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Okay, this is going to drive me nuts: At the end of Episode 6, Ash reiterated his dream to become a Pokémon Master, and Chloe had no idea what he was talking about. Goh even treats it as a "If that's your weird dream buddy, then go for it!" kind of moment. I mean… what??? I was under the impression that the title of Pokémon Master was a specific thing, with steps to accomplish and all that. Catch every Pokémon, get every Gym Badge, attack and dethrone Pokémon God—you know, the basic stuff. Am I now meant to believe that Ash just… made the title of Pokémon Master up? That everything he's ever done and striven for has been utterly meaningless to literally everyone in the world but him? What's going on here, Pokémon!?

Ya the creators purposefully left it as a vague thing. This is a piece from bulbapedia on it. "In response to an email sent to its mailbag, Pokémon.com posted the following:

"I'm very sorry, but the Pokémon Company does not answer questions of this nature. It is the intent of the Pokémon creators that such questions be left to the imaginations and interpretations of Pokémon fans, adding more excitement and mystery to the Pokémon universe." "
If you want to get into the finer details of it you should read the full bulbapedia article. https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Master

Yeah, I believe it's a title created specifically for Ash (or maybe by Ash, whatever you want to believe). A title that is made purposely vague in order to give Ash a goal without giving him any actual goal. I believe there even was time in anime they stopped using the title, but they returned to it eventually, because, be honest, Ash needs a goal, however vague it is Laughing

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:

jr240483 wrote:

but thats the real question! how did they EVEN got miss leigh for the tv series considering she's both a TX and a LA union VA!?

its not like she's an independent VA which is how they got dan green in best wishes (black & white) as well as the arceus movie and its also how they were able to get vic mignonga for the keldeo movie! nor did they exclusively hired studiopolis or bang zoom , like in those ova specials which is how they got JYB to play as takashi in the red and green special ova!

it must have cost PUSA a crapload of money to get her to be in this pokemon tv series considering on how long it is! not to mention that it might conflict with her schedule if it drags on for too long since we all know that the 100 yr quest arc of fairy tail will be getting a tv series soon!

TPCI is now dubbing from LA while still utilizing their NY cast. That's why you're seeing a lot of LA actors in this dub and not just Cherami Leigh. There's other LA actors in this too like Erica Mendez and Michelle Ruff.

that much i can get, but the fact that PUSA still have their NY union cast, its usually tend to be a conflict when using different union studios. also ruff & erica if im correct, were in the OVA special alonside JYB! that ova as well as the unova short eps were the only ones where PUSA didn't use any of its original VAs and its unknown if threy were ever in ANY of the tv series via an alias!

With exception to the Pokémon characters, the animation on this still feels like a step down from everything pre-Alola. Everything felt really polished then. While this season's animation is better than Alola, that's not really saying much.

I liked the Mr. Mime episode, particularly the moment that was screencapped. Such a sinister face for a laid back Pokémon. Not gonna lie, but I was hoping that Mimey was gonna make some Pokémon float....anime should have awarded the Pokémon a red balloon, but I was amused that Mimey ended up with glass flutes that looked more like a simplified version of some other type of glassware used by some adults.

I find Goh annoying and I'd love for him to be given less screentime. What's up with the new dynamic of throwing Pokeballs and the creatures, with the exception of Scyther thus far, stay there without popping out or needing to be weakened through a battle (or some other plot device)? Goh going around and just chucking balls and capturing Pokémon is pretty lame. It also makes me not appreciate his captures. Other than Scorbunny, none of them have any personality and I miss that.

Cutiebunny wrote:

While this season's animation is better than Alola, that's not really saying much.

????

Excuse me, but what ? Pokemon Sun and Moon, was literally this peak when it came to animation. This show never looked more impressive. The animation became more dynamic, expressive and more ambitious in general.

Wow, he had the exact opposite reaction I had to the two of these episodes. 7 I enjoyed a bit not only because seeing Mr. Mime battle was funny and the character of the day was a fun presence, but also because it promptly slams Goh back down to earth after an episode of mostly effortless catches. This doesn't further Ash's "hero's journey goal" but honestly when you actually realize that there isn't any actual step by step definition of what a pokemon master even IS (beating the champion of whatever region doesn't make you a master it just means you're champion of that region, for example) you begin to realize that Ash's Journey, at this point anyway, is more just an excuse to go on adventures than anything else. It's a farce that we more or less go along with, either you want to see the thrill of Ash's battles or you're more interested in the episode to episode happenings. So having an Episode where Goh can get a feel for how Ash views battling by actually having him see it is a pretty solid enough reason for me to get somewhat invested into it.

