The Grass Menagerie! (505)

[Torpoleon]

Too bads for Staravia losing to the sam Pokemon twice when it has the advantage overall a great episode.

[HoennMaster]

Well, at least this time it had already had a battle so it wasn't at full power.

[TurtwigFan1]

It was a good episode, Gardenia is my favourite Sinnoh Gym Leader and Turtwig vs. Turtwig was FABULOUS!

[Igottapoo]

Poor Staravia. Getting beaten so easily Good Gym Battle, though.

[(s.i.e)]

staravia got beaten by the same opponent twice, i was actually hoping that he would win this time-_-

[Blue Snover]

I love Gardenia, this was a great gym battle.

I think the only slip up she made was starting out with Cherubi, but it was still nice to see it make an appearance.

Her Turtwig is really well trained, but Ash managed to beat it.

I think this was one of the best gym battles i've seen.

[Palamon]

This episode was okay it was not my favorite gym battle it was my least favourite.
I have no reason why I just didn't like it, maybe because Gardenia doesn't excite me much maybe that 's why.
But at least Ash beat her that is what matters to me that Ash had 2 gym badges no longer one.
But meh... the battle with Maylene was more exciting then this one.
And I also don't like the dub name so I don't want to watch it again.
It's just my thoughts.
So my least favorite Gym leader battle was this one.

[Ash-kid]

Why Ash did'nt use Pikachu instead of Aipom in this gym?

[Torpoleon]

Why Ash did'nt use Pikachu instead of Aipom in this gym?

I can't understand you. Did you mean why did Ash use Aipom over Pikchu. It is because Electric type moves aren't very effective against grass types and Aipom had a better advantage than Pikachu move wise.

[Shadow XD001]

The battle was great although, I wish Staravia was more of the star in this gym. Aipom and Ash developed a great bond in this episode.

[Littlemyuu]

Nice battle, i love gym battles in animes..^^
it was a great episode btw =)

[S.Suikun]

This is a pretty good gym battle. Not as good as Shinji vs. Hyouta or Satoshi/Hyouta Round 1, but certainly above Satoshi/Hyouta Round 2. For one, everything in this battle is believable. Muku.BIRD (it just won't stay dead!) gets its first gym victory in style, then lends its birdbrained self to a few entertaining scenes involving trees and Leech Seeds. Aipom gets its overdue time in the gym spotlight as well, with Roserade getting some decent battle exposure as opposed to what it got in DP025. Natane is a really fun gym leader, and it was good to get the Naetle vs. Naetle rematch. Animation and music were decent.

I really like the Team Rocket B-plot in this, as not only does it give them something unrelated to do, but it introduces the idea of Sinnoh Underground to the anime while still in Hakutai City. Obviously the Underground was never going to be a huge part of the anime, but it's still nice to see some form of adaptation. The battle itself lacks some of the excitement of other gym matches, especially of ones later in the saga, and is fairly straightforward on the whole. But sometimes being straightforward works as opposed to pulling ridiculous strategies out of nowhere that don't make a lick of sense.

B+

[milenadrg]

This episode was great! Battle with Gardenia was cool. Poor Staravia lost to that Turtwig again... Aipom Vs. Roserade battle was great, too... Aipom became blind!
I liked that underground man's English voice(but I never heard Japanesse one)...

[Mr. Smile]

This was a good episode. Ash's gym battle was interesting to watch. Team Rocket being fooled by the underground man was a funny plot to add to this episode. 8/10

[Ash-kid]

It was a good gym battle, because Roserade was battled vs 2 of Ash's pokemon, and not against 3.

[STICKTOPIA]

cant believe staravia lost again......

[Charmed]

Yeah, finally the gym battle. I was thinking that we'd never get to this point with all the episodes interupting this moment.

Loved the battle, although I thought Cherubi and Turtwig were weaker compared to Roserade for some reason, despite the fact that Roserade is naturally stronger.

I liked that they showed Weather Ball in this one, and that it turned into fire. 6/10

[KGB13]

This was such an awesome Gym Battle! Gardenia is a very good trainer and her Turtwig is a force to be reckoned with even though Ash's Turtwig beat it. Aipom absolutely demolished her Roserade, but it's Weather Ball attack looked really cool. Overall this was a really fantastic episode.

[Willow's Tara]

Gardenia was quite tough especially with her Turtwig, I wonder if it would be even stronger as a Torterra especially being Ground/Grass.

Good that Staravia got a win in this but it's shame it didn't get to do more or win the entire battle like against Turtwig, but there's plenty more episodes for it to shine and gym battles for it to be in. The fact Gardenia was in this episode too is another reason I like it, she's just so wacky lol.

[wind21]

Okay. I'm just going to focus on 2 scenes in particular. Well, one isn't that important, but I like it anyway. Pretty quick review today.

The first scene is Ash's use of Staravia against Cherub. Ash gets into a bit of a bother b/c of the sun being so bright-allowing Cherub to use solarbeam instantly (no wonder Gardenia liked Nando's battling style)-, but he's bailed out by a cloud cover that reduces the sunshine. Staravia is way up in the sky after dodging a magical leaf (which is supposed to always hit, if I remember my game mechanics correctly), and Ash orders Staravia to use wing attack coming in at a slow speed. This totally surprises Brock and Dawn, who expect Ash to counter attack quickly and are wondering why Ash is wasting an opportunity. But of course, Ash is just waiting for the clouds to pass, releasing sunlight right into Cherub's eyes and allowing Staravia to connect with a couple of super effective hits in quick succession. Ash also uses another clever strategy when fighting Turtwig, having Staravia unleash a barrage of attacks to back Turtwig up against a tree, leaving it uncoordinated and open to Staravia's attack. I think these are pretty neat moments from Dawn's perspective, as she stops questioning why Ash is doing what he's doing in later gym battles and respects that he has a plan. Brock never gets like this, for whatever reason.

Aipom finishes off the victory for Ash by using a swift move that looks like it came from a contest, which is one of the more unique ko moves I've seen in a gym battle.

Okay, the 2nd scene (sorry, counted all of Ash's brilliance in the battling scenes as one) that stuck with me from this episode is Gardenia's very sneaky use of Grass Knot, whispering it so that Ash couldn't hear (although I wonder if that's just a dubbing thing). There's more to her than meets the eye as far as being wacky and a bit air-headed; she has a sly, serious side to her as well, which I found shocking. People like that scare me a little, I must admit.

[saar]

Gardenia's Turtwig this time was weaker than Ash's Turtwig, Ash has improved since the loss against her.
Aipom was awesome...^^

[Lance The Champ]

Was an awesome battle especially the clash between Aipom and Roserade

[hever]

Gardenia is awesome; as well as Grass Pokemon. Seeing Roserade in battle was awesome. 7/10

[G50]

This episode was great. The Gym Battle was great. It was cool to see Cherubi's Chlorophyll ability shown for the 1st time. I like Ash's plan of having Staravia fly high up to avoid the Magical Leaf attack, then fly down slowly, making the Sun blind Cherubi and then come in with its best attacks. It was unfortunate that Staravia once again lost to Gardenia's Turtwig. It was cool how Ash's Turtwig was able to hang in there to defeat Gardenia's Turtwig. Roserade is really strong. Weather Ball and Grass Knot looked really cool. Grass Knot oddly enough wasn't exactly what I expected it to look like. It was cool how Aipom was able to use its ears to hear the attack and be able to deflect it back. Double Team +Swift worked well to take down Roserade. Flash attack looked cool and was very clever. I'm glad Ash won his 2nd badge.

89/100

[BurningSociety12345543210]

A blind monkey could beat that Roserade. In fact, one did.