#and Leon really did have control of the field until Pikachu came out

[thejourneystartstoday]

If I say this enough it will speak it into existence: being a Pokémon master does not have to mean being the strongest battler. I’m sure being a strong battler comes with the territory but there are still regions Ash hasn’t been to and Pokémon he hasn’t met. He’s going to keep traveling until he’s seen them all.

[lolli4587]

Hey everyone!! Man, when was the last time I wrote a review. I hope everyone is doing okay and staying “socially distant.” We can combat this together!! So in this difficult time, I was so glad this episode happened, it got me so hyped up and made me forget the grim reality. So let's dive in!!

So about this episode, Ash wants to enter into the World’s Championship Tournament. He wants to compete so he can have his chance to battle with Leon, the current world champion. There are over 10,000 participants, and Ash needs to battle trainers with a high ranking in order to move up. With this in mind, he finds someone in the area with a high ranking, Visquez. She is currently the Vermillion gym leader and subbing for Surge while he is away.

Ash and Gou go to the Vermillion gym. On their way, Gou encounters a Spearow and wants to catch it. He and Raboot runs offscreen. Meanwhile at the Vermillion gym, we get our first look of Visquez and her Raichu against a trainer with a Hypno. She makes quick work of this trainer and notes he lacks “spirit.” She had Raichu to finish with Volt Tackle and easily won the battle. She was hoping to have a challenger that was participating in the World Tourney. Within seconds she got her wish and heard Ash and Pikachu outside!

Ash comes, introduces himself to her and wants to battle! She and the lackeys are taken back when they hear his name. This gets everyone excited. Visquez tells Ash that he is well known. She explains Lt. Surge had told them about their spectacular battle. She says she wanted to meet him and Pikachu. She was very honored to be his first opponent. Gou came back on time and was able to catch the Spearow!

The first battle takes place, Pikachu vs Raichu (classic). They both ordered a thunderbolt which was even. Visquez orders Raichu for Volt Tackle which then Ash orders Pikachu to counter it with Iron Tail and use it as a grounder. Visquez and her Raichu proved to be more formidable opponent then Ash realized and was able to overcome easily. Raichu was able to use his tail to stop Pikachu in its tracks. Ash tried several techniques to land a hit on Raichu, but couldn’t come up on top. He notices Pikachu is getting tired, and calls him back (smart).

Next Ash switches for Gengar. Ash starts off Gengar with Night Shade and Visquez has Raichu use thunderbolt. Gengar proves to be faster and easily overtakes Raichu. Visquez has her Raichu uses its tail to grip Gengar, but Gengar can easily make itself disappear. Ash has Gengar use Psychic and was able to finish Raichu off! 1 down, 1 to go.

Visquez sends her ace Pokemon, Electrode. She and Electrode had their own tricks up in their sleeve. Electrode uses Magnet Rise and uses the field to resist the ground. With the debris of the battlefield, bounces off and picks up speed. This combo overtakes Gengar and finishes off with discharge. Now Ash is down to Pikachu.

The final battle takes place on the ground and Visquez orders Electrode to use Rollout. At first Pikachu had trouble keeping up with Electrode, but Ash was able to regain control. Pikachu slowed and stopped Electrode by using Iron Tail. Pikachu got in several hits before Electrode reached it’s limit and activated its ability Aftermath. Ash orders Pikachu to use Electroweb as a shield and wins the battle.

Visquez smiles at Ash with defeat and promises to contact Lt. Surge about their battle. She thinks he would love a rematch against Ash one day. Ash gets his new rank of 3763 from 10,000, ending this episode.

Thoughts

Omg, where can I start?! This episode delivered a lot more than I ever anticipated. I went into the episode with very low expectations because I was bummed that Lt. Surge wasn’t making an appearance originally. The summary preview didn’t explain a whole lot. But I am glad I was wrong and it delivered beautifully. So let's talk about the humans first!!

Visquez

So when I heard about her, I have to admit, I was expecting to be a guy. When I first saw the preview, I was like okay, I am getting more so guy vibes. It wasn’t until I saw Rohanite twitter’s post, I read she was a woman. This was where I started to re-evaluate her. I noticed she has a plug as her hairstyle.  After watching the episode, I ended up loving her. For one, she does have a killer design. I want to say her design was definitely inspired from Lt. Surge OG anime design. And she has a killer body, I can’t recall if other women in the Pokemon anime with muscles have appeared before, so huge props to Pokemon. I think the reason I love her look, she gave me instagram vibes. There are women I follow on Instagram who have beautiful athletic bodies and I wouldn’t be surprised if inspiration was taken from there.

