“Last Call—First Round!” Review Thread

[Ampharos King]

Here it is, the last Grand Festival. The first episode - the rivals meet up with one another and compete in the Double Performance appeal round. The top 32 coordinators pass on to the battle rounds. Dawn's had the best appeal, although I thoroughly enjoyed everybody's. It was a shame that Kenny did not make it, but with so many rivals frolicking around, someone had to go.

There is a lot of character interaction on all sides. Nando thanks Ash and Dawn for allowing him to experience the joys of battling and contests. Ursula's stressful relationship with Dawn, remarking that she is going to lose so she might as well put the effort in making Ursula look good. Kenny trying to get one up on Dawn through Dee-Dee. Jessalina annoying Ursula to a degree. Last but not least, Dawn's promise with Zoey to make it to the finals.

Ash and Gible try to perfect Draco Meteor, but to no avail. Fantina makes a surprise appearance as the special judge, in addition to a Nurse Joy from the Hoenn Region (Lilycove). Wow, to think that the Lilycove Nurse Joy has sisters working in another region.

Well, TPCI certainly kept some decent tracks during the beginning of the episode (i.e. Sandgem). However, I'm still disappointed that the music has to be censored out. At least for the Grand Festival, the dub could step its game up a bit.

I don't want to be too preachy on this whole music discussion, but the BGM is what makes an episode grand. Keeping in certain tracks will elevate the mood during an important battle, or make an emotional scene tear-jerking. Hopefully TPCI keeps more of the original music at least until the Grand Festival ends.

[Mijumaru]

"Zoey, I need your help with accesorizing. Brock's clueless, and Ash just ran away."

Best line that Dawn has ever had XD I was dying.

Pretty good episode. Kenny is a fail boat, liked it when he got hit by draco meteor. I also loved Ash's comment "Dawn is going kind of crazy so I got out of there." Some good lines in this one.

Dawn seemed to be crazy in that scene.

[Geodude]

Well it's what I'm mainly interested in. So, do you know what was kept?

Here's a thought: instead of practically begging in every thread to know what was kept and what wasn't, how about actually watching both versions? If you can't or don't know how to watch the Japanese version, the amount of music that was kept shouldn't concern you. If you can get ahold of the Japanese version, you wouldn't need to ask that question at all. So either way, it makes no sense. Please stop.

[PDL]

Although, they do say that there are 64 contestants. 5x64=320. Accounting for stragglers who only gained 1-4, that's a lot of ribbons! Makes me wonder if ribbons don't depreciate in use, so that you can keep going year after year without garnering more ribbons. Cause otherwise the number of contests halls is huge (and they'd be holding them practically every day. Marian, Contesta, and Sukizo sure do get around).

I have wondered a bit about that. Crunching the numbers, this would mean that Marian, Contesta and Sukizo would have to do 40 contests a day.

It would probably make more sense if every contest we've seen in the anime was just specifically by them and all other off-screen contests were judged by other people. Or they have a ton of identical clones running about.

[Ashfangirl22]

I like that Ash just ran away cuz Dawn went crazy, who can blame him she'd probaly yell at him or some thing if he didn't do what she wanted rightXD
I loved Dawn's new dress, so pretty and I really liked the interactions between all the rivals and characters. I really liked Zoey's appeal the best but that's just me, second is Jessies and than Dawn's. I LOL'd at the narrator calling poor Kenny a looser, awe man kid fails at life poor guy. Animation I have to say was wonderful here, once we get through the Grand Festival, we get to the league which I can't wait for more than any thing. Sadly this seems to be the last Grand Festival as some one said, oh wells it went out with a bang I'd say.

[Trainer Gabriel]

I didn't even realize that Kenny got a new voice (this is acceptable, right?). No matter; good start for the Grand Festival.

[Queen Cynthia]

So here we go, the Grand Festival has finally begun.
I think that it was a wonderful idea to have all main characters and rivals come together before the big show starts. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like the way the writers showed for the last time the unique personalities of Dawn's rivals, both during the dinner and in the appeal rounds. A great and entertaining plot!

But...speaking of the appeal rounds: I can't help criticizing them once more and I'm kind of glad hat contest will be over in Best Wishes.
Ursula's performance was by far the best, simply because it was surprising AND understandable in terms of logic.
Second place goes to Jessie for her unique way to show off both her Pokemon and herself.
Third is Nando whose performance was nothing to get excited about, but still acceptable and logical.
But now we're coming to the two big rivals, Dawn and Zoey:
I'm sorry, but what in the world was that?? Their performances totally defied all rules of physics and logic alike.
How can an Aqua Ring turn into three rotating discs which then mysteriously float on the water and last but not least turn into intimidating whirlpools on top of which a human can stand????
How in the world can an Ice Beam freeze in mid-air all of a sudden, creating a roller coaster made of ice? Quite frankly, I was under the impression that an Ice Beam can't freeze anything except if it hits it. So are why really supposed to believe that it was the air which got frozen?? But why did it create such a roller coaster-like structure?

