Anime & Manga General Discussion

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Meanwhile, in another dimension...

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I just watched the Maylene Arc in DP and holy crap it was amazing. Like, the episodes were just so engaging, paced to absolute perfection, filled with character development, and future set-ups, like Ash's battle with Paul at Lake Acuity. Dawn reflecting on her contest battles and using her loss to help Maylene reignite her passion as a gym leader was absolutely amazing to see, and honestly? I love when they bring in messages like this. Some stuff was a little "in your face" sure, in terms of writing, but the overall message of never giving up on something you truly feel passion for was clear as day in a way that didn't feel forced. I could sympathize with Maylene throughout the entire arc, and Dawn forming a bond with her was lovely as well.

Not to mention, these episodes were really easy to watch and weren't egregious to get through. A lot happened within the span of each episode, sure, but the way it was executed didn't make anything feel too rushed. The first episode was the set-up for pretty much everything, the second was Dawn's battle with Maylene, then it was finished off with the third: Ash's battle with Maylene. Each episode had their own purpose in this overall arc, and you could literally see how Dawn helped Maylene by the end of it.

Sure, it was only three episodes and I am exaggerating to some level, but this arc served its purpose while providing development for a gym leader in a well-rounded and interesting way.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I just watched the Maylene Arc in DP and holy crap it was amazing. Like, the episodes were just so engaging, paced to absolute perfection, filled with character development, and future set-ups, like Ash's battle with Paul at Lake Acuity. Dawn reflecting on her contest battles and using her loss to help Maylene reignite her passion as a gym leader was absolutely amazing to see, and honestly? I love when they bring in messages like this. Some stuff was a little "in your face" sure, in terms of writing, but the overall message of never giving up on something you truly feel passion for was clear as day in a way that didn't feel forced. I could sympathize with Maylene throughout the entire arc, and Dawn forming a bond with her was lovely as well.

Not to mention, these episodes were really easy to watch and weren't egregious to get through. A lot happened within the span of each episode, sure, but the way it was executed didn't make anything feel too rushed. The first episode was the set-up for pretty much everything, the second was Dawn's battle with Maylene, then it was finished off with the third: Ash's battle with Maylene. Each episode had their own purpose in this overall arc, and you could literally see how Dawn helped Maylene by the end of it.

Sure, it was only three episodes and I am exaggerating to some level, but this arc served its purpose while providing development for a gym leader in a well-rounded and interesting way.

I particularly enjoyed Dawn doing something out of her usual field of expertise and having a legitimate Gym battle. The first time one of Ash's friends has done that, not counting those who served as Gym Leaders. I love when a main character tries something outside of their usual goal, like how Ash took on some Contests in Sinnoh.

 

[R1ke]

I wrote a character analysis on Goh on serebii earlier and wanted to share it here as well. Obviously I’m not trying to start a war here so let’s be chill about it. Anyways it’s below if anyone’s interested:

Spoiler

Goh's actually great character and backstory wise, functioning as almost a perfect counterpart to Ash. Whilst Ash is bold, courageous, improvisational and outgoing in nature, Goh's the opposite. He's calculated, solitary, prudent and spends more time learning about rather than bonding with pokemon. Unlike how Ash went out to summer camps, interacted with pokemon and hung out with Gary, Goh spent most of his time in a dark room front of a screen. The one time he actually went to a summer camp, he's really just flexing his knowledge on pokemon (which even his only friend calls him out on) and wanders off on his own, rather than actually spending time with other people there. His parents being workaholics only furthers this - even on family vacations they're so exhausted and nap, leaving Goh by himself yet again. They almost even regret not spending enough time with him growing up (in episode 15). The one time actually he tries to make a new friend, it unintentionally backfires massively on him. His experience with Tokio both reinforces his belief that he should spend most his time himself but also subconsciously motivates him to seek out pokemon partners in compensation for his lack of human ones. So when we meet him, he almost comes across as standoffish, selfish (rejecting Scorbunny at first), cold-hearted (remember his comment towards the Ivysaurs in ep 3), a smartass and purely just interested in pokemon rather than living his life (since he skips school even). In reality, he's just deeply insecure about himself due to his experiences.

There's a lot more to his character than just 'haha monsta ball go brrrrr'. I feel like people don't give him enough credit for what he does right. Part of what makes him so polarising is that he's unique: he's not based off any game characters, his goal is more ambitious than any companion, he started as Ash's only companion this series, isn't tied down to just 1 region and of course owns the most pokemon out of any character we've seen (let alone a main character). He's certainly not whatever braindead labels people have given him.