Her personality was very likeable. She has a very tough exterior. She is very serious and aggressive when in battle, but passionate for spirit. This was pointed out when she was first introduced. Her personality slightly mimics from Lt. Surge, except she commends her opponents for their hard work. She loves to workout with her Pokemon and train with them. Both her Pokemon, Raichu and Electrode share the same vibes as her which I will mention more in detail. She does have a soft side and cares about her Pokemon a lot.  

One thing I did not expect to hear from her was wanting to meet Ash in person. Lt. Surge told her about his battle with Ash. I really loved this callback and was my favorite moment in the episode. Ash was considered an inspiration to Surge, and everyone in the gym. They started to train harder and it shows through Visquez. The tactics Ash used originally against Surge did not work with her Raichu. She had some great counters and brought out unique strategies from her Pokemon. She proved to be a very formidable opponent.    

Ash

Ash surprised me in the episode. For one, he remembered Lt. Surge, so continuity!!! And he actually made a huge impact on Lt. Surge that he was a mini celebrity to Visquez and her lackeys. When I was younger, I used to write fanfiction. One of my fanfics, I did have Lt. Surge as a support character while Ash was abroad in America! I would picture Surge admiring Ash out of box battling style. Ash’s influence would push Surge to be a better trainer. Never in a million years this would happen in the actual anime which gave me goosebumps. From the original episode Electric Shock Showdown, this was a beginning of Ash getting more confidence in battling and a milestone for winning his first legit badge. Surge did give Ash a standing ovation.

Anyways back to the episode, it made me smile how confident Ash was going into this battle. He seems so confident in his abilities, and he still has these creative strategies to take control of the battle. He is able to quickly analyze the current situation and think quickly on his feet. I was glad Ash battled smart in this episode. All honestly, if he didn’t switch Pikachu with Gengar, he would have lost the battle. Gengar vs Raichu was my favorite battle in the episode, and will get to the Pokemon soon.

Plus, Ash’s smile is so contagious. I just love the energy he brought into the battle.

Gou and Raboot

Gou did take a backseat in this episode. He was super adorable cheering for Ash in battle. I wouldn’t be surprised if he took pics of Ash -shot-. I loved Gou’s reactions throughout the episode. He did say at one point, “That’s insane Satoshi” with the ehhhe.. look. One thing I did notice was that Raboot stuck around with Gou. In the last episode, Gou completely ignored Scorbunny when it was learning his fire move, which made Scobunny upset. Both Gou and Raboot have different ideals and goals. After Raboot evolved, it ignored Gou. This carried over to the following episode. Raboot acts like a moody teenager, and it acts like it doesn’t care. 

But during the battle, Raboot couldn’t resist, especially if it involved with Pikachu. Raboot cares so much about Pikachu and shows its support. Raboot is very interested in battling more vs Gou who at the moment not sure if he wants to stab at it. We will see in the future.

Pokemon

Raichu

Visquez’s Raichu is super adorable. I literally died how he got to shine in this episode. I loved how it had this admiration to train and battle hard. I found it super cute when it was training it’s tail with the dumbbells (my favorite part). This Raichu is no slouch either. Visquez revealed that it was trained under Surge. Apparently he did not make the same mistake with Visquez’s Raichu as he did with his own Raichu, and this showed in battle. This Raichu was able to counter Ash’s past strategies with so much ease. It did throw in some callbacks. One was utilizing it’s tail which was a callback from Pika and Goliath. The breaking of the glass when using Volt Tackle, throwback to ESS. It was nice this Raichu had the upper hand for once and it was a major threat!

Electrode  

This Pokemon over here, the anime made it look cute and threatening. This was the first time I have seen Electrode to be an actual threat. With that said, it broke out of the typical mold it was stuck for 20 years. Throughout the episode, they hinted quite literally the dents on the walls. This was all due to her Electrode. I really loved the Magnet Rise and how it uses that to it’s advantage. When using magnet rise, debris was lifted as well. It used the debris as pillars and gave Gengar such a hard time. At the same time, utilizing the speed Electrode has, it was super difficult to slow it down. Electrode vs Gengar was my 2nd favorite battle for that reason.

Pikachu

Pikachu had some great moments in this episode. For once, Pikachu didn’t have the rivalry with Raichu. He was level headed in this battle, and I was happy he was able to switch off. There were many callbacks. Ash has Pikachu use Iron Tail to ground himself just like ESS. The spinning Iron Tail was from Pika and Goliath. During the Electrode battle, Pikachu went on top of Electrode and used his iron tail to stop Electrode which was very clever, and then run in reverse like a hamster. This was a throwback from Pokemon snap where Pikachu was on top of Electrode. There was a callback how Pikachu used ElectroWeb as a shield from Sun and Moon.