Episode 8 is an episode I very barely remember sans a few gags here and there. I agree that it's not as boring as episode 6 by any means but I also didn't find much to really latch onto, and pokemon as a whole has had funnier episodes than this one.

As for Chole I'm not sure what advertisements you've been looking at but she's less a main character and more of a recurring character. Maybe she'll join as a third member but given the show's focus so far on trying to make this a dual lead show I'm not holding my breath. I can empathize with the complaint, especially since Pokemon is a thing literally anybody can enjoy not just boys, but I can't exactly say the show falsely advertised anything.

TheRahi00 wrote:

Excuse me, but what ? Pokemon Sun and Moon, was literally this peak when it came to animation. This show never looked more impressive. The animation became more dynamic, expressive and more ambitious in general.

Eww no.

While the Pokémon look fine, the human characters look like garbage in Sun/Moon and Galar. Comparing Sun and Moon to Diamond/Pearl or Black/White is like comparing the drawings of your average 5 year old to that of a professional.

Cutiebunny wrote:

While the Pokémon look fine, the human characters look like garbage in Sun/Moon and Galar. Comparing Sun and Moon to Diamond/Pearl or Black/White is like comparing the drawings of your average 5 year old to that of a professional.

Ah, so you are also making the same mistake, that people keep making, by confusing Character Designs with Animation. Those are both separate things, although the simpler Character Designs do make it possible to have more expressive Animation in the first place. I can see not liking the designs of the characters, but the animation itself is undeniably fantastic.

I can suggest checking out this video, to learn more about these things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bp1f88_LWg&t=56s

Sorry, but both Character Design and animation were bad in SM. Part of that is because OLM had too many projects at that time and part of that is because Pokémon Company cut the budget for anime after its ratings went consistently down in Japan. Both of these factors caused that the quality of the Pokémon anime was going down since first SM episode. I fail to see the "undeniably fantastic" animation you see. The animations are average in the least. Just compare the animation in Pokémon SM and Journeys with animation in the new Digimon reboot and you'll see what I mean. That's "dynamic, expressive and more ambitious" animation. Not anything you saw in the last two Pokémon series.

The films since "I Choose You" (excluding the Mewtwo remake) have all been "canon" to what is now called the "Reboot Universe" or "Film AU" by fans. They're specific to the films and follow a different canon to the base anime now. Otherwise, movies 1-19 before that are all canon to the base anime and several were referenced in the base anime itself (for instance, the Genesect movie ties in with a late BW episode where N investigates a destroyed Team Plasma facility that the Genesect from the movie escaped from).

I main complaint about these reviews is that it seems like James has been away from the anime so long, he's fallen for a bunch of generic assumptions about the anime that casual fans often make. Rumors about "soft reboots" and lack of continuity are just rumors based on bad information and incorrect observations from non-viewers having caught glimpses of the anime throughout the years. The only legit continuity issue is Ash's age, which we all joke about as being really weird and making no sense. Otherwise, every series has referenced past seasons at least a few times and some have even brought back and furthered older plot threads (Cyndaquil from Johto evolves in DP, Charizard finished training in that valley in BW and rejoined Ash's team, etc.). Think Simpsons. Most episodes are standalone or part of a basic plot arc, which require no knowledge of previous series, but everything in the past has happened and is occasionally referenced, and if it's relevant to the plot, they briefly recap it for you first. And no one ages, despite the obvious passage of time and advancement of technology. =P

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This may be an occasion where I'm out of the loop on the movies and stuff, because I know Mewtwo erased everyone's memories in that first movie, but do similar things happen in all of the movies? Or is it established that the events with all of the different mystical god Pokémon are only known to, like, five people in the world?

James, memories only get erased in the first movie, they do change history in the Arceus movie though. It's easier to think of all the movies as non-cannon besides the first one, only because there memories get erased, because plot holes start to form if you think of them as cannon.

peno wrote:

Sorry, but both Character Design and animation were bad in SM. Part of that is because OLM had too many projects at that time and part of that is because Pokémon Company cut the budget for anime after its ratings went consistently down in Japan. Both of these factors caused that the quality of the Pokémon anime was going down since first SM episode. I fail to see the "undeniably fantastic" animation you see. The animations are average in the least. Just compare the animation in Pokémon SM and Journeys with animation in the new Digimon reboot and you'll see what I mean. That's "dynamic, expressive and more ambitious" animation. Not anything you saw in the last two Pokémon series.

