful attacks, but they don't take hits too well...

Turtwig won in Oreburg against Rampardos, Gardenia's Turtwig, a Zangoose in the Tag Battle, didnt win or lose a match in the one against Crasher Wake but got recalled, as a Grotle beat Candice's Sneasel, but as a Torterra lost every match it was in minus TR; Volkner's Eletavire, Bertha's Hippowdon, Paul's Drapion and it was unable to hit the wild Claydol but Buck's Baltoy beat it single-handely...so Torterra sucked the big one. I guess they figured that we gave Paul's Torterra enough charcater, power and victories so Ash's could just be the fall guy and always draw the short end of the stick.

[Kairyu]

It's simply astounding the way TCPI carries on sucking all life out of the episodes with their removal of original music. I genuinely feel bad for all of you who only watch the dubbed version, especially when it comes to epic battle episodes such as this one. TCPI's battle music is just shamefully awful.

[Queen Cynthia]

When watching this episode for the the second time (as I usually do), I enjoyed it even more!
I can't stress enough that it was great battle with interesting twists and turns and definitely some of the best strategies in Pokemon ever. Oh man, I'm still excited

However, I also noticed one element that didn't make sense (but don't worry, it's my only point of criticism):
After Infernape had used Flare Blitz underground, Ninjask also got affected by it and as a consequence became slower.And here's the problem: An attack, let alone Flare Blitz, simply can't affect or deactivate a Pokemon's ability.

Yes, I know that some of you will object that Anime rules != game rules, but from my point of view this is one of the most fundamental rules ( just like, for example, Electric type attacks not causing any damage to Ground types). So, even the Anime has to stick to a certain set of rules and having Ninjask's ability be affected by an attack is a violation of the basics of Pokemon battles.

But, of course, this only mistake won't change my opinion of a wonderful episode considering what a thrilling battle and what impressive strategies this week's episode offered us.

[dman_dustin]

After Infernape had used Flare Blitz underground, Ninjask also got affected by it and as a consequence became slower.And here's the problem: An attack, let alone Flare Blitz, simply can't affect or deactivate a Pokemon's ability.

Yes, I know that some of you will object that Anime rules != game rules, but from my point of view this is one of the most fundamental rules ( just like, for example, Electric type attacks not causing any damage to Ground types). So, even the Anime has to stick to a certain set of rules and having Ninjask's ability be affected by an attack is a violation of the basics of Pokemon battles.

Except think of real life for a moment, the more injured you are, the slower your movements become. If you get shot in both legs, you will not be able to go as fast (assuming you aren't crumpled on the ground crying/screaming in pain).

Now Pokemon is slightly different because they were "created" to take hits and so forth but the same logic should apply to them.

If not how about the fact a Pokemon would likely need to keep moving around to benefit from speed boost. Thus when Flare Blitz hit Ninjask it basically reset its speed because it lost all that momentum it built up.

Take cars for example, they require at least a few seconds to reach a specific speed. Stop the car in its tracks and it'll still have to repeat the same few seconds to reach the same speed it was just before it "suddenly" stopped.

So the way I see it there are two reasons why Flare Blitz slowed Ninjask's speed.

1. It was injured.
2. It lost all its momentum it had built up.

Even if it is something that shouldn't be altered in the anime, it makes sense to me. Now what doesn't make sense is even when a Pokemon is one hit from being knocked out, it can still fight as if it was still fresh (ignoring the damage it took). I suppose Pokemon adrenaline might have something to do with it though.

[J J M]

Pretty obvious they're going the extra mile with this battle. You could tell this had a higher budget than usual. xD This battle definitely features the best animation in the series upto now and in terms of writing, it's pretty up there too. Though Infernape really didn't need three wins while Torterra gets nothing. :/

Never thought I'd say this but TPCi, why must you replace the original BGM with, frankly, bland (well, a vast majority of it) music? Not only that, they need to learn when to use musical cues as well. Infernape Flare Blitzing the Toxic Spikes; a big "moment" which needs a different BGM playing for that scene, not having the same thing droning on throughout.

