#ns011

“Very cute.“

Honestly, from this point on I knew this episode was good and there was nothing that would make it worse for me. This was so freaking awesome after him having an ungodly luck with catching Pokémon left and right with no real effort. I loved this so, SO much!

And the fact Satoshi kinda cutely offers his pokeball but keeps this one face up even through Gou denying it just... asfjgfjsgh. Love it.

Even Rocket Gang finally showed why I adore them in this episode, saying lines like being afraid of brat boys stealing their targets lolololol Buffoons that’s not how they work-

This is just freaking brilliant, more of this please!

Satoshi bonding with a Hakuryu who ends up evolving for him is an absolute treat I didn’t have faith in happening, but some gut in me kept telling me that dude, preview showed Satoshi possibly bonding with Hakuryu, not Gou! I just wasn’t that impressed with the series so far that my faith was pretty much gone. Now it’s somewhat restored, but not fully!

it’s a shame it took 10 episodes to convince me on this series having any good episodes in it, but I guess that’s what happens when you actually start watching a show from the beginning without any form of binge-project. When last week’s episode had me feel down with how disappointed I was with the marketing around the episode and all, this episode had me go total 180. Well. The writer had been writing during Sun & Moon’s season 2, and they were among my favourites, so I’m not surprised totally!

And as a fellow Hakuryu/Dragonair fan, this is one of my fav screencaps now. So glad Satoshi got to bond with his new Kairyu when it was still a Hakuryu. My heart feels content ♥

Next week’s episode looks like fun as well to be honest, the moment I heard we’ll finally have a Koharu-focused episode, I was thrilled! And while the boys will have their role in the episode as well, Koharu is definitely having more screentime here. And as a fan of ghost-type themed episodes, I look forward to it! This Gengar looks crazed thou, wtf is happening to it?!?!

And Gou shouting Koharu’s name has me in joy, yes give me their friendship content!!!

In case anyone’s still unclear: Koharu’s family consists of little brother named Sota, father named Sakuragi, and mother named Yoshino. The name Yoshino appeared in the VA cast, so it’s quite ok to assume it was the name for Koharu’s mom, because it’d be weird to be missing “Koharu’s mom” and still be featured in the ep.

What I absolutely loved about this episode, was how we got fully introduced to Koharu’s daily life, her family and to how each of their dynamics work. Koharu not waking up fully to Wanpachi barking at her, at Sota calling her out, but at her mom stating she won’t be able to do her braids if she doesn’t wake up this instant. But in the most gentle, possible way. Gosh I love Koharu’s mom already.

This episode definitely focused on showing the relationship between Koharu and her mom, while also showing how interacts with her brother. We already know how she interacts with her father Sakuragi, and before this episode, we had no idea Koharu had siblings. Such a wonderful surprise, and I wish to know about Gou’s family now. Please, do deliver, Pocket Monsters!

One of my fav details this ep would definitely be the order of who Wanpachi loves the most and the least. Despite Wanpachi being seen with Sakuragi the most, Wanpachi likes him the least! It does seem like Wanpachi likes the women in this family the most, haha. And won’t eat food from anyone else but Koharu. Is this normal dog behaviour?

Yoshino states how Koharu acts the coldest towards Wanpachi from the family, and I wonder if the translation was done a bit... weird here, because I feel the word cold is kinda... easy to intrepret as mean/rude. Because she isn’t necessarily rude to Wanpachi. Just shows least interest. The word Gou seems to use for this also seems to be Cool instead of Cold. Not sure. Maybe poor choice of words or something.

But still. The way it seems to me, is that Koharu did indeed like Pokémon in the past, as we saw her visiting the PokeCamp with Gou with an open mind and like a happy child, but to borrow Gou’s words, “she didn’t used to act like this, but nowdays she’s kinda cold“. He also says how each person is different, which is a good line, THANK YOU GOU!! Anywho. Later on, we see Koharu getting pressured by her classmates during a class session, where the teacher asks her to tell what her dream is, and before she’s even able to open up, the classmate behind her already chose it for her. And then they started bombing her with questions. Gosh. Eventually asking her whether she likes Pokémon or not, despite being a Professor’s daughter.

It’s quite a relatable scene, and is actually said to have been rude to bomb her with questions like that, so I’m glad the writing suggests viewers to not do such a thing to other people, even when something may seem obvious. She even states during a conversation with her mom, who came to school to bring her lunch, that everyone has so many expectations on her, deciding her future for her, and how she feels unsure. I love how her mom tells her about how she became an Illustrator through her dream of becoming a mangaka, and abandoning it. This is new to Pokeani, as each character kinda either found one goal they end up following, or had a goal already but then drive for a new one (Takeshi/Brock if someone’s confused). Like I said before, Koharu’s mom has ended up being most relatable for me, and that’s quite amusing, and satisfying, to say. I think Koharu’s character has great potential, and this episode built up her character arc’s starting point quite well. She’s a daughter of a Pokémon Professor, who feels pressured by other than her family, and thus feels unsure of whether she wants her future to have to do with Pokémon or not.

