Coming Full Festival Circle! (644)

[BlueDragonfangirl]

I'm a little late but I gotta say I just loved the Zoey V.S Nando battle.
I'm not into contests this saga but gotta admit that one was impressive.
Every thing they did about it, the animation every thing was just brilliant.
I'm more so as every one else disapointed by Dawn V.S Jessie.
I was rooting for Jessie, I mean I knew she wasn't going to win but I was hopping she'd get pretty far and get an actual battle in the Grand Festival but oh wells.
Over all, pretty fun episode. Can't wait to see what happens in the finales, I predict Dawn to win.

[Lunanight]

So having 2 of your Ribbons handed to you makes you an excellent Coordinator?

Hmmm. Must be up there with creating appeals that only show yourself off instead of you Pokemon and thinking of your opponent as trash.

How did I not catch that?

she made it to the top four, jessie got further then may did in her first GF.

may got to the top 8, jessie got to the top 4. also, jessie would have to be good to get to the top 4. nando, zoey and dawn also got there so what does that say about her improvement from hoenn to sinnoh?

[Shego]

Zoey must have improved a lot since her last contest battle with Nando at Hearthome City, and then she manage to defeat him. And Dawn completely beat Jesslina and made it to the final round with Zoey.

[Ashy Boy]

It's bad enough that Jessie acted liked a poor loser (as usual) but what she did and said to Dawn was nothing short of disturbing.

But then again, I would expect anything less from Jessie.

[Marbi Z]

I looked at some of the episode pictures on this site and this episode features one of two Pokemon I really wanted to see in battle... Loppuny! I never thought I'd see Loppuny, my favorite pokemon featured in a battle on the TV series! Ok... There was the episode Arriving in Style but anyway I can't wait to see Nandos Loppuny Perform at the Grand Festvial even if I already know the outcome... I love Loppuny! And I Love Gardevoir To!!!

[Sapphire Kirby]

Okay, I woke up early enough catch it at the beginning today.

Like everyone else, I really liked the Nando vs Zoey battle. The combinations might defy logic, but it was an intense battle nonetheless. The only part of the battle I had a problem with was Lucky Chant. How does a move that prevents critical hits allow one to grow red tentacles? I loved the part where Krickitune is in danger of being owned that Nando just shouts for Lopunny to save it, and it does. Such an urgency from Nando the calm bard is unheard of, so it took me by surprise. The end of the battle was epic. Nothing more to say about that.

Sadly, the Dawn vs Jessilina(sp?) battle seemed tacked on. It was as short as a Diglet and, from what was seen, Dawn seemed to be in control for the whole time- minus the part where Seviper wraps one of the rodents, it was just like a Team Rocket vs Team Twerp battle. I wish they could of fleshed this battle out, maybe a separate episode. That way Jessie could show the skills we know she has, as we only saw a onesided battle. I had no idea what Jessie was going to do to Dawn, but complimenting/ scaring her is in character for her, and I laughed.

How sad that PUSA didn't fix the "day form Cherim at night" scene. They use to fix minor errors like that.

Overall, a fine episode.

[the1stpkmnfan]

Sadly I wasnt up for the first five minutes, but I already knew that Nando, Zoey, Jessilina and Dawn all made it to the Semi-Final round!

Also, I didnt notice about the Cherrim till now actually, being at night. Why didnt I think of that before? xD

I also spied those two guys from "Tanks for the Memories!" in Jessilina's fantasy.

Nando VS Zoey

    Spoiler:- Nando VS Zoey:

Show Spoiler

 
Nando VS Zoey was quite a spectacular one. Leafeon and Mismagius made a good combination of Energy Ball and Thunder Wave, which was great to start off with before a commercial. : P

Then with Nando, using Kricketune and Lopunny, it was stellar of Lopunny to back fire the Ball, but wonder what happened to it.

Then with Bug Buzz from Kricketune, it made Leafeon weaker by the type advantage, but Lopunny is such a great ballerina with the music tone of it. Its amazing~

And when the Thunder Wave Energy Ball, with Kricketune's attack to backfire, the fireworks are shown so intense and spectacular on Lopunny and Kricketune~

But now was time for Zoey to show off some moves, and thats Double Double Team by Mismagius and Leafeon. As Nando attacks them, it just makes it look good for Zoey, and getting more appeal from the cloned Mismagius and Leafeon vanish and sparkled up.

Up next, Nando has Sing go into play by Kricketune, and Zoey has Mismagius use Lucky Chant. What good does that do? Takes down Nando's srategey of using Sing~ Something Zoey learned while learing about Nando's Top 16/8 battle. Somehow, but it works for Zoey!

