YMMV / The School of Hard Knocks

• Hilarious in Hindsight: This episode, one of the earliest in the entire anime, is based around the concept of a Trainers' School where the students who enroll in it, complete all its courses, and graduate are allowed to compete in the Pokemon League Tournament, making the school an alternative to having to go on a badge collecting quest all over the region. Years later in the Sun & Moon series, Ash enrolls in Trainers' School and he and his classmates are ultimately allowed to compete in the Alola League. And after six regions of badge collecting ended in failure at their respective League Tournaments, this is the League that Ash ended up winning. So ultimately, it's like Giselle and the other Pokemon Tech student's approach was Vindicated by History.
  • It's admittedly not quite that straightforward, since ultimately Ash likely wouldn't have succeeded in winning the Alola League without those prior failures to build off of for experience and personal growth. Plus let's face it: Ash in the early episodes could be an entitled brat and could be very Book Dumb, so simply shoving him into a school when at that stage of his life and trainer career wouldn't have guaranteed he'd be able to succeed in that kind of environment. That being said, the school environment of Alola probably did help Ash finally succeed by virtue of shoring up his deficiencies as a trainer that he likely wouldn't have gotten from his multiple leagues of experience.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Giselle or really any of the major Pokemon Tech students from this episode could have been a nice reoccurring Foil to Ash and his friends, helping them both learn from each other and indirectly push each other to improve. A later episode even focuses on an exam people can take to get in the League as opposed to the traditional badge system, allowing for the perfect opportunity to bring one of them back. Heck, Giselle is one of the few girls in the entire anime Ash shows any form of attraction to. However, since the anime at that point worked on a Strictly Formula character of the week format, no one from this episode has been seen in the anime since.

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