How does the Pokemon anime compare to other animated shows?

[Paulisthebest]

Basically, how would you rank Pokemon when compared to other shows from your childhood (depending on what age group you fall into)?

For me I actually put it behind Digimon believe it or not (not any particular series just in general) because each season (except 1 and 2) are "revamps" but I think it is done right;

New characters
New creatures
New plots
Interesting villains

And I could go on! DBZ is #1 for me.

Now overall, if Pokemon would adapt more interesting concepts instead of the same old thing every region; a villain team introduced later in the series than they should be, same concept of Ash getting too little or too many Pokemon, and so on then I would be more hooked on the show like I used to be back in the old days.

What do you think?

 

[Almonds]

Comparing it to One Piece

We need sone progress or aging in Pokemon lol

 

[Paulisthebest]

Comparing it to One Piece

We need sone progress or aging in Pokemon lol

Exactly! See with Pokemon I feel like the series is running on a hamster wheel because we really don't see much progressing in terms of character development and whatnot. Sure we see Ash change through a region getting wiser, mature, understanding new techniques, etc. But after a league we are back to that first spin around the wheel and each series follows that formula.

To me DP Ash got the most I guess you could say "wisdom" I think that care from getting more from the gym leaders and E4 along with Cynthia each giving Ash a piece of advice that made him go further in the Sinnoh League than any other but with BW that seems to have been all but erased.

Now Digimon Season 2 for example; I loved it because we see the Season 1 team older and passing the torch if you will to the newer Digidestined giving advice and even setting into action when the occasion occurred.

 

[Almonds]

@Paulisthebest; Right XDD Ash is stuck in an endless loop. In One-Piece, Luffy does sometimes get beaten up by the opponents, but note how the opponents get powerful and higher in ranks as the story progresses. Luffy even went through a two-year training, and we see how different he is from One-Piece Day 1 to the present Luffy.

Ash, on the other hand...not only does he stay ten, but he friggin loses to a n00b trainer with a level 5 Snivy when he just got back from the Sinnoh League Top 4. Zekrom? That is no excuse.

That and we have Cameron, the ultimate noob who doesn't care about type advantages and throws two of his pokemons away. Ash loses to Cameron.

So much for an adventure anime.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Yugioh Zexal is possibly one of the most reviled merchandising anime ever made judging by the general consensus of the internet.

It is light years ahead of Decorola IMO.

If we only compare it from Childhood then I guess DM, Naruto, One piece, DBZ, and CN cartoons in general were better, and pretty much everything in toonami and boomerang back then not listed above were worse.

 

[Paulisthebest]

True, its hard to compare the Pokemon we have today vs. the original series. I think that was where this thread was headed when I wrote it; comparing the Pokemon today and how far its come from Episode 1 compared to the anime shows we had in the past.

Seriously, if I just said; BW Series vs. Other anime then its probably a no contest...

The "adventure" aspect of Pokemon seems dead to me after this series. To me its like Pokemon Black and White is doing to Pokemon series what Power Rangers Turbo did for the PR series; Turbo almost ruined the franchise completely but luckily In Space saved the show. Sadly, its hard to say if XY will do the same...

In some aspects its ok to make that comparison but really I don't think in Pokemon's case its as serious as Power Rangers was. I mean Pokemon (this series) doesn't seem to care about the anime since there is so much more merchandise like video games, cards, toys, etc. The show is just an advertising scheme by promoting new Pokemon like Power Rangers does with Zords, action figures and whatnot.

It is sad to see the show come to this, it might seem like its always been this way. But the story just sucks so bad...

Going back watching Justice League and other superhero cartoons you can see how well the story line written just recently we had the amazing Young Justice and a couple of years ago Spectacular Spiderman! But ending with cliffhangers that left fans wanting more.

Can the same be said of Pokemon if it just up and ended out of the blue?

Doubtful because a lot of fans pretty much agree that the series should have ended a long time ago. They are just dragging it out way to far. YJ and SSM lasted 2 seasons (but due to their respective stations they ended due to promoting new series that sucked in comparison; Ultimate Spiderman and Teen Titans Go!) and left fans wanting more!

