Pokemon XY Episode 3 'A Battle of Aerial Mobility!' Review

It's been quite a bit since the special 1 hour sneak peak of Pokemon XY, the latest Pocket Monster show. As a re-surged fan of the series thanks to the new games, I went into this show with mild expectations. I love the XY world, but the anime hasn't been quite 'good' since Advanced ended. But with every new season there's a chance for redemption. The two premiere episodes were solid, from there the show would either keep up the quality or deride itself into a repetitive mess. Thankfully if Episode 3 is any indication, XY could be the best Pokemon season in a long time.

This episode is separated into three points of views. First we have the main one which is on Ash, Clemont and Bonnie, second on Serena, and finally on Team Rocket. First we'll talk about Ash and friends. We see the protagonist update his progress to Professor Oak. I don't know when the latter's voice changed, but it's pretty awful. However, the action is when the Heroes go on their journey to the Santalune City Gym. In the beginning of the episode, Ash registered for the Kalos League. I'm going to assume this league will be in the climax of the season once he collects all the gym badges.

Before continuing, it's very important to mention the theme song. It's a fantastic remix of the original theme from Season 1! It gives the feeling that this season will be like the originals. Past all the cheesy friendship dialogue, we find the heroes in a forest when a Dedenne appears. These things are exclusive to X & Y and look remarkably similar to Pikachu. So naturally their brief 'encounter' proved fun enough. But, despite Dedenne's inclusion, the new Pokemon to watch for is Fletchling. Wow, if you ever thought that bird was a bit on the weak side, you'd have to watch the eisode. He plays the main characters for a bunch of fools. The battle between him and Froakie was fun with pretty smooth animation. The battles in this season are proving to be solid, I'm looking forward to the 'big' ones. So the two major things that come out from this part of the story is Froakie learning to trust Ash and the latter catching a Fletchling. The bird should prove to be a great addition, I already personally prefer him to Froakie.

It is interesting that this season is taking its time with having Serena and Ash being partners on the journey. She's proving to be a fun protagonist. I still miss her more serious in-game personality, but she could be worse. I'm sensing these two will be close friends as the show goes on, maybe something even more? Then again, it's easy to forget that Ash is still like 10 years old seventeen seasons later...which doesn't make much sense. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing which Pokemon Serena picks. (Hint, it's Fennekin. The theme song spoils that surprise.)

Team Rocket...I just have to ask why? They serve absolutely no purpose. Thankfully they didn't have any run-ins with Ash, but their scenes were pretty filler-y nonetheless. But, we do learn one thing: Giovanni is still in business. Again, I just don't understand. In the theme song it shows Team Flare's logo, so why not just let them be the villains and Team Rocket take a break? Obviously the biggest thing from their point of view is that James catches an Inkay, who was trolling Team Rocket the whole time by stealing their food. Inkay must be some kinda weakling though if he could be captured without any attack necessary.

Overall, this was a really solid episode. Past the cheesy dialogue and filler Team Rocket, there's a lot of cool stuff going on. Fetchling has a lot of personality, even being as cool as the original Pidgey! The battle between it and Froakie was good, the animation is very nice.  The story so far is moving nicely, it remains to be seen if the pace doesn't falter.

4/5