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It seems like anime often gives a "bath" scene before putting all the bets.
To be fair, Flygon and Garchomp is part Dragon, having neutral reaction to water. And the waters are meant to be of pool park or therapeutic instead of damaging attacks and Toracat still don't want to go into it anyway, him still curiously unsure with the flower bath. Maybe because it's harder to keep his bell dry unlike Zard's tail fire. Fire-types, do they really need no water in their lives?
Now what I hope they can resolve is Necrozma's back story here. In U-SM, it has plenty of justification of being Big Bad. Will the anime writers manage to do the same to Anime Necrozma? How will they write its reasons to attack the Light legends and steal light? Especially that until now we have seen no Ultra Megapolitan and Recon Squad in sight? (Or maybe they'll showcase what appears to be remains of it?)
I'll look forward to it, and their musics to satisfy my ears.
Eh, I'll give you Garchomp and Flygon's Dragon-typing neutralizing the water weakness. Still, a Pokemon weak to water being submerged in water just doesn't seem right, or at least submerged and enjoying itself. Like they can probably endure some water, like from a sprinkler, garden hose, or rubbed with a soaked towel. But to be in a pool with over 50% of their body submerged? Like if they can take that with no adverse effect why does getting hit with a Water-type move hurt more than usual? Does the water have to be sprayed at a certain amount of pressure for it to get past some kind of protective threshold?
Also Torracat won't go into water not because it's a Fire-type, but because its a cat. :P
I wouldn't put it pass the writers to just shove the Ultra Recon Squad in after the Necrozma episode to give Ash & co. a way to chase after Necrozma after it absorbs Nebby.
So we got an excerpt of the Radiant One's backstory in anime. It looks that here, it resided in Alola instead of just staying for a while and sharing its light from Ultra Space, and it is even celebrated each 21 years (ha!) in Alola. More lore of it in anime will be explored in next week, I suppose.
I still want to know its reason to go berserk and try "eating" Lunala, though. They can't just "because it's evil", although they can maybe shift the game's ancient Ultra Megapolitan's blame to ancient Alolans, for one possibility, although unlikely, considering they even worshiped it.
Then, I also remember the fourth Island King / Kahuna hasn't appeared and Lillie doesn't have her own Z-Ring yet, despite having the Ice-Z. She also still holds the Ice Stone unused. None of the starters have reach final forms either (best candidate is Toracat, while maybe Popplio will evolve at least once). I have feeling that after this, there are _still_ major arc to end Alolan saga. Unless they just randomly decide to wrap these up in insignificant filler arc.
More Team Rocket agents look to be arriving, one that uses a Mega Aggron.
Ash & co. are meeting Naganadel and all the other Poipole which I suppose Ash's Poipole was part of.
And Ultra Necrozma arrives.
They relegated the reason Necrozma got blackened by using a meteor it protects a world from, full stop. I suppose human's bastardry like in U-SM is too much for kids, huh? I shouldn't expect too much with low amount of writer's time left, although its still perfectly plausible reason, although again with minor complain rendition of U-Necrozma falling down already as its black form (I'd have expected for it to get "shattered" to pieces instead, or at least "shattered" offscreen after it falls down in Ultra form.)
That Rocket soldier guy easily beat Kukui and Faba. Where's Incineroar? when you need it? At least he should stand a chance with type advantage and Z-move (granted, not super-effective, but Z-power to the maaaax, and who cares about hidden identity when the whole region is threatened?). Although then again if Ultra Guardians are successful, that MegaBossgodra/Aggron? is likely going to be Ultra Guardian, Solgaleo, and Lunala's lunch when they're back.
Also somehow I like Faba being decidedly heroic here. Although he did say he's also gathering information before they left, so... I kinda hope he's not switching side in the anime, now or later.
That Naganadel?... she speaks (in telepathy, but yeah). Apparently she's the hive Queen of the Poipole nest. Now I wonder, what will Ash do with his Poipole? Most likely he's going to leave it there in its original world, but....
Also, a little inconsistency that Mina said it was sad because of a "burden", a "mission" from its world. But then Naganadel said it left on its own as opposed to being instructed by her to go. Or maybe indeed because it does have "burden" of being from a darkened world (and it's Mina's interpretation which can miss anyway) and I just overthought it?