I have to agree. That video posted seems to cherrypick specific scenes to showcase and claims the entire series animates like that, and as someone who has seen almost every episode, OVA, movie, and special for the Pokemon franchise, I can personally attest that Sun & Moon has some truly awful animation a lot of times. I mean, I remember when Sun and Moon initially aired and everyone was just mocking the low budget and bad animation early on when people began dropping the series. That one scene with Alolan Persian prowling across the screen while the ground shifted like two paper photographs being moved side to side became very infamous and passed around various communities. If we want to cherry pick I can think of good and bad scenes for every series in the franchise. It's no secret the anime has had a low quality to it for most of it's run. The original series is horribly animated and stilted and it only got marginally better after the animation shift for Advanced Generation. Overall, I would disagree with the notion that this is an either-or situation. You can have detailed and good designs as well as good animation. The movies are still doing it.

Juno016 wrote:

I main complaint about these reviews is that it seems like James has been away from the anime so long, he's fallen for a bunch of generic assumptions about the anime that casual fans often make. Rumors about "soft reboots" and lack of continuity are just rumors based on bad information and incorrect observations from non-viewers having caught glimpses of the anime throughout the years. The only legit continuity issue is Ash's age, which we all joke about as being really weird and making no sense. Otherwise, every series has referenced past seasons at least a few times and some have even brought back and furthered older plot threads (Cyndaquil from Johto evolves in DP, Charizard finished training in that valley in BW and rejoined Ash's team, etc.). Think Simpsons. Most episodes are standalone or part of a basic plot arc, which require no knowledge of previous series, but everything in the past has happened and is occasionally referenced, and if it's relevant to the plot, they briefly recap it for you first. And no one ages, despite the obvious passage of time and advancement of technology. =P

That actually is very common in the English speaking portion of the fandom from what I noticed. I'm sure a lot of people only saw the original series as kids and then grew out of the franchise as they got older so they never really stuck around for the later ones. It was a fad, after all, and most people moved on to the next big thing. And then Pokemon Go came out and got a lot of nostalgia points and brought a lot of those people back into the franchise. And that's why we have this series and Goh as a character.

peno wrote:

Sorry, but both Character Design and animation were bad in SM. Part of that is because OLM had too many projects at that time and part of that is because Pokémon Company cut the budget for anime after its ratings went consistently down in Japan. Both of these factors caused that the quality of the Pokémon anime was going down since first SM episode. I fail to see the "undeniably fantastic" animation you see. The animations are average in the least. Just compare the animation in Pokémon SM and Journeys with animation in the new Digimon reboot and you'll see what I mean. That's "dynamic, expressive and more ambitious" animation. Not anything you saw in the last two Pokémon series.

Maybe animation quality is subjective like all art is and not a fact you can always point to as being "objectively" bad or good in all cases? Even the Digimon reboot which while looking better than a lot of other modern Toei shows, has started slipping lately. Most recently in the newest episode where they really went in cheap on Ikakumon's evolution.

Yeah, that's true. And I expect the animation in Digimon to get even worse as the series progress, since you can't honestly expect a long running anime (and I expect it to have at least around 25 episodes, if not around 50, as most other Digimon series had) to have this kind of animation in every episode. But still, I stand behind my claim that the animations in Digimon reboot are way better than anything Pokémon showed us so far.

Treecko Tempo wrote:

James, memories only get erased in the first movie, they do change history in the Arceus movie though. It's easier to think of all the movies as non-cannon besides the first one, only because there memories get erased, because plot holes start to form if you think of them as cannon.

To be honest, there was time in past when I only considered movie 1 as a canon. I even went as far as to deny the subtle references to other movies in the main anime. However, nowadays, I think differently. I personally now consider all the movies in the main continuity, meaning all the movies from first Kanto movie to last Kalos movie a canon with one obvious exception. And that exception is the first Unova movie. That movie has two different, yet similar versions and there's no way they both can be canon. So, that make this movie complicated to consider as canon. But all the others are canon for me, because if some of the movies with main Ash are confirmed canon, then all of them have to be, right?

peno wrote:

Treecko Tempo wrote:

James, memories only get erased in the first movie, they do change history in the Arceus movie though. It's easier to think of all the movies as non-cannon besides the first one, only because there memories get erased, because plot holes start to form if you think of them as cannon.

To be honest, there was time in past when I only considered movie 1 as a canon. I even went as far as to deny the subtle references to other movies in the main anime. However, nowadays, I think differently. I personally now consider all the movies in the main continuity, meaning all the movies from first Kanto movie to last Kalos movie a canon with one obvious exception. And that exception is the first Unova movie. That movie has two different, yet similar versions and there's no way they both can be canon. So, that make this movie complicated to consider as canon. But all the others are canon for me, because if some of the movies with main Ash are confirmed canon, then all of them have to be, right?

I consider the movies up through Kalos movie cannon, like I consider all the DBZ movies the DBZ movie cannon, they all take place in the same timeline but not the timeline of the show.

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EP. REVIEW: Pokémon Journeys: The Series