Pokemon Advanced Generation

I didn't expect many reviews on this chp. of pokemon. The history of pokemon had done so well up until this point, as seen by many. However, hardcore/loyal pokemon fans stuck around and watched the entire ADV generation. We embraced the new characters, though many did not want to see old ones retire away. We took note of even more pokemon added to anime, though some felt the originals could never be replaced. The games were stellar, I've played every single pokemon game out there and I can honestly say ruby/sapphire or emerald are must haves. So what is about ADV? I mean, it should ... be better than Kanto's and Johto's saga, right?

PMKN ADV features the return of our main heroine Satoshi (better known as Ash Ketchum) as he explores an entire new region, Hoenn. Here, he encounters totally new pokemon with different aspects and abilities nowhere seen in the previous regions he was in. During his journey, he meets new friends and some returning ones. Haruka(May) and Masato(Max) are some new faces this time around, both are brother and sister. May, a once serious trainer competing for gym badges, focuses on a new goal to be a serious PKMN contest challenger. Max provides the group with in depth strategies to PKMN battling despite given his age. He takes a real liking to Ash, since he too also wants to become a pkmn trainer. The final character to the group is Brock, a familiar face seen with Ash throughout the series. He is still is normal self, acting perverted anytime a nurse joy or any of the likes of a cute girl is near. Ash himself is still competing for badges, so that one day he can participate in the "Hoenn League."

PKMN ADV is divided into several different titles. When the timeline gets serious enough and Ash gains more badges, the story is known as ADV Battle. From there, the story gradually gets deeper into harder challenges otherwise known as PKMN ADV Challenge. The style of "Double Battling" ie is introduced to where two pokemon battle another two in the same fight. Everything is still considered the ADV timeline, the story just gets deeper and possibly better.

PKMN theme's around this time are very solid. Perhaps better than it's previous counterparts. I do enjoy the opening ADV Challenge theme A LOT. The art is slightly better than Johto, however much improved from Kanto sagas. Battles are better detailed, and animation is more fluid. So it seems like ADV is just perfect, right? Well no. The story lines between travel are STILL the same: Team Rocket attacks Ash and gang until he reaches a gym or certain point of relevance in the story. I do like presentation of different groups like Team Magma and Team Aqua, but still most of the time it's the annoying Rockets doing the dirty work. Another thing is accepting the fact of just understanding new pokemon and how they work. There's LOTS of names I wouldn't begin to remember then, there was like 350 known species in this timeline. Sometimes, I questioned "oh what type is this?" or "what atk was that!?"

Overall, I wouldn't be quick to say ADV is the "rotten apple" in the history of PKMN. There's good scenes and action waiting to be watched here if you haven't yet. I think it naturally depends on if you are willing to accept the many changes to PMKN when you brace this saga of pokemon.

So, as anticipated, I did end up enjoying Advanced quite a bit more than the Original for most of my viewing experience. Though you may have noticed that the overall score doesn't reflect that... And it wasn't for the same reasons I'd expected...

As I mentioned in my review for the original series, Hoenn was my generation. I didn't get really into playing the games myself until Sapphire/Ruby. I expected to connect better with Advanced because the towns and gym leaders and some of the special events with teams Aqua and Magma were more familiar to me. But that wasn't really the case. It was kind ... of nice to know what was coming next, but for the most part, the gym battles were just... gym battles. It was the way the second season was handled that won me over. The format changed a bit for this second season, and I feel it changed for the better. I think adding in the contest side of the Pokémon world broke up the time between Ash's gym battles very nicely. Ash and May switched off pretty evenly. And I felt it just gave the series a better... flow. Much less felt like it could be skipped without consequence, which I think is a huge plus.

And there were a few other places Advanced really shined. I feel like training took a much more prominent place in this season. We saw a lot of Ash actually working with his Pokémon to learn new moves, instead of the miracle, in the nick of time learning that happened a lot in the original. There were still instances of it, for both Ash and May, but it felt like more time went into preparing for each battle or rematch, and it showed Ash growing as trainer. On top of that, the battles got a lot more creative. This was true of the contests where appearance was just as important as effectiveness, but also when it came to Ash's battle strategies. Don't get me wrong, there were still some bullshit plot armor moments. (Because no, Ash, hitting your bird with a bolt of lightning would not give it an electric shield.) But overall, I felt it was a step in the right direction.