Then Leafeon gives Lopunny a powerful Leaf Blade hit, as Lopunny tried to fire a Focus Blast first. Graceful moves!

Now for X-Scissor from Kricketune coming towards Mismagius with Psywave, and then gets this intense for Nando as both Lopunny and Kricketune dodge it.

From a collision between Kricketune and Leafeon, Leafeon is not giving up despite the advantage. This is very intense!

Alright, this is getting more awesome. More moves fired back and forth, this battle should really go on forever. Very stunning and gracefully made moves right out of the hand.

Though, with only 30 seconds left, and X-Scissor with Blizzard combined, now we have snowflakes around the the stage. Not a problem for Zoey though, Leafeon charges with Ariel Ace, and followed by Psywave for Leafeon... LEAFEON GREW WINGS! This battle just got epic.

Just when it charges, Lopunny heads forth Leafeon, as Mismagius blocks it with Thunder Wave to prevent Leafeon going down.

Now to end it all here, Kricketune with X-Scissor and Leafeon charging full head, makes another huge explosion! Very intense after shock. But looks beautiful in the end though!

The winner of this battle though, comes to a win for Zoey! Heading to the Finals! In the end, what a spectacular battle to witness, and how elegant it got over and over. Such a battle to remember.
 

Now time for Dawn VS Jessilina.

    Spoiler:- Dawn VS Jessilina:

Show Spoiler

 
However, from the start, this battle feels just so rush... Nando and Zoey took a good amount of time to go through, but this just hurts Jessilina too bad. She may have got some moves in, but Buneary and Cyndaquil kept slaughtering Carnivine and Seviper here and there, it was just a shame for Jessilina. Shes came so far, and now she ends here in shame. Though, she tried her best, but the win goes to Dawn in the end.

While it went on though, looks like Johanna saw how far Dawn came, and how she use to be from just starting her journey. And now Dawn has grown so much and is coming to a very close part of her goal: to win the Grand Festival!

Though I really cracked up from Jessillina raging so much at Dawn from her loss. And Jessilina even pulls Dawn's cheeks, which now I know why. I was really thinking this was why she did so in the first place, from creepiness and anger. After Jessilina gave her a few words, it was quite nice to at least see that Jessilina wishes Dawn to make it to the Top Coordinator title. Dawn then says that was the nicest thing shes ever said, and quite possibly will be.
 

And now for the epic moment weve been waiting for, The Final Round! Dawn VS Zoey! The conclusion of the Grand Festival is here, and I can't wait!

Overall, very amazing episode, and with a great battle included. Jessilina VS Dawn couldve been better, but ah well, what'cha gonna do? Lets see how Dawn VS Zoey does, though its gonna be great!

[Torpoleon]

I thought this episode was awesome, even though Dawn VS Jessilina wasn't that great. But, that was to take the spotlight off of Dawn for a moment since she'll get a lot of spotlight in DP177. Zoey VS Nando was simply amazing. I wished it was the final match! Next is Dawn VS Zoey where the winner will be crowned!
10/10

Fun Fact: As of this episode, Dawn has gotten the farthest in any major tournament, since Ash was Top 8 in the Hoenn League and May was Top 4 in the Kanto Grand Festival. Maybe Dawn could win the Sinnoh Grand Festival too!!

[Dattebayo]

So it finally comes to this huh? Who will be victorious? I hope Dawn lose. Also, X-Scissors should've overpowered Leaf Blade due to type advantage, but then again, Krictetot's stats are poor.

[SmartD]

Awesome episode. Zoey and Nando's battle was spectacular. Their Pokemon pulled off some neat combination techniques. Now both Zoey and Dawn are in the finals. I can't wait to see the conclusion.

[Elite Trainer Corey]

amazing episode easily the best so far until the sinnoh league and the music built it up to an epic climax perfect 9/10 only prob was the first 5 minitues the dub was slow and felt pushy but other then that perfect

[WaterDragon trainer]

This episode was good. It was awesome to see Bug Buzz and Lucky Chant. Thought it was odd that Jessie angrily approached Dawn and no one tried to stop her.

[_Taidow_]

IMO the english version was bad compared to the awesomeness of the japanese version of Nando vs Zoey.

[ash_forever]

After not having written a review last week because I was so outraged at how totally exaggerated and logically flawed that episode was, I'm happy to tell you that I liked this week's episode again

HOWEVER: The episode was a two-edged sword as well.
On the one hand, we had a truly brilliant battle between Zoey and Nando throughout which I was totally delighted and excited, on the other the writers not only skipped two entire rounds (round 2 and 3), but also rushed through the Jessalina vs. Dawn battle as if it were an unimportant opener or whatever.

