Twice Smitten, Once Shy! "Talk about a positive spin. She really ought to consider a job in politics." Score: 3/10
Oh dear, political jokes from the writers of "Those attacks! That headbutt! Zen headbutt! Man!"? Eh... stick to your day j-- Oh. Yeah.
Dawn sees a Pachirisu and wants to catch it. You know… at least Misty occasionally caught non-cute pokemon. Yes, Misty was still in love with Togepi, but at least she didn’t catch exclusively cute things. I know that Dawn is a girl and everything, but come on. Just, come on. You already did that shtick with May.
Sadly, Pachirisu easily defeats both of Dawn's pokemon. Gee, if only you'd chosen useful pokemon instead of cute ones. Still, by double-teaming it, she's able to catch it, and spends the night sleeping with it (shut up).
The next morning, Dawn sends out Pachirisu to train with it, but it’s so fast, disobedient, and liable to respond to things by shocking them that she needs Ash’s help to force it back into its pokeball.
Dawn wonders if Pachirisu dislikes her because it keeps disobeying. Wow. After one day with it, she wonders this. Can you imagine her with a real pet? Or worse, a cat? Imagine Dawn with a cat, eternally wondering why it never obeys her and deciding that it must dislike her so much that she should just throw it out into the street.
She finally just tells it to go away, while crying, and-- it does. Huh. I was expecting it to return. Well, Team Rocket wanders by it and Jessie falls in love with it immediately while Ash and Brock tell Dawn to go find Pachirisu again because she’s acting like a dumbass. Do you have any idea how many plushies we can make out of Pachirisu, Dawn?
Jessie attempts to catch Pachirisu, but it escapes her pokeball because she didn't weaken it. The heroes appear and tell Team Rocket that Pachirisu belongs to Dawn, but James points out that Dawn released it. Jessie and Dawn agree to settle it by letting Pachirisu choose whom it goes to, and Jessie offers it some food as an incentive to come to her. Brock refuses to give Dawn food to compete with Jessie because "I really don't want to go there." I-- honestly do not know what he’s on about.
Well, Pachirisu ultimately chooses Dawn, so Team Rocket uses a glue gun to glue all of the humans to the ground and steal Pachirisu, who pretends to go with them willingly and then blasts them off. Dawn asks if it wants to come with her again, it agrees, and the episode ends with promises of merchandising Pachirisu so much.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
From: Anagram | #101 Dawn sees a Pachirisu and wants to catch it. You know… at least Misty occasionally caught non-cute pokemon. Yes, Misty was still in love with Togepi, but at least she didn’t catch exclusively cute things. I know that Dawn is a girl and everything, but come on. Just, come on. You already did that shtick with May.
So... you want Coordinators to use visually unappealing Pokemon? That doesn't make sense at all. Catching cute Pokemon for contests is strategy.
-- SomeC - sheer explosives since meeting that crazy hobo. BlAcK TuRtLe grabbed the Guru victory, slow but steady.
Some_Character posted... So... you want Coordinators to use visually unappealing Pokemon? That doesn't make sense at all. Catching cute Pokemon for contests is strategy.
Plenty of coordinators use nontraditional pokemon. Harley uses a Cacturne, for instance. Jessie's used a variety of pokemon, some of which weren't at all cute.
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BK_Sheikah00 posted... The rivalry is great, Paul is not.
*stealth tie-in to contest season*
Do you think we're going to get SmartVoterFAQs here, people voting for the superior rivalries even when they involve inferior characters? It doesn't factor too much into some divisions (e.g. East Division, where Red/Blue is a great rivalry but still isn't going to make it more than two rounds because the winner of Fox/Wolf vs. Ryu/Ken will also be a great rivalry either way), but in others, it could.
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mnkboy: I think they've put on their "scare new users away" pants. Haguile: Wouldn't it be easier to scare new users if they weren't wearing pants?
Officer Jenny tells Ash that she doesn't know where J went, so Melodi sends out her Kirlia (by the way, I guess she owns a Kirlia) to predict the future and tell them where J will land her ship next. Oh, well, of course Kirlia can just predict the future like that, no prob. That’s why Melodi lives in a cottage instead of a mansion after she cheated to win the lottery.
Well, it shows them a hut and waterwheel, which Officer Jenny recognizes as being at the edge of the forest, so she takes the heroes on her motorcycle to it and calls for backup on the radio. This sounds useful, but her backup will literally never arrive, so really, Officer Jenny’s main contribution at this point is her driver’s license. Had Brock been one year older, he could have handled the job.
