Review The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

[GreatLiver]

It took the old actors ages to get the voices right for the characters themselves. Take a listen to the very first episode and cringe away. It's a sad fact that new actors means a new period of them 'settling into' the characters but it may not necessarily be that bad once they have and we're used to them.

I've yet to see this though and will post more opinions once I have.

Did James' voice actor change in like the 10th episopde or did his voice just totally change. This new jamessounds more like the original since he's more masculine

 

[FabuVinny]

So were there hoards of PokéShipping hints or was that just paranoia?

 

[Luna Tiger]

...Wow. The only complaints by the first commercial break I have is that Staryu's jewel didn't flash, Oak's VA is awfully Weevil/Gary-like, and the opening sucked.

I have no fear for the new VAs; they'll break in nicely. ^_^ May's is sexy~

There's also hints of YGO and NT Warrior with that whole Mirage system thing.


2nd commercial: The plot is proving to be basic, simple, and predictable, not to mention OLD. The script is also quite obnoxious. Already Brock's character been obliterated.

Dr. Yung's Mirage pokémon are haxxed. *eyes roll* Aren't they supposed to be teaching that cheaters are /bad/?

Ash sounds like Ritchie. Also like Susan...whatshername. Oi.


3rd comm: Um, yeah. Like Ash and Misty don't have pokémon aside from Staryu and Corphish. That was shoddy scripting. But I swear I've heard these people before. >.>; It's annoying me.

I'm also suspecting MM to be Professor Yung.

4th comm: AHAHAHAHA JOSHUA.

Now /that/ was a nice password. I almost expected something rather groan-worthy.

5th comm: What'd they do to Brock's hair? -_- Hand to the face was nice though. ^_^ But say hello to more destroyed character quirks.

6th: Dude, I was right! How...predictable. This is disgusting.
NT Warrior, hel~lo. Jerks.

7th: They pull the hits Mewtwo laid on Dragonite, but not so much on Mew. Talk about double standards...and yet, they were....it's hard to explain. They made them hit, but the animators tried to do it as fast as possible, possibly to avoid making people think too much of the physical aspect of fighting. Pah. Ingrates. Half-assed phailure.

8th: Oooo, a car! 8D *excited*

Can't they just say Mew died? <.< Freakin' obvious. Soul or not, it /was/ made of data in the end. Else it wouldn't have disintergrated.

Overall grade?
5/10. Disappointing with no retail value towards a second viewing.


BTW, for anyone not paying attention and cares to know, the codeword for the sweepstakes is: MEW

 

[Misty]

Oak is exactly right. I remember Ash's first voice - it made my ears hurt it was so bad. Then Veronica got it down and it's been great ever since.

Okay, the episode is over, and I'm going to take a minute to IGNORE THE VOICES, something which we should ALL DO, and review the episode.

Okay, voices aside... this special was GREAT. Plot-wise it was a bit predictable, but as far as Pokemon goes that's a given. The music was dramatic and well-suited, the animation was very nice... my only issue is that Ash's characterization was a bit... off. Still, it was a very refreshing experience compared to the anime and especially the last few movies (6 and 7), which I have found pretty lackluster.

OH AND I ALMOST FORGOT: The Mastermind is a total badass.

 

[Cybersai]

So were there hoards of PokéShipping hints or was that just paranoia?

Jeez, that's all you think about huh? Nah, it was mostly paranoia. Misty just shared some teasing with Ash, where she says, "Ladies first!" when wanting to battle.

Otherwise, nothing shippy at all for any ship.

 

[pkmn Trainer Zach]

THIS THING SUCKS NUTS!!!

This could have been much better! The plot was decent, but the voices were so GOD AWFUL that it made me want to puke!!! Ash doesn't even sound like Ash, Prof. Oak sounds like he's constipated, James sounds like he has a major sinus infection, Meowth just seems to scream whenever he talks, and May sounded like she was 21 instead of 10. Jessie's voice was close, and so was Misty's...sort of...(it was still bad)...same with Max. If they change the VA's, they've ruined the animé.

Aside from the voices, the special was really choppy. I don't know about the rest of you, but when the commercials ended for the part after Dr. Young was trying to create Mewtwo, all of a sudden May, Misty, and Ash were there, and Mewtwo was already made. I guess they had to cut stuff out to make it an hour long.

Overall, it sucked, it was choppy, and the voices docked it major points. 1.5/10. It could have been an excellent special, but no, they had to butcher it and put in VA's that need to be shot because they suck so bad. My ears were bleeding. Honestly, how can they go 10 years with the same VA's and just change them?!

 

[FabuVinny]

Jeez, that's all you think about huh?

Well the way people kept going on about it, you'd think it was a major issue. This just shows that people were overreacting as PUSA care just as much about Misty's love life as 4Kids have in recent times.

 

[AshKetchum17]

I've liked the original voices since the beginning, actually. I do prefer the way they sound now, opposed to the early episodes, but I've always liked them. They never sounded really over-acted like the new ones do.

I liked the new voice for Misty the best. May's voice wasn't awful, it just sounded too adult for a ten-year-old girl. The guys were all really strange-sounding, especially Ash.