I don't think Pokemon is doing that because they held off way too long on stuff like not telling how to be a Pokemon Master, Ash clearly not coming close to catching ALL the Pokemon and the list goes on.

I don't think many people would even CARE if the show ended. Our voices for certain things doesn't seem to be heard and most fans grew tired of the same old thing happening with Ash not aging and whatnot.

 

[garrison-san]

Note: I think this thread does have potential for some interesting discussion, but based on the current posts I also see it shaping up to be yet another thread dedicated solely to listing one's general grievences with the Pokemon anime. Keep in mind that we're pretty well-stocked on those already - we really don't need another one.

Now Digimon Season 2 for example; I loved it because we see the Season 1 team older and passing the torch if you will to the newer Digidestined giving advice and even setting into action when the occasion occurred.

Digimon Adventure 02 was pretty poor in my opinon. It's also the Digimon saga I'd use as my chief exhibit whenever people complain about Pokemon relying upon the same repetitive, monotonous storylines and Digimon being inherently superior in that regard. It took that saga an age to really get going, since pretty much every episode in the first half relied upon the same basic formula of the Digidestined going to the Digital World, finding some digimon who'd been enslaved by Ken, destroying his Control Spires and setting them free. Things did start to get a bit more interesting once that arc was finally over, but then they tried to do too much, too late, and the last couple of episodes wound up falling incredibly flat (even the most rabid Digimon fanboys I've encountered usually have no problems admitting that they were disappointed with it). Not to mention, the English language dub made the Pokemon dub look like Dostoyevsky.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Digimon Adventure 02 was pretty poor in my opinon. It's also the Digimon saga I'd use as my chief exhibit whenever people complain about Pokemon relying upon the same repetitive, monotonous storylines and Digimon being inherently superior in that regard. It took that saga an age to really get going, since pretty much every episode in the first half relied upon the same basic formula of the Digidestined going to the Digital World, finding some digimon who'd been enslaved by Ken, destroying his Control Spires and setting them free. Things did start to get a bit more interesting once that arc was finally over, but then they tried to do too much, too late, and the last couple of episodes wound up falling incredibly flat (even the most rabid Digimon fanboys I've encountered usually have no problems admitting that they were disappointed with it). Not to mention, the English language dub made the Pokemon dub look like Dostoyevsky.

Despite its flaws, I actually liked Adventure 02, although it did get more interesting after the Digimon Emperor arc for me as well. That is one of the series I think about when people say that Digimon is superior to Pokemon too. With some series, like Tamers and Adventure 01, I think that they are stronger series with better structure and character development, but then there's also Young Hunters, an arc so terrible that I still prefer to see it as a separate series, if only because it barely connected to the main plot from the first two arcs of Xros Wars. Even with the problems in BW, I'd take it over Young Hunters. At least the pacing isn't nearly as bad as it was in that series and BW hasn't come off like a waste of time like Young Hunters did. Not everything in Digimon is better than Pokemon in my opinion. Xros Wars itself was pretty solid for the most part though.

Yugioh Zexal is possibly one of the most reviled merchandising anime ever made judging by the general consensus of the internet.

It is light years ahead of Decorola IMO.

I can't compare it with Decorola, but speaking as a Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, I'd prefer Pokemon BW over Zexal. I can still at least like Ash, despite how he's been handled in this series, while Yuma still annoys me. Not to mention most of the main cast is pretty dull in that series, but the storyline is at least getting more interesting in Zexal.

 

[Winterdaze]

I was raised on a diet of high energy wise-cracking, pop-culture referencing WB cartoons and the like, so Pokemon's simple charm and emphasis on adventure and experiencing the world seemed pretty novel to me at the time. I never really got into anime until I was much older, so I can't really say how it measured up to it's children's anime contemporaries back then.

Nowadays, it's cute fluff that I watch to relax. It's still the only anime series aimed at that kind of age group that I've actually watched, most of my favourite anime series are one/two season seinen shows which are kind of hard to compare to an ongoing kid's anime. That child/family demographic is what's kept me watching the show to be honest. People rag on about the anime's child friendliness, but I'd take that over aggressively shounen melodrama any day.