Gengar

Wow, Gengar was able to shine. I didn’t think I would love Gengar in this episode. It was able to shine, highlighting all it’s strengths against Raichu, and he looked like he was having so much fun. Ash was able to use Gengar intangibility to overwhelm Raichu and it’s tail. Psychic to finish it off to show such display of raw power! Kinda bummed it lost over Electrode, but I can’t wait for more battles for Gengar in the future.

Battles

Wow, the battles did not disappoint at all. I was pretty much hooked on every battle. If I had to rank, my favorite out of the bunch was Gengar vs Raichu, and the least would be Electrode vs Pikachu. Pikachu vs Raichu and Electrode vs Gengar were in the middle for me. The reason I loved Gengar vs Raichu, it was so much fun to watch, the BGM was killer, and it ended on a hilarious display of Raichu getting smushed in midair and then getting smashed into the wall.

Pikachu vs Raichu battle is always a joy to watch. I already highlighted them, but I enjoyed seeing for once Raichu giving Pikachu a hard time.

Electrode vs Gengar was such a joy to watch as well. I really loved the Magnet Rise strategy that Visquez and her Electrode displayed. She was able to utilize all of Electrode’s strengths and I thought it was pretty genius and was able to overwhelm Gengar. I wished she did the same with Pikachu

Electrode vs Pikachu would be my least favorite, but I did enjoy the battle, it was smart for Pikachu to slow down Electrode which was a feat itself. I didn’t think rolling Electrode in a different direction would mess its vibe up, but who knew. I love when Electrode tried to use it’s ability Aftermath, it tried to take Pikachu down with it. This was quickly countered with Electroweb thanks to Ash’s quick thinking.

References

There were many ref and callbacks in this episode, I mentioned a couple in the Pokemon themselves so I won’t highlight here. So here are some major ones.

Lt. Surge

I had very little expectations he was going to be mentioned or even make a cameo, thank you episode for proving me wrong. He was one my favorite gym leaders growing up and he was one the reasons why I got into Pokemon thanks to Electric Shock Showdown. Also his cute Raichu. I always believed Surge was one the reasons that he shaped Ash into who he is today. Ash and Pikachu had to dive in deeper to draw out Pikachu’s strengths, and of course help from Brock. (Plus Ash more likely wouldn't be able get a pity badge from him if he tried. So he made Ash work for it). So I was so happy he was referenced and made the highlight for me. He wasn’t in the episode but he was referenced several times. The first time referenced was from Ash, and then when Gou asked Ash if he got the thunderbadge from him. Later Visquez retells the story of Surge and their fantastic battle.

One thing for sure, his design has changed. Lt. Surge definitely is not the 8 ft, tan, and super ripped compared to his update. In a way, I wasn’t surprised that they decided to go more with his game design. He is more white and normal sized in the games. My only complaint, I wished he had a bit more subtle skin color, like he could be a similar color as Ash or a happy medium, but ehh you can’t have it all. But his redesign isn’t too bad. Pokemon has been shying away the real world references, so it was inevitable that Surge would be getting a design change. He is no longer the Lightning American, he is now referred to as Lightning Lieutenant. And his most recent appearances, he has been shown in his game design more often..

I loved that Ash was able to influence Lt. Surge. Who would've thought that Ash was able to do that at someone. He was mentioned training to master the electric type more and trained Visquez’s Raichu. It was hinted that he might come back in the near future since Visquez was going to let Surge know about the battle. **Please, please, please, make this happen** One my dreams battle literally is a rematch in this current artstyle.

The other gym leaders were all shown in silhouettes.

The badges

The breaking of the glass. Both Raichu and Electrode did this.

Also towards the end, when Electrode destroys all the windows and smoke. Pikachu protects itself from huge attack. Callback to ESS when Raichu destroys the gym and Pikachu blocks the attack.

Final thoughts

This episode has given me a lot of hope of possibly bringing back old characters from the past. I love the World Tournament that regardless of class, everyone starts in the bottom. It’s still early into the series, but if they could bring back Surge for a cameo, I would love to see the other gym leaders from other regions, and some past rivals, such as Gary or Paul. I am not going to hold my breath of pokeani keeping this promise. The subtle callbacks were so great to see. Ash and Pikachu were mini celebrities in Surge’s gym,  it was almost a perfect episode for me which is rare. I didn’t think I would enjoy it so much especially the corona crisis going on that kept my mind off of it.  If I would rate this episode, I would give a solid 9.75 out of 10 and my favorite of this PM series. Maybe top 5 all time favorite episodes… (wait what!!)