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For context, for the final episodes of Pokemon Journeys, instead of having a set team minus Pikachu for obvious reasons, Ash instead rotated his team across the episodes in order to change things up and bring back old faces. On paper, this is a good idea; bringing back iconic mons of Ash that haven’t seen the light of day for so long, as well as giving potential interesting combinations in his teams. In execution though... eh.

As I’ve mentioned in JN147′s review, not every single reserve from Oak and Kukui’s places were used, leaving a good chunk of Ash’s Pokemon to be given the shaft for their final run in the anime series. You can’t be serious with this shit. And it’s really stupid too because, with the exception of one episode, Ash only brought 4 reserves with him without any excuse of filling up his final slot. Some people try to argue that the reason why Ash kept an empty slot most of the time was because there’s always the possibility he might catch a new mon, but that’s bullshit when he only tried to catch a new mon in ONE episode, he was shown to be completely okay having a full 6 team in Lapras’ episode, and Ash has tried to catch Pokemon while having a full team plenty of times in the past, so clearly that excuse is moot. Hell, many episodes has Ash come equipped with even less than 5 Pokemon!

So, let’s fix that. For this thing, I’m just going to be adding mons to Ash’s already established teams across each episode to ensure every single one of Ash’s reserves from Oak and Kukui’s places will have a chance to properly rejoin their trainer’s adventures. While there are many episodes I would rework myself, for now, I’ll just keep all the plots the same for the sake of simplicity. So with that said, let’s move on:

JN137

This one’s easy, just add Pignite to the team and have him set up Ash’s campfire. Plus, with Ash having a Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos mon on his team, it would be a good way of showcasing the fact that yes, Ash WILL be using reserves from across past regions for his final run.

JN138

This one’s a tad bit trickier considering Ash’s team this episode was kinda supposed to represent how utterly curbstomped Misty would’ve gotten if he had chosen anyone to battle her aside from Corphish. (Pikachu, Leavanny, and Rowlet all have the type advantage, Totodile would be more neutral, but could also represent the fact that he was a mon that both Ash and Misty fought over) Since the rest of Ash’s grass types were used in other episodes, I would actually put Dracovish here for Ash’s final slot. He’d be more neutral like Totodile in terms of typing, but like with Pikachu and the grass types, it’s clear as day that, if Ash were to use Dracovish against Misty, she’d get absolutely bodied. (I mean, impressive stats and is able to match Champion-level Pokemon, do the math) It could also be a good representation that Ash would also be using Journeys mons in his last run as well.

JN139

Gotta do a lot of thinking for this one considering the writers made the bad choice in keeping Ash barebones this episode. For starters, similar to Ash having Totodile in the last episode to represent a particular moment he had with Misty, Ash would have Palpitoad (representing him and Cilan infiltrating his lake together to save their Pokemon) and Tauros (representing the fact of Brock helping him catch his 30 Tauros at the Safari Zone). The former would be used to look for Brock in the forest lake to no avail while Ash would send out the latter, as well as Melmetal to help fend off Steelix. Ash would also have Lycanroc to sniff out Brock, receiving his scent from a momento/gift Cilan has of Brock and Staraptor to try to scout him out in the air.

JN140

Ash would have Boldore on his team to help Snorlax and Incineroar break away Beartic’s large icicles. Similar to Snorlax, he’d be recalled early on since, while his rock moves are effective against Beartic’s ice, he doesn’t possess a resilience against the cold just as Talonflame and Incineroar does.

JN141

Sadly can’t really add anyone here since the episode was just supposed to be a reunion between Ash’s Kanto starters. But since I’m running out of room and episodes, let’s have Gible appear at the beginning defeating another trainer’s Pokemon. That trainer is awestruck by their defeat as Ash recalls Gible and quickly leaves with his friends to find Squirtle’s show, eventually leading to that trainer appearing again at the end to ask for Ash’s autograph, now recognizing him as the World Champion.

JN142

At the beginning of the episode, instead of using Snivy to destroy Team Rocket’s mech, Ash would send out Torkoal to destroy it with Overheat. Snivy, though, would still be used to help Misty and Brock climb out of the cave with Vine Whip since the two aren’t as good of climbers as Ash. Ash would also use Muk and Scraggy to help defend and befriend the Spearow and Rattata he comes across later on with their smaller sizes/friendly attitudes and use Gliscor in an effort to scout out Pikachu when he and his friends rest up for the night to no avail. Gliscor would also try to rescue Ash later on when he falls, but becomes surprised when his trainer gets carried instead by the invisible Latias.

JN143

Nothing to be added here since Ash already had 6 slots filled, so moving on.