However, he can be inconsistent and his development has been rocky. He's definitely progresses as a character - he learns to recognise his pokemon's desires (seen with Raboot), confronts demons from the past, opens up to new people, becomes comfortable with releasing his old mons (Floette), care for them (Suicune in particular, but his whole party really) and truly begins to empathise with them (Drizzile, Alolan ninetales even). I just think they didn't take the time to properly flesh him out and streamline the journey. They have the right idea but could've handled incidents like Zapdos, Suicune and Grookey better. Also could've helped to introduce/hint to project mew earlier so he didn't feel that aimless from the start. Sometimes he also feels too similar to Ash and that his flaws appear to be 'ironed out' too soon (which is what make him more interesting in the first place). For example, his battle skills. He does get a lot of second-hand experience analysing Ash's battles/strategies and trains with him occassionally (+ beating team rocket), but he ramps up pretty quickly. Could've spaced that out and have him struggle more.

Another reason why I think Goh gets so much hate is because Ash himself hasn't done much this series (relatively speaking). Because we've seen Goh's journey so much, it's easy to use him as a scapegoat for the whole series' problems. I think if they had a more concrete plan with him and handled Ash's journey properly from the start, people would've been way more forgiving towards him. In the end he's still one of my favourite companions and a pretty interesting character to analyse and discuss. We'll probably not get another character like him, for better or worse.

 

[jbmasta]

I particularly enjoyed Dawn doing something out of her usual field of expertise and having a legitimate Gym battle. The first time one of Ash's friends has done that, not counting those who served as Gym Leaders. I love when a main character tries something outside of their usual goal, like how Ash took on some Contests in Sinnoh.

Both Ash and Brock dabbled in contests in Kanto, Brock for a girl of course and Ash entered along with May in the Terracotta contest to close out the Battle Frontier saga (where Sceptile and newly evolved Blaziken tied in the finals and Ash and May split the ribbon). The PokeRingers in Hoenn and Sinnoh were great because it was a different kind of challenge for Ash and both times his bird pokemon evolved. Sinnoh's PokeRinger is also where he got his first victory over Paul, Staraptor vs Honchkrow.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Both Ash and Brock dabbled in contests in Kanto, Brock for a girl of course and Ash entered along with May in the Terracotta contest to close out the Battle Frontier saga (where Sceptile and newly evolved Blaziken tied in the finals and Ash and May split the ribbon). The PokeRingers in Hoenn and Sinnoh were great because it was a different kind of challenge for Ash and both times his bird pokemon evolved. Sinnoh's PokeRinger is also where he got his first victory over Paul, Staraptor vs Honchkrow.

Yup. I know all those cases. The Kanto Contest Ash took part in was unofficial, though.

 

[Alola]

I think the only time the voice dubbing was bad was when they initially switched them over in Battle Frontier. They haven't found their footing yet for the characters, though over time, they got better.

It's hard for me to watch a lot of BF episodes because of this - they sounded horrible, my goodness. I will never forget the change, as a kid; one Saturday morning, over a bowl of Frosted Flakes, I woke to Ash...not sounding like Ash. And the rest of them, for that matter; I was happy at least the Pokémon largely sounded the same. Thankfully, they did a 180 by the time DP started; I think DP has the best VA work following the infamous change, including its successors (although I do really like Koharu's English VA).

 

[RetroPokeFan]

It's hard for me to watch a lot of BF episodes because of this - they sounded horrible, my goodness. I will never forget the change, as a kid; one Saturday morning, over a bowl of Frosted Flakes, I woke to Ash...not sounding like Ash. And the rest of them, for that matter; I was happy at least the Pokémon largely sounded the same. Thankfully, they did a 180 by the time DP started; I think DP has the best VA work following the infamous change, including its successors (although I do really like Koharu's English VA).

It's honestly kind of rough to go back to the TAJ/TPCI era episodes in general and yes that also includes some of the first Diamond and Pearl season since it's really clear that most of the actors are trying to get into the roles (funnily enough, I do think Bill Rogers's Brock sounds the most close to Eric Stuart's in BF) and on top of that there's a lot of COTD's that just really sound terrible compared to the later seasons.

I don't think the dub truly got it's proper mojo back until DuArt took over since even the 4Kids dub started to decline towards the end (though there still are some good voices here and there).

Like compare how Dawn sounds in the TAJ episodes, and then listen to her in the DuArt episodes. The difference is night and day.

 

[Poke Trey]

Especially now these days where we have both NY and LA actors, Iyuno-SDI Group taking over production and are with Netflix... they really can never go back to that and honestly it's for the best.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I wasn't entirely too sure how I felt about Ash's team in AG until I started watching more episodes from that series most recently, and honestly? I like them. A lot. Like, something I always loved about early pokemon that stood out more than other series is how the pokemon were genuinely treated as other members of the cast and had interactions with other humans as well as pokemon outside of their trainers. Just off the top of my head, I can briefly recall Charmander freaking out over Brock yelling at him for accidentally lighting him on fire and May's initial dislike of Ash's Corphish before she slowly comes around. So far in the episodes I'm watching...I've seen the team more than eight times already. I was genuinely shocked when I found out that Treecko and Taillow both helped with Pikachu's training for Iron Tail. Like, hell, why don't people bring this up?!

