BW 078 "Hachiku Appears! The Holy Mountain of Ulgamoth!!" Review Thread

[Wyvernphlare]

THIS EPISODE WAS REDICULOUS!

REALLY?! They had to put the two worst things about the pokemon anime in the same fucking episode. Episode and no one else is noticing FUCKING FUCK SAUCE I'm pissed.


For those of you who aren't aware these are:

1. POKEMON POACHERS AS VILLIANS. Yes they are poachers in real life. Yes it is illegal! But does it belong in Pokemon HELL NO! What exactly did that guy do wrong besides the stealing of Ash's Kokrorok (which he didn't do until AFTER intruded on his business)? Nothing! They do a really poor job of explaining what exactly are they doing wrong. People catch Pokemon all the time the only difference is he's doing it with a net. So why is being put in jail. This also pisses me off when the TRio "steals" wild pokemon. Let's take a good hard look at their justifications of this throughout the series.

Uno: It on a reserve. Okay I understand the importance of reserves but in pokemon the player could catch them all so if these pokemon can be found else where why would we need a reserve. Also half the time it isn't on a reserve so what the fucking hell?
dos: They are doing it for money and Pokemon aren't supposed to be sold. UUUM writers you did things I don't like 4 teh moneyz so why can't they. I assume that pokemon research labs are publicly funded they give out Pokemon so the fed forcing the public to buy Pokemon from them. Fuck you Pokemon world Governments FUCK YOU. Are you doing this to stop the competition? Probably. Go fuck yourself with a rusty spork. And the pokemon league encourages them to catch pokemon so they can get money so in a sense they are doing the same thing and Ash and Co. keep feeding their monopoly. Hey monopolies are apposed by the goverment so, either the Unovian and Kantonian trade commissions are real fucking incompetent or more likely it is owned by the goverment. Three jeers for the hypocritical pokemon fascist state! And hey trainer schools have huge variety of pokemon. So either a the get them all from staff and donations or more likely THE PAY PEOPLE TO GET THEM. Hey don't no battling civilians get pokes as pets so how does a business man get a pokemon for his children. He can either buy some balls and go out with out protection if he's not trainer OR he can pay someone to do it for him. We have pet stores. Also you buy pokemon in the game sometimes it is nessary to catch them all and you BUY the right to catch pokemon in the safari zone so this is demonizing the player which totally violates the purpose of the anime which is to make me a BIGGER fan of the games.

I'll get to the other one later which is super powered people because that took a lot out of me. If you want to talk to me about you can but damn this pissed me off. Bottom line if the "heroes" are going to send someone to jail and call him a monster it better be for a good reason. THANK YOU FOR READING!

Sorry about the swearing but it was a rant.

[Trainer Gabriel]

Honestly, I wasn't even impressed with the first half of this episode. It was just strenuous tests and exercises for Ash and Krokorok that didn't seem to go anywhere - though they were amusing.

Once again, Cilan was the best part of the episode.

[Grave-E]

I know most people are saying that they only enjoyed the first half of the episode, but honestly? I quite enjoyed the whole thing. I mean, yeah, the poacher dude wasn't really anything special, but he made for good battle fodder for the krok. I like Jellicent, and Krokorok fought well (and got a few funny moments to boot. Locked jaw.), so I felt quite satisfied with what we got.

Volcarona really does deserve another appearance in the future though. Pretty weak debut for one of the most powerful 'mons.

[Piplup]

I agree with Gravy, it was a nice ep - I really like Krokorok... also hope it'll evolve eventually
And yeah, Volcarona totally needs a better appearance eventually, which I'm sure it'll get
It's also nice to see Jellicent's two gender versions featured, since we never got to see Hippowdon's female version in DP despite how it was like one of the biggest gender diffences...

[Moe]

Am I right in thinking this is about the first time a Dark type has been used deliberately to counter a Ghost type? Moreso, the first time Ash has actually used that type advantage that Dark moves have?

In the past, like with Totodile having Bite it always seemed to be used as if it were still a normal type move.

Previously I'd have just expected him to use Pikachu to counter a water type - of course I suppose Pikachu ending up in a hunter's cage isn't what they want to do with the anime right now.

I do get where Alphaphlare is coming from - so unless the issue is abuse of Pokemon (but how's that different than Ash trying to use his jacket to capture a Pidgey?), this episode consisted of someone trying to capture a wild Pokemon and being sent to jail for it. It wasn't until the battle that coincidently resulted in caging Krokorok that anything unquestionably illegal actually occurred. That said, after 15 years of Team Rocket plots to capture wild Pokemon being treated that way, it's a bit late now to bring that point up.

Still I liked the episode overall, good to see Krokorok getting training, which I think means for the first time in BW all of the Pokemon being used for the Gym battle will actually get training before the battle. Amazing.

