Ranked #2438

Pokemon

Pokemon! We've all heard of the show, and most of us have watched and (probably) loved it as kids. So this means it's great, no? I mean, why else would kids all over the world love it? Well... kids often preceive things differently than the older demographic, and they find great what others think of as garbage. So... what about Pokemon? Is this the same? Let's see...

It starts out with a tiny step, like most other journeys. Our hero, Ash Ketchum, has high dreams of becoming the ultimate Pokemon trainer (I'll refrain from explaining that to you), and he starts out by sleeping in too late! before logn however, he's gotten his first (reluctant) Pokemon, everyone's favorite mouse Pikachu, and they're off on their epic journey!

The shows brings out an epic adventure of friendship, harsh battles and whatnot; everything you'd expect from a shonen that's aimed at the younger kids. It isn't that great however, as it gets very repetitive after a while; a Pokemon/person of the day formula with some kind of problem that always ends well. And that's what most of the episodes contain, with a small bit of getting further on their journey every now and then.

Animation-wise, the show doesn't feature anything boastable, with flat character designs, okay backgrounds and no spectacular special effects at all. Was it because of budget restrictions (it is a pretty long anime, after all), or was it because the producers knew the kids they were aiming the show at didn't care anyway? Well, whatever it was, the animation isn't anything to brag about.

The soundtrack is what you'd expect of such a show; adventurous opening themes, background music that's supposed to get you into the fighting/comedic mood, and a variety of sound effects to use for all the moves and whatnot you'll see. The voice acting is decent, but honestly - my unability to cope with dubs in anime pretty much wins over my nostalgia here, and that is the main reason I stopped watching the show some time ago.

The characters are, well, what you'd expect from a shonen. The rash, headstrong main character and his oh-so-arrogant rival, and the people he travels with; the older, more reasonable (mostly) fellow, and of course, the tomboyish girl with whome he argues a lot. Yup, that's shonen for ya. The main comedic relief of the series, the Team Rocket trio, is actually a pretty entertaining one. Despite constantly neglecting to look over their mistakes and realise that every one of their contraptions fail against Ash and company, they keep on trying, knowing thinking that their boss will reward them greatly of they bring him the Pikachu. I like their stupid enthusiasm a lot, and their scenes are often among amogn the better ones in the series.

So... Pokemon is basically a cliche-ridden shonen with no real thing to make it stand out. Wait... that can't be right? What about all the kids that love it? And what of all the others that love it? One of the things, I believe, is the adventurous feel of the series; who wouldn't want to experience such an epic adventure for themselves? (I know I want to, at least!) Not to mention, the great values of friendship, loyalty and trust which are presented to the viewers. That is one thing that makes Pokemon so great, and I'd try to get any kid into the show becasue of that reason alone. And that's what there is to say about Pokemon, actually. read more

It's pretty unfabulous to have to review something you love when you know it's not very good.

Pokemon works with a re-use formula, the story is long, it is repetitive, it doesn't progress in any way because development doesn't really happen.

Art and sound is mediocre as it is a mass-produced anime. Production costs would have been sky-high if they spent any more money on it, and it shows.

The characters are pretty two-dimensional. They aren't deep, you don't go into their heads, and they're all about 11-15 years old but all act the same.

But why do I love this anime so much?? I was obsessed with it as a child, and it still has a warm place in my heart. I think it's a perfect anime for children because it teaches them some good lessons: try to be the best, do the right thing, and your friends and family are the most important people in your life.

Only unfabulously mean people hate on Pokemon. You know they all watched it and liked it as a child, but my, how uppity we have all become. If you're feeling nostalgic and want to go back to when anime was about adventure and friendship and silliness, then Pokemon is for you. It's also a harmless, fun anime for your kids, too. So I totally recommend it. Fabulous, it is. read more

Pokemon had many good qualities during its golden years (roughly 1998-2002). It became an unstoppable force in many countries, mainly the USA and Japan. It quickly became the most successful show based off a video game and it has the most episodes of any animated show ever shown in America.

The animation was great for its time, and the songs were very addictive. It was obvious that everybody that saw the show enjoyed it very much, myself included. And to this day, over 10 years after the debut of Pokemon, they are still able to sell merchandise.

