Pokemon Sun & Moon, Episode 9: The Totem Pokemon is Gumshoos; Episode 10: Will the Z-Move Work?
We'll lump my two final episodes of Pokemon: Sun & Moon (for now, anyway) together, because they sort of act as a two-parter regarding the island trial, combining the Totem Pokemon and Kahuna boss fights as a two-parter, and returning Ash's fixation to Z-moves. Episode 9 starts off with a bit of an information dump on the island challenges, before we're presented with the problem-of-the-week... which is actually a pretty well-visualized plague of Alolan Rattatas and Raticates devouring the crops of the local farmers. Local Kahuna Hala shows up with his Hariyama, and help to clean up the destruction caused by the Rattata swarm, and this is where he meets our heroes. We also get a brief info-dump from Hala, who tells us that he's the one responsible for the Z-Rings, and sometimes Tapu Koko steals them to give to worthy trainers.
Hala asks Ash what he would do to settle this massive Rattata problem, and Ash, bless him, goes "I'll battle the Rattata!" Hala basically wants Ash to find an answer that won't lead to a battle because the people of Alola love the nature... okay, Hala, nice that you're trying to teach Ash to think out of the box, but the farmers are suffering while you're waiting for Ash to figure it out.
We get some info-dump from Rotom and the school crew about the whole Rattata/Yungoos relationship from the games. It's nothing new for me, although it's nice that they're using the game backstory for these anime episodes. Doesn't really give me a whole ton to talk about here, though. Anyway, after an honestly over-long exposition dump that really could've been a show-not-tell sequence, Ash's plan is to... get the local Totem Gumshoos to help drive out the Rattata and Raticate.
Okay, but that's still a battle, but with some extra steps. Honestly, I think the script writers are just really unsure what they want -- they want to work in the Rattata/Yungoos backstory of invasive species and introduced predators, they want to work in the totem boss fight from the games, and attempt to give Hala some depth by having him ask Ash to figure out of some other solution, but the end result has Hala just honestly look like a bit of an idiot.
And then... fight scene! First up is Pikachu and Rowlet doing a double battle against a Yungoos and Gumshoos, and while there's not much to talk about, it's still pretty and well-animated. This is the first time we get a brief glimpse of Rowlet's seemingly superhuman teleporting ability, which I thought was a weird, random detail, but turns out it's foreshadowing for episode 10. The huge gimmick of this fight is the Gumshoos' love for using Sand Attack to get around the defenses of our heroes' Pokemon, causing Ash to improvise with having Rowlet use Leafage to block their sight, before knocking out the minibosses
And then Totem Gumshoos shows up with its big, gigantic size, and unexpected speed, and quickly straight-up bashes Rowlet away with a goddamn rock. Pikachu ends up winning by zipping around using Quick Attack within the sand attack that Totem Gumshoos makes, before thunderbolting him in the face. It's... it's honestly a fight that lasted a bit too long considering it's ultimately a fight that hinges on using a sand cloud for cover. The payoff, which is Totem Gumshoos shoving the Normal Z-Crystal to Ash while just speaking in Pokemon speak, is easily the comedic highlight of the episode.
Oh, and then Totem Gumshoos and his two mooks end up following Ash and Hala to drive away the Rattata swarm. Like I said... it all comes down to a battle with a couple of extra steps. This episode honestly feels like it's just confused and isn't sure what the moral it wants to tell is.
Anyway... episode 10 is basically the Hala fight, and after an overly long sequence of Jenny congratulating Ash for helping out in the previous episode, and yet another pretty long sequence of praying on the altar for Tapu Koko's blessing, and yet another talk about Z-Move (that Ash apparently 'mastered' off-screen), the rest of the battle is just a fight. And honestly, I'm not sure if it's the writing or something else, but while I do enjoy the comedic moments of Sun & Moon and the art style, the filler scenes in this series honestly feel far more grating and obvious that they're just there to make the episode last as much as it's supposed to.