Or maybe this mini-rant is coming from the fact that I found what I think has to be at least one of the best team shots in the entire series:

 

[Daren]

I adored the Hoenn team in general. I thought it had a very nice dynamic.
Except Snorunt. He came in waaay too late and felt sort of forced in.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Snorunt's late addition and minimal contribution to the Hoenn team's dynamic is clearly a reference to how Ice-types usually come in fairly late in the games to the point that they're often not worth it and will at best only have minimal contribution

In all seriousness, though, the saddest thing about Snorunt/Glalie is that it could have been easily given more solid development and team interactions had it been allowed to stick around for the Battle Frontier arc, but for some reason the writers decided it (alongside Torkoal, who had by far the worst track record in the Hoenn team and could have also used the extra spotlight to redeem itself) should just be Oak'd...

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

What they SHOULD'VE done with Snorunt is NOT evolve it into a Glalie.

Ash should've took Snorunt to Sinnoh instead of Aipom and evolved it into Froslass (It's Gender was never confirmed so it could've worked)
And then traded it to Dawn for Buizel

I also doubt Froslass would've been interested in Ping-pong

 

[Enzo]

I wasn't entirely too sure how I felt about Ash's team in AG until I started watching more episodes from that series most recently, and honestly? I like them. A lot. Like, something I always loved about early pokemon that stood out more than other series is how the pokemon were genuinely treated as other members of the cast and had interactions with other humans as well as pokemon outside of their trainers. Just off the top of my head, I can briefly recall Charmander freaking out over Brock yelling at him for accidentally lighting him on fire and May's initial dislike of Ash's Corphish before she slowly comes around. So far in the episodes I'm watching...I've seen the team more than eight times already. I was genuinely shocked when I found out that Treecko and Taillow both helped with Pikachu's training for Iron Tail. Like, hell, why don't people bring this up?!

Or maybe this mini-rant is coming from the fact that I found what I think has to be at least one of the best team shots in the entire series:

Spoiler

View attachment 149067

Man, I miss training scenes like this.

What they SHOULD'VE done with Snorunt is NOT evolve it into a Glalie.

Ash should've took Snorunt to Sinnoh instead of Aipom and evolved it into Froslass (It's Gender was never confirmed so it could've worked)
And then traded it to Dawn for Buizel

I also doubt Froslass would've been interested in Ping-pong

YES. Froslass is one of all time favs and I'm so mad Ash didn't got one. No offense to Aipom, but Snorunt should've been taken to Sinnoh instead.

 

[nickdt]

What they SHOULD'VE done with Snorunt is NOT evolve it into a Glalie.

Ash should've took Snorunt to Sinnoh instead of Aipom and evolved it into Froslass (It's Gender was never confirmed so it could've worked)
And then traded it to Dawn for Buizel

I also doubt Froslass would've been interested in Ping-pong

How dare you take my favorite mon away from Ash.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

How dare you take my favorite mon away from Ash.

Froslass is your favorite Pokemon?

 

[nickdt]

Froslass is your favorite Pokemon?

Glalie is my favorite mon. You want to take my precious baby away from Ash. How dare you.

 

[Unireon]

I like both evolutions, but I would have gone with Yukimenoko.

At the end, her Ghost-type decided; at least for me.

Edit: Since Satoshi didn't have any at that point....
But she would have evolved during the Battle Frontier, next generation advertisement.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

I wasn't entirely too sure how I felt about Ash's team in AG until I started watching more episodes from that series most recently, and honestly? I like them. A lot. Like, something I always loved about early pokemon that stood out more than other series is how the pokemon were genuinely treated as other members of the cast and had interactions with other humans as well as pokemon outside of their trainers. Just off the top of my head, I can briefly recall Charmander freaking out over Brock yelling at him for accidentally lighting him on fire and May's initial dislike of Ash's Corphish before she slowly comes around. So far in the episodes I'm watching...I've seen the team more than eight times already. I was genuinely shocked when I found out that Treecko and Taillow both helped with Pikachu's training for Iron Tail. Like, hell, why don't people bring this up?!

Or maybe this mini-rant is coming from the fact that I found what I think has to be at least one of the best team shots in the entire series:
View attachment 149067

Absolutely. I’m watching that arc right now and one of the best episodes was AG026 when the trainers and Pokemon get separated. Aside from Silcoon being just... there, we get to see all sorts of personalities and interactions which I absolutely love: Pikachu and Mudkip being the leaders and taking a diplomatic approach, Treecko and Corphish arguing but becoming friends by the end, Torchic being a scaredy-cat, and Lotad being a derp. I love episodes like that.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Absolutely. I’m watching that arc right now and one of the best episodes was AG026 when the trainers and Pokemon get separated.

Eek! I love that episode a lot! The best part had to have been the writing, though. Despite the pokemon taking up eighty percent of the run-time, I was perfectly able to understand what was going on without a narrator having to explain it or for me to overly think hard about it. I could even guess what some of the pokemon were saying, just by the context. Hell, even Team Rocket gets in on the fun when they say their motto to a bunch of pokemon then get embarrassed by it. The pokemon were treated no differently from the humans in this episode, and that's what I loved about it.