Gotta watch em all -- well the old series anyway! (Pokemon)

Member Name: martial_loh

Product:	Pokemon
Date:	21/07/01 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its funny

Disadvantages: New ones are crap

When Pokemon first started I heard about it from all my friends who had Satellite TV. A lot of them were hooked on it! Well me, being a terrestrial TV type of person (i.e poor!) had not seen Pokemon before. I thought it was all hype - just another stupid fad from Japan.
Then it finally aired on ITV. WHACK! This show hit me in my face like a ten tonne weight. Colorful animation quite different to other morning cartoons. Humour that was fresher than all those old scooby doo repeats (not that I dont like Scooby)...
And the most unavoidable thing - a yellow overgrown fat mouse creature name Pikachu.

THe hero of the story is Ash Ketchum. He is a kid who wants to be a Pokemon master. He eventually meets up with Misty, a water-loving girl, who also is a Pokemon trainer. The final addition to the gang is Brock - a rock-pokemon-loving trainer. The first two episodes focus on how Pikachu and Ash meet, and eventually become good friends.
We also meet the main villains of the series Team Rocket. This team consists of Jessie - a mean spirited woman with a haircut sharper than her tongue, James- a dim witted runaway-rich kid with nothing better to do, and Meowth, a cat-type pokemon who ca speak human.
Y'see all other Pokemon can only say their name... so Pikachu can only say "Pikachu" and Squirtle for example can only say "Squirtle"... pretty weird eh?

THe first series is just called Pokemon. The storyline has a specific goal of Ash getting to the grand Pokemon league, collecting gym badges as the entrance keys. However, inbetween each gym encounter, Ash usually has some sort of silly adventure, meeting new people, outsmarting Team Rocket or something like that. Those episodes in my opinion are the ones to watch out for. They are the ones with the most humour and wit. For example, an early episode, "Land of the Giant Pokemon" is one of the timeless classic episodes that featured only the pokemon themselves - Pi
kachu, Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur - they'd all been stranded on some sort of desert island and as they talked, SUBTITLES were used!! For once you could understand what those little critters were talking about!!!!!!

Anyways... the gym episodes are kinda tedious.... its always evident that Ash would get to the championship, so we all know that he'd win all the badges! A small predictablity factor that could have been resolved.....(maybe make him lose more often?)
I wont go into the details of all the stories - you should watch em for yourself! But, I can tell you that Ash does end the series as a champion finally!
THe newer series "Pokemon Johto Journeys" is another matter altogether. Sure you got over 100 new pokemons to show us, but the layout of the show hasnt changed -Team Rocket are still as dumb as ever, Brock is back (he was replaced for a short while for some dumb reason).. and well... watching the episodes make me feel like Im wasting my time.
The new series has not got any developments! No story arcs - just ANOTHER league to win..!! ARGH! I cant sit there and see Ash lose again! Its boring! And now, all the old favourite pokemon arent being used... wheres squirtle? bulbasaur? Pikachus still there.. but hes become more of an attention seeking yellow blob than ever!!!
These new characters are nowhere near a s appealing as the old ones... I'd actually rather watch reruns...!

Animation - cheap, but funny.
Characters - funny, some are a bit forgettable
PLot -predictable, but in a good sorta way.
Music -the japanese dub was better.

At least Brock's crush on Officer Jenny ( a cop) and nurse Joy (a nurse -duh) is still used in the plot, its quite funny. really.
MIsty is an expendable character. She does absolutely nothing now. Before she would insult Ash. Now she hold a stupid egg.. what a waste.

So........watch the old series. THen never watch another pokemon sho
w again! The JOhto Journeys should be axed. You can only milk a series so far....and pokemon ha been sucked drier than a ....sucked dry thing. yeah.

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