BW 104 "Fierce Fighting! Win Out in the Rival Battle!"

Huh, I kind of expected more from the Kotetsu/Bianca battle, the pacing was all over the place. Still it's nice to see Ash broing around with the other rivals, this group seems like a really close bunch.

Oh and Trip left. That was...well, it happened. He's gone.

Re-watching the battle;

Would have been something else if Serperior also knew Coil. Imagine that in combination with Wrap. It would have literally squeezed the life out of Pikachu. I'm shocked that Ash let it go on until it was blue in the face. I keep thinking about what if Trip didn't command a final attack that didn't involve Wrap letting go of Pikachu...

Honestly, I wanted too see an Energy Ball/Dragon Tail combo vs. Iron Tail/Electro Ball. That would have been something else, but Trip isn't as inventive and off the wall as Ash is.

There isn't enough snark in the world to instill on the potential commentary for the following screenshots, so I'll just go ahead and post them without saying another word:

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Originally Posted by Musashi

And just as I say that I forget about all the fan service in this episode! I'm sure the sauna scene will have many people squeeing. XD (There's some Mustard just for you @Yoshi-san;!)

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I sure enjoyed the bonding scenes. Really, they haven't done that in BW, may be one or two times but that's it.
Also, Moo-Moo Milk is certainly famous in Unova :P

Shooty's departure was decent and the battle was enjoyable.
And poor Oshawott xD

I did not like the way how Bianca's battle got handled. She's more awesome than that... Oh, well.

I have placed my episode review in spoilers. Feel free to read.

This is the second episode of the Higaki Conference, and so far the first round isn't that different from previous competitions. As usual, we get the montage battles from the recurring rivals, and they are 1-on-1 eliminations. This tournament is different, however, in that Ash battles against his "primary" rival in the very first round of the tournament; a first in the anime history. Of course, we have all been dreading this match-up because we knew that Trip had to lose so Ash could advance. And considering what the match-up is (Pikachu vs. Serperior), I had to call foul here.

The episode starts out with the continuation of Ash and Trip's battle. As it had during its previous battles, Serperior effortlessly dodges all of its opponent's moves, and counterattacks with Dragon Tail. Even though Ash's Pikachu is very agile, he still cannot measure up to Serperior's speed. Pikachu's close-range moves are ineffective due to Serperior moving out of the way, while Pikachu's long-range Electro Ball couldn't make contact because of Serperior's body shape. Meanwhile, Pikachu continues to get worn down from Serperior's Dragon Tails.

When I first watched this match, I was expecting Serperior to get paralyzed with Static just as some of Pikachu's other opponents were inflicted in the past so Pikachu could win against an otherwise unbeatable opponent. But no, Static was never used in this battle. Instead, Serperior was able to constrict Pikachu with his Wrap attack. When Pikachu tried to use Thunderbolt, Trip had Serperior dig its tail into the ground as a lightningrod to reduce the damage he would have taken. It seems that Trip's training paid off: he truly raised Serperior into a powerful pokemon. Even though Trip miscalculated and forgot to constrict Pikachu's tail, which made it possible for Pikachu to escape Serperior's grasp with Iron Tail, Pikachu still couldn't match up to Serperior's power and agility. Pikachu was completely thrown back when he collided his Iron Tail with his Dragon Tail.

Still, Pikachu's will to win was strong, and Ash decided to improvise (as he would have done during his DP days); combining two of his moves into one. Pikachu once collided his Iron Tail into Dragon Tail; this time, having his Iron Tail powered up with Electro Ball. A dust collision occurs, and this is perhaps the worst part of it all. Somehow, the tired and exhausted Pikachu who repeatedly took damage from Serperior's moves survived that collision. Meanwhile, Serperior, who only took damage from Pikachu's Thunderbolt, was defeated. This was a ridiculous way for the writers to give Ash a victory here. The writers basically took a strategy that they used for Pikachu to tie with Tobias' Latios (at the time, Pikachu combined Volt Tackle and Iron Tail), and changed it around so that Pikachu could instead win over his opponent this time. Pikachu did not deserve a victory here, and it is sad that the writers decided to eliminate Trip first so they could focus on his other rivals. Trip did not deserve such a crappy sendoff. Trip said that he won't lose to Ash again, and he will become strong enough to surpass Alder. Good luck with that, Trip; that is, if we ever get to see you again after this tournament.