At least... This can be said for the first two-thirds of Advanced. More than one thing about Battle Frontier didn't sit quite right with me, but I'll start with the formatting.
Okay, so I know I'm going to soundl like a total hypocrite saying this, but... Frontier just felt rushed. I know, one of my biggest complaints about the original series was that it was too drawn out, but I didn't get the sense that they were really going anywhere throughout Battle Frontier's run. Which shouldn't have been possible, because Frontier took us back to Kanto, where everything should have been familiar. But stopping in towns where Ash previously won his Indigo League badges just didn't have the sense of connection that I felt they should have. For a comparison, I ask you to look back to his Johto travels. To be honest, I don't remember exactly why, but our heroes had to double back through Ecruteak over the course of their journey. And during those episodes where they returned to Ecruteak, they met back up with Morty-- the gym leader-- and had another little adventure having to do with the ghost tower in town-- a prominent aspect of Ecruteak. And I felt like it was a really nice callback.

That's the feeling Frontier should have had. But it didn't. In fact, I don't think I really appreciated the characterization of the gym leaders until that point. It can be kind of subtle, but each gym leader is a really solid reflection of their town. Like Roxanne also running the trainer's school. Rustboro is the first town in Hoenn where you can earn a badge, and the trainer's school being such a big part of it was a really strong reflection of being The Beginning. It gives the towns character and makes them memorable, and I just felt like they really dropped the ball bringing things back to Kanto during Battle Frontier. Of course, there's another thing Frontier can be remembered for...

And now... I suppose we have to discuss the voice acting. It's not typically something I bring up in my reviews unless I have something specific to say. I think it goes without saying that I, like most people, watched Pokémon dubbed. (That's just part of it stemming from my childhood.) Yup, from the company notorious for bad dubs. Who would have thought it would actually be something to mourn when 4Kids lost the rights to a show?

Let's take a step back for a minute, shall we? Remember those little questionnaires in elementary and middle school that tried to determine which learning style you were best suited for? Like, were you most likely to remember a graph drawn on the board, a lecture, or a hands-on activity? I've always been a very auditory person. When I recall something someone said, it's down to every last inflection of their voice. So, regardless of which language I watch a show in, the characters' voices stick with me and become as much a part of their character as any of their actions throughout the series. So it's hell on my ears when even one voice actor is replaced, never mind the entire cast.

Pokémon was one of the few things 4Kids did pretty well. Yes, even with all the censorship and localization they're so well known for. The actors put so much heart into their roles, even when they were saying truly ridiculous things. And I'd had about 400 episodes to get used to them. So maybe I'm a bit biased, but the new dub did just sound worse in general. There was either no emotion behind their words, or everything came out sounding over exaggerated and fake. Some of them (Brock, in particular) grew on me over time, but I want to specifically discuss Ash and May, because I don't think I ever truly appreciated how much Veronica Taylor was carrying this show until she was replaced.

May... I know a lot of people hate May, either because she's inexperienced and says some pretty dumb things (even though Ash did that all the time in the original series) or because she replaced Misty, or whatever other reasons. I really like May as a character. (Significantly more than Misty.) She was a much more active character, and I already mentioned that I liked the way her contest storyline split up the filler between Ash's gym battles nicely. But mostly, I just like how much she grows throughout the series. She goes from not even liking Pokémon-- just wanting to travel-- to learning to love them and finding a purpose in this world. Even throughout her contests, May is very shortsighted, so her departure-- where she finally decided on a goal for herself and started thinking towards the future-- was very satisfying to me. It felt like a complete character arc. (As opposed to Misty, who was kind of just there until she wasn't.)
But I felt May suffered quite a lot from the recasting. Further proof that WHAT you say doesn't matter half as much as HOW you say it. And everything May says after the recast comes out sounding overly timid or insecure, and that's really not who she was written or animated to be. May's defining characteristic was that she's adventurous. She has her low moments. There were lessons to be learned from both doubt and overconfidence over the course of her journey. But she was always just as brave as any of the other characters, and just as passionate about her contests as any of the others were about their dreams. Her new voice just sounded out-of-character, which is a shame because-- for the rest of the cast-- it was pretty clear they were trying to mimc the old voices.