I'll want to see this cultural Manalo festival. They would celebrate it after this Necrozma business finishes, shouldn't it? Funny that Ash gets his hypothesis of sharing correct even without HQ's input, although likely that's not enough until everyone shares their power through the U-Wormhole as in the next trailer (including Rocket Trio).
Oh, and Gladio already has Normal-Z. Highly likely that he'll join Kukui's future Alola League then (if he remembers it).
And where's Kukui-Faba's Pokemon's reaction GIF right before getting smashed?
Has anyone else been following along the Twitch Presents Pokémon broadcast like I have been? Granted, I forgot all about it last week, so I regrettably missed out on most of Indigo .
So far I've enjoyed what I've seen, especially with the Badge Collector extension and the amusingly reactive Twitch chat.
Sometimes, I even view the foreign TwitchPresents channels to listen to the same familiar episodes but under different voices. There's no Japanese dubbing, though, so oh well. Even so, the characters can range quite a bit vocally, yet I guess Pikachu stays the same wherever you go. It made me realize that I knew about the alternate forms of the Pokémon theme songs but never even considered that this would also extend to the songs featured on Pikachu's Jukebox.
Right now, the broadcast has made it all the way to the end of the Orange League season (specifically the episode where we get to swap out Tracy for Brock again and where Pikachu gets wrecked by Gary's Eevee). The second Pokémon movie will be playing this Sunday, and then Ash and co. will be in "a whole new world" the day after.
I'm personally looking forward to rewatching some of the Advanced series, the series that I've least rewatched as a whole. It'll be a while though until Gen 3.
Well I'm not currently following the twitch marathon, but I did marathon the anime on my own a few years ago. It's too bad the twitch marathon won't air the Japanese version as we progress to the later seasons since the dub goes downhill after a certain point, not because of the voices but all the music changes.
Johto alone is 157 episodes long, I have no idea how long it'll take them to get through it since Johto drags on with filler for the longest time. Outside a few funny TR eps it also drags even if you marathon it, the anime didn't pick up till the late Johto era (which in the dub is the Master Quest season), and then improves into Hoenn and beyond.
Loks like Necrozma arc will be short. I just hope it is not disappointing.
... it is because of this.
Hau could you appear just now? Also, that weird bobcut Eevee from Let's Go were already laughable, but didn't think they'd pull this out either.
Oh, and a Nuiguruma (I forgot Bewear pre-evo's English name....) in Rocket's Malasada Van? The trio got new 'mon or is entrusted by Bewear its little relative?
Oh, and Poipole's gone. That little cuddlebug....
Loks like Necrozma arc will be short. I just hope it is not disappointing.
... it is because of this.
Hau could you appear just now? Also, that weird bobcut Eevee from Let's Go were already laughable, but didn't think they'd pull this out either.
Oh, and a Nuiguruma (I forgot Bewear pre-evo's English name....) in Rocket's Malasada Van? The trio got new 'mon or is entrusted by Bewear its little relative?
Oh, and Poipole's gone. That little cuddlebug....
I would say it's short, as it JUST ended with today's episode. And bad news, it looks disappointing. I've only seen the Serebii images, but from what it looks like after everyone gives their energy so Goku and Vegeta can do the Spirit Bomb Ash and Gladion can use Solgaleo's and Lunala's Z-Moves against Necrozma, it looks like they instead charged it with light making it Ultra Necrozma as it then flies away, returning the light it has consumed. So no Ultra Necrozma battle, because if the writers dared to follow the game's better storyline they might look competent for once.
And indeed, at the end of it Poipole stayed behind with its own kind, with tearful goodbyes and "happy times" montage.