As expected, all of Ash's other rivals made it past the Top 128 round. There was a brief comedic moment in which Pikachu and Oshawott were relaxing in a hot spring inside the Pokemon Center. Riolu came in, and with his entrance water splashed on Oshawott. Surprisingly, Oshawott wasn't the one who got pissed; this time, Pikachu was upset for some reason and decided to splash Riolu. Riolu stares briefly at Pikachu, and both begin to splash each other. Eventually, Pikachu decides to "tease" Riolu by using Thunderbolt on the pool. Riolu jumped out of the pool in time, and Oshawott got electrocuted. It's interesting to see Pikachu with his playful personality, and interacting with Riolu as if they were competing against one another. The writers are definitely pairing those two up for a battle at some point.

The Top 64 round began the next day, and it is almost the same as the first round except the battles in this round are 2-on-2. As expected, the writers paired Bianca and Kotetsu for the second round. Since there were only a few minutes left in this episode, I watched this battle expecting a few quick defeats. Bianca starts off with her Escavalier, and Kotetsu his Samurott. Samurott goes on the offensive, but all Bianca does is order Escavalier to dodge Samurott's moves and to increase its defense with Iron Defense. I was surprised that Bianca, who had battled very recklessly in the past, pulled off such a strategy. It showed how far this trainer had progressed on her journey, and that she was very flexible with any battle style that her pokemon had. Bianca had Escavalier repeat its defense boosts until Samurott makes contact with a Razor Shell. Escavalier blocked it off due to its increased defensive power.

Once more, Kotetsu pulls his headband to clinch his head so he could come up with a strategy. Kotetsu realizes that there is a possibility for Razor Shell to make a critical hit, which would negate any of Escavalier's defense boosts when damage is calculated. Kotetsu had Samurott use two Razor Shells. Bianca fended the first one off by having Escavalier use Twineedle, but Escavalier could not block the second one. Escavalier was hit, and at first it seemed that he had resisted the move. Bianca was even taunting Kotetsu for his strategy. Once the camera switches its angle, we see that Escavalier is in a lot of pain and eventually faints.

The second match-up (Emboar vs. Samurott) would have played out to Kotetsu's victory if it were not for Emboar learning Attract. Kotetsu did not know that his pokemon could dodge Attract, so he had Samurott do nothing. Big mistake, because it turned out that Samurott's gender (female) was the opposite of Emboar's (male). Samurott just stands there infatauted while Emboar uses his fighting-type moves to win. The Attract card has been played many times before, so I didn't feel that this was a true victory for Bianca. This result had no bearing on either trainer's skill; it was merely luck that decided the end result. If Samurott was male, Attract would not have worked, and Bianca probably would have lost already.

The third match-up (Emboar vs. Riolu) was an interesting one. This is the first time that we have seen Riolu battle since its debut 11 episodes ago, and I wanted to confirm that the move Riolu used in the opening was Vacuum Wave. Indeed, it was, but Riolu had plenty of other interesting moves that are rarely used in the anime. Other than the "standard" Focus Palm (because we have seen many Lucario use Focus Palm in the past), Riolu also had access to Copycat and Circle Throw. Riolu may have had a disadvantage in terms of size, but it was able to compensate due to its speed and surprising moves. Bianca didn't expect Riolu to use Circle Throw on Emboar, or to use Copycat to mimic Emboar's Flamethrower. I was surprised that Flamethrower did a lot of damage on a FIRE type (Emboar), but at least it was not enough to stop it. Riolu won due to its "signature" move, Vacuum Wave. While it was true that Emboar took a lot of damage battling Samurott, I felt that Kotetsu and Riolu still would have won even if Emboar was already at full strength when they fought.

I am a little disappointed that Bianca got eliminated early. We never got to see her use more than three pokemon, and because her character isn't going to be in the download tournament for BW2, we'll never see what other pokemon she has. Alas, this is the price that we all have to pay so other rivals can advance farther in this tournament. I wanted both Trip and Bianca to have many more battles under their belt during this tournament. Instead, we have to deal with rivals that were just introduced a few episodes ago as Ash's final Unova League opponents.

The next episode is going to be a ridiculous filler in which Axew gets into trouble again. I am not expecting anything to happen in this episode, but I hope Bianca uses some of her other pokemon here to help find Axew (as unlikely as that will be). Since Ash and Stephan will not be paired up in this round, maybe we get to see a few brief second round montages for Ash to advance.

This episode was better than the last one. I liked the Bianca and Kotetsu battle, but I hated how Ash defeated Trip here. Overall, this episode was slightly above average.

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Originally Posted by DynoStretch

Doesn't Bianca already have a male Pokemon that can use Attract? Oh right, her Minnicino who seems to be nonexistent in the series now, much like a lot of the other Pokemon the other characters use.

