League Unleashed! (651)

[Yuko]

Wow, boring animation and battle. I miss when they actually ANIMATED THINGS BETTER and played suspenseful music without rushing through the "less important fights" such as this one. This battle was over so quickly and was the most rushed one thus far, probably.

I'm disappointed. Hoenn league was amazing, but this is just... crap at best so far (as was the Grand Festival. Hoenn's GF was amazing). Please do Jun justice because I love him. <3

New version of Saikou Everyday is not very good. It feels too deep and the beats are very, very weird. They butchered my absolute favorite opening. ;; Also, like 99.999999% of the watchers (if not 100%), I'm pretty displeased with them giving Team Rocket so much screentime. I can't believe I'm saying this as someone who is a huge TR fan, but if they're just going to sell candy and/or steal Pikachu but fail, then we don't need them on the show. Simple as that.

[phoenix12]

although I don't speak/understand Japanese, there was one nifty bit of info I managed to catch: when Ash, Brock, and Dawn are sitting together outside at the beginning of the episode, Brock says something about the type of Pokemon Nando uses (you can hear him say "type" several times)...I'm assuming he's talking about how Nando tends to use bug and grass type Pokemon, because Ash responds with a list of his Pokemon that are strong against those types: Onigoori (Glalie), Magumarashi (Quilava), Gokuzaru (Infernape), Mukuhawk (Staraptor), and...Oosubame (Swellow)!

I realize this is pretty minor, but the fact that Ash mentioned Swellow does further extinguish any concern anyone should have about him "forgetting" or "ignoring" some of his Pokemon just because they didn't appear in the intro or DP 182

[No. 1 Machop Fan]

First Heatran, and then Darkrai! What the hey!

[Hikari Paradise]

Heracross was epic and Conway is still hilarious. Also can't wait to see LT in action. This is shaping up to be the best league ever.

[Chimchar15]

I think that there's a possibility that the legendary trainer is really just using a Zoroark. I mean seriously that would be an awesome way of introducing 5th into the anime. Also who was that lady with Purple hair? It just seemed so random that they showed her on multiple occasions just starting at nothing. It looks like she may be some important character whose role will appear a few epsoides later.

[Locormus]

Heracross was epic and Conway is still hilarious. Also can't wait to see LT in action. This is shaping up to be the best league ever.

Conway is thankfully still hilarious since he's not overused...

[deserthorse450]

oh fiddelsticks Team Rocket!! You have finally stolen something significantly important after all these years!! Just watch yourselves because hell hath no fury like a Quilava deprived of screentime!!

All anger aside...this ep. disappointed me like no other. Roserade one-shotted? um...lol wut? Then Darkrai turns out to be the LT's Pokemon and not Heatran? So I'm guessing gigantic volcano lizard/salamander thingies are just commonplace? Yaok writers...Team Rocket ^see above. Staraptor getting pwn3d by Protect/Stone Edge, also lol?

Only good thing to come of this is Heracross proving once again that he should never have been Oaked during the early days of Johto. Thank you Mr. Rhino Beetle, your prowess and skill have saved more than just Ash's first round flub up...

[phoenix12]

I think that there's a possibility that the legendary trainer is really just using a Zoroark. I mean seriously that would be an awesome way of introducing 5th into the anime. Also who was that lady with Purple hair? It just seemed so random that they showed her on multiple occasions just starting at nothing. It looks like she may be some important character whose role will appear a few epsoides later.

do you mean...TR's Sinnoh League boss...? there's an entire scene towards the beginning of the episode where she's shown explaining which League workers are in charge of which concession stands

[Chimchar15]

do you mean...TR's Sinnoh League boss...? there's an entire scene towards the beginning of the episode where she's shown explaining which League workers are in charge of which concession stands

Oh sorry. I missed like the first five minutes of the episode.

[Juputoru]

