Pokemon

Pokémon are peculiar creatures with a vast array of different abilities and appearances; many people, known as Pokémon trainers, capture and train them, often with the intent of battling others. Young Satoshi has not only dreamed of becoming a Pokémon trainer but also a "Pokémon Master," and on the arrival of his 10th birthday, he finally has a chance to make that dream a reality. Unfortunately for him, all three Pokémon available to beginning trainers have already been claimed and only Pikachu, a rebellious Electric-type Pokémon, remains. However, this chance encounter would mark the start of a lifelong friendship and an epic adventure!

Setting off on a journey to become the very best, Satoshi and Pikachu travel across beautiful, sprawling regions with their friends Kasumi, a Water-type trainer, and Takeshi, a Rock-type trainer. But danger lurks around every corner. The infamous Team Rocket is always nearby, seeking to steal powerful Pokémon through nefarious schemes. It'll be up to Satoshi and his friends to thwart their efforts as he also strives to earn the eight Pokémon Gym Badges he'll need to challenge the Pokémon League, and eventually claim the title of Pokémon Master.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satoshi Main

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Pikachu Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Takeshi Main

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Kasumi Main

Iizuka, Mayumi Japanese

Togepi Main

Koorogi, Satomi Japanese

Kenji Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Kojirou Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Mewtwo Supporting

Musashi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Nyarth Supporting

Inuyama, Inuko Japanese

Haigney, Michael Producer, Script, ADR Director

Mori, Takemoto Producer

Yuyama, Kunihiko Director, Storyboard

Hidaka, Masamitsu Director

Reviews

Apr 14, 2024

AverageRiceFan

Recommended

Alright so when I tell you I was obsessed with Pokemon as a kid, I’m not kidding. I discovered the Pokemon anime when I was eight and it became my personality for the next year or so. I watched every single episode of the anime that was out at the time, though I kinda stopped at sun and moon, I didn’t grow up with a game boy so I only got to play the ds games with diamond and pearl still being one of my favorite games of all time, I used to to torture everyone I knew with my Pokemon knowledge. The anime was ... my favorite show for a while and since I finally got a gba sp recently and how I almost beat fire red, I thought I could revisit the anime with my mom bevause she also loves Pokemon. She’s never seen the anime but has played the games and plays Pokemon go anything we go somewhere. But is Pokemon good? Well…

Despite me giving it a 7/10, I honestly think it’s a great show (the first season that is, everything else I didn’t care for)

Yeah, Pokemon has problems. The animation is mediocre and reuses animation a lot (which I guess is the case for a lot of retro anime, but it is really noticeable in Pokemon), the characters are ok and can get pretty annoying, it’s repetitive and even though I don’t mind when shows are repetitive but in Pokemon, while the episodes are enjoyable, aren’t really interesting and are only really good when you want to watch the show out of boredom.
Despite that, it has a lot of pros
The characters are incredibly memorable and team rocket is easily the best and while I don’t think ash is a great character, his entire existence gives me so much nostalgia to when I would watch the show and think ash was the coolest thing ever. The soundtrack is great and I get the music stuck in my head a lot, and the Japanese version of the first opening goes hard and my god, anytime I hear the English opening, I basically die of nostalgia. Some episodes and arcs are great and my favorite episode is definitely the one where ash leaves pikachu, it did make my eyes feel watery, but I cry at everything so I don’t know if it’s a problem with me.


Is Pokemon a great masterpiece? No. But is it a good show that I hope kids love as time goes on? Yes. I rewatch Pokemon anytime I want to relive the days of when I wasn’t stressed out about anything and it’s one of the few shows I watched as a kid that really impacted my life. I do honestly recommend Pokemon if you haven’t seen it so you can get a taste of what true nostalgia is like. Not an amazing show, but a good one and it will always have a special place in my heart

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 26, 2024

CaptainSalty

Mixed Feelings

I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Pokémon series. It's by far the best one (up to at least X & Y), and I still could go back and watch this one, unlike the other series. That being said, I could not recommend this to anyone who is already familiar with anime or didn't grow up on this. For people who did or are under the age of 12, this is of course a recommendable watch as Pokémon does the bare minimum to be a good children's show in its themes of friends and family while being written well enough to give it ... your attention. The characters and plot are also nothing incredible, as the characters have about one flaw and the rest is perfect. The jokes revolve usually around these flaws but the writing still has its moments of comedy through its witty dialogue. It can be an enjoyable watch, but the average viewer may find it too repetitive to be fitting of their time. Pokémon is nothing incredible, but still enjoyable and fun. Very charming with witty humor and great gags from its cast of characters that bounce off each other enough to leave you entertained and with a smile on your face, nothing less and nothing more.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 2, 2024

Nezzuji

Not Recommended

We've all seen an episode of Pokémon when we were kids, or at least heard about the adventures of Ash and his Pikachu. That's why it hurts to give such a rating to this anime, but in all objectivity, it doesn't deserve more.