 

[Jukain]

Comparing pokemon to what I grew up with is difficult to say the least. Both have diminished significantly from how I used to see them, although with Pokemon, it was the show itself that got rotten and not that I grew out of it per se. (or maybe I did grow out of it, I'm not sure) I had watched Looney Tunes for a long time, but it got to the point where I no longer found it funny, and I understood it was time to go. That was ages ago. I mostly remember the shows that most remember Disney made from the late 80s to the mid 90s. Compared to what Pokemon does now, this junk is like a masterpiece. They might be random, but they still make for interesting stories in themselves. There are a few things the anime did in past sagas that could match it, though. This is not exactly the measure of quality to me, though, since I wouldn't rewatch most of these given the chance. Whenever I think of Tiny Toons, I realize how childish it really was and it kinda irritates me. Animaniacs, while I will still put it as the best animated show of the time, again, while it is really clever, I would not watch it again. (it's also at least a little bit childish, but it makes up for it) These shows would rate at just about the worst the anime has done to being a little bit more withstandable, perhaps some of the better eps of Johto and Hoenn. (though animaniacs can range all the way to being superior to Pokemon in terms of humor) You have a good point on Digimon. I will generally say that it is superior to Pokemon, but 02 did have a lot of flaws that would bring it down to the same levels as Kanto does. It does still have better character growth and they can touch on things that Pokemon would never do. (I also think the first arc of 02 is the best part and not the later ones, since the later ones seem to meander with little purpose and generally, 02 seems to make up junk as it goes along, but I do realize that in general, 02 is just bland) I also used to like Xiaolin Showdown and Jackie Chan Adventures, both of which have a repetitive premise, but I was more entertained by them. Again, Xiaolin has good character progression. Jackie has character progression for at least a few characters, and the others pretty much don't need it. Their main flaw was that it got too repetitive and it was good they ended when they did because it was getting tired. (I have heard there is an effort being made to make another season of Xiaolin, but I don't know if it's going to be worth it) For everything else, I do not feel it's fair to compare series that are designed to be more serious and have a cohesive plot to this. Of course it's going to be superior in that sense, because Pokemon wasn't exactly designed to be that way. I do realize that Digimon is sort of made like this, but it's still more tame than I know anime can go on that. All in all, Pokemon is not amongst my top shows, although it is perhaps the one I've been with the longest. It would perhaps average somewhere in the middle, but as you see, different parts rank in different places. From junk I absolutely can't stand or is even worth looking at. (DA and Kanto) To being pretty decent. (BF and DP) I suppose in that aspect, I would rate that as being about a 7 in the grand scheme of things. At the bare minimum of what I find to be good.

 

[garrison-san]

Comparing Animaniacs to Pokemon is comparing apples to oranges, imo. I'm a fan of both, but the two shows hold completely different appeal to me. As much as I love the sharply-written pop culture references and the loving tributes to the cartoons of yesteryear in Animaniacs, such things would be very out of place in Pokemon.

 

[Jukain]

Well, you have a point there, although there are sagas of the anime that would vaguely be removed from being a sketch comedy. I will for the most part say it is an unfair assessment, though, since they are different genres. It's hard to say what I consider Pokemon to be, though, since it straddles the line of comedy and shounen. Then again, I guess the old Disney shows would be the best equivalent we have for that, since they could be both funny and have a cohesive plot as well. I'm probably ignoring a lot of other shows I used to know, but this is just what I most remember.

 

[Dogasu]

No offense, but a lot of these comparisons are completely ridiculous. American shows like Teen Titans and Justice League, for example, only ever put out 13-26 episodes in a year while Pocket Monsters has been putting out 52-ish episodes a year for a decade and a half. And shows like One Piece and Dragon Ball Z are based on a pre-existing story while Pocket Monsters is based on a series of video games that values gameplay over "plot" and "characters."

Pocket Monsters isn't trying to do the same things that Teen Titans or Justice League or One Piece or Dragon Ball Z did and saying that it's not as "good" as these series because of that is completely unfair.