But what created the downfall of the series was that it never ended! The show could've easily ended at the end of episode 84, with the end of the Pokemon League. They could've said "Since that day, Ash trained hard to be a master." and then show him as a master. But no, the episodes just keep coming and coming. Johto was cool because of showing new pokemon, but when they repeated the trend of "new pokemon lolz" it got old really quick. And not mention that Ash never matured. He had a birthday one episode and in the 3rd movie he exclaimed that he and Pikachu have been together for a year. But at the start of Diamond and Pearl Ash was mentioned to be 10 years old again. Inconsistency is bad if you want to keep your audience.

It still find myself rewatching the first few seasons of Pokemon and hugging my pikachu pillow. But the new episodes these days just don't have the same atmosphere as the old show and it is hard to watch it without booing the lack-luster effort that gets put into each episode. But Pokemon will always have an unforgettable place in my heart and (ignoring anything past the Johto season) for that I give it an 8/10. read more

Ok, so for the sake of creating the ultimate database for MAL on anime reviews, I have decided to create a review on an anime show that almost everyone in this community is familiar with - Pokemon. Have YOU caught them all?

As many people probably already know, Pokemon is the story of our young hero Ash (Satoshi) Ketchum and his dream of one day becoming a Pokemon Master. Of course, if that is your dream, one must defeat gym leaders, participate in the regional Pokemon tournaments and of course, must catch them all, as per the famous catch-phrase of the show. On Ash's journey, he meets up with many different friends who all have different dreams as well, but coincide with Ash's dream of being a Pokemon Master. While the story nowadays seems pretty cliche and straightforward, keep in mind that this show debuted in 1997, so let's give it that much.

The animation for Pokemon is something that gets better as the show goes on. In the first many episodes, the animation is not the greatest thing in the world, and many of the frames are repeated several times throughout the entire anime. But because of the huge improvement, I will give credit to the animators in keeping up with the times.

The one thing I really like about this show when I first watched it was the music. I totally fell in love with many of the scores used whenever Ash participated in a big battle against gym leaders or tough rivals. Many of these scores can be seen in the many games that have been created for it as well. Besides that however, a lot of the other music heard sounds kind of boring, which ironically, fits well with the pace of the story, which I'm sure we all are familiar with.

I feel that the characters in Pokemon are simply too perfect. I suppose that since this show was geared towards the younger age group, that may be the reason why, but each main characters we are presented with have either one or two obvious faults that the show always seems to dwell upon whenever there is a problem. Whether it be Ash's rash and stubborn nature or Brock's obvious love of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, it just becomes waaay too repetitive for it to be enjoyable anymore. Team Rocket anyone?

Which leads to the category of enjoyment. If Pokemon simply aired the important episodes (i.e. gym battles, Ash catching Pokemon, etc.), the show would be scores more enjoyable than what we are presented it. The insane amount of pointless episodes are so utterly boring, that calling them fillers would be an insult to the word "fillers." Whenever I turn on the television and find Pokemon airing, I would stay on that channel for however long it took me to deduce whether or not a gym battle was occurring. If not, the channel was flipped instantly.

Pokemon has tried to keep things fresh with introducing a whole new set of pocket monsters, but at this point, there are so many that its hard to keep track of them all.

Pokemon is the anime show which introduced many of us to the world of japanese animation. I believe that a lot of us grew up watching this show at some point in our lives and will always hold it in a special place in our hearts. However, now that we have become older and can compare this to other anime out there, we can see how Pokemon horribly fails as being an enjoyable show to watch. The fact that Ash almost never wins a regional tournament and relinquishes all of his Pokemon that he has worked so hard to evolve and train (cough* Pidgeot* cough) also gets on the nerves of many people as well. For argument's sake, I rated it a 4 (decent) because of the "used-to be" interesting gym battles. Even now, whenever I see Ash competing at the Orange Island final battle, its something I'll gladly stay tuned and watch again. read more