No, I can't help it, but if watch Pokemon not only because you consider it as your Saturday morning entertainment, but also because you want to understand it, I clearly have to say that Dawn's and Zoey's performances were terrible and void of any logical explanation.

It's really a pity considering that firstly, I was actually looking forward to the Grand Festival and that secondly, the first half of the episode was promising and awesome.


Further thoughts on the episode:

Although, they do say that there are 64 contestants. 5x64=320. Accounting for stragglers who only gained 1-4, that's a lot of ribbons! Makes me wonder if ribbons don't depreciate in use, so that you can keep going year after year without garnering more ribbons. Cause otherwise the number of contests halls is huge (and they'd be holding them practically every day. Marian, Contesta, and Sukizo sure do get around).

I have wondered a bit about that. Crunching the numbers, this would mean that Marian, Contesta and Sukizo would have to do 40 contests a day.

huh??
If I remember correctly, they only mentioned 32 contestants who moved on to the second round. So we don't really know how many coordinators actually took part.
And how do you arrive at the conclusion that Marian, Contesta and Skuziko have to do 40 contests a day??
Even if we agree that there are maybe 300-400 contest a year, we must take into consideration that the year has 365 days. If you ask me, the most likely scenario is that they only have to do one contest a day on average.

Truely Remeowthable? :D

Erm, did Jessalina enjoy getting hit in that appeal? I swear Candy Musalina didn't.

Yeah I agree with you entirely ( believe it or not ;) ) These two aspects were rather insignificant and hardly recognizable but they made me smile as well. It's scenes like these which makes an episode special.


Furthermore, I don't want to be engaged in that endless BGM discussion, but even I have to say that the DUB screwed up the scene in which Dawn was looking up Vaporeon and Flareon in the Pokedex by putting the Dex-jingle over the exciting background music. It resulted in an indistinct, awkward mix of different pieces of music.

And last but not least, I'd like to say that I truly enjoyed when it was explained that Brock had no idea when it comes to accessories and Ash couldn't care less and just ran away because he didn't want to be engaged in girls' issues. Great, just great. It so underlined our heroes' unique character traits and made them even more likeable.

All in all, I have to say that the episode somehow is a two-edged sword. On the one hand performances which were partly just not acceptable due to lack of logic and on the other a great and entertaining plot.

6.5 / 7 out of 10 points

[The Phantom Thief]

I LOL'd at the narrator calling poor Kenny a looser, awe man kid fails at life poor guy. .

LOL. I noticed that too. Priceless.

A few other highlights:
-Nice to see you again, Nando. It's only been about 120 something episodes sine we last saw you.
-All the appeals were very nicely done, especially Ursula's, which was very unique and interesting to say the least. Cyndaquil's Angel Wings thing was pretty cool too
-Nice interaction with all of the rivals
-LOL at Kenny get hit by Draco Meteor (well, kinda anyway)
-Kenny ain't no Battle Dome Ace Tucker when it comes to fusion moves.

Good episode overall. Good way to kick off the (possibly last ever) Grand Festival. 7/10.

[Thingamajig]

It could just be that most coordinators really suck and take multiple years to get all 5 ribbons.

Anyway, that was a pretty good start to the Grand Festival - although with the sheer number of rivals Dawn has I think the appeals could've gone into the next episode. It all felt a tad rushed.

[Froakie]

But Brock made Dawn's dress! I don't get it.
And it was stated there was 108 contestants, by the way.

Anyway! I've come back to actually rate and talk about this ep.
I really enjoyed all the appeals and I thought Kenny's could have gone well if his floatzel managed to hold on to the move. Ursula's appeal was unique to evolve two pokemon. Dawn's was a normal icey appeal but the ending was great. Zoey's was really cool to watch and Nandos involved a nice singing Altaria.

I enjoyed the build up with all the rivals coming together.

8/10
(that Brock scene at the beginning made me laugh, I have to admit haha)

[Mijumaru]

I like that Ash just ran away cuz Dawn went crazy

But did he even run away in the Japanese version?

[Musashi]

But Brock made Dawn's dress!

No he didn't. Dawn's mom bought it for her.

[Mijumaru]

No he didn't. Dawn's mom bought it for her.

But Brock did design and make her Hearthome Collection dress. So he should have some male-female fashion sense inside of him.

[Muku.Bird]

But Brock did design and make her Hearthome Collection dress. So he should have some male-female fashion sense inside of him.

Actually, Dawn designed her own dress. He just made it for her.

[Mijumaru]

Actually, Dawn designed her own dress. He just made it for her.

Well... you know what I mean.

But I must say, I really feel bad for Kenny. Would he still be left out if he actually did that on purpose? And he told it to the judges?