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To be fair, Minccino hasn't used Attract since BW025, and he has been shown to have two new additions to his moveset since then (Swift and Thunderbolt). Attract might well be gone.

I can agree that Attract was rather a glib, overused method for allowing Emboar to gain victory over Samurott, but I liked getting confirmation of the latter's femininity all the same.

Well that was BY FAR the shittiest rival battle I've ever seen.

*watching ep, enjoying the fight Bianca is putting up*


Well done, writers. You've finally managed to mix Bianca's silliness with a bit more competency that I've be-

*watches Bicana break down in overly dramatic tears following her loss*


Goddammit writers. Goddammit.

Can't really blame her for crying like that, even if she did deserve to lose. Her loss meant that, after all her growth and hard work, she still wasn't good enough to win and achieve her goals. Everything she'd been working for all saga was dashed away. And unlike Ash, who can easily bounce from his losses due to his experience, Bianca is still somewhat immature emotionally.

Ok, I'm not upset about how Trip lose or w/e. Whatever skill you're going to master, you're also going to master a weakness. A proof of that is what Trip developed to avoid Pikachu's Thunderbolt with Serperior, knowing it could give problems to his side. Luckily Serperiors don't have horns Also, the idea of Iron Tail + Electro Ball was clever, kind of Ash's strategies. Trip was written out leaving the Higaki Conference, clearly a way the writers found to kick his ass as fast as they could, as well as to show how he's such-a-kid.avi

The scenes post-battle made me laugh. The Ash scene, along with the Mijumaru knocked out on the mini hot spring, was too much for my sides XD.

The Kotetsu x Bel battle indicated Kotetsu isn't as fool as he appears to be, while Bel isn't as skilled as we thought she was I never thought that anyway. The Samurott scenes using Razor Shell was simply amazing. The double Razor Shell, in special, turned Samurott into a real bigboss, more than he already is.

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Originally Posted by Don

His expression is just priceless, it's clearly full of disbelief and shock.

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F****** SAVED.

Finally got to watch the FULL episode today. Bianca's battle...

Honestly, I'm not mad at her for spamming Iron Defense. Not sure if the anime follows the game's mechanics in terms of 3 Iron Defenses=MAX POWER DEFENSE. I know the in games and please correct me if I'm wrong; Increasing your Defensive powers makes your Pokemon more vulnerable to a critical-hit that can result in a K.O.? I know from experiences fighting Torkoal, Wailord, and other Pokemon that use moves like Curse, Amnesia, Iron Defense, etc. then use Rest to get full health and can take hit after hit with little damage but one critical hit and they drop like flies in one attack.

Don't know if that was what happened with Shell Blade knocking out Bianca' iron bug knight out in one hit but if it was that made sense, but still mad that it was over so quickly. I wanted to see more of its moves. Then Round 2; in the previews I was shocked to see Emboar still standing after Hydro Cannon to the face, but it first took an Aqua Jet as well?

Writers, come on now Ash's Pikachu took ridiculous damage against Serperior but those moves weren't super-effective against him but Emboar? I'm not upset at it using Attract either. In the BW games, doesn't ALL of Bianca's Pokemon know how to use Return? Would have been an interesting attack here but oh well Attract it is...

Gotta say this battle is why I LOVE Riolu. Its so adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xD

Copycat making a debut was awesome. Loved Circle Throw made Riolu look like a boss.

That match is why I hate when a Pokemon can launch attack after attack after attack after attack simultaneously. Might be explained how Riolu is a small Pokemon that had to launch that many moves in rapid succession to win but seriously? Not saying Bianca doesn't use that style herself either but still. Epic Vacuum Wave!

If Riolu proved to be a bad ass battler in this form, its obvious that its going to evolve soon and if so watch out trainers! (But then again if Lucario hits the stage the writers might make it lose very easily in terms of making the story go the way they want it too...)

Love Vaporeon! If I get White 2 (since I have Black 2 already); I'm going to put one on my team of 6 with Serperior, Electavire, Metagross, Buffolant and a Dragon-type! It has always been my favorite Eeveeloution!

Downloadable tournament from the Unova league looks cool as well. Hope that comes to the U.S. soon!

Really wished for more than 2-on-2 but hey anything for merchandising if it means crappy pacing even in a league right?