Despite Kirlia’s attempt, they fail to get there in time and see the dune buggy loading up an Absol (remember this point). Fortunately, Jenny's Arcanine does manage to get its ass kicked by J's Salamence, and Ash uses the distraction to crawl underneath the dune buggy along with Team Rocket, who agree to work with him because of Meowth. Officer Jenny tells the other cops to “engage the tracking radar,” which is a plot point that will never come up and serves no purpose. You know, between the backup never arriving and the fact that police officers are generally not equipped with hovership tracking radars, I’m beginning to question if this Officer Jenny is actually even a cop. Maybe she’s the one Officer Jenny who was denied entrance to the police academy on the grounds of her dangerous hallucinations of already being a cop, and is merely pretending to be one of her cousins, and no one can easily tell the difference.
Well, in the ship, Ash and Team Rocket split up, and Ash tells Aipom to find Pikachu, sending it down a completely random hallway while he goes another direction without setting up a point to meet back at. Luckily, despite Ash, Aipom quickly finds where the pokemon are being held, but when it leaves a door open, J realizes she has intruders. And now we have the weirdest thing ever. Are you ready for this? I’m just going to say it. I know it’s going to be hard to believe, but just trust me, it actually happens.
Every single character in the show acts competently.
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Yes, J is by far the most competent villain that this show has ever come up with. Even when Team Rocket starts acting competent in Best Wishes/Black and White, they are still not as competent as Hunter J.
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mnkboy: I think they've put on their "scare new users away" pants. Haguile: Wouldn't it be easier to scare new users if they weren't wearing pants?
Ok holy crap about halfway through that writeup I got the craziest sense of deja vu
and then when I thought "I will post that I got deja vu" I then thought "when this happened last time, somebody posted afterwards also saying they got dejavu while reading that writeup"
Mutiny In The Bounty! "What a beautiful field of flowers!" "Yeah, and in the bright sunlight, they look like they're on fire. Score: 8.8/10
Wooooooaaaah there Ash, stay the hell away from me.
The heroes come across a field of flowers with a picturesque cottage in the center. Daaaaaw. A Salamence flies overhead, and Ash, who has apparently never seen a Salamence before during this episode, scans it. Salamence lands beside the cottage and attacks a girl and her Gardevoir, before a woman steps off of it (we later learn her name is “J”) and shoots Gardevoir with a ray that turns it to stone. Some of her minions then steal it using a dune buggy. Why doesn't she steal it with her Salamence? Because F*** YEAH DUNE BUGGIES
The girl (whose name is never mentioned, but I looked it up and it’s “Melodi”) begs Ash to save Gardevoir because that’s not a job for the police or anything. Pikachu attacks the dune buggy, and while it turns out to be electricity-proof, the power of its attack impresses J. Its volt tackle impresses her even more, so Pikachu stands perfectly still while she shoots it with her flesh-to-stone ray even though its speed is like its second defining characteristic after “electricity.” J then has her Ariados (by the way, she has an Ariados) web Ash up and escapes. I especially love how she in no way needs to web Ash up, because he can do nothing to her Salamence or dune buggy, but she does so anyway. As she escapes, she sees Team Rocket and their talking Meowth and steals him as well, mentioning that Pikachu and Meowth will be worth a lot of money.
The other heroes arrive just in time to do nothing, so Dawn has Pachirisu free Ash on the grounds that it was caught last episode and hasn't done anything yet.
She then escapes in her hovership. Luckily, Officer Jenny appears on a motorcycle. Yes, the villains are equipped with dune buggies, ray guns that turn you to stone, and hoverships, and someone has thought that equipping Officer Jenny with a motorcycle will be sufficient. Jenny explains that J is a pokemon hunter who goes around stealing pokemon for money. Ash is clearly distraught and agitated, so Dawn asks what's wrong. Just… goddammit, Dawn. Goddammit. Ash declares that he'll get Pikachu back no matter what, and Officer Jenny, once again, says nothing to this ten year-old child declaring that he’s going to hunt down a criminal who’s equipped with hoverships and rayguns. My God. My God, J literally owns a hovership (that we later learn can shoot lasers) and Officer Jenny doesn’t tell Ash that this is a job for the police, or the national guard (does Japan have a national guard?), she simply accepts his help. She is the worst cop.
Cut to J, in her invisible hovership (by the way, it can apparently turn invisible). I don't-- I don't see how this can possibly be a necessary expense. Even if you got like a hundred thousand dollars per pokemon stolen, you would never be able to justify the cost of an invisible hovership and the dozens of crewmembers who operate it. I literally do not see how you could ever make back the money you spent on the invisible hovership unless you already somehow owned an invisible hovership that you’d bought for a more lucrative purpose and that you’d already paid off, and now you’re just stealing pokemon to keep yourself busy because what the hell, you own an invisible hovership. By the way, I’m not even going to tell you what J does in this scene, because invisible hovership.
