Ranked #1981

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl completes the "chapter" of the pokemon storyline that really begins with the Advanced Generation (though just watching Battle Frontier will give you sufficient background info). If you do decide to watch Pokemon DP right away, as your first pokemon experience, then you're in for a very different, and, honestly, a unique perspective. You see, much of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is written from Dawn's point of view. You're much more privy to her thoughts, feelings, and concerns than Ash's. So, unless you've already seen and know of Ash's previous adventures in other regions, you're not going to know right off the bat how experienced a trainer Ash really is; rather, gradually, you'll see his experiences referenced to as the events that relate to them come along (to make it clear, they are not ignored). That can honestly be really cool if you're a new viewer, and can watch this series with someone who's seen everything already of previous regions.
Story and Characters (Story-8, Characters-10)
What to say of the story...Well, in general, I can't say it's the most exciting thing you'll every see. At least, it isn't right off the bat. It's the generic trainer wants to be the best idea; or at least, that's how it starts out. If you've watched Pokemon Advanced, you'll notice the difference in Dawn's introduction compared to May's right away, in that Dawn is the daughter of a famous coordinator; so her decision to become a coordinator is a more natural one. That creates some potential for Dawn's storyline that the writers eventually take full advantage of, by pulling the trigger on a storyline development that was really quite shocking to I think all of us long time viewers of the show. She becomes really the most complex character in the show that we fully can understand (again, Ash's thoughts are something we really don't know too often; this is a much more mature Ash than you've seen in prior regions). And what really becomes a treat to watch is who is most responsible for supporting her. You see, unlike in Advanced region where May's rivals were also her best friends and the ones she interacted with comfortably (especially Drew), that's not nearly the case here. Dawn's closest friend amongst the rivals is this girl Zoey, and um, you'll see when/if you watch the show that she's not the best friend you'd want to be supporting you. So, the responsibility falls on Ash. It's never shown in blunt words, but in facial expressions and subtle deeds. He really cares (everyone does, for sure), and somehow, it becomes his responsibility to help her out. It's quite unexpected for those of use who've watched this show all the way through, and so those people will be the ones who appreciate it the most and will enjoy it. If this is your first experience with Pokemon, then you might not be so impressed and kind of roll your eyes at the idea that this is so shocking. But it truly is. Dawn responds to Ash's kindness, and by the time you've come to the 2nd part of the show (there are 3 openings in the japanese version), you'll see how integral the friendship has become to the direction of the show. Over the course of the show, Dawn's storyline transforms so that the focus isn't so much on her becoming the champion coordinator, but rather something else that's more easily relatable for everyday people. This can be a positive or a negative with regards to her contest experience, b/c you're not quite sure what the expectations are there, and what would be a fitting ending to it all and what would be a disappointment. I think it ends fittingly enough, though, and you'll feel satisfied with it. The real detriment to Dawn's storyline is that her really entertaining rival does not show up till near the end of the show; if the writers could do it over, I think they would have brought this rival earlier on. The writers have a bit of fun in the romantic department with Dawn, giving her two guys that like her. None of it's taken really far, but one of them does get an entire, serious, episode devoted to it near the end of the region.