As for the new poster:
1. Well Ash has the Pikachu, so he might as well get an Eevee too (gotta replace Poipole). Which means we'll be seeing Let's Go stuff in the anime so, indeed, we'll probably hear Ash say the names of Pikachu's and Eevee's ridiculous moves. *Sigh* 2. And Let's Go is probably why Brock and Misty are making another cameo. Alright, won't complain about that, though I wonder what the reasoning would be. 3. HAU! FINALLY! Now let's see how they don't give his character justice because they took so long to introduce him that they already did the stories in the games. I suppose they still have the Team Skull plot left to do... I think they're going to completely skip the Ultra Recon Squad (joining AZ, Emma, and Zinnia. Why are they skipping over the actually interesting characters? Oh, right, if they did do something with them it'll make them look competent, I forgot). 4. And just a general observation, I gotta say that out of all the side characters the only one that has gotten anything resembling development is Mallow. Lillie is still in her Nihilego outfit and Snowy is still a Vulpix, Lana still has a Popplio, and Kiawe & Sophocles are shown with their Pokemon who don't evolve. These have to be the most stagnant group of companions Ash has had...
I would say it's short, as it JUST ended with today's episode. And bad news, it looks disappointing. I've only seen the Serebii images, but from what it looks like after everyone gives their energy so Goku and Vegeta can do the Spirit Bomb Ash and Gladion can use Solgaleo's and Lunala's Z-Moves against Necrozma, it looks like they instead charged it with light making it Ultra Necrozma as it then flies away, returning the light it has consumed. So no Ultra Necrozma battle, because if the writers dared to follow the game's better storyline they might look competent for once.
And indeed, at the end of it Poipole stayed behind with its own kind, with tearful goodbyes and "happy times" montage.
As for the new poster:
1. Well Ash has the Pikachu, so he might as well get an Eevee too (gotta replace Poipole). Which means we'll be seeing Let's Go stuff in the anime so, indeed, we'll probably hear Ash say the names of Pikachu's and Eevee's ridiculous moves. *Sigh* 2. And Let's Go is probably why Brock and Misty are making another cameo. Alright, won't complain about that, though I wonder what the reasoning would be. 3. HAU! FINALLY! Now let's see how they don't give his character justice because they took so long to introduce him that they already did the stories in the games. I suppose they still have the Team Skull plot left to do... I think they're going to completely skip the Ultra Recon Squad (joining AZ, Emma, and Zinnia. Why are they skipping over the actually interesting characters? Oh, right, if they did do something with them it'll make them look competent, I forgot). 4. And just a general observation, I gotta say that out of all the side characters the only one that has gotten anything resembling development is Mallow. Lillie is still in her Nihilego outfit and Snowy is still a Vulpix, Lana still has a Popplio, and Kiawe & Sophocles are shown with their Pokemon who don't evolve. These have to be the most stagnant group of companions Ash has had...
I managed to catch up, and....
... while the ending result is plausibly ok, the shortness is just disappointing. OK, they don't have reason to fight U-Necrozma when it reverted to its Radiant lord form and case closed and happy ending, but still, the shortness left a worse distasteful feeling than Motherbeast Lusamine because there were at least actual crisis. I'm taking back Lusamine's arc as disappointing; it's good, only because this manages to get worse.
I did ask this too, but not this short; Gozu's MegaBossgodra get smashed in one hit by Incineroar. I'll not expect any good battle scene like in XY anymore.
Also, so much for Poipole learning Fury Swipes, and this also makes it more like the U-Guardians missions were just fancier filler episodes. I thought I was going to praise them for the "filler" time in Hokulani with the tearjerking starry Meteno swarms which could lead to good development plot and thought they probably have buildups from episodes that doesn't render them as badly as it was in first season. Nah, wrong. They never learnt their lesson and kept dawdling until it's too late, compressing important plots in just 2 episodes. This is horrible, at least we still had Lillie's development in first arc....
The only way I can imagine to salvage them is for the 3rd arc to have Kalos-level crisis with Rainbow Rocket with involvement of Leo-Luna, previous UBs and Necrozma, and guardian Kapus for an epic clash against them, which likely won't happen with these previous arcs....
(Meanwhile, Faba is fanboy to Masked Royal. Now I actually like him and would rather him stay as good guy now.)
I'll just hope they just doesn't do more spoilers and there may be unexpected changes such as evolutions of those shown here. Hau seems to have Dartrix. This can as well doom Ash's Rowlet to never evolve. I hope this poster doesn't seal Popplio's fate of not evolving as well, and also that Dewpider....