Like I said, though, I'm willing to give them a chance. It wouldn't be fair to judge them on the first thing they've done with this show.

I didn't really pay all that much attention to the special. I taped it, so I'll watch it later. I just watched long enough to hear the new voices.

 

[Kauri]

Hee. I love the fact that Misty's voice is almost spot-on, and yet... we're in AG now, so her appearances are minimal at best~ *laughs* It really is interesting, and I do have hope that the other actors will eventually settle into their roles well. It may take some time to get used to them, and I will greatly miss the original VAs, but as just a casual viewer of the show, it's really not something I'm going to get worked up over.

I can't say I'm very fond of the voices for Brock or James, however. Brock was particularly unappealing, and James... just tried too hard to emulate the original voice, and it showed. ;^^

Storywise, though, I actually did like it. At the start, it seemed like they had just gone for mindless action sequences - normal Pokemon up against the über mirages - but it actually wound up with a decent plot that was a little reminiscent of the first movie. I'm rather pleased on that level, even with the minor annoyances and the already-mentioned predictability.

And I have to say. If there's one thing the Pokemon anime is consistantly good at, it's all the touching "farewell" scenes~

The little rockets cracked me up, though. Thought they were fireworks at first, or something. lulz.

Mew ♥

Out of curiosity, since I missed the early credits, who was actually in charge of the script..?

 

[Unregistered]

I have some questions

a.) Did the credits reveal who was behind this special? Was it commissioned by 4Kids/PUSA or was it just a case of the US getting the special earlier than japan?
b.) Was the music part of the japanese soundtrack, or did it consist of pieces compossed by PUSA?

 

[GreatLiver]

Out of curiosity, since I missed the early credits, who was actually in charge of the script..?

Sorry I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy writhing in pain from how horrible the opening music was

 

[joshnickerson]

The story was halfway decent, though very predictable. The opening theme song was HORRID. I just sat staring at my TV in disbelief. The animation was okay and I enjoyed actually hearing some good background music for once.

And I was disappointed by the voice actors. Misty, Jessie and Max were the closest in my opinion, while Ash sounded way too much like that whiny Naruto brat. May sounded like a housewife who'd just awoken from a coma. They need to recast Brock and James STAT. And Meowth was not Meowth, but an incredible simulation.

Did anybody else notice that they brough back the old narrator? At the beginning of the show I actually complained, "They fired the original cast, but they brought back the original NARRATOR?"

And the end credits listed "Japan Production", so I guess it was produced in Japan for an american audience.

 

[Pie]

Brock sounds like BUTCH.

Oh god no.

I mean, I was expecting these voices to be worse than the originals just by principle, but... is he really that bad? Now I'm almost afraid to watch this.

...

*waits patiently for it to become available for download anyway*

 

[Kauri]

I have some questions

a.) Did the credits reveal who was behind this special? Was it commissioned by 4Kids/PUSA or was it just a case of the US getting the special earlier than japan?
b.) Was the music part of the japanese soundtrack, or did it consist of pieces compossed by PUSA?

That I saw, the music was credited to Go Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki. If there was another credit for the score, I missed it.

And the animation staff seemed to mainly be Japanese or Korean names. So I assume this means we just got lucky and saw it first.

 

[AshKetchum17]

Yeah, the narrator was odd. Why bring back the original narrator if everybody else has to be replaced?

 

[Habunake]

The BGM was awesome, music that is heard alot in the Japanese version, hopefully this is a sign of the future of BGM's.

 

[Cybersai]

I hope people here will start e-mailing Pokemon USA about this.

 

[Luna Tiger]

I don't think the narrator was the old one. They sound remarkably alike, but not quite the same.

 

[Pokemon X]

Plot was pretty eh... for some reason, Ash's new voice didn't bug me that much. The inflection was kinda un-Ash-like, especially when he was giving Pikachu commands, but the voice itself seemed different but not awful.

Was that the original narrator? It sounded like it... I kinda wonder what James's new voice would sound like if it wasn't trying to imitate the old one so much.

Brock made Jesus cry, though.

How much time did these new VAs have to practice? I remember reading on a thread somewhere that TAJ is famous for just kinda shoving people in the recording booth and saying Go for it....

 

[Rapiido]

I agree with Luna on that. But with the other voice actors..... I was going to die. May and Brock jsut turned 30, Misty sounded like one of those dolls where you pull the string and a voice comes out, Ash I'm pretty sure had Naruto's voice... Max and Jenny.... (they had the same VA) I could stand Max a bit... But Jenny with a male's voice does NOT work out. I am SO glad they won't replace the VA's.... X_x

Theme song... Lets' see.. in my opinion each theme song was better and better. In my opinion on a scale of one to 10 this is how I'd rate them.

6, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 2

It was just horrid.

The storyline... No offense to anyone who liked it but I think this was worse than any of the Johto fillers... T_T it was like you KNEW what as going to happen cause they bleepin' showed half the show on the commericals. I called it a show not a movie cause if you took out the commericals it would have only been like 35 minutes... in my opinion the WORST Pokemon production ever made. T_T;