#gurkinn

This episode was... ehh. Nothing terrible by any means, but definitely could’ve had a lot more going for it.

For starters, wish we saw a reason why Ash and Goh were at the Shalour Gym in the first place, as considering Korrina’s reaction to seeing them after the battle, it just kinda seems like they just waltzed in during a random match.

Secondly, Mega Island had a lot of hype built up to it during the previews, as well as the scene that took place on the boat trip to that location, but it barely impressed in the slightest. There wasn’t even anything done exciting with all the visiting/residing Pokemon either, all there it had was a Gyarados using Splash, a wandering Sableye, an Abomasnow breathing too heavy, a Pidgeot and Salamence fighting (which was apparently an excuse to not use Dragonite and Flygon for convenient air travel despite the fact they were the only air threats shown at all), and a Camerupt that Goh caught without much issue. At least have Panpour direct their Rain Dance cloud over it to weaken it in order to make the catch seem a little more clever.

Thirdly, the battle between Lucario and Gurkinn’s Mega Alakazam was just sad. Why not actually make it somewhat of a struggle for Ash and Lucario to make their award feel more deserving instead of just having Alakazam float and do nothing else like an idiot? Take advantage of Lucario’s steel-typing by having him power through Alakazam’s Psychic-type attacks and use aura to avoid sucker punches like potential spoons Alakzam could be controlling behind Lucario. Would also be a good chance to give Lucario some new moves, too. I’ve said it before, but his current moveset is trash. Replace Force Palm or Reversal with something more versatile, like Bone Rush, Extremespeed, Dragon Pulse, Meteor Mash, Life Dew, Stone Edge, literally anything that’s not a fighting-type move!

Gripes aside, there are still things I do like about the episode.

I enjoyed seeing Ash and Lucario use more of their aura and seeing them interact as well. Since besides the fact that Riolu can only evolve via evolution, considering the anime’s huge obsession of having only Ash and Goh interact with each other instead of anyone else, you can be forgiven if you thought that Lucario hated Ash due to how cold he was to him in Episode 48. And if the primary reason for Ash not having gloves at the beginning of Journeys in order to save the reveal for his new Mega Gloves, then mad props to that. Seriously! And Korrina’s always a joy to see.