Lillie can pass as her "Nihilego" outfit is ok; she changes her hairstyle to Z-powered form in their Sentai, but... hope she will use that Ice Stone already, and Z-Ring when? I hope they don't forget that and make further development instead of leaving her blandly rotting. (They have also taken the "not evolving with stone is better" belief way too long now, it hurts. And I'll be mad if the Pikachu treatment is applied permanently to Lillie's 'pix too.)
Seriously, pray to Arceus that it won't end up with the idiot relief Rocket Gang getting more development than them from the poster's implication. I'll pray that this poster isn't sealing their fate....
If Kukui does make a new Pokemon League, I'll be prepared to not put my money on Ash. I'll praise the lighthearted comedies of anipoke, but I shouldn't hope so much about the actual storywriting with two disappointing arcs already. At least Kalos had some continuing development such as Tripokalon, arguable in goodness or necessity as it is.
Also, minor, but I'm bummed that that's all Manalo is about. I was at least expecting them to join the festivity and I get to learn Alolan culture a bit more, but sighs, worldbuilding isn't their thing.... ... also, minor error, but in Akala's altar when they do the light sharing prayer, there's another Dusk Lycanroc. Wasn't Ash's established as the only one special? Not so special now that a random stranger can have it no?
LOL, Misty's suddenly getting a number of returns after a 12 year complete absence from the series since mid-AG back in 2005/2006. For a long time people thought she'd never appear again outside of flashbacks, since for the rest of AG, DP, BW, and XY she never showed up again. Now she got two cameos in the span of a year, although we know it's for Let's Go promotion. Even just 2 years ago something like this happening would have sounded like fanfiction.
As expected, Rowlet will never evolve. It eats Everstone. It's a given since Ash already have Toracat and Hau has Dartrix, both of which matches with how Hau picks his starter in the games. This may also mean Lana's Popplio has a chance to evolve.
Also, his first episode and we already see Hau's "other side" of him trying to accept defeat. At least we will have the Hau we know, although I hope they don't try to tug the viewers' heartstrings too much with him. And apparently he comes to Alola with his father, who ran away from his tradition and never come back in the games. Maybe we can learn a bit more about Hau and his family....
And Bewear has a child. A new "mascot" for Trio Rocket. It's funny to see their reflexive Stupid Evil realisation in that episode, though, despite them actually getting smarter not to do their act until Ash goes home at first.
Now I wonder how will this... I'll call it Scruffvee, end up? Either Ash evolves it into a new Vee debuting in next game, or he gets to meet Kagetora and obtain Eevee-Z. I'm sure Ash will be the one to get it though, he's such a funny dork that fits with Ash's personality.
Speaking of Brock, Misty and Brock are visiting Alola:
Serebii said:
A special event in Japan has revealed new episode titles for upcoming episodes of the anime. This episode is due to air on December 23rd. It features Brock & Misty deciding to visit the Alola Region
Episode 1045: An Alola! in Alola! Brock and Misty!
Well, it's real, what I said didn't turn right. I had hoped that'd be Ash's instead since the two are pretty much compatible, but maybe having that Scruffvee on Lana may mean she is going to get better character development. Popplio also got Surf.
Either they manage to make Lana an interesting character this time (which is unlikely, but I'll still keep benefit of doubt), or that Eevee just becomes fodder of wasted character. I'm thinking more because the writers just decided "Eevee, instant fame bait." And Lana would mean it's too easy to guess Eevee's fate, unless they decided to randomly use it to promote next 2019 game with (possible) new Vee, breaking Lana's water-type Specialty (and still unlikely, it's already shown to love seas), or Lana's the one to go to Kagetora to get Eevee-Z.
EDIT: I think they screw up yet again. I even forgot there's Dewpider waiting for her. Lana didn't need that Eevee. And even with Wimpod which the writers even more likely forget, Ash still would haven't made his quota of 6 Pokemon (if Kukui is serious on building League, and I'm sure the writers would never let him handle legendaries or UB), not that everyone had caught more Pokemon to establish their own character (Lillie and Mallow are still stuck in one count) to be exempted from that Eevee.