Firstly, why in the world did they have to skip two entire rounds? Wanting us to assume that it is Zoey, Nando, Dawn and Jessalina of all people who make it to the semi-finals with ease is not only bad and predictable plot-writing, it also reminds me once again of cheap old DEM tricks. Yes, I could explode whenever they seem not to be able to think of any other solution than relying on DEM plot devices.hdear:
WHY couldn't the writers just forgo unimportant episodes like "Regaining Home Advantage" or "Dealing With A Fierce Double Ditto Drama" ? Nobody would have missed them, but now we DO miss at least one further episode dedicated to contest battles...
I somehow feel cheated and I can't get my head around it, so all I can say is: "What a crazy world we live in sometimes!"

Secondly, the showdown between Jessalina and Dawn was an unworthy match, plain and simple, and I'm delighted to see that so many of you actually agree with me on this! Once again, writers, cut out one unnecessary filler and you have plenty of time for a breath-taking and, above all, worthy battle which does justice to both Dawn AND Jessie
you know what? I can't help thinking that the writers just couldn't be bothered to make up another battle as epic as the one between Zoey and Nando!


But as I don't want my review to end on a sour note, I'm once again emphasizing how much I enjoyed Zoey vs. Nando. Considering that contests are going to come to an end soon, it'll probably go down in history as one of the best contest battles ever!
I'd also like to make a BGM request: What's the piece of music called which was playing while Nando's Lopunny was eliminating the Double Team attack with Blizzard?
IT WAS PURELY EPIC and moved me as only a few other pieces of BGM can.


Yes, as I said before, it was an episode with drawbacks but also fantastic moments. Now I'm really torn how much points I should give. Let's say:

7 out of 10 points

[pokemonloverXD]

Hm, the battle was so awesome in the Jap version, the Dub totally ruined it -__-

Still I love the combo between psywave and aerial ace, it was very pretty ^^

7/10 if the Dub was as good as the jap it'd be 8.5/10

[Shneak]

The battle between Nando and Zoey was much better than I thought. The writers did a good job to make it look really nice.

And Jessalina's reaction to losing was hilarious. She sounded like an animal.

8.5/10. Dawn vs. Jessalina sucked.

[Ciccone]

Took me several hours to watch the episode since I kept zoning out and had to re-watch it closely. Well it's finally time for the Grand Festival to proceed with the next rounds! I love how things have shaped up recently for the Sinnoh Grand Festival so I had hoped that this episode wasn't an utter disappointment. From the look of things, I can say I'm satisfied with how this whole tournament has been handled so far. Much better that the Hoenn and Kanto Grand Festivals by far. Here we got then. Things started off with the review of Dawn's, Zoey's, Nando's, and Jessie's victories in the previous episode. I thought that was a nice touch since I don't remember much about the previous episode myself and maybe some kids didn't either.

Jessie won her battle at the start of the episode which I found refreshing considering how often she loses her Pokemon Contest battles haha. James seemed really glad Mime Jr. and Carnivine did so well though Jessie got a bit too cocky after the battle when she asked to be given the trophy and was scolded by Fantina haha. After yet another review (like the 50th one) we get the match ups for the semi-finals and as luck would have it, Nando has to fight Zoey while Dawn has to fight Jessie. Seems like a reasonable match up in my opinion, at least the last one since Jessie has battled Dawn before a few times in random battles. We saw a quick clip of Johanna watching the Grand Fesival which I thought was nice of her to do.

The night before the semi-finals it looked like Dawn had a lot of stuff on her mind as she was day-dreaming but Ash and Brock came to wake her up, so to speak. After some inspirational talk from non other than Brock and Ash, Dawn seemed motivated to make it to the Top 2 for the next round. Some weirdo was playing a harp in the middle of the night, though it turned out to be Nando. I liked that the wild Pokemon gathered around him like that though; it shows he has a pleasant aura around him. After a brief conversation with Nando, Zoey appeared because she couldn't sleep. Typical. Although we all know she couldn't sleep without saying goodnight to Dawn lol. As for Team Rocket, it seems they made quite a profit out of Jessie and they went ahead and made more merchandise lol.

The next day, the semi-finals begin. Fantina gives everyone a motivational speech and then the announcer lady goes over the rules for all the dummies out there. The battle finally starts and Zoey sent out her Leafeon and her new Mismagius which seemed to have evolved from her Misdreavus. Then, even though Ash, Brock, and Dawn speculated that Nando would use some sort of song-related Pokemon, he sends out Lopunny along with Kricketune despite the former not being able to use Sing. Weird. Zoey's Leafeon and Mismagius fire the first fusion move with Energy Ball and Thunder Wave and I must admit, it was a cool idea for Zoey to use. It even cost Nando points before it hit! Thankfully, Lopunny High-Jump Kicked the fusion move to the ceiling to avoid getting blasted by the hit. Nice work there Nando; at least he’s smart about things.

