SPOILERS! General Pokémon Anime Discussion

TR was threatening before BW? Their first consecutive appearance had them beat by a Caterpie
They put up a good fight in their first appearance, the Viridian Gym... They had genuine moments where it wasn't just Thunder(bolt), but their machine isn't electric-proof, so Trainer of the Day attacks and their friendship breaks the mecha or weakens it enough for Pikachu to destroy.
 
I hate Trip for reasons unrelated to his personality. He beats Ash and instantly thinks he's infinitely better, even though he clearly wasn't paying attention when they were confused that Pikachu's electric attacks wouldn't work. He beats Ash again with stupid hax (lol Super Luck OHKOing 3 of his 5 Pokemon). And his catchphrase is stupid.

But don't get me wrong, his personality sucks too.Trip is like Paul-lite. He's Paul without the asshole streak or the competitive nature. He's just a jerk to Ash because Ash is "from the boonies" and for no real reason. Although Paul was supposed to be insulting and mean and you weren't supposed to root for him, this gave him that air of "love to hate". You're supposed to hate Paul, but you also grow fond of him (like Ash does in the series) because he's not one-dimensional. Paul really expands as a character once you meet his brother and learn why he wants to be a super-strong Pokémon trainer. Trip has no real backstory ("I met Alder once and he said he would battle me" doesn't count since it's obvious Alder doesn't remember him later) and he has no real conflict with Ash. Whereas Paul and Ash's training styles were diametrically opposed, Ash and Trip have almost nothing in common other than they're Pokémon trainers.

So yes, I took great delight when I saw Trip lose to a secondary character (Cilan) and then learned he would lose to a comic-relief character (Bianca) [that episode is next saturday, btw]. I hope someone kicks his ass in the World Cup Junior League, too. As much as I like Serperior, I want Trip to get kicked in the balls.
 
I think Pokemon (the anime) has really been deteriorating since the originals, which I thought were pretty good. Now I really just cant watch it at all.

Also squirtle squad FTW.
 
I just watched the Wishing Bell episode of BW's season and it was the best episode of all time
sorry anime, but nothing you've done before or after this will be better!



incidentally, I think I enjoyed DP as a whole the best of all the seasons. The only one I didn't care for, really, was AG.
It seemed kind of...off and slow. Nothing really stood out either. Battle Frontier being the biggest missed opportunity in the show didn't help matters either
 
I hate Trip for reasons unrelated to his personality. He beats Ash and instantly thinks he's infinitely better, even though he clearly wasn't paying attention when they were confused that Pikachu's electric attacks wouldn't work. He beats Ash again with stupid hax (lol Super Luck OHKOing 3 of his 5 Pokemon). And his catchphrase is stupid.

But don't get me wrong, his personality sucks too.Trip is like Paul-lite. He's Paul without the asshole streak or the competitive nature. He's just a jerk to Ash because Ash is "from the boonies" and for no real reason. Although Paul was supposed to be insulting and mean and you weren't supposed to root for him, this gave him that air of "love to hate". You're supposed to hate Paul, but you also grow fond of him (like Ash does in the series) because he's not one-dimensional. Paul really expands as a character once you meet his brother and learn why he wants to be a super-strong Pokémon trainer. Trip has no real backstory ("I met Alder once and he said he would battle me" doesn't count since it's obvious Alder doesn't remember him later) and he has no real conflict with Ash. Whereas Paul and Ash's training styles were diametrically opposed, Ash and Trip have almost nothing in common other than they're Pokémon trainers.

So yes, I took great delight when I saw Trip lose to a secondary character (Cilan) and then learned he would lose to a comic-relief character (Bianca) [that episode is next saturday, btw]. I hope someone kicks his ass in the World Cup Junior League, too. As much as I like Serperior, I want Trip to get kicked in the balls.
The big issue with Trip is the lack of focus on his personality and growth of it. We don't see how he's really just a child who's trying to be a mature adult and hypocritical about things here and there. The nicer side where he's helpful about things doesn't show very often, either.
 