We have another hero, and that's the one you're probably more familiar with: Ash. This is the most distant you'll be with respect to Ash in this anime, at least so far as it's gone now. In light of Dawn's story, the writers go a bit more mature route with Ash. He's not so vocal about his troubles, and he has a strong determination to figure out things himself. This is where the third companion, Brock, is very important. As someone who has traveled with Ash to previous regions, he's very comfortable with Ash's tendencies, and really plays along; so the times where Dawn thinks Ash is crazy for doing what he does, Brock doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Ash comes off as a very advanced trainer this region. His experience is alluded to many times in his battling style, and you feel and see that he's a much more experienced trainer than Dawn. That creates a nice contrast in the storylines of our two main characters, since their journeys are on different levels. I feel like Ash's problems generally require much more complex solutions than Dawn's; whereas her problems are more of the emotional and confidence type, Ash's problems have a much more criticial thinking nature to them. Ash's rivals this region are much more interesting than ones we've seen previously, although the final rival you see will honestly leave a sour taste in your mouth. I'll make that clear here: Ash's story ends in a herky jerky manner, that isn't the most well thought out. You will not be satisfied with it at all. The positive of Ash's storyline is his main rival, who challenges him in a very different way than we're used to seeing. Just like Ash, Paul is a very experienced trainer, but he has a different (essentially contrasting) view when it comes to raising pokemon. Initially, this seems like a pretty trivial and normal rivalry, but it evolves into something a little different than anything I've seen before. You see, the writers never make it 100% clear that Paul is wrong for doing what he does; in fact, they sort of back away from that (Paul's pokemon are happy enough under Paul's care, except for one). The reason Ash and Paul bother each other so much is that, not only do they have conflicting beliefs about the way to train pokemon, they both progress and grow stronger, collecting the gym badges and, unofficially, really, becoming the two most promising "young" trainers in the Sinnoh region. For Ash, this is stunning at first; he can't accept that someone with Paul's philosophies can actually be a successful trainer, and he really struggles with that idea. That ultimately becomes Ash's journey this region. It becomes more important to him, for his own personal growth, to beat Paul in a certain way, b/c that's the only way he can feel comfortable with himself. What's funny about the rivalry is that Paul is really the one who starts it, and by the end of the show you sort of see why: Ash reminds Paul of someone he really admired but then developed some resentment towards b/c of that person's decision to quit his Pokemon Journey after being unable to beat a certain trainer. That certain trainer does show up again, and with his appearance comes a shocking revelation to Paul about what Ash has already accomplished, especially in light of the fact that Paul had really begun to consider himself the better trainer. This leads to a pretty interesting sequence of events that ends in a dramatic full 6 on 6 battle between the two that's pretty fun to watch. Unfortunately, story wise, the tension of the rivalry really ends there...which isn't a good thing when there is so many episodes left to go in the region, including the Sinnoh League. Like I said before, the ending of Ash's journey in this region is not one that you're going to feel satisified with.

The pokemon of the main trio are almost all pretty interesting and have good chemistry together, aided by the fact they are out together a good deal. The negative I have here is the focus on one of Ash's pokemon towards the end of the region really overshadowing the growth of his other pokemon; it does get to be too much. Dawn's pokemon are presented in a pretty balanced fashion; Brock has one pokemon that really, really shines, while the other 2 take a bit of a backseat-this isn't so much of a bad thing, but when the writers try to focus an episode on these two, the episodes are pretty boring.

In terms of good guy/ bad buy scenario, pokemon isn't for that. There are some things relating to it here, like Team Galactic, but this isn't the show for that if that's what you're really looking for. I want to make a special mention for one of the members of Team Rocket here, Jessie, who really has an interesting contest journey, along with Dawn. It's really not what'd you'd expect. Team Rocket becomes the sort of bad guys that are interesting to watch, in that every now and then, they do get away with bad stuff. But it's not the world is ending bad stuff; but some of the things are semi-serious, that you wouldn't expect in a show like this. The show has changed from being about good guys win and working hard to definitely succeed, to focusing more on how life can be tough, and that bad things can happen, even if you do work hard, but you still have to live and continue.

Art ( 7)-Nothing really to say here. It's fine. Nothing great, but not terrible.

Sound (10)=The Jap music is excellent in most instances. Especially the last intro, which really gets your hopes up that you're about to see something really amazing. The 1st ending is a tune you'll hear a lot in the show, being Dawn's theme. Most of her segments have that tune playing, in different varieties. Keep an ear out for the sad variant, b/c it's a bit of shock and heart pulling. The last ending of the series is also a bit of a shock when you see it the first time, and really pulls at you as you realize this is really all coming to an end. It really pairs well with the last episode of the series (the last episode is the best for music).