Now, of course there’s also the plot of a mischevious Gengar going on in this episode (which I LOVED because I adore Pokeani’s spooky eps and this ep delivered), but I wanted to focus on talking about Koharu, and how her character’s building up to be. I also have to highlight how freaking awesome Wanpachi was this whole episode, and I just freaking adore how it charges at Gengar and then Satoshi HOLD!

It’s just too cute to me, ajshfgshfgshf. Wanpachi’s too angry at Gengar to worry about barking at Satoshi I think, hahaha. And ofc I have to highlight how Gou’s shown to NOT be a battler at all, and focuses more on throwing balls and failing them all lol. Gengar is WAY too tough.

Just sajfhgsjhf. Thank you. This is what we needed after the first 9 eps. Feels good.

Also like... Wanpachi is first so focused on finding this spooky scary crazed Gengar, but the moment it hears the door, it gets a freaking heart emote up and runs to the door, knowing it’s Koharu. It freaking forgets about the whole happenings just to run to Koharu, awwwwww Wanpachi loves her so much ILOVEOURWANWAN

But then, Gengar attacks Koharu, and Wanpachi freakings locks in on this ghost Pokémon, not leaving it out of its sight and just... growling at it.

Boys got caught up in the psychic, but they seemed surprised by how determined Wanpachi is on protecting Koharu. Gee. Satoshi was just told Koharu acts sorta cold on Pokémon nowdays, yet Wanpachi is so determined to protect. I love it. And even after Koharu hesitates to command it, due to not having experience, she seems to realise just how much Wanpachi loves her and is willing to protect her, so she finally crasps onto it and lets Wanpachi battle at her command. And it’s an awesome moment.

In a span of one episode, we learned so much about Koharu, to the point where I feel like we know more about Koharu than we know about Gou. And that’s just... amusing. lol. But y’know what? Koharu just because my favourite of the cast, and it makes me so sad she appears so little right now. But I think, after this episode’s bonding with Wanpachi and learning to love Pokémon a bit more again, she’ll soon have more interest in maybe finally seeing our boys’ Pokémon as well. She just needs time, as the outside pressure can be taunting. I’m sure she’ll be able to overcome and find a dream that fits her the best. I wouldn’t be surprised if she will become a professor of a kind, but on a different field.

One thing’s for sure: my already big love for Wanpachi as a species grew up ten fold thanks to this episode, and I now know that I am most definitely a fan of Koharu. Well done on writing her first focus episode, Aya Matsui. Well done.

So it’s most likely Gengar is crazed due to being so lonely for a long time and has become bitter. Some nice theorising going on with Discord group as well of how Gengar might have had a partner trainer but she died, thus Gengar thinking it was abandoned.

Now that we have been showcased Koharu’s full family (cute lil bro who uses “boku”, talented mom who does Koharu’s hair each morning, and ofc Sakuragi. Loved seeing the parent’s past partly explored when it came to Koharu asking about how her mom figured out her dream goal, which is Illustrator), I wanna know about another family: Gou’s. Seriously, Gou why are you constantly at Sakuragi’s Lab, why have no one mentioned your mom, dad, or possible siblings, are you an orphan, are you a rebel who’s just not visiting home, What is your deal Gou I wanna knooooooooooooooooooooooooow!

(In before it’ll take as long as it took for us to know that Mao’s mom was dead the whole time I wondered where she is. Damn. I wanna know sooner D:)

Also, Koharu is a bit torn on what her dream should be, she feels pressured by her classmates thinking she’ll surely follow her dad’s footsteps. That’s got to be relatable to everyone. And it’s also new: with Serena, it was her mom who was pressuring Serena to become a Rhyhorn Racer, and it was due to her mom knowing Serena was easy to give up. With Haruka/May, she was pressured by her fam to aim for gym challenge due to her dad being a gym leader. Iris had a pressure on becoming a gym leader as well iirc? But Koharu? Her classmates are doing the pressure, not her family. And that’s nice.

Koharu seemed hesitant on battling Gengar with Wanpachi, not sure on the details as I wasn’t able to understand all the dialogue, but once the boys got incapacitated by Gengar, and Wanpachi wasn’t listening to Sakuragi due to being fixed on protecting Koharu, she finally ordered Wanpachi to do Spark on the menacing, spooky and scary Gengar, and she seemed to enjoy it in the end. Ends with the two sleeping in the same bed.

Wanpachi is a family ‘mon, but it seems to be building up to be caught for real by Koharu, and then Gengar seems to be built up to be coming back, possibly for Koharu to eventually catch it. And I think Koharu will warm up to knowing whether she’ll be interested in seeing Gou’s Pokémon or not. Both Gou and Satoshi wanted to showcase their recently caught and evolved ‘mon to her but she said she had to go to school. Hah.

Anywho. This just became my favourite episode, as one, I love spooky episodes, and two, it had awesome focus on Koharu, showing how adorable Kairyu is with its hugging nature and having Gou get THREE Cascoon lololololololololol.