Gigantamax Pikachu is an absolute unit, it did not disappoint. I really loved how they animated his clumsy movements, especially when he tried to use Iron Tail and G-Max Volt Crash. Slamming Iron Tail into the ground to generate Max-Steelsurge is a pretty cool way of using that move. We've already seen this in the previous episode, but I also liked how Gigantamax Drednaw constantly elongates its neck to attack (even when it was using Max Rockfall) since that's something snapping turtles can do in real life.

Interestingly, even after Ash obtained the Dynamax Band and obtained better control over Dynamax/Gigantamax, Pikachu was still capable of Gigantamaxing without having to return to its Pokeball. They didn't really explain how Pikachu did it, but at least Ash did acknowledge Pikachu's dislike of going back into its Pokeball. Also, the two Dynamax battles that Pikachu has participated in so far ended before both user's Dynamax ran out, but I hope that G-Max Volt Crash's ability to paralyze its targets come into play later on.

Seems like the Rocket trio's first capture this season is gonna be a Chewtle, and I didn't expect it to be so small. I was worried that the trio's attempt to capture Drednaw last episode was simply there so that the Drednaw had an actual excuse to Gigantamax, but thank god that isn't the case. Looks like the Rocket trio really are gonna try and capture their own Pokemon in this series, which is definitely a good thing. Also, it seems like the Chewtle is probably more attached to Jessie, but I can easily see the "James's Pokemon loves to hurt him" running gag coming back once it evolves.

I'll need subs to better understand Ash and Gou's conversation, but it seems like they're incorporating the competitive ranking system from the games into the anime, which is pretty interesting. This opens up tons of opportunities for Ash to challenge other trainers from previous regions in order to climb the rankings and eventually reach Leon. Hopefully this means we'll get more returning characters down the line, or possibly some Elite Fours from previous regions that we haven't seen in the anime yet. Regardless of how it plays out, I just really really hope that this isn't just a regular Gym challenge but with extra steps.

Overall, this was a pretty solid episode. It wasn't as great as the previous one, but still, it's pretty solid. My only major issue with it was Lance being weirdly absent during the G-Max Drednaw attack despite it only being a short while after the previous battle concluded. Aside from that, I think the episode did a pretty good job of easing Ash into the mechanics of Dynamax and Gigantamax as well as giving him an actual goal to work towards this season.

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