this episode is a perfect example of the pokemon anime at its best, and the reason i watch the show
it’s not often that pokemon tackles topics like death and grief, but this episode does it with grace, conveying the ideas mostly through symbolism and animation. everything, especially the editing, was on point, and it also utilized team rocket the perfect amount. it was mostly just meowth, once again showing his softer side (kinda like he did with chimchar, back in dp), as the team’s usual antics would have felt jarringly out of place (and even bewear was toned down to just giving meowth a hug when it was evident that he was sad). the exposition repetition was absent, and of the human characters, it was mostly just ash and kukui this episode. there were a lot of really quiet moments, and litten was allowed to grieve without anyone being overbearing about it, or demanding for litten to cheer up. (meowth offering to listen to it bc talking sometimes helps, and ash just sitting with it quietly all day? ouch, my feels)
this episode has it all, is the best one of Sun & Moon so far, and i’d count it among the very best in the entire series.
now if you’ll excuse me, i need to finish wiping away my tears ;;;;;