[Masurao]

I'm guessing this Jellicent had "Water Absorb", cuz if it didn't Iris would be bitching at Ash like she did waaay back in BW010 when he attacked Frillish with close combat moves.

Realisitically they just wanted Ash to get his ass kicked by Trip back then, so cursed body was "convenient".

I must admit though, Ash was pretty adorkable in the first part of this episode.

[Tendou Soujirou]

I thought the second half of this episode was the good part, to be honest. A decent battle with Krokorok, even if it did go on a bit too long, and Beartic was pretty badass...well, as badass as IT can be. For a series which so far has used a ton of stock-footage and awkward jump cuts in battle (and it was here too), Beartic physically slamming into the Jellicient was pretty cool.

I had to laugh how everyone just sat around and let this criminal (who was kind of cool, with some funny expressions and such) make the rules. Plus Volcarona can burn bright enough to serve as a temporary sun, surely it can just burn through the net?

Also how casually the PokeDex mentioned that Jellicent ate "life energy". 0.o

[CrackFox]

The last episode was so good, this episode was dire in comparison. It started off well. I loved Ash's training session with Krokorok and Dent's fangirling was amusing.
It was quite a funny episode to start off with, but lots of the episodes have been lately, so it didn't stand out. I laughed at Beartic bemused expression as he shook Dent's hand XD

The trophy villain filled me with nothing but boredom and Hachiku too. Probably the blandest Gym Leader so far.

[BladeLight52]

After watching this episode, I pondered about Brycen's voice because it sounded familiar. Later, I found out that the it was none other than Nobuo Tobita, who voiced Kamille Bidan in Zeta Gundam.

[ivantuga2]

Rant about the alleged hypocrisy of Satoshi, his friends and Hachiku against the poacher's methods of capturing a Pokémon.

You do understand that Hachiku said Ulgamoth is a guardian deity of the mountain, and as such couldn't be just caught as he pleased? While I also wasn't exactly thrilled with the way the poacher was portrayed (hey, the worst writer of the series at work), you can't say he had a right to catch it. If he really wanted it legally, he should have asked for a license or something like that to catch a Pokémon in that reserve, or Hachiku directly for permission.

[Wyvernphlare]

Rant about the alleged hypocrisy of Satoshi, his friends and Hachiku against the poacher's methods of capturing a Pokémon.

You do understand that Hachiku said Ulgamoth is a guardian deity of the mountain, and as such couldn't be just caught as he pleased? While I also wasn't exactly thrilled with the way the poacher was portrayed (hey, the worst writer of the series at work), you can't say he had a right to catch it. If he really wanted it legally, he should have asked for a license or something like that to catch a Pokémon in that reserve, or Hachiku directly for permission.

Well to be fair I watched it untranslated first and that deity thing is kinda asspull imo. Not to mention it was more of rant on the whole pokemon poacher thing in general which will always piss me off. BTW there is a mention feature you can use instead of rewriting people's words.

[Geodude]

Well to be fair I watched it untranslated first and that deity thing is kinda asspull imo.

Hardly. It was mentioned before the poacher showed up.

I'm guessing this Jellicent had "Water Absorb"

Did you perchance fall asleep during the part where Beartic was attacking them with Brine and doing damage? -_-

[Wyvernphlare]

@Geodude; Just because it not out of no where at the last minute doesn't mean it an ass pull. To me it a shitting justification that barely makes sense for the writer to demonize someone for trying to catch a pokemon. I never liked poacher mechanics in any episode and I didn't like it in this episode

[Geodude]

As has been stated hundreds of times over the years in threads just like this one, the method used to catch Volcarona in this episode is clearly illegal in that world. Catching it in a Pokeball is fair because a Pokemon can always either choose to flee during the battle, or break out of the Pokeball, if it doesn't want to be caught badly enough. But entrapping a Volcarona in a fireproof net is unfair and gives it no choice. I fail to see what's so hard to understand about that. If the hunter had battled and captured the Volcarona properly, then you'd have an argument. He didn't, so you don't.

Think about a real-life equivalent: suppose a law was passed that said you could only hunt using a certain type of rifle. If you chose to hunt using a different type of rifle, perhaps one that allowed you to shoot from a farther distance, you'd be breaking the law, obviously. Complaining would be stupid, because all you would have had to do to avoid breaking the law would have been to use the allowed type of rifle. Maybe it would have been a little more work, but at least you'd be within the law. Same thing here.

[Wyvernphlare]

@Geodude; But then why would he do it? And why would the authorities care about fairness to pokemon especially since certain pokemon are unable to run away. And that kid in Johto used mean look that's not fair to Entei which is also a deity. And in the games the PC barges into the sacred homes of legendaries the legendaries don't have much choice there. In the games the PC also chases down fleeing pokemon. So the show is vilifing me for playing the games when it's supose to advertise them. That's nice.