... and then I forgot Team Skull exists. There's no hope for them. Sorry guys, 2019 and new game is pretty much imminent and Guzma and Plumeria is AWOL until now (while Hau barely made it), so you're doomed to be minor villains everyone forgot even existing as opposed of failure youths that people can actually root for. Too kid-unfriendly? Would a special episode humanising them even without their leaders (they did have one episode... where Rocket Trio beat them) be too hard, or maybe because that means they can no longer be the forgettable definitive Alolan bad guys?
Eight deadly words on them, moving on....
BTW, next week: Guzzlord and Zeraora. Ash's on his own. What the suddenly...?!
The SM anime probably has the most bizarre pacing of any saga in the series. Sometimes a bunch of important things happen all at once, others times it's months of slice of life filler. Still no Guzma or real Team Skull arc either....
We have 1 year of the series left and Ash still only has 4 pokemon. He may not even get a full team this series at this rate since his potential captures are severely limited, although Poipole could return. Since Ash has 5 human companions they all switch off between spotlight, Lillie has been a background character since the Aether arc ended and instead Lana and Kiawe are getting a bit more focus.
And now we have yet another Misty/Brock nostalgia/Let's Go tie-in ep. I mean seeing them again in small doses is fine, but I kinda think their first 2-parter was enough. Just takes more time out of SM stuff. Nostalgia can only go so far. Although after this next 2 eps the Kanto nostalgia should die down, it'll probably be Misty's last cameo again for another decade until the 30th anniversary, lol.
How's the SM anime in general? I heard a Youtuber I follow talk about the animation and mentioning it was pretty great, and I've heard from others that some themes approached are a bit darker, such as a Pokémon's implied death. After seeing a few clips involving a battle between a Steelix and a Turtonator from the afromentioned Youtuber, I'm tempted to go and watch it, despite having disliked the previous "seasons" for a while.
Well, yep, I have to agree that this anipoke right now has weird pacing. Now Ash suddenly is thrown to Ultra Ruins.
This alternate world has shiny(?) Tapu Koko, and somehow the two universes' Koko could make Ultra Wormhole portal. Ash is now in ruined Melemele. This seems to be what would happen should the Ultra Sentai of one universe fails to contain this Guzzlord.
Guzzlord itself is... this one's Always Evil Chaotic, destroying anything without any ambiguousness unlike in the games where it is implied that the people before actually uses Guzzlord in good terms, with Ultra Ruins happening due to (possibly) unrelated nuclear disaster.
In the photos the guy Dia shows in next preview, there are 7 kids, one seemingly much older in their teens, and another implied to be Dia himself around Ash's current age. Yet in the flashback there were only 5 Ultra Rangers. In Ash's universe, there's 6, including sixth ranger Gladion, is it?
The photo also tries to show parallel with Emolga, Seel, and a girl holding a Kantonian... err, reflecting Soffy's Togedemaru, Lana's Popplio, and Lillie, although the Ultra Ranger actually uses even more different 'mons (fully evolved), with no clear parallel to Ultra Guardians particularly on Passimian (unless that's Dia, or meant to parallel Tsareena) and Blissey (vaguely parallels what Lillie would be if she gets Clefairy/Clefable of her own?)
Well, enough on that, I'm wondering about how Ash would resolve this (and maybe how Ultra Guardians would do to resolve this had this happen to their world). Seems like regular tactic wouldn't work (it can easily eat the ball thrown at it) and require special approach like Celesteella back then... I wonder how would this be handled.
They say everyone else fled Melemele to the seas, but... the seas itself look dry by the time Ash arrived. This is what happens when that thing comes to drink the whole sea? Instant apocalypse....? Good lord Kyogre, how do those who fled survive with sea itself dried out like that?
So the recent episode looks to be a punch in the feels.
Tapu Fini creates a mist that allows the living to reconnect to the dead.
Hapu meets with her grandfather who helps her train to take over the role as Kahuna.
Ash's Torracat meets back up with Stoutland who teaches it a new Fire-type move.