-Satoshi VS. Shooti was okay, I don't mind Jalorda being defeated so easily. Sure the snake is elusive, but it's most likely a glass cannon as well given we saw how Tsutarja defeated him and how Adeku did as well. I wasn't too surprised Pikachu smashed the snake because he was simply able to finally land a hit on Jalorda who has been untouchable by everyone since the Junior Cup, outside of Adeku. I liked the decisive move that won the battle. Shooti's exit and shaking hands with Satoshi was nice, the writers did a nice job of making it different from Shinji with those two actually appearing to be mutually friendly and rival-like toward each other compared to Shinji who was trying to act like Mr.Cool the whole time and hide his emotion. Although I never really cared for Shooti I did enjoy the departure between the two.

-Er...Bel. Bel. I guess it's smart strategy to use Iron Defense, but it seemed kinda boring when up against Kotetsu's Daikenki's Shell Blade, which I'm sure lowers Defense in-game. I'm also sick of how OP Mero-Mero is, Gamagaru VS. Tsutarja was terrible because Tsutarja didn't struggle and of course neither did Bel or Emboar, they didn't win on their own merits and strategic power, they used the ever circumstance-ridden Mero-mero. Felt pretty lazy. Riolu smashing Emboar with Circle Throw and Copy Catting Flamethrower back at it was cool and I loved the fluent movements when it battled. Yeah, Bel overall is a pretty comedic rival and nothing to be taken too seriously at least she wasn't nearly as pathetic as Jun. Outside of her Emboar she isn't that strong to me. I actually think it kinda sucks Bel hasn't had a good battle in BW yet, I mean this battle was pretty above the battle against Shooti at the Donamite. But honestly, Bel just seems so....not bad but lackluster? I liked her in-game but man did her battle feel kinda sucky. Crying comedic-like like an idiot after you lose? Seriously? No serious crying, just her crying like a buffoon while Kotetsu and Riolu hop around happy. They just went overboard with her girly-ness and stereotyping. Fawning over Riolu a.k.a Fighting-type? Again, really? I just don't think I really care too much about her anymore.

-Kotetsu's Riolu was epic.

-Bel and Shooti get the boot first, kinda glad, I prefer Kenyan and Kotetsu to the both of them anyway.

-Overall, okay episode. Showers Hydro Pumping Iwaperesu to the face and defeating it so easily makes me remember how cool it is. Kotetsu using Pin Missile into the mouth of Shibibirudon to defeat it was certainly odd.

-Voice acting during the moment Pikachu is being choked was pretty emotional, Pikachu's.

Nice episode to be realistic.. two battles between rivals.. sad its just ended in a short note esp the 2nd one.. the fact that pikachu was taking so many hits is that it is determined and all its experience came into play.. being a grass type serperior can take thunderbolt never mind grounding which is just to miininize the damage.. but irontail+eletro ball combo was super awesome and writers not taking pikachu's static ability into account was worse. If it worked serperior wouldnt be as evasive as earlier but anyways 1 up for Ash..
In Bianca vs kotetsu battle,, hmm so she started on defensive note and attack with emboar next up. strategy wise its ok but critical hits have to taken care off. Attract and copycat were nice to see,, how come bianca knew the gender of kotetsu's pokemon, and would be nice if she had used it again on Riolu. About Riolu its small,agile and moves are perfect,, am waiting for its evolution soon..

*finally shows up*

Well, allow me to join the celebration for the end of the worst rival to ever disgrace happen to the anime. People can call their battle cheap all they want, but there was no logic to their "rivalry" to begin with, so I couldn't care less about that; only that it's all over now. I happened to like that combination attack, regardless. I also agree that...

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Originally Posted by Don

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... this was the best thing to ever happen to him.

Anyway, I'm still kind of disappointed that Bianca lost, but at least Emboar proved to be a beast to take down.

I also loved the Pokemon sauna scene where Riolu and Pikchu have a water fight and Oshawott goes "what a couple of kids!" and then Pikachu actually resorts to using a Thunderbolt attack, but Riolu gets out of the bath and just ends up zapping Oshawott, a Water-type, to the point where he basically faints. Really, Pikachu, Oshawott probably deserved that, but for you to even consider using your attacks in a water fight... Wow. Just wow.

trip vs ash was ass, idk how some people think it was great.

I don't like Trip, but he had that battle won. Lightning rod the thunderbolt into the ground? Really smart move on his part. However, despite Serperior's perceived godlike abilities, Pikachu should've have been getting rinsed like that. We're talking about Ash's starter whose stood toe to toe with legendaries/E4/frontier brain. And though Ash combining attacks was cool, it shouldn't have OHKO'd serperior. If they implied that Serperior was a glass cannon, that'd be one thing...but they never did.

Man, that battle sucked. Please just get the league over with.