I just watched the Wishing Bell episode of BW's season and it was the best episode of all time
sorry anime, but nothing you've done before or after this will be better!
Sorry, but as a huge fan of the Poison-type (and of Roxie!), I've got to disagree with this. The Virbank Gym 2-parter trumps all (and I never even watched it yet! All I had to go by were individual accounts of the episode and Serebii's episode pictures), hands down. Ash gets his ass nearly handed to him by a cute Poison-type Gym Leader? Aforementioned cute Poison-type Gym Leader only using three Poison-types and nearly taking down all six of Ash's team, losing only because of bullshit Static hax? Koffing and Garbodor kicking major ass and looking as awesome as they are in the process? It made me proud to be a Poison-type trainer. It really did. The only thing that could have made that a better episode was if Roxie's Koffing had evolved. Well, the only realistic thing- I'd have loved to see Ash lose to her altogether, or him get a Koffing, Weezing, or Koffing Egg, but neither one of those seemed all that likely, so yeah. Seriously, it's like the writers did that episode specifically as an apology for Piplup.

For the record, I have nothing against Piplup. The fact that they were pushing for it to become Pikachu 2.0, however, that I had an issue with. I always said that I would honestly not be surprised if one day Piplup just up and learned Thunderbolt. I mean, if they had done this with Croagunk, I'd have been fine. Croagunk is cute and badass at the same time, Croagunk can pull off the secondary mascot status just fine. I also have no issue with Axew, because it at least is going to evolve eventually.
 
Sorry bro, the cosplay sequence was the most amazing thing.
It's the first time in a long while that the show has made me literally laugh out loud.
 
I hate Trip for reasons unrelated to his personality. He beats Ash and instantly thinks he's infinitely better, even though he clearly wasn't paying attention when they were confused that Pikachu's electric attacks wouldn't work. He beats Ash again with stupid hax (lol Super Luck OHKOing 3 of his 5 Pokemon). And his catchphrase is stupid.

But don't get me wrong, his personality sucks too.Trip is like Paul-lite. He's Paul without the asshole streak or the competitive nature. He's just a jerk to Ash because Ash is "from the boonies" and for no real reason. Although Paul was supposed to be insulting and mean and you weren't supposed to root for him, this gave him that air of "love to hate". You're supposed to hate Paul, but you also grow fond of him (like Ash does in the series) because he's not one-dimensional. Paul really expands as a character once you meet his brother and learn why he wants to be a super-strong Pokémon trainer. Trip has no real backstory ("I met Alder once and he said he would battle me" doesn't count since it's obvious Alder doesn't remember him later) and he has no real conflict with Ash. Whereas Paul and Ash's training styles were diametrically opposed, Ash and Trip have almost nothing in common other than they're Pokémon trainers.

So yes, I took great delight when I saw Trip lose to a secondary character (Cilan) and then learned he would lose to a comic-relief character (Bianca) [that episode is next saturday, btw]. I hope someone kicks his ass in the World Cup Junior League, too. As much as I like Serperior, I want Trip to get kicked in the balls.
I agree 100%. Trip has no depth to his character at all. While Paul was an asshole, he had that competitive streak and personality that really sets him apart from pretty much every other character in the anime. The vast majority of characters in the anime has a really positive, confident personality (remember all those times when the characters had shouting matches where everyone said "I'm gonna win! You're gonna lose!"? man that got annoying)--it was nice to see someone so drastically different be so powerful.
 
If Trip's mold wasn't to be the upstart trainer, he'd be a lot better off. He's a fusion of Gary's cockiness and Paul's brains, which rolls him into a cocky prodigy with... Not much in the way of endearment for other people to care about him.

As someone above me's said, it'd be a lot better if Trip was given more to his personality quirks so we could feel for him, since otherwise, he's a brat akin to how people see Iris, and we already have enough haters of one character in the anime.
 
I just finished watching Season 1 of the Pokemon Anime and I'm pretty well through Season 2. I was just wondering if the rest of the Anime is like Season 1. I thought it was okay but there was a battle pretty much once every 15 episodes, and it lasted for 5 minutes at the most. Most of the episodes were just filler with Team Rocket trying to pull of the same stuff over and over. I was wondering if future seasons of the Anime had more battles and better battles. Also, not many of the Pokemon really developed characters. Only ones that I can think of are: Pikachu, Charizard, Psyduck, James' Growlithe (that appeared for 1 damn episode), and Squirtle. The rest of the Pokemon were just kind of random in their behaviors or didn't really have any behaviors at all. I'm probably going to continue watching anyway, I just would like to see more battles and better Pokemon development.
 
