day 1736 they all help a zorua and its mom zoroark get home {m13}
Lo! Behold and bear witness to the news I shall now depart upon you. It has come to pass that the spirit of Evil! Goku did not depart this world upon the death of his previous vessel the mad would-be god Cyrus. Instead he abandoned his former guise and grew to inhabit the body of a businessman named Grings Kodai. Kodai for his part routinely electrocutes small children in order to force the compliance of said children's mother into terrorizing a city for the express purpose of allowing Kodai to torture a different faerie tree spirit and increase his psychic powers which give him future knowledge on how to take over the world... OF COURSE! Doesn't he seem like such a swell guy?
In all seriousness though, much like Hunter J before him Kodai almost seems too evil for a show like Pokémon, but since he's a megalomaniac, J still comes off as a better villain. Still evil as fuck though. In fact, seeing as how this is the only stand alone DP movie (unconnected to the creation trio trilogy) Kodai being an actual menace benefits the movie a lot, at least IMO.
This movie has 2 things notable about it: Ash finally sees a raikou for one, why did it take until almost the end of Sinnoh for that to happen? Secondly, this is the only appearance of Unovian Pokémon (the 2 zor—s obviously) and the only mention of the entire country of Unova in the whole preceding series.
Yep, without this movie Ash would have no idea, motive, or reason to go to the next region in bw1 besides forced plot mechanics, as unlike every other time there is no plot hook at the end of D+P to facilitate that. That should be enough to prove this as canon, but again later in Unova he remembers what a zorua is (unlike everything else), but I'm getting ahead of myself again.
As for time-line placement m13, much like m2,5,9 gets shoehorned at the end into the only viable spot left by process of elimination. Dawn has her togekiss so it must take place after the festival as those happen in sequence, and it can't take place after they return to Sunnyshore for the Volkner fight because at that point the writers apparently learned generation V would be coming out in 3 months; thus Ash immediately gets on a boat in the following episode straight for the Lily Valley League Conference.
(2013) I haven't really had to add any extra commentary for this region overall, as when penning this originally I became overtly verbose and got most of thoughts and feelings already laid down. Quick note on all 4 of the Sinnoh movies: They're the middle of the road flicks, production values are good and plots are ok, just nothing to single out as best or worst... y'know?
day 1741 ash gets 8th badge {dp179}
As for the gym battle itself, pretty fucking good. It turns out that Volkner's been making every other trainer that wants to battle him since his return wait on Ash, thereby keeping his promise of a rematch. Pikachu finally defeats an Electivire settling his quarrel with that species entirely without robbing Infernape of his rivalry settlement with Paul's Electivire in particular. For his part Gohan, I mean Infernape, finally gets his super powered rage under control and can utilize his ability blaze without worry. Also Dawn turns into a cheerleader again, because why not.
For those keeping score, exactly 52 episodes between this and the Candice fight, and the plot really didn't drag that much at all. (2013) 1 last thing about the battle,in my humble opinion the best gym fight in the show overall, and in my biased hate-filled opinion, so grain of salt, the last great gym fight the audience gets so far, half of the Unovian gyms suck outright but of the four good ones, one is really close to awesome sauce.
Dp180 is the last breather episode of the series, the final 10 being devoted solely to the League. Kenny shows up again, in a last ditch effort to show that he's better than Ash and Dawn should come train with him together for the festival next year, and honestly I just feel bad for the kid. I mean if you're playing second best to Ash freaking Ketchum for someone's affection... I don't think there's anything more pathetic.
To make a long story short, Kenny challenges Ash to a 1vs1 and rather than take him seriously Ash just picks Buizel since the weasel wants to fight Kenny's Empolean, and he himself wants to work on defensive tactics that could be useful in the League. Ash does lose the bout, but again I must reiterate when someone is used for training fodder by Ash Ketchum, the guy who only goes all out when the world or his life is any danger, that person might as well just give up on everything, because Ouch.
Afterward Kenny leaves behind a letter for Dawn to read, she realizes sorta what he's actually asking her for and in a foregone conclusion she doesn't accept and trots after Ash. Oh and Jasmine is there instead of in Johto for some reason, kinda weird. Dp181 is the last filler ep, showcasing Buck the fifth and final special npc, but sadly unlike even Marley's episode its just boring. Save time and move on.
day 1747 arrival at lily valley for the sinnoh league, ash's cyndaquil evolves into quilava {dp182}
day 1751 ash vs conway, ash's gliscor comes back {dp185}
Rather than just stick to his guns like in Hoenn, Ash actually cobbles together a full team comprised of his Pokémon from all the regions he's been to, giving the audience a heap of nice cameos. Since I brought up cameos, of all the people who'd be in the league Conway from the tag tournament (and that awful summer camp arc) was the last one I would have expected. That's not as noteworthy though, because holy shit Cyndaquil finally evolves after 507 episodes. So then, if Ash ever does obtain the honey badger awesomeness that is Typhlosion the anime will probably finally come to an end.
183 has Ash knocking out Nando in the first round, meanwhile Paul forces Barry out of the competition in 184. All 3 of these eps 183-185 serve as fun exciting preludes to the main event as well as to foreshadow the coming of this season's crusher of Ash's dreams Tobias. Unlike his characterless forerunner, Tyson who had the decency to be around for a tiny bit, Tobias doesn't even show up until the battle in dp189, they also differ in that Troll-bias is actually a memorable character in his own special way... but first Ash vs Paul (2). Oh and the way Gliscor returns is a nice callback to Charizard's return for the silver league.
Next time... The finale to a rivalry, the closing of the league, the culmination of 13 years of animation, the closest approximation to Sisyphus there is in modern fiction, a farewell for Dawn, an epiphany for Brock and one last hurrah for that poor loser Ash before the end times Eps 186-191
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