 

[CrystaI]

Many people compare Pokemon to Digimon, but I personally think that is not a good comparison, because their fictional ideas are different, their way of promoting the series is different, even the target audience is different. People always compare Pokemon to Digimon just because (I think personally) their title both consist the "mon".

If giving to me, I will rather compare Pokemon with Doraemon, because the current Pokemon franchise had made itself very similiar to Doraemon, where I do not meant on the fictional series itself, but on the scope of the franchise, and their influence given to the Japanese culture.

First of all, just let me give backgrounds of the Doraemon series before one went to discuss further. Doraemon was originally started as a manga series targeted towards primary school children lower than Form 3. Creator's named Fujiko F. Fujio (real name Fujimoto Hiroshi). Doraemon started its first manga volume at 1969, continued up to vol.45 on 1996 until Fujiko F. Fujio passed away in that year. In the middle 30 years, Doraemon was such a boost within its target audience, it was made into anime immediately in the next publishing year. It was so popular that Fujiko was persuaded by the manga publisher to draw more, despite that Fujiko was planned to end the manga originally on vol.17.
Doraemon is basically a preteen sci-fi fiction, portraying the daily life of Nobita, an incompetent Form-4 (age not specified) boy that is technically a useless dimwit in the eyes of many adults. The most fascinating things about Doraemon is the "tools", or the "widget" from Doraemon's pocket, that can do anything beyond one's imagination. The series also features many movies, which the movies takes the form of adventure story where Doraemon, Nobita and his friend traveled to somewhere faraway, facing the challenges and solving the problems by making use of Doraemon's widgets.
After such 30 years of flourish, Doraemon was considered as the "classic" of preteen Japanese fictions. Its impact to the Japanese culture is very great, that not only its related merchandises are like everywhere, you can also see its characters painted even on trains, buses, or airplanes. Doraemon characters features a lot in preteen educational textbooks, where it is so popular that even some Japan universities uses the themes of Doraemon series in their lectures. Doraemon is now treated as a kind of "general knowledge" in Japan, where it is something that nobody don't known.


Now, lets look at the Pokemon series. Pokemon was first started as a RPG game in the Gameboy in 1996, CERO rating A, so anyone of any age can play it (Note: game rating is different from anime rating, so it doesn't mean it is targeted specifically at primary school preteens). The original creator of Pokemon was Tajiri Satoshi, the founder of Game Freak.
The first game immediately grew its popularity, specifically amongst the primary school preteens. The next year after publication of Pokemon RGB, it started to air its first anime series, and 16 years after its first episode, it still continues to air in nowadays.
The main game series of Pokemon is a RPG adventure game set in a foreign world where Pokemon lives. The player is a pokemon trainer that is going to travel through the region and challenge the Pokemon League. Story differs for each series, but basically it is the generic adventure story, where player is given a whatever reason to travel, player then meet an evil organization along his/her way, he/she is to stop the villains along the way and also accomplish his/her goal along the way. The game story is to portray the emotional bond between Pokemon and human through catching, training and battles.
The anime series that is based on the games (rather said, the very first game of Pokemon), is an adventure story about a 10 year-old boy named Satoshi/Ash dreaming to become a Pokemon Master. The anime portrays the growth of the protagonist through the challenges encountered on his journey, and the various meeting/leaving with friends, rivals, supporters and Pokemons.
Very similar to Doraemon, Pokemon anime also features many movies where protagonist Ash and his friend travel to somewhere faraway, facing a severe challenge incomparable to normal ordinary Pokemon battle, and his is there to solve the problem using his skill, knowledges and guts.
Pokemon as a fictional series is much younger than Doraemon (prior aired for 16 years, latter aired for 30 years), but popularity is comparable. Pokemon also made a very great cultural impact to the whole Japan, not only merchandises are everywhere, paintings made on trains, buses, airplanes, but also Pokemon themed buildings were built, such as the well-known Pokemon Centers, Pokemon The Park, etc. Pokemon themed festival hold in Japan every year during the summer recess. Though, unlike Doraemon, Pokemon is not immersed up to the educational sections in Japan (one of the reason probably due to Poke-universe is not our universe).