Nando's next move left my mouth wide open; Kricketune using Bug Buzz and then Lopunny using the streamers like ribbons while it pranced around like a ballerina; that was awesome! It was like watching a musician and a dancer work in perfect synchronization. The fusion move from earlier came at Kricketune however it managed to blow it up and made a dazzling display of color that cost Zoey more points! Zoey counter-attacked quickly though, coming up with a Double Team chain made up of Mismagius and Leafeon which, like Nando's move, showed off more of that synchronization. Zoey then turned the tables on Lopunny's Blizzard and dazzled everyone with the glow from the attack. I gotta admit though, Zoey has some groovy style underneath her tough exterior.

Nando counter-attacked with a ring of Sing; literally. I loved the special digital effects in Contests for this reason. Zoey's Mismagius then used Lucky Chant to counter Kricketune's Sing which was truly unexpected. It seems like Zoey knows something about music lol. Zoey's Leafeon used Leaf Blade and I was surprised to see it cut through Lopunny's Focus Blast and land a direct hit on Lopunny. Nando then had his Kricketune use X-Scissor while Mismagius used Psywave and I thought they'd clash for sure but Lopunny helped get Kricketune out of there fast. Kricketune and Leafeon clashed a few times and after several more clashes, Nando stepped things up another notch with Silver Wind and Blizzard from Kricketune and Lopunny, repsectively.

The result of Silver Wind and Blizzard was such a beautiful fusion; it created snowflakes all around the arena! I love Nando's creativity. Zoey showed off her own creative side by using Psywave to give her Leafeon some angel-like wings, allowing the Pokemon to fly which isn't normally possible. Fantina loved it and even Dawn seemed to be in awe of Zoey. The battled ended pretty quickly though, just when things were getting serious as the time ran out. Zoey advanced to the next round why was kind of annoying since I wanted Nando to win this round. Nando and Zoey congratulated each other and then Dawn and Zoey had an interesting "telepathic" moment as Dawn headed on towards the stage for her own battle. I just thought that was the moment romantic moment yet haha.

It was then time for the final semi-final battle which would pit Dawn against Jessie though of course, Jessie was disguised as "Jesselina" or whatever her name is in the dub. It seemed like a bad time for this battle though in my opinion since the episode was almost over. Dawn sent out Buneary and Cyndaquil and while the battle began, we saw Johanna once again watching the Grand Festival battle between her daughter and Jessie. After some random hits from both Dawn and Jessie, it seems that Dawn came out on top. I hate that. Not that Dawn won, but that her battle with Jessie was rushed! Jessie did so good in Sinnoh, she deserved a fair fight in her own episode! Jessie seemed mad but at least she was a good sport about it haha. The ending with Dawn and Zoey getting ready to face off was exciting. Overall, this episode didn't disappoint too much, until the end. 9/10, still pretty awesome.

[Brumrha]

We're roughly halfway through this festival, & I'm already wishing that it would be over... maybe I'm still delusional from the Sunyshore incident.

Anyhow... The fight between Nando & Zoey is nothing short of a fight for the ages; most of these combinations that they pulled out are true spectacles, & if those don't get you to gouge your eyes out, you're most likely blind already...

Even so, Nando lost this one to Zoey, so now we go to Dawn, who has completely wiped the floor with Jesselina. But damn, her reaction to the loss was nothing short of appaling. I at first thought that it was time to put a bullet into her skull. Far be it from me to think that she would actually be on her side so that Dawn will win...

Still, the fact that Jesselina got X-ed out was the first piece of good news I've ever gotten. Now I can put my sniper rifle away & watch the finals in peace...

[TicoPokemonMaster]

What made this episode great for me in the japanese version is that on top of the great battle that Nando vs. Zoey was it was also the music that made it stand out. Sure the dub kept a piece of the japanese music in the battle but it didn't last for long. To be honest I was more excited watching the japanese version than I was watching the dub. Maybe cuz I already saw what happened.

[Swampert_trainer]

Nando vs Zoey was amazing. Definitely one of the best contest battles. Even Dawn was in awe of their skills. Of course Zoey won.

Dawn makes her way past Zoey on her way to the stage and it seems as if the two have developed some sort of lesbian telepathy. Dawn vows to keep her promise and meet Zoey in the finals.

Then Dawn and Jessie battle, but apparently Johana can't be bothered to show up for one of her daughters greatest moments and decides to watch the match from the comfort of her living room.

Dawn beats Jessie after a lack luster battle that didn't do Jessie any justice. Jessie tells Dawn that she better win her battle against Zoey and become the top co-ordinator.