[Paulisthebest]

Ok, since the game is different from the anime, I don’t know if this same rule applies; a Pokemon raises specific stats up 6 levels. In the case of Ninjask, it only needed to use Agility twice and then Speed Boost only needed to kick in 2 times for a total of 6 power-ups making its speed increase to the max. Now, it used Agility once and then Fury Cutter hit about 5 times on Gliscor. If speed boost kicked in after 4 Fury Cutter hits like it is supposed to then Ninjask was at max speed.

Now, after that Flare Blitz it weakened it severely. When they said that it couldn’t use Speed Boost anymore my initial reaction was that its speed was maxed out (due to Agility and Speed Boost) and that the reason it was moving too slow was because of the damage it took, not that speed boost was unable to be used anymore.

[Trainer Gabriel]

@ Trainer_Gabriel: Ninjask are notoriously poor at taking hits.

Oh, I know. My nerdom just couldn't help but think about its two types that both shrug off Fighting-type moves. But I guess I should ignore that, shouldn't I? Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a big deal myself (and we've seen much worse), but I thought I'd just comment that.

[Fletcher.]

I really liked this episode. The animation, and the overall feel of the battle was great. Ash had some good strategies, too, like using Buizel's collar and the whole underground Flare Blitz deal. I really like when they deviate from the game's "logic." Paul's (not Shinji's) voice kinda...faltered sometimes for me, though. That "No!" when the field erupted in fire was kind of lame.

Also, did anyone notice that Drapion's arms got freakishly long when it caught Torterra? When it had Buizel, I counted five Arm segments: The shoulder, the "arm" and then the hand. But when it caught Torterra mid-Rock Climb, it had at least eight (I couldn't see the hand.) And then when it got ready to use Poison Fang, it was back to five!

I got pissed off watching Gliscor get wtfpwned by Toxic Spikes. Seriously, it's ground/flying.

What do you expect? It got slammed into the ground; it wasn't flying anymore.

[Steel_Justice]

My favorite part in the episode was when Brock was commenting that Ash could get out of his toxic spikes problem if he had a poison type. if only Ash had Bulbasaur or Muk at the time he could have saved himself a lot of grief. Ash must be thinking "Curses if only I mixed up my team and had something to beat toxic spikes." Seriously a trainer should always have something to deal with entry hazards or at least cause them like Drapion.

[Queen Cynthia]

1. It was injured.

Yes, but being injured, which in a Pokemon battle basically corresponds to losing HP, still is no convincing reason for Ninjask not being able to use his ability anymore. Again, abilities can't be altered by attacks. If anything, there are abilities like Cloud Nine which to some extent might be considered to be able to do this because they alter the effects of another ability like, for example, the rain caused by Drizzle or the sunshine caused by Drought.
But we're talking about the attack Flare Blitz which simply cannot influence an ability.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand your point. It just won't convince me ^^

2. It lost all its momentum it had built up.

Well, apart from the fact that in the games Pokemon can't lose an already obtained power boost simply by being hit, I don't recall one single example where this was the case in the Anime either.

[dman_dustin]

My favorite part in the episode was when Brock was commenting that Ash could get out of his toxic spikes problem if he had a poison type. if only Ash had Bulbasaur or Muk at the time he could have saved himself a lot of grief. Ash must be thinking "Curses if only I mixed up my team and had something to beat toxic spikes." Seriously a trainer should always have something to deal with entry hazards or at least cause them like Drapion.

While true, for one thing Ash didn't know Paul was going to use a Pokemon that had toxic spikes, I don't think it was even an option for Ash.

Plus if Ash did use Muk against Paul the match would be already worse than it is. Since one, Ash should've only used the Pokemon he used at Lake Acuity. Staraptor being the only exception. Two, I for one would prefer it if Muk wasn't a fall guy, just so it appears to get rid of Toxic Spikes. And finally, it would make no sense for Ash to use Muk, because using Muk would've screwed up the whole "Predictable" Ash thing they were going for.