#erbie

I think the best part about the episode is that the rules of Unite Battles are all explained at the beginning and that’s it. No one explains the other rules in the middle and it’s mostly the characters showing off how they work without info dumping interruptions. I’m honestly impressed because anime has a tendency to do that. Because this isn’t a traditional Pokemon battle episode, the animation quality does feel like it is better than before, but it still has some cases of slideshow montage, which can’t be helped due to the run time.

And because Unite battles aren’t traditional Pokemon battles, the kids and Friede are basically doing whatever they want in the battle. However, the major difference between them and Shining Oceans is that the Rising Volt Tacklers aren’t as united in teamwork as they are; it’s definitely a major difference. Regardless, the RVTs still have good teamwork without anyone being a nuisance, but it was mostly shown towards the end.

I think the coolest part was that the Pokemon used by RVTs and Shining Oceans are all part of the Unite roster with Toxtricity being added as soon as the episode ended. In a way, it does feel as if they were actually playing the game in a way. Regarding Shining Oceans, I do like that the Pokemon choices weren’t strictly based on gender as the orange-haired guy was the one who used Clefable and the girl with the buns is the Zoroark trainer.

The leader of Shining Oceans, the Sirfetched trainer is voiced by Toshiya Miyata who is an idol from the group Kis-My-Ft2. He has been doing a lot of voice acting in addition to his idol activities, so this is a bit of a celebrity casting in a way. Some of his roles include Akina Myodo in Cardight Vanguard Divinez and the Kasai twins in Delicious Party Precure. Not only that, Miyata is also an author as he is the creator of the story Melody of the Boundary which will be receiving an anime adaptation with its released date yet to be announced. He’s a multitalented person. The other members of the group are voiced by people who have voiced characters in the anime.

I guess my only gripe for the episode is that Professor Phorus doesn’t play much of a part despite showing up in the opening. Her voice actress isn’t even credited! It’s a shame because she has such an interesting design; I don’t think her assistant Erbie spoke at all. The only other Unite character who showed up in the episode is Zirco who appeared in a bonus segment. Other than that, it was an engaging episode from start to end. Let me know your thoughts on the episode!