Now, how does Pokemon compare to Doraemon? Well firstly Doraemon started as a manga, where manga published on the name of the mangaka, and manga will just stop to publish when the mangaka stop to draw. The original mangaka can also authorize someone else, a single person or a studio to continue the work after his retirement or death, but it must be indicated clearly on the published manga. So people will known immediately, although the manga is using the same name, but it is no more draw by the same person. Usually reader may notice a style change.
Pokemon first started as a game, where game is made in a game company of many people. Graphic department, music and sound department, story department, marketing department, and many other departments are also involved. So making one game will not be credit of one single person, but credit of that game company. Usually the game style will not change much by one or two personnel retired or passed. Through it will change a lot if the game development is cooperate with another game company. So the spin-off games that were mostly made with other gaming companies, has game systems and story plot differ very such from the main series.

Next, manga rating is different from game rating. There are many animes in Japan that was originally a manga, or originally a game. Generally speaking, anime and manga had no "official" rating like the game, and anime rating normally parallel to manga rating. Therefore if manga is grouped as Shounen manga, then its anime will also intended to target at Shounen (teenage boys). If manga is grouped as Kodomo manga, then its anime will then targeted generally at Kodomo (preteens).
But for game rating, it is not gender-specific, mental-age-specific nor theme-specific. It is merely content-specific. The CERO-A (game for all ages) rating simply means "Game that has no violence, love/romance, sexual contents, horror, crime, gamble, drugs/alcohol, and any uses of swearing and/or foul languages". The friendly game of Pokemon can get a CERO-A rating, an RPG with excessive battle like Final Fantasy XII and Valkyrie Profile Silmeria can also get a CERO-A rating, some of the war-themed tactic game Super Robot Taisen can also have a CERO-A rating, the most darkest themed Rockman/Megaman Zero series amongst the games of the same title also have a CERO-A rating. If these games are to made into animes, do you think their animes is just like what their rating for the game, suitable for "all ages", even the primary school preteens?
Therefore, I always thought personally there was a fictional theme contradiction for Pokemon made into a preteen anime. But that is another topic.

Then next, Doraemon is a daily-life anime with each episode separate from one another with no continuity. Each episode has nothing to do with one another, and they will not related to each other either. So one can just bump into any episode if just want for a quick entertainment. One can go watch the first 10 episode for the first time, but than jump immediately to somewhere like ep.500 is also not a problem. Then now go back to watch ep.100 will also not giving any recognition problem for you to understand the Doraemon series. Even the anime publisher has the freedom to shuffle the episodes at their will.
Pokemon anime is an adventure story with continuity, so obviously there must be a sequences of events and/or cause and effect for everything, very much like Dragonball. Ash is journeying to compete the Pokemon League, so he must go collect 8 regional badges. He won't be at the League if he haven't collect all the badges, so skipping the gym battle episodes will makes you wonder how he got his badges. Because the episode where Ash catches his 30 Tauros was banned, we all wondered how he got so many Tauros from the first place. And also the already evolved Pokemon will not de-evolve in the next episode. So episodes must not be shuffle, and we must watch the series in the correct sequence in order to understand what happen to Ash.

Because Doraemon has no continuity, characters will always remain constant. Although Doraemon runs for a very long time, Fujiko still made his best on the constant characterization, so character will not be Out-of-Character at some point. Doraemon is always a cat-like robot taking care of Nobits, with strict personality and afraid of mouse to death; Nobita is always a incompetence boy in school performance, always causing trouble by using Doraemon's widget in "weird" ways.
On the opposite, because Pokemon anime has continuity, character will grow, and will not revert backward, unless the character experience severe amnesia that even forget his own name. Dragonball also air its anime for long, but Goku grow from a child to adult. Though Goku revert back to a child in the GT series, his power is not very much downgraded. Oppositely, he even succeed in upgrading himself to Saiyan 4. Ash of the Pokemon anime, started off as an amateur that is simple-headed and got upset quite easily, but had quite a high sense of justice that dislike evil schemes. Later up to the AG and DP series, he is more mentally maturer, where he don't get upset that much easily, and will listen to other as well. He experiencing a very good growth along the way, but unfortunately all was destroyed up to the BW series. The BW Ash is still 10 years-old, all the things he had learned previously was all meant for nothing. Such Ash without growing in an anime with continuity, is completely Out-of-Character.