-Yada yada intro crap yada...wait, what's this? The remix of the opening...it's actually GOOD? It's Christmas in July!
-Ash and co are continuing their futile attempts to be civil with Paul, I see.
-Ash, just go to sleep. Your little brain shouldn't try to think too hard about whatever it is Paul said.
-Ahaha they chose Aipom of all things to be part of Ash's gym flashback sequence. And Gliscor. The writers are just trolling everyone with that, I swear.
-Ash is ready for his battle, but enough of that. Here comes Jun!
-Once again I have no idea what Jun was going on about, but once again I find him hilarious anyway.
-And not a minute later, it's...Conway! This League is going to be the best League ever, isn't it?
-Aw, TR's salemanship is going to waste in a quiet corner of the League grounds.
-I love how the writers care enough to keep bringing in Mr. Goodshow with every League. Would anyone even notice if he was left out for once?
-Nothing builds tension like having Ash suck terribly the instant the battle starts.
-And Ash turns things around immediately after the commercial break. But that was only the first of Nando's Pokemon, so I'm sure Ash won't get to do this well for too long.
-Armaldo's sent out, and...Staraptor is down!
-Barry takes a minute to alert Brock and Dawn to big news about the Legendary Trainer!...which they don't care about.
-It's really weird seeing Ash use a non-Sinnoh Pokemon for a change. I know Quilava needs to do something, but it still feels really out of place.
-Armaldo and Quilava knock each other out. I'm...honestly having trouble being excited by this battle even though I know I should be. I think it's because I don't care about Nando and it's obvious Ash isn't losing here.
-HOLY HELL CONWAY FROM NOWHERE. He was crouching behind Dawn's seat the entire match. And nobody noticed him. That...that's great. Really, it is.
-Wait, did Heracross just use Sleep Talk or something?
-Kricketune is down. Can Nando get the hell out of the anime now?
-Ash wins, everyone cheers, and Conway sinks back down to wherever he was hiding. Why? Because...well, he's Conway.

Not exactly the best League battle I've ever seen. It's really telling that I cared more about the random Jun and Conway appearances than I did about the match. Sure, I love my zany side-characters, but if the battle had actually been interesting I wouldn't have cared about them more than I did the battle. Then again, the writers basically shoved Nando out of the way as soon as they could, so hopefully the real rivals will get more interesting battles.

[Blaziryu]

I thought this episode was okay. It could've been better though if TR wasn't shown at all. Quilava should've gotten a win instead of a tie. I mean, it just evolve. So why make it lose a battle? Anyway, the battle between Heracross and Kricketune was the best part of the episode. And I'm guessing that this mysterious trainer with the Darkrai will prevent Ash from winning the Sinnoh League.

[dougtrio]

Okay when PUSA gets around to dubbing this episode, they've got to name it "Sleep Talkin" for obvious reasons.

10 points to the first person who gets the reference.

Also what did Paul say to Ash? This is the first time in a while where we see Paul getting to Ash. He hasn't done that since the episode where he battled Brandon.

Nice to see him again. Ever since he made fewer appearances after their 6vs6 battle, the show had been lacking something, namely HIS presence. Which is what helped the majority of the sinnoh series.

Also did Team Rocket need THAT much screen time, they could've cut out 2 or 3 scenes of there's and it could have been added to Ash vs Nando, which was only exciting during Heracross vs. Kricketune.
Note to the writers, if Team Rocket doesn't have that much screen time, they're not going to fall off the face of the earth.

[Lee-san]

I liked it.
Of course it sucked that they cut out so much of Quilava's battle, but Heracross more than made up for that.
Also, Staraptor finally got its well-deserved win, yay!

[uber gon]

Did Heracross use a new animation for Megahorn?

[deathseer]

Ash ordered つのでつく ( Tsuno de Tsuku lit. Horn Attack).

He ordered Horn Attack after Megahorn was put into the ground. He used it to lift the rocks aorund Kricketune and damage it for the win.

[uber gon]

Ash ordered つのでつく ( Tsuno de Tsuku lit. Horn Attack).

He ordered Horn Attack after Megahorn was put into the ground. He used it to lift the rocks aorund Kricketune and damage it for the win.

Drat and here I thought Heracross would learn something that could potentially beat one of Paul's pokemon.

[deathseer]

Well. It has Sleep Talk and Focus Punch now, along with Megahorn.

I think it is one of the few Pokemon Ash has that can deal with some of Paul's Pokemon. Even moreso than Infernape.

[Umbilical Noose]

I still don't get what the unexpected development was. Was it Staraptor pulling a DEM, Cyndaquil using Aerial Ace or Heracross with two brand new moves? Anything it was, I didn't find anything so bizarre to be called unexpected development.

[Dax]

I still don't get what the unexpected development was. Was it Staraptor pulling a DEM, Cyndaquil using Aerial Ace or Heracross with two brand new moves? Anything it was, I didn't find anything so bizarre to be called unexpected development.

Lol, how did Staraptor pull a DEM? The bird simply dodged Solarbeam and used Brave Bird. That's not DEM. I don't know why the fascination on throwing that word around so loosely.

I don't understand what the unexpected development was either. I imagine it was simply words to hype the battle. Too bad not even those words made the battle interesting.

[shac]

Why the hell did they give quilava 'lava-plume' if they are not even showing it properly? What was the point? This episode was a total fail until heracross showed up. While Hera vs. Kric was a good battle, the rest of the battle sucked so much that I kinda hated it overall.