A Shape of Things To Come (483)

[Irene]

Not too enthusiastic about Shinji winning, especially since that equates to even further Sinnoh embarrassment for Ash, further considering how Shinji will be sticking around for DP 16. Shinji doesn't need any change in character, but somebody needs to show him up and put him in his place soon enough. I'd also much rather see Hyouta win twice than lose twice.

And when the hell are we going to see this Murkrow of his?

I'm not too happy about the fact he won actually... since I'm happy for him, but I feel bad for the series.
Wonder what the writers have in mind.

...

If anything o.o

As for Murkrow, I'm starting to think it's just a biiig, biiiig joke they put on us.

[CyberCubed]

Well I'm sure Shinji willl have a major loss eventually, maybe against the second Gym leader if we see him there.

Shinji is a cool character but the writers run the risk of overusing him and/or making him into a Gary Stu. I hope this is not a sign of things to come, because people will probably end up being bored of him if the same thing happens every time he shows up.

Eh, but let's wait and see. I'm sure Shinji will get a major loss eventually, maybe against the second Gym leader.

[Irene]

Though, it's also true that he needs to inflate his ego as much as possible to make the rivalry really stand up. Because Satoshi can't accept the fact that such a horrible person can actually win AND KEEP ON WINNING with such barbarian methods (!11).

If Shinji loses now, he could go all emo and cut his wrists and end of DP rival D:

[ash5550]

I'm not happy that Shinji won either. >.> That guy is way to sterotypical. I mean, he's just that arrogent guy that loves getting in front of the good guys way. Shinji himself is a guy that I like, his attitude I don't. Shinji should have lost; it would've made Shinji a more realistic char.


By the way, judgin by Shinji's looks, he could sjut be a midgit.

[BattleFranky~40]

I don't exactly see Shinji losing to a Grass gym leader when he has Hikozaru.

I mean, 2 of the 3 pokemon he used in this episode were weak to Rock pokemon, and he still won.

I'm not happy that Shinji won either. >.> That guy is way to sterotypical. I mean, he's just that arrogent guy that loves getting in front of the good guys way. Shinji himself is a guy that I like, his attitude I don't. Shinji should have lost; it would've made Shinji a more realistic char.

How is he any more stereotypical than any other Pokemon character? And since when was Pokemon realistic?

[Irene]

Shinji himself is a guy that I like, his attitude I don't.

How can you like him and still not liking his attitude? You mean you just don't support his way of thinking... or just dislike his behavior?

[Jo-Jo]

Well to be perfectly fair Jo-Jo, the guy has only shown up for two episodes before this. One of them was his introductory, and the other had more focus on Ash and Naetle's problems as oppossed to Shinji himself.

Point. And the screen of Hikari getting in the way of Ash and Shinji fighting next ep looks promising as a fun scene, at least. But I think Shinji's had enough screentime by now (he had pretty big roles in all three of his episodes) that we ought to be seeing something different. It feels like the writers are re-debuting him every time he appears, showcasing the same traits that were initially so fresh over and over.

[S.Suikun]

Shinji needs to lose to Makishi in an epic battle of each of them constantly yelling "I AM NOT A STEREOTYPE!" throughout the entire fight.

And judging by #PM's pictures, Hyouta looks kinda PO'd when giving the badge to Shinji.

[BattleFranky~40]

Shinji needs to lose to Makishi in an epic battle of each of them constantly yelling "I AM NOT A STEREOTYPE!" throughout the entire fight.

It ends with both of them beating up Ash due to his lack of manliness and being a bigger stereotype than the both of them.

And judging by PM's pictures, Hyouta looks kinda PO'd when giving the badge to Shinji.

So Hyouta's gonna kill Shinji behind the scenes? And I guess that means Shinji does indeed insult Hyouta at one point.

[Korobooshi Kojiro]

Murkrow will become the Fire Dragon of Pokemon.

[Anonymous Trainer]

This makes you wonder about the complete difference if Ash didn't leave his AG/BF team at Oak's. *snicker*

[Weav-vile]

Just watched the episode.
The only thing I didn't like much was, uh... It's just that I'm kinda speechless about Shinji's battle. You know, he won most of the duels using his week-against-opponents Elekid, and... Gaaah, that was kinda out-of-the-blues. But I can live with that, I think. õ.ù
Overall, the battle was fine to me, actually: I loved how Zugaidos moves! Awwww, such a kawaii thingyyy! <3
Seriously, it's such a baby I could raise and...
Sorry. .-.