But the main focus was on Mallow who meets with her mother (not sure what exactly the meeting was about, though it looked like Mallow was feeling down so guessing she just needed some emotional support). Oh, and by the end of it she finds and befriends a Shaymin she's going to help turn into its Sky Forme.
Turns out, next Sunday we will be treated a golf scene with (of course,) Kahili. A filler episode like PokeSchool's baseball game, but unlike the baseball episode, Kahili is at least plot-relevant (granted, in the games we just met her in the E4 room the first time we do meet her with very little? to no foreshadowing at all and she's just there to battle us there and hand us a TM). With them suddenly calling many plot-relevant characters, I think they're now trying to get to the league arc. I want to see what the heck in next episode is Kahili doing with her Toucannon held like a Big Freaking Gun, though?
Also, Ash vs Hapu. Why of course this is a callback to Ash's first important battle, is it? (Admittedly that's predictable the moment he picked his choice of 'mon before even battling, as referenced by past post there *nudge*)
... lately, I do notice Ash is actually getting really, really smarter compared to the 5th generation. When battling Gladion, not only Ash has his special "anime tricks", he actually perfectly understands the apparent situations and how the battle works with all the variables, compared to the past (when do you expect Ash to remember Outrage has confusion drawback?). Dumbass Ash (at least in battle) is completely no more, I can at least satisfyingly say.
Oh, also, Meltan. (Reminds me that I need to activate my Meltan box in GO too....)
Just a brief mention from me that TwitchPresents is back with streaming Pokémon, starting with sets of select episodes for Pokémon Day. I arrived at the last section, which was all about Gengar-related episodes from Gens 1 &2.
From this Thur. thru Sunday, it will be a breeze through the Diamond & Pearl saga, with movies included. Then, they'll do the entire saga again the following Thur. thru Sunday.
Sinnoh: home of the Counter-Shield, lots of Pokémon Contests, Pokémon Summer Academy, arguably Ash's fiercest rival, and Piplup.
btw, this series of videos has been popping up day to day until the Pokémon Direct announcement.
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned that on the forum yet, but one may believe that this is the equivalent to all the historical recapping that prior Pokémon Directs usually had before introducing the newest main game.
Also, the Kanto one explicitly mentions enjoying "jelly donuts." They know...and they're not afraid to say it!
_______________
...Wow, this was not the next Pokémon anime post I thought I'd add here. I had been prepping my thoughts on the Sun and Moon anime for a long time now, and I wanted to get some thoughts in before "Ultra Adventures" finished up.
The upcoming theatre episode in English will be consdered a part of the new English-dubbed season, "Ultra Legends."
I've realized, though, that there are too many things I wanna to gush go over, so the next post I make here will likely only touch on a few of things I had in mind while watching.
So haven't posted in a while, though today's episode comes with something actually new. Don't worry, I'd be using spoiler tags:
Ash has finally caught a Mythical!
Yup, Ash catches one of the Meltan, this one having grew affectionate toward Rowlet and didn't want to leave. So, Ash offered it to come with him and it accepted.
Though, since the reason it's going with Ash is because of Rowlet, either that means Ash is going to take Rowlet with him Galar or Meltan is just going to be a late Alola addition and stay with Rowlet after Ash leaves it at Professor Oaks (though I'm sure Oak wouldn't mind that so he could study it). This is notable as, well, Ash has beaten all the Kahuna so what would be left is the games is the Pokemon League... speaking of which.
In addition to the above, some new titles have been revealed:
Episode 1056: A New Show?! The Tiny Melody of Magikarp "Ash & co. encounter a child actor Magikarp but something starts happening to it." Episode 1057: Beauty and the Meowth! "The Ultra Beast Pheromosa appear and start attacking trainers who have Z-Crystals, but Meowth spots it and falls in love with the Pokémon." Episode 1058: Guzma, Emperor of Destruction "Team Skull's leader, Guzma, along with Plumeria and other Team Skull grunts, comes marching into the Pokémon School after Kukui announces the formation of the Alola Pokémon League." Episode 1059: Lillie and the Secret Ingenuity Princess "Lillie & Gladion are looking into the whereabouts of their father, Mohn, causing Lusamine to show them his old room... "
So obviously you can spot the most interesting one of the four... the Magikarp episode, which is probably going to be a reference to the Magikarp Jump game!...