I just finished watching Season 1 of the Pokemon Anime and I'm pretty well through Season 2. I was just wondering if the rest of the Anime is like Season 1. I thought it was okay but there was a battle pretty much once every 15 episodes, and it lasted for 5 minutes at the most. Most of the episodes were just filler with Team Rocket trying to pull of the same stuff over and over. I was wondering if future seasons of the Anime had more battles and better battles. Also, not many of the Pokemon really developed characters. Only ones that I can think of are: Pikachu, Charizard, Psyduck, James' Growlithe (that appeared for 1 damn episode), and Squirtle. The rest of the Pokemon were just kind of random in their behaviors or didn't really have any behaviors at all. I'm probably going to continue watching anyway, I just would like to see more battles and better Pokemon development.
Of course. Orange Islands is probably the most like Season 1, but starting with Johto they started to give Pokemon actual characters and do more with battles, etc. Johto is still flawed for other reasons, granted
 
Sorry bro, the cosplay sequence was the most amazing thing.
It's the first time in a long while that the show has made me literally laugh out loud.
I didn't get to see the episode, but I did see pictures, and I will concede that I liked Ash as Alder and Pikachu as Bouffalant.

Cilan dressed as Elesa, however, made me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spatula.
 
I'm kinda excited about the Clubsplosion tournament. Mostly I want to see Bianca beat Trip, but I think it's going to be interesting because Ash isn't going to win, nor are Iris and Cilan. It'll be interesting to see them all sit on the sidelines while a side character has the final battle.
 
I'm not much of an anime guy, but it's nice to see that Team Rocket isn't completely incompetent anymore. That shtick got old quick, and they always had the potential to be pretty cool.
 
I'm kinda excited about the Clubsplosion tournament. Mostly I want to see Bianca beat Trip, but I think it's going to be interesting because Ash isn't going to win, nor are Iris and Cilan. It'll be interesting to see them all sit on the sidelines while a side character has the final battle.
The final battle of that tournament has been one of my favorite battles in BW so far. It has a different atmosphere than most battles in the anime do.

Seeing the Wishing Bell talk made me realized I actually missed that episode (which is weird, I usually don't miss episodes and when I do I tend to notice. Maybe it's because I liked the Donamite/Clubsplosion episodes) and I went back and watched it.
 
I have to say, in Ash's battle against Tobias (the Darkrai trainer) in the Sinnoh league, I was both impressed and disappointed with Ash. On one hand, he actually used a Sleep Talking Heracross to use Megahorn against Darkrai (which, IMO, should've brought it down)--probably the greatest strategy Ash has ever used.

On the other hand, where was his Snorlax and Charizard? He brought in crappy Pokemon like Torkoal and Swellow knowing full well that he was going up against a guy who had a Darkrai. But I guess that's the anime for you, since they had to make Ash lose somehow--even though he probably would've lost anyways if he brought Snorlax and Charizard into that battle.
 
I assumed that the writers realized how quickly BW would be coming up and had to rush the last few episodes out to get on Best Wishes ASAP. So they brought in a legendary trainer (in more ways than one). He's built up as unbeatable and has OP Pokemon, and Ash isn't using his A-team. Thus he can still put up a decent fight but ultimately won't win, and it's all believable.
 
I think it's funny that everyone seems to like Paul when it's obvious that you're supposed to hate him. He's a bastard who treats Pokémon like tools to advance himself rather than his partners in his quest. He's not a hero or a great example, he's a Take That. He's the kind of person N would love to tear in half because of how he mistreats his Pokémon.

