BW 033 "The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!" Review Thread

[Musashi]

The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!
After Doryuzu loses a battle due to yet again ignoring Iris' commands, she finally reveals to Satoshi and Dent the story of how they met! What could have caused Doryuzu's behavior?

[Iteru]

- Langley looks a bit like one of the workers from the Cold Storage in the games, which I thought was a nice touch.

- Tsunbear looks awesome (was kinda worrying about how it would look in the anime) and I thought that it was good how it was taunting Kibago before the battle.

- Not gonna lie, the build up to sending out Doryuzu was a bit boring in my opinion.

- As Grave-E said, Drill Liner looks frickken sweet. Much preferred Doryuzu's beating to Kibago's as it had more action, and physical attacks I think leave more of an affect for beatdowns.

- The flasback to fighting Mogurew was quite funny xD It does make an interesting reflection though on how she was determined to not give up then, but gave up rather easily later on. I like that sort of stuff that you can think about with how much Doryuzu disobeying affected Iris.

- Man, they really like the Movie 12 track Satoshi vs Gishin. This is around the third or fourth time they have used it in Best Wishes.

- The village elder looks a bit creepy there and in my opinion means that Shaga and Iris are going to have more interactions down the line.

- Eh, I'm not really sure why they decided to have it learn how to use Focus Blast. I thought that all of its Physical attacks were just fine.

- The last battle was okay, though it was a bit "attack after attack after attack" with not much thought.

I thought the episode was good overall, though Langley was a bit boring in my opinion. I did really like the Mogurew flashbacks and Satoshi took a major backseat, so I'm happy.

[Emolga]

This episode wasn't as good as I expected. Doryuzu obeying Iris after only a minute's worth of talking was kind of questionable... the episode was, excluding the opening/ending, 15% battle against that girl (forgot her name), 80% Iris' flashback, 5% Iris apologizing to Doryuzu. It felt really rushed, though Iris' backstory was pretty damn cute.

Here's hoping the opening changes soon.

[TPrower]

This episode was pretty good in my opinion. I loved seeing Iris as a little girl, and it seems refreshing to know that Excadrill didn't disobey Iris because he felt he surpassed her, like Charizard or Mamoswine. On the contrary, it seems like the complete opposite, don't you think?

[Masurao]

The battles were good. Excadrill's turn seemed a little too quick for my taste, but w/e. The Drayden foreshadowing makes it obvious what's going to happen to Iris's character by the end of the series. Langley wasn't that great from a character standpoint, but her Beartic was pretty strong. I have to assume she is going to re-appear seeing as how she didn't seem impressed that Iris had to use a steel type to at least tie with her. I do see a good battle with Haxorous, and Beartic down the line. Ash took a back seat in this episode, which was good for Iris.

[TFSpock]

I'm just glad Iris got a good backstory, while Ash didn't do much. Kid deserves a vacation. I really liked how they handled Excadrill's reasoning, instead of, like TPrower said, being the same as Charizard. If they made ANOTHER redux of Charizard, I'd explode. Literally. I'm just glad that so far, Iris isn't going down the Misty route. I hope there will be more Iris/Cilan episodes, because so far, they're all pretty good.

[Smugraptor]

I liked this episode alot, because it provided a good background on Iris and a good pokemon battle. Also loved the new idea of Exadrill thinking that it isn't worth being Iris's pokemon so it shuns her

[Contrary]

I like how Langley just...appears.

[GreatLiver]

Why on earth they decided to teach a pokemon with 135 base attack and 50 base sp. attack focus blast as opposed to like brick break is a mystery to me. I guess it just looks cool.

[Duckgon Z]

Why on earth they decided to teach a pokemon with 135 base attack and 50 base sp. attack focus blast as opposed to like brick break is a mystery to me. I guess it just looks cool.

They did the same thing with Paul's Ursaring, so yeah it just must look cool for both.

[Hellion]

Saw the episode.

Initial thoughts: I felt very indifferent to this episode. It didn't make me laugh, it didn't move me, I didn't feel invested in any of the characters it focused on, nor did I feel this episode really gave me a reason to.

Good points

+ Dento being the one to give the advice; you could see he really wanted to help, and I found that charming and endearing. He felt like the older sibling emparting advice.
+ Tsunbear looked great, and I loved when it moved on four legs, it felt very dynamic and interesting.
+ Good animation for a lot of the attacks, with Drill liner sticking out.