Then finally, not comparing Pokemon to Doraemon, but to many animes that were originated from games. Usually such anime will end at the point where the game ends. There maybe a continue if a new game of the same title set in the same universe and the same timeline is made, so simply a sequel game. But the new sequel anime will also end that the point where the sequel game ends.
Pokemon game of each generation is very obviously not related to the game of previous generation. So they are no "sequel" of the previous game.
But Pokemon anime, had break that rule, where Ash continue on his journey despite the "generation gap". Even Pokemon games of the same generation has a new protagonist that has completely different design and background setting from him, but the anime studio not tending to use them, but just stuff Ash with a new design, thus treating him like a freshman, where he is not supposed to be a freshman after so much years of travel.
I just do not understand, why Pokemon anime don't just end Ash story after Kanto, or the latest Orange Archipelago, then start a new Pokemon anime with new protagonist? For Doraemon, though it continue for so long, its title remain as "Doraemon" through out the years, so it is an indication that character in this fiction will not grow. Pokemon anime, changes its title for every generation after Johto, so it is an indication that the series will "grow". If protagonist is constant through out the way, then do it like Dragonball, give the protagonist a distinctive growth! If protagonist is to be change in each generation, then do it like Gundam series or Digimon series, each work of different generation is separate from one another, where you don't need to watch the previous work in order to understand the current one. I can go watch Gundam 00 of 2008, without even knowing or ever watching the very first Gundam in 1979.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I think no matter what you are trying to do it should be good. And I believe that most of the reason why I still watch the Pokemon anime is simply because it's a Pokemon anime rather than any of the show's accomplishments. The only thing I think the show is stellar at is world building. The pokemon league inspired my love of single elimination tournaments and 2^X numbers but the tournament itself is only 7 episodes out of over a hundred and usually have an introduction episode or a filler. Compare that to the original Yugioh which gives me my tournament fix ten fold who fails mainly due to the fact that it is a card game ad. Yugioh GX was completely different from its manga and it had quite a lot of filler but each filler gave us a unique opponent and well sized fight.

The sad part is I know that pokemon has the potential to be "first order optimal strategy to triggering your reward centers, make you run around from excitement even though you're a grown man" shonen action series. I saw the Hoenn league it had 3 full battle right next to each other and battles that weren't just the main character.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Excellent answers so far from everyone! Its going to take awhile to look through them all to give a solid response!

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

For me, it depends if we're talking about the older seasons of the anime, or the newer ones.

If we're talking older seasons of the Pokémon anime, then I'd say it fares pretty well against its competition. While it's certainly more childish than the others, that is the very appeal of the anime to me in the first place. Yet, at the same time, to me the older seasons have so much more depth and emotion in them compared to their successors, which over-dramatize things and come off as repeatedly shallow and forced to me. Sometimes being too subtle to me loses the realistic nature of the emotion and doesn't feel genuine at times.

If we're talking newer seasons of the Pokémon anime, then I'd say it fares only tolerably against its competition. Over time, it has lost the uniqueness and how relatable it could be for people of all ages to me. While the anime has always been targeted towards children, it was more of a family show when it began. Nowadays, it feels like it is more childish than ever before, and has lost the charm it once had, IMO. As for the DP series, I feel it took the mature aspect TOO far, to the point where the characters grew stale and it wasn't really relatable to the children itself. I know if I was a kid watching the series for the first time, Paul would come off as an arrogant douche, Ash would come off as a constipated idiot, and the same that I've said for Ash would've been applied to Brock in my 8-year old mind. I wouldn't have been able to pay attention at all and probably avoided Pokémon if that were my first series, tbh.