JN144

Ash would have Noctowl and Unfezant with him at the beginning to help track the Banette, utilizing the former’s Foresight and the latter’s speed to no avail. Unfezant could potentially help clear up dusty areas with any of her wind-based moves. Banette could also get some sort of injury when they finally get pegged by the group, so Ash would have Glalie make a mini ice pack for them. Additionally, you COULD have all three of them join Dragonite and Gengar during the moment when Ash flies to Banette to bring it back to town and reunite with Nurse Joy.

JN145

I already said this in the review, but again, I would have Ash also use Swellow, Krookodile, and Lucario alongside Infernape and Hawlucha to fight Team Rocket’s Pokemon, representing Ash’s fights against the team in Hoenn, Unova, and Journeys and instead of Latias blasting off Team Rocket with the most laziest zoom out ever, have Ash’s roster do it with a Thunderbolt, Air Slash, Flamethrower, Stone Edge, and Aura Sphere combo launched by Hawlucha’s Hi Jump Kick. Again, think of how badass that would’ve been.

JN146

Since the episode made it clear that time was of the essence and Ash didn’t had time to change rosters, he’d still have his team from the last episode. Like in the original, Ash would use Swellow to track down the hunter before he gets petrified by his device, but Ash would then use his other reserves to fight against the hunter, would only gets them all petrified as well before Ash wins the day with Pikachu and Latios.

JN147

Have. Everyone. Appear. For. A. Group. Picture.

Seriously, how hard was it to do something like that?

And here we are, the final episode of Pokemon Journeys and Ash and Pikachu’s final episode as main characters. Let’s get into this, shall we?

Imma just be real, for a grand finale like this, it was average imo.

For one just to get it outta the way, MAAN did a lot of Ash’s reserves get the shorthand of the stick. A grand of total of 19 didn’t get to appear in Ash’s team throughout these last 10 episodes despite it being totally possible. Muk, Tauros, Quilava, Noctowl, Torkoal, Glalie, Staraptor, Gliscor, Gible, Unfezant, Pignite, Scraggy, Palpitoad, Boldore, Krookodile, Lycanroc, Melmetal, Lucario, and Dracovish. Hell, a good chunk of these mons don’t even appear in this final episode at all, completely voiding a proper sendoff with those by giving them the shaft. And even the ones who do appear don’t do anything at all. Ash gets some of them to help look for a lost Charmander, but he pretty much ends up finding it himself and most of them just shrug their heads. C’mon, at least give us a group picture at the end.

And while Pidgeot’s return is incredibly welcoming and fitting for the last episode... they don’t really do anything afterwards. It would’ve been cool if they met the rest of Ash’s flying types, had some kind of reunion with Bulbasaur and Charizard, or just anything really, but no, they just pretty much disappear once they rejoin Ash’s team.

Also, HUGE missed opportunity of not having Ho-oh appear in this episode despite how perfect and fitting it would be. Like, maybe have them clear up the rainstorm or be shown hovering over the fork in the road at the end? Just sounds too easy if you ask me. Additionally, this still feels a little empty. How about a little montage at the end showing how Ash’s other companions are doing to that they can get a proper send off as well? May and Serena could be practicing Contest Tricks, Dawn could finally some progression be shown teaching younger trainers her moves, Sophocles would be shown working with the Mossdeep Space Center again, etc.

But with all aside, let’s get to the positives. Again, Pidgeot’s return was welcoming and it was great to Ash have more casual hangouts with his Pokemon, despite how very brief that montage was. Was cool for Ash and Tracey to FINALLY have dialogue after like 700 episodes. And Tracey’s Venonat evolved! Don’t really care cause the only mon Tracey has that remotely has character is Scyther, but eh, still cool. Going back to the montage, was charming to see Ash and Pikachu just enjoy their lives and Delia still being a good mom to them. Brock and Misty’s departures were good, a nice callback to their departure at the end of the Original Series, and it was cool that Psyduck finally got that hug he was denied in the second episode XD. And Team Rocket’s reunion was also welcomed and it was great seeing the gang have a proper conclusion and send-off as well, with mad props to Wobbuffet for being the heart of the team at the sidelines and having a cute blast off with Carnivine and Gourgeist. (would’ve been nice to see Giovanni at some point tho)

And Ash and Pikachu’s final scene. It was... lovely. Nothing too much of grandeur, nothing lackluster, just the two of them being bros on their merry way. And I’m gonna fucking miss them. <3

Overall, I’ll give this final episode a 7/10.

Second to last episode and it was alright.