Bad points

- Battles felt, except for the aforementioned exemples, very static and unimaginative. No strategy, all attacks and power aren't the stuff great battles are made of, plus it makes the trainers feel less connected, less part of the action, less engaged, and therefore less engaging.
- Langley was a straight up bitch, but unlike the jerk/bitch rivals (Gary, Harley, Ursula, Cabernet) there was just no redeeming qualities, nothing that can really justifiy the bitchiness nor can really make the audience root and care for her.
- I was extremely turned off by the prelude to the first Doryuuzu/Tsunbear battle, because it looked like Iris baited, taunted Tsunbear and Langley into attacking Doryuuzu, making Iris look like she didn't care about Doryuuzu getting injured if it meant winning the fight. That scene echoed of the last 25 episodes where Iris only called out Doryuuzu to battle or dig, making it feel like she saw him a a tool, more than a real friend.

Lukewarm points

x Iris's backstory. I say lukewarm because I have to give credit to the writers for finally addressing Iris's motivation to become a Dragon Master (Shaga) and the reason behind Doryuuzu's disobedience. But, while I'm glad those elements were provided at last, I sorta feel the execution was less than interesting, for two reasons.

First of all, because the problem with Doryuuzu wasn't cause by Iris, but was something coming solely from Doryuuzu, so the resolution pretty much came solely from Doryuuzu spurred into learning a super powerful move that's super effective against Ice types by Iris's tears, but didn't require Iris to really question herself, to really change her ways, to be proactive about the situation because Iris wasn't the problem.

Second, because it doesn't explainthe behaviour of either until now and doesn't excuse Iris not once trying to talk to Doryuuzu, figure out what's wrong with it if she didn't need it for a task, instead waiting for the problem to solve itself on its own, which the writers rearded in this episode, effectively stunting Iris's developpement.

x Iris's skills. Hum... that's the other thing that left me cold with this episode, was the way the writers portrayed Iris as an experienced, capable, knowledgeable, strong trainer, with a Kibago that has a stronger than average Dragon Rage and a super powerful Excadrill that was winning her tournaments and battles before she was allowed to travel and can learn a super powerful attack in a very short amount of time. Ultimately, what makes a character interesting is the hardships, the efforts they put in overcoming their flaws and the obstacles in front of them... here... Iris doesn't really have anything to overcome since all her problems are exterior to her, but she has a character wasn't shown to have that flaw, that one trait that makes a character human, relatable, and allows developpement. Once again, in this episode, the writers stunted Iris's developpement.

x Ash playing a very little part. Good to give the character a break, but at the same time, I would have liked his perspective on the whole thing, showing he cares about what's happening to Iris, cause they didn't really feel like friends in this ep, more like two people who are travelling in the same direction.

So overall, some good points, some bad points, but I can't help feeling that overall, this episode failed to get me interested in Iris's story, and failed to make me root for her, make me care about what's happening to her or her pokémon. I really didn't feel neither Iris, nor the episode were engaging.

[CommanderPigg]

Copy/pasta'd

I know that there's going to be ample criticism of this when this comes, and for good reason, but I have to say this:

I really, REALLY loved Iris's back story.

The way that Iris and Drilbur met was pretty interesting, haha. Would what Iris be doing be considered pokemon abuse? :P Felt sorry that she had her ass handed to her nearly every time though XD

Of course Dento is the voice of reason in this episode. I wish I fully understood what he said, but it seemed to go somewhere along the lines of Iris not trying to understand how Excadrill was feeling in that moment when he was losing the battle...or something? Either way, the breakdown wasn't as large as I would have liked it, but then again, this IS Iris we're talking about...I don't think that she'd mope around for too long. The resolution was cute; It really showed how their bond was still strong after all this time...You see, the cold shoulder doesn't always work, KODOMO NE, DORYUUZU! ^^

Oh, one thing though. I did not like Langley. I normally like bitchy characters, but she was all bitch, no depth. Like...why should I like you? You stole Dento's food, gtfo.

EDIT: It seems like my "Iris is older than 10" theory is debunked with this XD I think the matches within her town was a ceremony of some sorts, and they didn't care much for formalities...It's possible that Iris isn't a registered trainer to this day So...yeah, I don't know when she got her pokeballs :P

[GreatLiver]

Tsunbear looked great, and I loved when it moved on four legs, it felt very dynamic and interesting.

This a lot.

Iris not showing any sort of emotion towards Excadrill until now was one of my biggest issues here too. She never really attemped to talk to it when we've seen it before, and then she decids this episode to open up to it and be all heartfelt.

And the fact that it seemed like it was years that Excadrill's been having this issue just seemed unrealistic since it learning Focus blast and tying with Beartic didn't seem like that huge of an accomplishment. It seemed more like the writers just tried to force a history on it that wasn't exactly what the problem was with Charizard and Mamoswine.

[garfield15]

I like how Langley just...appears.

Me too. The episode starts and she shows up and I'm like "the hell? Did I miss something?"

Man, when it comes to these Dento/Iris episodes, it's like Satoshi's not even there. I guess that's a good thing though.

[Arcanine 94]

I have ask this...was I only the one who was crying during this episode? Haha, I just found Iris's backstory and crying scenes really touching.