The battle against Hala is a 2v2, with the first one being a pretty fun affair between Rowlet and Crawbrawler, and Hala's Crabrawler keeps just shadow-boxing even when he's not actually fighting, which is adorable. Crabrawler is apparently able to quickly 'combo' catching Rowlet's peck before using Brutal Swing and Power-Up Punch to instantly knock the poor baby owl away. This is where the previous 'teleport behind you' trick ends up being used by Rowlet, who succeeds in eventually overpowering Crawbrawler and owl-kick the poor crab in the gut, knocking him out. This fight does honestly take a while, but I do appreciate the animation.
Rowlet then falls asleep out of exhaustion, leading Pikachu to face off against Hala's Hariyama, who also uses a 'combo' move of Fake Out to grab Pikachu's Iron Tail, before using Knock Off to whack Pikachu away. I always love it in Pokemon fiction when they interpret the attacks as actual neat action moves like this. It doesn't always work, of course, but I still do like it. Hariyama just Arm Thrusts Pikachu's electric attacks away somehow, before doing a Belly Drum attack to maximize its attack, and then Hala unleashes the All-Out Pummeling Fighting Z-Move, which does have a pretty cool animation, and is represented by Hariyama unleashing a fuck-ton of palm-thrusts as energy blasts at Pikachu.
Pikachu somehow survives this Belly Drummed Z-Move for no real reason, before using a 'combo' of his own, combining Quick Attack and Iron Tail to trip up Hariyama's stubby legs, before Ash unleashes the Normal-type Z-Move,
Ash wins his first island challenge, but when Hala's about to give the Fighting Z-Crystal, Tapu Koko swoops in and exchanges it with the Electric one, because of protagonists being special and everything. And we have a party!
And... and I honestly don't find the Hala episode to be particularly all that engaging. Sure, the fighting is pretty and all, but I honestly do feel like they padded out episode 10 something fierce. Perhaps actually showing Ash attempting to master the Z-Crystal could've filled up part of the episode's first half? And honestly, I'm not even sure how Pikachu managed to survive that massive Belly-Drummed Z-move, and I felt like the scripting for the entire Hariyama/Pikachu fight could've been tightened up a little. These two episodes aren't bad per se, but I do feel like they're kind of problematic and just sort of superficial all around. Which,of course, is a criticism leveled at the Pokemon anime as a whole, but I do feel like episode 10 does feel pretty unengaging.
I did say that I'm only reviewing the first ten episodes of Sun & Moon as a bit of a special try-out, but it definitely is charming enough for me to come back to it. Perhaps not something that I would review as in-depth as I am currently, but I definitely could pull off reviewing batches of five or ten episodes at a time, I feel. We'll see. Until we return to Sun & Moon, though... Alola!
Rotom Index:
- Episode 9:
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Tapu Koko, Rotom, Rockruff, Alolan Rattata, Alolan Raticate, Growlithe, Tauros, Hariyama, Machamp, Bounsweet, Togedemaru, Yungoos, Gumshoos, Wingull, Meowth, Wobbuffet, Bewear, Psyduck
- Humans: Ash, Professor Kukui, Officer Jenny, Hala, Lillie, Mallow, Lana, Kukui, Sophocles, Jessie, James
- Episode 10:
- Pokemon: Rockruff, Pikachu, Rotom, Gumshoos, Hariyama, Crabrawler, Tapu Koko
- Humans: Ash, Professor Kukui, Officer Jenny, Hala
Assorted Notes:
- I really love the Machamp log-cleaning squad that shows up to help Hala clear up the fallen logs.
- Episode 9 has a fun, brief scene of Team Rocket discussing their weird situation with Bewear, and almost gets to say their old catchphrase (this feels bad!) before Bewear jumps up and spirits them away.
- The regular Gumshoos being Jenny's partner is pretty funny, and I love its silly little salute. That award scene went on for a bit too long, though.
- Crabrawler's boxing in the air is pretty fun detail, honestly.
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