Just to knock it out of the way first, yeah, I’m once again dissatisfied with the lack of Ash’s reserves, with the only new one being Swellow. I mean to give credit, Swellow still performed pretty nicely, tracking down the hunter and his Hydreigon down and even fending them off with Air Slash for Ash and the others to catch up... until he then got “pew’ed” rather easily and didn’t do anything else afterwards. (i am admittedly shook that i kinda predicted Swellow being on Ash’s team and now knowing Air Slash too) Ash fighting with Latios was still a cool sight to behold and you could still have that and give Ash more reserves, like perhaps in the climax of the fight, the hunter’s arm cannon doesn’t get destroyed until much later, and beforehand, he manages to petrify all of Ash’s Pokemon which leads to Ash and Latios teaming up against him.

The overall plot and structure still felt decent; was an overall alright payoff to Ash and Latias’ whole thing. And the Pokemon Heroes reference at the end was nice. One of my biggest gripes was the main villain, who doesn’t even have a name. He had a sick design, but boy was he as interesting as a dead goldfish. And when he gets defeated and arrested, Misty tells to “think about what he’s done” like what he was doing was the equivalent of a toddler throwing a toy at a TV and then he was like “I’m sowweeeee”. Like... excuse me? And where did Officer Jenny and her big-ass helicopter even come from? Did Brock and Misty call her off-screen? Nooo, definitely doesn’t seem like. But I mean, that probably should’ve been the case, as the two (ESPECIALLY Misty) kinda felt useless this whole episode. Like when they tried to help out Ash, only to have their Pokeballs deflected by one attack. Throw another one then, you idiots!

Even with that in mind, it was still cool seeing Ash take more physical measures when dealing with the hunter, just as he did for past occasions like with Hunter J. And I’m GLAD this isn’t the end of Team Rocket. PLEASE give them a proper conclusion next episode, Anipoke!

An episode that started off pretty great but then ended up as shit. Let me explain.

The premise for the overall episode is really good: the Team Rocket trio reuniting with all of their past Pokemon that’s been kept at the TR Headquarters. As expected, it’s very grand to see many of these old faces again, as well as the Team Rocket Delibird too. We even get like a little montage of past Team Rocket mons that have been released or given away, which was a nice touch.

What follows after that is also pretty nice, showing us a rather competent plan and set up by Team Rocket, using their mons to slowly pick off Ash and friends until Mime Jr. eventually leads Pikachu to a trap. And along the way, we see a return from Brock and Misty’s teams as well. Brock gets Ludicolo, a nice (and funny) return and Misty gets... Staryu. Boring, but classical I guess?

And for Ash’s reserves this episode, he gets Infernape and Hawlucha... and no one else. Infernape and Hawlucha are both incredibly badass Pokemon and their appearances in this episode was nothing short of awesome, but seriously, why just two? Two episodes and 20 reserves left, just fyi...

The climax was really cool until the near end. Seeing Latias helping both Ash and Pikachu from the distance was heartwarming and Team Rocket’s giant combo attack (a possible reference to the ending of Best Wishes when Ash had his Pokemon do a similar trick to blast off Team Rocket) was badass. But things just took a dive bomb when Latias herself becomes the one who blasts off Team Rocket, quite possibly for the last time within context.

Firstly, the blast off animation is shit. Latias uses Psychic on Team Rocket and their Pokemon (ignoring the fact that Inkay and Morpeko are supposed to be immune to Psychic attacks), lifts them to the air without anyone changing expressions, and then Team Rocket literally zoom out into the sky like without movement on their bodies like it was some kind of old YTP transition.

And secondly, assuming this is the last Team Rocket blast off we’ll get, why Latias? With all these Pokemon, wouldn’t it be more satisfying to have Ash, Pikachu, and any other Pokemon Ash would have with him blast Team Rocket off? Going back to Ash’s reserves for a bit, recall Infernape and Hawlucha. Since the two of them fought TR mons that pertained to their respective region (Infernape v. Carnivine and Hawlucha v. Gourgeist), why not do the same for other mons, like Swellow for Hoenn, Krookodile for Unova, and Lucario for Journeys. At the end of the climax, Ash battles Team Rocket’s full teams with what he’s got, ultimately coming on top with a big Thunderbolt, Air Slash, Flamethrower, Stone Edge, and Aura Sphere combo launched towards Team Rocket by Hawlucha’s High Jump Kick, possibly countering and overpowering Team Rocket’s own combo move before blasting them off.

And now, for the most egregious part of the episode; Team Rocket’s split. For such an iconic trio, this really is NOT the way to send them off, chief. Team Rocket has had petty scuffles before that led to splits, but always got back together, so why do it again here? It literally feels shoehorned as well. And there’s absolutely no respect given to them at all. And look at the other Pokemon, they just look devastated here like a kid watching their parents argue, this isn’t going to leave a good taste in any TR fan’s mouth! And why does it look like TR are abandoning their Pokemon in the middle of nowhere? That’s just not in character in the slightest! I’m really hoping this is all just a rouge and Team Rocket will make a comeback together in either of these last two episodes, cause this is just unacceptable.