But May was not the one who suffered the most from the recasting. Ash's new voice is the one that really made me wish they'd just gone in an entirely new direction with Ash. Now, I have heard that Sarah Natochenny improves a lot as Pokémon continues and... Good lord, I hope so. May's voice just sounded wrong for her character. Ash's lines frequently came out as bad acting, plain and simple. My biggest complaint is that it sounded, to me, like the real problem was she couldn't both maintain Ash's voice and emote properly. Which I feel should have been a major indication that the job should have gone to someone else, but... We're in it for the long run now.

So, I'm about to dive into Diamond and Pearl, and I'm interested to see how this goes. The next few seasons will be truly blind for me. I watched a few episodes of season three when it first came out, but... Eh. My interest in Pokémon kind of dropped off between Sapphire/Ruby and X/Y. Even if I didn't play much of the games, I was really familiar with the original Pokémon through the movies and just spending a lot of time with older cousins who were drawn in by the Pokémon craze. I've got a vague remembrance of some of the Sinnoh Pokémon, but I can't even remember the Unova starters off the top of my head. So it's promising to be quite a journey, truly free from any nostalgia, and I'm interested to see how that colors the experience.

Pokemon Advanced Generation is the second series of the Pokemon anime, including episodes 277 to 468 and featuring the Third Generation Pokemon. Objectively, this sequel is better than the first series. Many of the issues I criticized in the first series have been improved or even resolved. For example, I previously mentioned that the episodes had no connection to each other, giving us an unpleasant generic feeling, which has slightly improved. There are more links between the episodes, giving us more of a sense of continuity rather than watching random episodes.

This second series is marked by the departure of Misty (Kasumi), who is replaced by ... May (Haruka) and her younger brother Max (Masato). Like many, I was quite nervous about Misty disappearing from the story’s center. After so many episodes with her, you feel attached to the character. Additionally, there was a hint of romance between Ash and Misty that disappeared with Misty's departure, which I found quite odd. However, introducing May turned out to be an incredible idea and, for me, the best decision of Pokemon Advanced Gen. They also introduced Pokemon Coordinators; now, instead of only following Ash in his Pokemon battles, we also follow May in her Pokemon Coordinator contests, which combine battles and artistic performances!

It’s great because it gives us more variety in the content, and we have less of a feeling that all the episodes are alike (though it is still present). As for Max, I feel like he never really found his place in the series. He adds a few jokes, but even if he wasn’t there, it would have been the same.

One major disappointment was that there was almost NO visual improvement between the first and the second series. For reference, the first series began in 1997, while this second series ended in 2006. Nearly 10 years separate the first episode of Pokemon and the last of Pokemon Advanced, so how can there be so little improvement? They clearly have the means, as the movies remind us (I’ll also note the correct chronological order to watch the movies during this second series):

Movie 6: Between episodes 36 and 37 of Pokemon Advanced Gen
Movie 7: Between episodes 86 and 87 of Pokemon Advanced Gen
Movie 8: Between episodes 134 and 135 of Pokemon Advanced Gen
Movie 9: Between episodes 182 and 183 of Pokemon Advanced Gen
Certainly, we can’t really compare the animation of a movie with that of an episode from such a long series, but still, when you watch one of the movies and then return to the series, it makes you cry blood.

In conclusion, this second series is like the first, but better. The problems remain the same: too many generic episodes give us a constant sense of déjà vu and unclear objectives. The strategic aspect of the trainers intensifies slightly, but I still struggle to find significance in the trainers during battles. In the end, if they weren't there, the Pokemon would probably fight the same way, maybe even better, acting more instinctively, right? Perhaps I have too much of an adult perspective on this point. It’s always good to remember that the Pokemon anime primarily aims to reach a broad audience, so they must appeal to younger viewers. This is, in fact, my main criticism of Pokemon. If they hadn’t targeted this audience, Pokemon might not have the same success it has today. Still, I can't help but think that by targeting this young audience, Pokemon has squandered its universe's potential. The anime limits itself too much—no complex stories or plots, no scenes that are too gory, sad, or moving. It sticks to childlike morals and life lessons, like the importance of friendship, determination, and self-reflection. Everything that allows people to experience strong emotions through a series doesn't exist and never will in Pokemon, leaving us with only one feeling: nostalgia, reminding us how much we enjoyed watching Pokemon through a child's eyes.