Is… Is the hand going to actually do anything at some point?
Impressions:
This show has never been all that serious with the action, but this episode was a pretty significant step towards Saturday morning cartoon levels. I think it was the repeated hails of bullets that people reacted comically too. And by comically, I mean screamed loudly and made faces. Bringing back every single comic relief antagonist to get Team Rocket blasted off again certainly didn’t help, nor did that bit with the random scientist dude which was just flat out slapstick out of nowhere. Weirdly, the only decent throwaway antagonist of the lot was the new swords-dude; yet another chance for Aki to job to someone. But at least he was competent and his fight wasn’t 90% overreactions and attempts at gags.
The above paragraph also feels pretty weird to write after the start of the episode which seemed to be setting up a major plot movement forward, but that was another bizarre part of the episode. No, don’t do it! There will be consequences! Consequences that I could explain if you just let me finish this paragraph about how there will be consequences! And then that entire seemingly central plotline is dropped five minutes into the episode even as the giant hand it summoned looms in the background, not actually doing anything as everybody tries to… um… I guess just leave? We summoned a giant inert hand and… welp, peace out. Seeya. Once again, the script is feeling like it desperately needed another few passes.