Anyway, ranting aside, I think it fares reasonably well compared to other animated shows, at least many of them on TV in the US these days. At least some of the episodes still have some morals at times. Crap like Problem Solverz and Fanboy and Chum Chum, for example, have no substance whatsoever and are brainless...IMO, of course.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think no matter what you are trying to do it should be good. And I believe that most of the reason why I still watch the Pokemon anime is simply because it's a Pokemon anime rather than any of the show's accomplishments. The only thing I think the show is stellar at is world building. The pokemon league inspired my love of single elimination tournaments and 2^X numbers but the tournament itself is only 7 episodes out of over a hundred and usually have an introduction episode or a filler. Compare that to the original Yugioh which gives me my tournament fix ten fold who fails mainly due to the fact that it is a card game ad. Yugioh GX was completely different from its manga and it had quite a lot of filler but each filler gave us a unique opponent and well sized fight.

The GX manga actually started well after the anime series started, so it would have to be different. All of the manga for the spin-off series have followed a different storyline than their anime counterparts, aside from Zexal when it first started at least and then they started to have different events instead of just following the events of the anime in a monthly manga series.

Personally, I have a hard time answering the question. There are some series where I prefer Pokemon or I think that other shows are better, but comparing Pokemon to other animated series in general seems a bit too vague for me, especially when not every animated series is meant as a means of promoting more merchandise like Pokemon is. There are plenty of other shows like that, especially other anime, so I have a bit of an easier time comparing Pokemon with shows like that as opposed to shows like JLU, Teen Titans, One Piece or DBZ. I am aware that the last two examples have a ton of merchandise too, but that isn't the primary reason for their existence like with the Pokemon anime.

 

[97SaturnSL1]

the other shows from my childhood to compare pokemon to include: Timon and Pumbaa Angry Beavers, Heathcliff, Two stupid dogs, Animaniacs, Cow and chicken, I am weasel, Rockos modern life and Ed edd n eddy.

of comparing all of these shows, Pokemon came in dead last.

Reasons:

Pokemon did have funny moments but they seemed to occur less often as the series progressed. Angry Beavers, EENE, Animaniacs had lots of slapstick humor that made me laugh. Slappy squirrle from animaniacs was one of my favorites because most of the cartoons of her seemed to have been directed by Michael Bay. Pokemon seemed to have not as much slapstick as the others.


Randomness is something that keeps my attention and humor. In one episode of Rockos Modern life, while doing shadow puppets, Mr Bighead does an impression of the Eifel tower, Heffer calls it a Waffle iron which is also good for pancakes. Mr bighead then does an impression of a deer and Heffer then cant guess what it is then he guesses it to be " A radiator or a hose. or maybe a part of a radiator hose." And there was Ed from EENE where he would do and say the most randomest things. From asking since carrots are good for eyes if they can dial a phone, some of his monster stories, the claw, Earth is not your salad bar, and THIS GEM...

Eddy: Pigeons don't go 'oink', Ed!
Ed: I'm a gazelle! Oink!

And Yugioh had a pink Rodger Rabbit Clone who trolled Kaiba badly

Pokemon was a bit on the serious side therefore that which made it less enjoyable and more predicatable as it progressed

 

[garrison-san]

the other shows from my childhood to compare pokemon to include: Timon and Pumbaa Angry Beavers, Heathcliff, Two stupid dogs, Animaniacs, Cow and chicken, I am weasel, Rockos modern life and Ed edd n eddy.

Nearly all of the shows you cited there would fall into the basic genre of "Ren and Stimpy variant" - ie: surreal buddy comedies centring around wacky antics and gross-out, off-the-wall humour. The Pokemon anime is an entirely different kettle of fish altogether - its genre, in my opinion, is best described as "light adventure series". It's fair enough to say that it isn't as funny as those aforementioned Ren and Stimpy variants (and it isn't trying to be), but I think it's a bit much to expect Pokemon to be producing the exact same kind of humour, or to suggest that it's falling short because it isn't. Pokemon doesn't have lots of frenetic slapstick, nor does it look like it was directed by Michael Bay, but maybe that's part of its charm.