Enjoyment (8)-I'm being a little biased here. The show sort of goes in cycles, where it hits a hot streak when it's very good, then goes through a few episodes where it's really off. The episodes aren't really isolated, like good episode, bad episode, good episode; they come in bunches. When the show is good, it's really good. A fair warning here, though, in that you can see that writers experimented as they went. Some ideas were good and were kept, developed; others were dropped. However, I like that. It makes many of the events of the show feel spontaneous, as if things that happened were, well, supposed to happen.

I want to make a quick mention of something, and that's the portrayal of adult characters, especially the elite 4. This is personally what I enjoyed the most about the show. Adult characters are shown to have flaws in this show, in a natural way. It's shown in a way to suggest that this is the way it really is, and not that the adults are wrong for having these tendencies. Ash, Dawn, and Brock meet many adult characters on their journey, and you'll see that a relatively high number of them have some sort of flaw to them (like pride, or arrogance). Really, some of the most interesting characters are the Elite 4 and the gym leaders; Reggie and the champion Cynthia are the two I found the most interesting. What's fun is that Ash, Dawn, and Brock, more often than not, learn about these characters, but don't pass judgement. These aren't right/wrong episodes; these are let's see different personalities that people can have in the world. If you're interested in that sort of thing, I think you'll like Diamond and Pearl a lot.

Overall (8)-I really enjoyed the show tremedously. The reason it's probably viewed so fondly is that it really exceeds your expectations as you watch. When you start off, you expect at most to be entertained by some funny scenes here and there. You expect childish morals, like good guys win, Paul will be defeated and made to see the error of his ways, and Team Rocket will always be caught. But the show really evolves into something more than that, into something reasonably mature. Many times, these developments are quite surprising; many of the fans I know of Pokemon would agree that "Anything can happen in Sinnoh" is a very fitting one sentence description for this region. Although, I want to make clear that the dialogue isn't super sophisticated or anything. Everything is presented simply enough. But at times, you really have to think about what's going on. Dawn is a great character for this, since she doesn't always say what she means; Ash is also more mature than what we're used to; many times, you have to judge Ash by facial expressions rather than words. This is a great show to help you appreciate what feelings and fears everyone has in their everyday lives, growing up, even if they don't always say it. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl focuses on establishing an identity for yourself growing up, finding out what's important to you and living your life accordingly. So if you like that sort of anything this is for you. read more

Let's talk about art first. I watched pokemon from the first episode when it came out all those years ago. Compared to the art back then, DP (diamond and pearl...as im sure you know) is amazing. I remember one episode where the screen just flashed red and blue for about ten minutes and pikachu's thunderbolt was just two dull yellow zigzags...i think it was the seizure one in the first few seasons; but now it's improved so much in so many areas, too many infact, so i'm not going to list them all.

I don't really think I should comment on sound since I watched the dubbed version and not the subbed/raw but I will anyway, just a little bit. I thought the voices have deteriorate since pokemon switched companies when May, or Haruka, was still around. But i think everyone had gotten used to the new deeper voice of Ash, or Satoshi. The music, both japanese and english, for DP is quite catchy too and the OST used are used in jus the right places. I hate Staravia's cry though...no offence to the person who does the voice but it just irritates me.

The characters for pokemon are a little bit hard to rate. We still have Ash and Brock, or Takashi, but we have a new female prtangonist: Dawn, Hikari(I think...check synopsis). Ash is still the competitive type and Brock is still flocking to every beautiful woman's side to propose a date. Dawn is...very hard to describe without giving away spoilers, but she gives a sort of fresh sensation to the group which neither May or Misty(I hav not idea what she's called in japanese and i'm not googling it) gave.

The storyline's pretty much the same as any other pokemon series so not much there...and Ash has new pokemons except (big shock?no). I think he kept Pikachu plus another one this time though...intereesting...

If you liked the other pokemon series you're sure to like this one...unless you're a strong believer in the Ash and May love things that are going around on the internet. But even you guys, advanceshippers get a pleasant surprise in Diamond and Pearl. read more