Since this review is in English, I'll use the English names of the series, as depending on where you grew up, you may not have known the characters or Pokémon by the same name. For example, in Japan, the heroes are called Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kasumi, while in France, my home country, they are named Sacha, Pierre, and Ondine. However, I will use ... the English names, namely Ash, Brock, and Misty!

Firstly, let's establish some basics. Pokémon is an anime aimed at a fairly young audience. Moreover, the anime was released during a complicated period in terms of censorship, especially in Europe, which restricts many things. Furthermore, the anime is intended to be a generic one, a TV show that children can watch out of order without feeling lost in a story. These are logical considerations given all these factors, but unfortunately, they diminish the experience of the work because the anime minimizes the connections between episodes. For someone wanting to watch all the episodes in order like me, it quickly becomes tiresome because there is no overarching storyline. The episodes generally follow the same format: Ash must win badges to qualify for a championship, so he has to face different gym leaders to earn their respective badges. The anime operates almost exclusively in this manner across its 276 episodes:

Ash arrives at a gym to face the gym leader and win a badge.
He wins the badge.
He continues the journey towards the next gym.
During the journey to the next gym, we get many generic episodes where Ash and his friends encounter a person or Pokémon with a problem, usually involving an intervention by Team Rocket, until they reach the next gym. This pattern repeats for 276 EPISODES!

It's a shame because Pokémon had a lot of potential to create fabulous stories, as evidenced by the movies! During the 276 episodes, five films were released, and you can see them in this chronology:

Movie 1: Between episodes 69 and 70
Movie 2: Between episodes 107 and 108
Movie 3: Between episodes 157 and 158
Movie 4: Between episodes 207 and 208
Movie 5: Between episodes 256 and 257
The movies contain what should have been in the series for it to be a masterpiece – incredible stories based on legendary Pokémon. Even if these Pokémon were not legendary, I would have loved to see stories spanning multiple episodes, as deep as those in the movies. The content of the movies across multiple episodes would have been incredible, and they could have explored certain points they didn't have time for in the films!

Pokémon doesn't delve into any theme, all due to its generic episode system. For example, in the early episodes, we are introduced to the Pokémon Eevee, being told it has only three evolutions: Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon (1st generation). However, several hundred episodes later, we discover that Umbreon and Espeon (2nd generation) also exist, but no explanation is given. They are introduced as if nothing happened, and it's a shame. I expected to learn more, to understand why they hadn't been discovered until now, especially when it's as simple as exposing them to moon/sun radiation, and they evolve if they are ready.

I would also like to mention the uselessness of the trainers in the work. They are there because without them, the anime couldn't exist, but they almost exclusively state the attacks for their Pokémon, even though logically, a Pokémon knows its attacks and doesn't need its trainer to tell it. It would act more quickly following its instinct. Despite this, the trainer can have an impact, such as asking their water-type Pokémon falling to use its Water Gun attack on the ground to slow its fall. This is an example that proves trainers can have strategic ideas that a Pokémon wouldn't normally have. However, the anime almost never uses this aspect and mostly just has trainers say the names of the attacks. I also find the training aspect nearly nonexistent. I would have liked to see several episodes focused on the training of a particular Pokémon, how they go about it, and new skills appearing during their training. But no, evolutions almost always occur during battles against other Pokémon, and we have almost no training moments outside of combat.

Since the episodes are generic, they also have at least one appearance of the "villains" of the series, Team Rocket. I must say that I was worried at the beginning of the series, seeing how many episodes there were. I was afraid their attempts to capture Pikachu would all end up looking the same, but their interventions renew themselves well, even if some episodes are similar. Their interventions never bothered me!

I also appreciated the humor around Jigglypuff! The musicality is not bad at all, even if the openings were translated according to your listening language!

In summary, the Pokémon series had tremendous potential, an exceptional universe easily exploitable, but conditions forced it to become what we know now. If the series were to be released today as a seasonal anime, using the same type of content as in its movies but targeting a slightly older audience, this anime could be a true masterpiece. Unfortunately, this is very unlikely to happen.

(Togepi is the cutest Pokémon of all, I don't want to hear otherwise!)

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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