I am sure that many of you have at the very least "heard" of this show, if not watched it already. After all, it has been all over cartoon network for years and is still televised frequently. Before writing this review, I must make it clear that my score is based on a mismatch of the anime and it's target audience; I am simply too old to watch pokemon. Although I watched this show when I was about 15, I feel that the target audience is much younger. Perhaps from the 7-12 year category. Therefore, what might be a 5/10 for me may be a 10/10 for a 9 year old. This is not to say that pokemon is not fun to watch. I can remember having a good time watching this, waiting to see how Ash progressed in his quest of beating tough gym leaders and strong rivals in order to collect those valuable victory badges. The idea behind this show was fun because it is based on an alternate reality where special creatures with specific abilities exist in the wild (called pokemon). As a part of this reality, pokemon trainers also exist which strive to catch these pokemon in order to train them to become strong. So the show is pretty much based on this. Pokemon trainers catch pokemon, train them to become strong, participate in battles with other pokemon trainers in which they unleash their respective pokemon and give them commands to perform specific moves. The winner is the one who has the last pokemon standing. Quite straightforward. An interesting aspect of this show was the variety of pokemon available. I can remember that there were over 150 different pokemon, all with different appearances, skills and abilities. This was one of the factors which made this show insanely popular among kids. Also, the main characters of the show, Ash, Brock, Misty, Jessy, James and Meowth gave the show an interesting presence. All in all, probably one of the best anime for kids, but not exactly your cup of tea if you are 15+. I recommend this anime for kids but not for older teenagers or adults. Overall = 5/10 read more

Pokemon. A show I am sure we all have heard about. And it is still going on.
Pokemon is anime about a boy named Ash who wants to be a Pokemon master and therefore he travels with this Pokemon and then meets a lot of differents people etc.

I gave the story itself 7, because I think it is pretty good. It tends to be the same and the same over and over agian, but especially the first season has some very touching episodes and some good lessons about life.

Art and sound:

I have always liked the Art in Pokemon. Especially the Pokemon itself are very cute. Sound: There are some good soungs in it.

Characters: The characters not really devolpment through the series if you ask me, however the main characters are different from each other and believabe.

Enjoyment: Pokemon series are fun too watch. I enjoyed it very much, but the first season was the most excting one.

Overall. I have found it kind of hard to review anime I have seen since it started. If you asked me when I 7 I would have give it a10 to all things. However, now when I have got older I have started to ask myself how good an amime Pokemon is. I see it is as a very good anime, which is funny, maybe not has the best story in the word, but has a good moral and children will enjoy this anime. So a 7 from me. read more

One word: Incredible. The story begins with young Ash Ketchum, who is beginning the journey that will change his life forever. He is paired up with the stubborn Pikachu, and the two get off to a rocky start, lol. They eventually form an unbreakable relationship, and travel around the world fighting battle after epic battle.

This is an incredible show, right up there with the likes of The Simpsons and Seinfeld. It will undoubtley go down in history as the greatest thing man-kind has ever made.

To even be able to watch this is an experience. The first time I saw this, I knew that Pokemon would be fukkin incredible. 9000/10 read more

Has anyone never watched this series?
The Series is probably the best example of Nostalgia. Even though now most of us review the bad dubbing, the bad art, and repetitive story with distaste, We still hide in closests watching the DVD Box set of the first season.
I like the series because it introduced me to the basic ideas of Anime, made me play the video game series(as it was intended to be used) and old pictures I drew as a Kid show early attempts at drawing pikachu, showing that Pokemon influenced me to become a artist.
The bad thing about the Anime is that I, not the series, grew up. I still cringe at some of the bad dubbing and the theme song.
I still secretly watched the series (yes, even the later seasons) and still try to guess on 'whos that pokemon' in the first season.
Its one of my favorite Animes I ever watched no matter what anyone says, And yet I still watch Pokemon abridged by Master WGS to laugh at the crappyness.
Best of both worlds right? read more

Pokemon is good but for kids. Let me tell you it is always the same! Ash always gets the badges, Team rocket always beaten and pikacu ALWAYS saves the day. But you know, there is morality so kids can learn from it. I liked it too, it isn't half bad.

Pokemon's an okay anime

i used to love it when i was a child but now..
i can barely keep attention of the screen.

it's okay for people who are under 10..

it keeps young children occupied, but....

idk, the story never changes..