Jokes aside, no, it would be the one where Kukui announces he's making a Pokemon League and Guzma FINALLY makes his appearance. Now, Ash has defeated all the Kahuna so next step would be the Pokemon League, but a major question was how would that be handled in the anime where previous seasons it was a big tournament. Well, from the vibes I'm getting from this episode, it'll indeed be another big tournament! Alola needs a Champion so, in addition to announcing the Pokemon League, Kukui will probably also announce the first Alola League tournament to decide who will be Alola's first Champion.
This is where Guzma comes in. Don't know if they'll keep his game's belief that Alola doesn't need a Pokemon League, but I also can't seem him giving up the chance to become Alola's first Champion to prove he's the best and as well give Team Skull more attention. Now, from here on I'm going to REALLY speculate, but I imagine that one of the requirements would be needing to defeat all four Kahuna to be allowed to participate, so Ash is automatically entered. But then they'll reveal Guzma too had passed his Island Challenge years ago so he's allowed to enter. I'd imagine Ash wouldn't take kindly to Guzma's personality nor ambitions, so Ash would challenge Guzma to a 2-on-2 battle... where Guzma's Golisopod and Ariados totally wrecks Pikachu and whatever Pokemon Ash has as his second (needs to be 2-on-2 as we'd need to see Golisopod's ability). And from there we set up the storyline of the Alola Pokemon League: stopping Guzma from becoming Champion. This would set forth all of Ash's classmates to go on their Island Challenge to be able to qualify, and a number of other characters we've also seen. If the writers we clever, they would have all the other notable challengers being the Title Defense challengers: Guzma (obviously, the bid bad), Sophocles, Gladion (the only classmates/friends that able to beat the other Kahuna in time), Hau (who fills the role as a trainer Ash meets before the Pokemon League and beats him; probably going to become the Champion), Hapu (being a Kahuna she's automatically allowed to participates if she wanted to), Plumeria (entered on Guzma's suggestion as she's also completed her Island Challenge), Kukui, Faba, Lusamine, Molayne, (while not surprises to those who played the game, would be treated as surprises to Ash & co.), Ryuki, & Tristan.
Now they could also have Mallow, Kiawe, & Lana also be in (not sure about Lillie, maybe have her try but forfeits not wanting to see Snowy get hurt), trying to get as many of them in to stop Guzma and Team Skull. Speaking of which, as comedic segments, could see Guzma forcing the other grunts to trying to beat the Kahuna only for them to hilariously fail. They could have Hala and Olivia try to enter though I'd imagine they'd rather be the mentor figures watching over the proceedings (and obviously Nanu don't care). Wouldn't be surprised if we also see Kahili enter, would also be neat if Ilima, Acerola, and Mina made a battle appearance. Hmm, that's really all the other characters we'd care about (I'm sure there's a few of the anime CotD who we'll see enter). The Rocket Trio would probably do their usual stick of being food vendors to make quick cash while also planning on ways to steal the participating trainer's Pokemon.
Oh, and I guess I should give a quick mention to the Pheromosa episode and Mohn episode. Nothing to really say about the Pheromosa episode aside from glad to see they didn't forget it (I guess why it's attacking trainers that have Z-Crystals may be an important plot point but I doubt it would be a big reveal, especially if its because of the game's reason of it trying to find a way back home and Z-Crystals give off the same energy as Ultra Space. That just means Kartana is the last Ultra Beast unless the anime does something cool and introduce a new Ultra Beast that'll be in Gen VIII). As for the Mohn episode, that is more interesting but I'll have to see where it goes, will it also be one of the last story arc for the Alola saga or just a one and done episode? Though, since we've set to see the Ultra Recon Squad, I could see maybe having them get involve via this way (BTW, I think the "Secret Ingenuity Princess" is referencing Lusamine).
Admittedly, the backgrounds and the Pokémon themselves look better than the humans. I'm wondering if this movie is related to I Choose You! or Everyone's Story, though. It seems to be a completely different thing.
EDIT: I just realized that the human characters look like they came out of Robot Chicken. That makes things even funnier.
.
