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Got a free moment over the busy weekend and decided to watch some Battle Frontier.
Episode 2 of Battle Frontier was about James' Chimecho getting sick and him taking it to his nanny and pop-pop's house where he eventually leaves it and picks up Mime Jr. At the same time, May's Munchlax gets sick and they end up there too. James decides to be chill for a bit and refuses to do anything nefarious, while Jessie and Meowth continue to be sociopaths. James even sides with Ash and May at the end and fights Meowth and Jessie.
I always hate these kinds of Team Rocket episodes, because as sympathetic and moral as the TRio (mostly James) can come across in these dilemmas, the next episode they're going back to stealing people's Pokemon. And given how many of these episodes revolve around them understanding that hurting and stealing Pokemon is bad, makes all of their actions thereafter seem legitimately psychopathic. Then we get another episode where we're supposed to feel sorry for them a series later.
That being said, I think this is my favorite TRio episode. The animation had a lot of really good visual gags and James really does come across as likeable, even though he's going to be the ugliest bitch for the next 16 years until the Ashnime ends.
One anon did mention that the sound design in early Battle Frontier seemed off, and that definitely came into play here. James' nanny was almost inaudible in certain lines because her audio was so muddled and low. Definitely not a good first or second impression from TAJ's dubbing process.