That said, Paul lives in a reality where these are real, living creatures with feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams of their own and in our reality, they are merely bits of data strung together with some (not so) random numbers thrown in.
Yeah but when you look at it like that, it just makes Paul even more badass than he already is with the carelessness he treats some Pokemon. He doesn't totally not care for all of them, his Torterra for example.
Diamond is the best Pokedex holder okay.
No he isn't, Red has the coolest Pokemon, he is the strongest of all the Pokedex holders with the most experience. Diamond is just one of Platinum's bodyguards with less experience than most other Pokedex holders, having Regigigas isn't insta-coolness
 

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The problem with Pokemon as an anime is that unlike Shonen series like Naruto, One Piece, or even f'ing Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon's target audience is little kids. Sure, the other mentioned anime series also target little kids (One Piece and Toriko as anime are DEFINITELY little-kids-anime, and all the blood/extreme violence/swearing of the manga gets censored out of Jump series before they hit the TV), but they're based on manga meant for teenagers.

What does this mean? Well, for Yu-Gi-Oh, it meant that the original anime series could not continue indefinitely no matter how much merchandise and trading cards they had to push. Yu-Gi-Oh the manga was a Jump manga read by middle/highschool students-- and when your audience aren't little kids, you need at least a start, development, and conclusion to your story. You also can't inexplicably erase all the character development and maturity of your protagonist at the beginning and end of each season. Basically, you're reigned in to actually making a story that has a real plot. (and then you sell out the rights so that someone else can make the kiddie-targeting garbage "sequels" that keep selling more trading cards)

Now, if you're sesame street or Barny the dinosaur, you can pretty much keep doing what you've been doing for years and years and years until you get usurped by someone else doing it better.

Than, if you're Pokemon, you don't even need to worry about that. You just have to worry about brain washing the next generation to watch until they out grow it so you can brain wash the next.

Also, anyone know a different franchise that could make 15+ movies and have them all be successful on the big screen? OMG... and yes, many Japanese parents actually ENJOY watching the movies with their kids (I enjoy them too actually... the movies, unlike the anime, actually have plot... and animation quality...)
 
I have to say, in Ash's battle against Tobias (the Darkrai trainer) in the Sinnoh league, I was both impressed and disappointed with Ash. On one hand, he actually used a Sleep Talking Heracross to use Megahorn against Darkrai (which, IMO, should've brought it down)--probably the greatest strategy Ash has ever used.

On the other hand, where was his Snorlax and Charizard? He brought in crappy Pokemon like Torkoal and Swellow knowing full well that he was going up against a guy who had a Darkrai. But I guess that's the anime for you, since they had to make Ash lose somehow--even though he probably would've lost anyways if he brought Snorlax and Charizard into that battle.
He probably chose Torkoal because it had battled a Legendary Pokemon before (Registeel.) And if you watched AG, you'd know that Swellow wasn't crappy. It had a crazy amount of wins, probably his strongest bird to date.
 
He probably chose Torkoal because it had battled a Legendary Pokemon before (Registeel.) And if you watched AG, you'd know that Swellow wasn't crappy. It had a crazy amount of wins, probably his strongest bird to date.
Oh yeah, forgot about the Registeel battle...but then, by that logic, he still should've used Charizard over Swellow seeing how Charizard took on Articuno, another legendary Pokemon, and actually won. oh well, that's the anime for you.
 
Oh yeah, forgot about the Registeel battle...but then, by that logic, he still should've used Charizard over Swellow seeing how Charizard took on Articuno, another legendary Pokemon, and actually won. oh well, that's the anime for you.
Considering Charizard was the first thing taken down in the last battle against Brandon (I believe it was a Dusclops) it probably wouldn't have helped much more than Torkoal.
I think he also wanted to stick with his Oak reserves if only for fanservice convenience since Charizard is PROBABLY? the furthest away?


Part of me wishes the battle against Tobias just kept going. Just so curious as to what other Legends he had on his team. I remember everyone thinking FOR SURE that it was going to be Heatran since we saw it being signed up for
 
Part of me wishes the battle against Tobias just kept going. Just so curious as to what other Legends he had on his team. I remember everyone thinking FOR SURE that it was going to be Heatran since we saw it being signed up for
But that Heatran was a partner to some other kid, not Tobias. It was kinda dick of Tobias to (possibly) have a team of legendaries, since he became the end-all duder who would've won the tourney. It's funny, since the very first champ in the anime used a Rhyhorn on his team.
 

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