Uh, back to the episode, another moments I really liked were:

- Hyouta; even though he's lost to Shinji, he's still a nice guy; and I disagree with people that are saying that he's things like the worst of all gym leaders ever, 'cause you all know he's not. Did you forget about Wattson, or even Misty's sisters? (Not to hurt their fans, but...) =P
- Kurogane City; perfectly designed, fair to the videogames! Awwwwwww, I wanna be there! I could see that mountains being blasted off by a giant Groudon (!), lol! ^-^
- Team Rocket; nice costumers compared to the last ones. And they didn't act like the mess-Ash&Co's life-with-the-most-stupid-plans-ever team we are used to; they finally got their own screen time doing other things! Yay!
- Shinji's Azumarill; When I saw it, I was just like "ZOMG :O", I mean it! C'mon, he could have used another water type! My, the writers love to play around, oh yeah they do!
- The controversious battle; yep, that's good for their public (us, pfff) - you know you loved it deep inside of you!

Good episode, I enjoyed it hella much! And I can't wait, of course, 'till next week: HIKARI's BURNING, SHE'S ON FIRE! Bring on the bubblebeam, Pochama! xD

And that's that, guess it's enough from me today!

- Nozomi

[Anonymous Trainer]

I wonder if they later show Shinji being mercilessly slaughtered by an elite trainer, such as Lance or the Sinnoh League Champion. (forgot her name)
I would love to see the horrified look on his face for once after all the smug looks we've seen so far.

[Korobooshi Kojiro]

The Rocket's seem too have an ongoing plot which culminates in DP 17. Next episode they are shown a Omanyte being revived.

[Squirtle_007]

Shinji rocks, Satoshi sucks
Shinji beats Satoshi even in his own uber-electric game
I don´t think Hyouta would be the worsr Gym Leader I mean ... where do you leave Takeshi?

[The Great Butler]

So Shinji won, I must say I'm surprised.

Still though, since Azumarill lost, I still expect it to be released next week---that would explain Hikari's "eruption." But what is with Mukubird and his anime eyes/John Lennon glasses?

DP champion's name is Shirona to answer the earlier question.

And I sure hope the writers do the rest of the cities and Gym Leaders this good.....I kinda can't wait to see Lucha Libre Makishi, or all the fanboying when we get to Suzuna.

EDIT: Maybe Hyota's annoyed because Shinji acted like a dick at some point in their battle? It's kinda hard to tell from just pictures with Shinji.....he always looks like he's acting like a dick.

[S.Suikun]

Eh...maybe it was the mediocre animation, or the fact that I'm so Goddamn sick of seeing Geodude and Onix at this point, but I thought this battle was pretty crappy up until the part when Zugaidos entered. But then it got really good, particularly Elekid v. Zugaidos. We also got to hear some Movie 7 music for the first time in forever.

What was that attack that Onix used that created the boulders on the battlefield that slammed Elekid and Hikozaru? Rock Tomb?

At this rate, we've already seen Hikozaru have more screen time in the anime than it would have in the series' entirety if Brock would have gotten it instead.

Also, it doesn't seem like Hyouta is really ticked at Shinji, actually. It was merely difficult to accurately depict Hyouta's facial expression from the small screencaps.

[Mythic Mist]

I'll assume one of the lesser animation teams did this episode e_e. Yuck.

Anyway, It was cool seeing stealth rock actually hurt the incoming pokes. Also, seeing blaze activate was nice, and I thought it would give Shinji the win. But it didn't, and Elekid took the spotlight. Oh well.

I don't mind that Elekid lasted so long. It's not like Hyouta used any ground type moves on it. Btw, what was that move that Geodude used to repel Hydro Pump? Was it Mud Sport? O_o

Next ep looks promising.

[Umi Mizuno]

Every single shot I saw of Shinji in the episode, convinced me more and more that somebody slashed some old guy's face and pasted it on Shinji. O_o

The part where Zugaidos comes in and the battle was really suprising, I actually thought Hikozaru was the one that was going to take out Zugaidos.

Shinji and Hyouta couldn't be anymore different. How nice of the writers to have Hyouta congratulate his pokemon and have Shinji scorn his pokemon for not doing well enough. But Shinji's the average super-jerk so it's no suprise.

..I hate these people who are animating the D/P season, couldn't they have gotten better people? Everything in this episode was "make everyone shrink so they fit the screen and you can actually see their full body but it's all blurred."


Hehe, Zugaidos <3

[S.Suikun]

Yeah, that's typical Izumi Shimura. About as bland and average as it gets. Some of Hyouta's face shots looked really sloppy, also. Case in point:
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/94/vlcsnap6230zc9.png

If it's any consolidation, however, next week's episode has a very solid animation director at the wing.