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J confronts Ash with her Drapion, which kicks Turtwig and Aipom’s asses. Realizing he can’t beat her, Ash and his pokemon escape through a ventilation shaft, whereupon Aipom leads him and Team Rocket to the pokemon storage room, whereupon they immediately free all of the captive pokemon. Nameless guards confront them, but Ash, who holds a particular dislike for J’s actions, simply has Pikachu shock the enemy Golbat into submission, blows a hole in the side of the ship, and sends Staravia to tell Officer Jenny where he is, whereupon Officer Jenny, the other heroes, and Medoli immediately follow Staravia back to the ship.
The entire sequence is so surreal entirely because everything that happens makes perfect sense. I mean, okay, J could have been a little more ruthless in her fight with Ash since she clearly had the upper hand, but that’s about it.
Realizing that Ash is more trouble than he's worth, J simply separates the hanger that he blew a hole in from the rest of the ship, jettisoning Ash, Team Rocket, and the unlucky crewmembers who were fighting them into the forest, shrugging when another crewmember tells her that they’ll be lost. Fortunately, Gardevoir teleports everyone out of the hangar as it falls to the ground. By the way, that Absol I mentioned earlier? We never see it again, so it’s presumably still on J’s ship somewhere, in a different pokemon storage hangar.
Dawn laments that J escaped, but Brock promises that Officer Jenny will catch J one day, even though Jenny has caught precisely zero people without their help.
This is actually a really good episode. Everyone except Officer Jenny acts competently and logically at all times during the episode, and J in particular is a really impressive villain. She’s like a reverse Team Rocket: she steals pokemon in the most efficient way possible, doesn’t waste time talking (though she does let scan Drapion with his pokedex), and uses advanced technology to do it (as opposed to comical giant robots that inevitably explode). She even escapes at the end, having lost… but not lost a lot. Her total losses this episode are a hangar, three pokemon, and like six crewmembers. I am really impressed by J is what I’m saying here.
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TsunamiXXVIII posted... Yes, J is by far the most competent villain that this show has ever come up with. Even when Team Rocket starts acting competent in Best Wishes/Black and White, they are still not as competent as Hunter J.
I know. Throughout this episode I was just amazed at how much better a villain she is than pretty much everyone else. I hope she shows up more.
XIII_rocks posted... Also Gardevoir doesn't have an E on the end
Now why would you think I misspelled it?
>_>
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GenesisSaga posted... Real writeu? I don't remember seeing this episode and an actual wrireup would help me remember if I had...
Genesis, that is the episode. There are no funny jokes I can make about it. Team Rocket buys a fake evolution machine from the Magikarp Salesman, steals the world's strongest and most beautiful Magikarp and Feebas (who just happen to be nearby and that the heroes just happen to be visiting), finds the machine doesn't work, and blasts off.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
Cut to J, in her invisible hovership (by the way, it can apparently turn invisible). I don't-- I don't see how this can possibly be a necessary expense. Even if you got like a hundred thousand dollars per pokemon stolen, you would never be able to justify the cost of an invisible hovership and the dozens of crewmembers who operate it. I literally do not see how you could ever make back the money you spent on the invisible hovership unless you already somehow owned an invisible hovership that you’d bought for a more lucrative purpose and that you’d already paid off, and now you’re just stealing pokemon to keep yourself busy because what the hell, you own an invisible hovership.
Who cares about the expense and whether it is necessary? It's an invisible hovership with lasers! That is always a worthwhile expense!
-- (Maniac64 at work) [Browncoat] ~Board 570901~ All the proteins, vitamins, and carbs of your grandma's best turkey dinner, plus 15% alcohol.
muddersmilk posted... Cut to J, in her invisible hovership (by the way, it can apparently turn invisible). I don't-- I don't see how this can possibly be a necessary expense. Even if you got like a hundred thousand dollars per pokemon stolen, you would never be able to justify the cost of an invisible hovership and the dozens of crewmembers who operate it. I literally do not see how you could ever make back the money you spent on the invisible hovership unless you already somehow owned an invisible hovership that you’d bought for a more lucrative purpose and that you’d already paid off, and now you’re just stealing pokemon to keep yourself busy because what the hell, you own an invisible hovership.
Who cares about the expense and whether it is necessary? It's an invisible hovership with lasers! That is always a worthwhile expense!
And Anna, didn't J also steal a Teddiursa? Why aren't you instead dwelling on the fact that she steals relatively common pokemon that nearly anyone can catch?
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muddersmilk posted... Who cares about the expense and whether it is necessary? It's an invisible hovership with lasers! That is always a worthwhile expense!
Well, granted, it does make her immune to Officer Jenny.
BNVshark123 posted... And Anna, didn't J also steal a Teddiursa? Why aren't you instead dwelling on the fact that she steals relatively common pokemon that nearly anyone can catch?
That was in a flashback by Officer Jenny. We never actually see J steal the Teddiursa, so it could just be Jenny trying to impress how evil J is onto Ash by saying she steals such cute pokemon.
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