Pokemon Sun & Moon, Episode 5: Popplio, Give it Your Balloon / Yo Ho Ho! Go Popplio!
Looking at episode titles, I think this is going to be a series of episodes that finally give some focus to the actual supporting cast, and in this case, we get Lana (Suiren in the original) and Popplio as the focus of the episode. And it's... it's kind of all right? It doesn't end up to be particularly memorable, even if Lana's shyness is pretty cute. But the entire episode is basically Rotom going "this is logically and technically impossible" in reference to Popplio's balloons, while Ash and Lana are in full "BURNING SPIRITTTT" mode. I've never been a fan of silly "burning spirit breaks logic for no real reason" trope in the anime, so I don't like that particular part of the episode.
Still, this episode does give us a fair amount of things to love, with an actual school session being done from once. After the cold open making sure that we know about Lana and Popplio's dream (and some fun Rowlet hijinks), we get Professor Kukui and Lana introducing the class to fishing rods and water Pokemon, and a fun little gag with Popplio jumping into Lillie's lap. Honestly, I actually find Lillie and her insistence to not touch Pokemon while still wanting to participate in all of this pokemon activity to be far more hilarious and fun than the pretty generic "Popplio has a dream that he can achieve with guts".
We get a brief interlude of Team Rocket formulating a plan to steal the Ride Pokemon, while Ash ends up hanging out at Lana's house and we get Lana's little sisters, who are a couple of adorable little gremlins. I would've wrote this entire scene as pointless filler and shoehorned-in "are you his boyfriend" "kyaaaah no" nonsense, but them pulling on Pikachu's face actually is kind of funny.
Of course, when the actual fishing day comes, Lillie shows up in a fucking astronaut suit and it's pretty funny as shit. We get some pretty neat showcases of our heroes actually fishing, and it's... it's pretty fun stuff, if mostly inconsequential. Sophocles is a dork who uses a goddamn mini-computer on his rod, Kiawe grumbles that a fire-type trainer like him is incompatible with fishing, and we even get Pikachu very carefully trying to fish with his tail, which is adorable. Lillie catches a goddamn Milotic of all things, and Ash's attempts to help out involves him... jumping into the air and getting his dick headbutted by the Milotic.
It's honestly a pretty long scene, but one that's... that's pretty fun? The Alola season does prioritize fun happy scenes as its core, and if nothing else, this episode does explore that part pretty well even if I'm not too fond of the actual Lana/Popplio storyline.
Team Rocket does their thing and capture the Laprases and Wailmers, but Pikachu uses Rotom as a Yoshi-style bouncing pad to Iron Tail them right in the balloon, while Popplio creates a gigantic balloon to break their fall from the rocks, which is a huge "hooray, guts wins over logic" moment. Lana gets serious for them calling Popplio 'small fry',and we get a fight between Mimikyu and the combined attacks of Rowlet, Pikachu and Popplio, which leads to Team Rocket blasting off again. The action scenes aren't particularly spectacular, but they are dynamic, and, again, if nothing else, I can appreciate the sheer fun factor of this season.
And this is where the Bewear gag works best, I think -- our heroes actually strike a decisive victory against Team Rocket, but as they fall off, Bewear straight-up runs across the water with some gorgeously smooth motion, catches Team Rocket and spirits them away to safety. That's pretty neat.
Anyway, not my favourite Alolan episode, but not one that I have too many complaints about. It's pretty fun all throughout, which is what the show's all about. This is where I also end up realizing that I really, really love the animation styles, where it's not just exaggerated gags either that works, but simple smooth animation here and there that really ends up making the show feel so vibrant.
Rotom Index:
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Rockruff, Rotom, Popplio, Bounsweet, Togedemaru, Rowlet, Meowth, Wobbuffet, Komala, Lapras, Comfey, Blisssey, Goldeen, Alomomola, Shellder, Tentacruel, Finneon, Staryu, Chincho, Carvanha, Shellos, Wailmer, Corsola, Luvdisc, Relicanth, Slowpoke, Wailord, Sharpedo, Kyogre, Magikarp, Milotic, Pelipper, Poliwag, Mimikyu, Bewear
- Humans: Ash, Professor Kukui, Lana, Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Sophocles, James, Jessie, Samson Oak, Nurse Joy
Assorted Notes:
- Lana being a straight-faced joker that tries to fool someone into thinking that there's a legendary Kyogre in a fishing spot is actually dialogue lifted straight from the Sun/Moon games.
- Team Rocket, spying on Ash in school, actually says something along the lines that this is "so out of character for him", probably a line that the season's detractors latch on to.
- Everyone has lures appropriate to a Pokemon they own, while Lillie's lure is a Clefairy. So that's what she's going to get in the future, then?
No comments:
Post a Comment