Review What are your popular opinions/noncontroversial opinions about the Ash-related Pokemon Anime and Movies etc?

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Here goes:

The wackiness and zaniness of the Kanto saga is something that had a charm that wasn't replicated quite so well ever again.
The first English dub OP is memorable due to nostalgia.
Samurai was a cool character in EP004.
I love the Butterfree release episode in Kanto (EP021).
The third Movie was the best OS Movie (Entei).
The eighth Movie was the best AG Movie (Lucario).
Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon was a low point in the franchise's run, and was a bad Special in any form, even in Japanese (the saving grace was indeed Shinji Miyazaki's OST being kept intact, that's about it).
The Battle Frontier dub was very rough & very painful to sit through.
The DP Rap was crap (S10 dub OP).
The tenth Movie was the best DP Movie (Darkrai).
The fourteenth Movie was the best BW Movie(s) (Victini).
BW & XY had subpar Movies/films, with Hoopa and the Clash of Ages being the worst Movie of all 23 created and nadir of the Series.
I liked the dub episode titles not being pun filled, alliterative, or filled with words that are awkward to hear like "Titters" etc. & most when they were translated straight.
Harrison and Tyson's defeats of Ash in Johto and Hoenn were better done losses for Ash than either Tobias, Alain, or Cameron in Sinnoh, Unova + Galar and felt legitimately well choreographed and executed.
The Sinnoh League was a good League, save the cop out loss.
The classic Era of the Anime had the best art style for all the main characters (OS, AG & DP).
4Kids actually did an overall (though still flawed) better job with the Pokemon dub than TPCi, especially nowadays, TheCartoonGamer8000 more or less summed up my opinion before the XY dub debuted through BW (it has fallen several notches since then as a lot of the mistakes 4Kids made in those days have now been replicated by TPCi themselves):

[OLD] Pokémon: A Tale Of Two Dubs - TheCartoonGamer

UPDATE: This video is old and outdated and serves as little more than a fan who expressed his thoughts on Pokemon's English dub at the time. For more updated...

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4Kids TRio dialogue > TPCi TRio dialogue, esp. from DuArt era DP onward
I don't like Ash saying "kay" and "so psyched" so often in the dub once TPCi takes over the Series.
The original Pokemon English VA cast was the best of all of them, that lasted from 1998-2006:

4Kids Had the Better Pokémon Voice Actors! | The Voice Cast

This week on The Voice Cast, we reach down into what makes us nostalgic as we tell you when we think that 4Kids had the Better Pokemon voice actors. Who are ...

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Mewtwo Strikes Back- Evolution had awful CGI Animation in 2019 compared to the cel shaded animation of Movie 1 in 1999.
Ed Goldfarb's music score & Akhil Gopal etc's placement of it is very questionable, and he's my least favorite dub composer like most.
Red is overrated.
TRio was at their peak in the OS as characters.
Kojiro/James is the funniest member of TRio.
I like Shinichiro Miki as Kojiro and Megumi Hayashibara as Musashi, as well as Rica Matsumoto as Satoshi, a lot.

 

[R.O.B.]

4Kids >>> TPCi
DP Brock was bad
Mewtwo Strikes Back "Evolution" was a cheap cash grab
Ash should have aged
He also shouldn't have lost so many leagues or reset
Team Magma and Aqua's episodes sucked

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Cilan > DP Brock
May and Dawn > Serena
Misty > Iris (I like Iris more than most, though)

 

[Poke Trey]

I like Serena but yeah, I'd take May/Dawn easily. Don't care about BW, but Cilan I do care for especially over DP Brock. TR from BW onwards mainly cuz they appeared less of the time and for Ash, the WCS>>>>>>>> Gym battles cuz I honestly don't get the same type of excitement as I used to for gym matches compared to WCS fights and the M8.

 

[galacticarticuno]

Ash suffered permanent brain damage from being zapped by Pikachu repeatedly and that's why his....decisions (aka leaping onto TR's robots all the time)...were not the greatest.
I enjoyed the seriousness of B&W TR though, they were more competent.
Someone should have captured Beware so it wouldn't keep interfering in matches where TR was destined to win.
Don't get the hype of Serena honestly. Haven't watched all of Kalos, currently on Unova timeline wise which I need to get back into.
If Ash rotated his team more often and trained them more, maybe he would have won something besides the Battle Frontier, Alola League and the Orange League...not counting the PCW.
Should have gone back for some of his team he said he would be back for (aka Pidgeot). You can't tell me those Pidgey needed Pidgeot there for 20+ years to protect them and they learned nothing in that time.
Ash could have already had a Gengar if he hadn't given up Haunter to mentally ill Sabrina/actually caught Haunter come to think of it.
Still wish they would have come out and said why Brock left Professor Ivy instead of leaving fans with all these crazy theories (like Brock got Ivy pregnant).
Iris is annoying. Seriously, I wanna wring her neck with all the times she tells Ash "your such a little kid" when she's like 10 years old and isn't willing to battle half the time in the beginning of the Unova series.
Goh is an idiot with an OP complex with how easy he catches pokemon. Meanwhile, Ash cannot even catch a legendary in 20+ years. Meltan doesn't count since it's a mythical.
Ash looks like an idiot half the time when they reboot Pokemon (B&W/S&M) when he's seen Pokemon he hasn't seen before.
Honestly, wasn't a fan of Incineroar's design nor Chespin's final design. The four leg to two leg just threw me...think it would have been better if there were a split evolution...one two legged and one four legged.
TR should have either 1. Kept their pokemon or 2. Trained/caught more pokemon so maybe they would have won some battles/beaten Ash before Alola. Granted they didn't but they would have if Bewaer hadn't shown up and ruined things. Honestly...should have sent that to TR HQ. Let Giovanni deal with it.
Misty shouldn't have given up Togetic.
Max was an annoying little...brat. He should have been yeeted off a cliff.
Charizard vs Articuno was a great battle.
Ash seemed to grow a lot in BF and then go back to being stupid once BF ended. But there did seem to be some growth in Sinnoh.
Honestly...I think James should have given up TR and struck out on his own. He never seemed really fit for the bad guy role and seemed to really care for his pokemon. Come to think of it as an adult, there were a few times where TR almost broke up. I bet that would have been quite the break for Ash and co.
Jessie shouldn't have focused so much on being flashy and did okay as a coordinator.
Latias had a crush on Ash. I think that was rather obvious from the movie but I'm surprised I don't see more of that shipping.
Jessie should have gone through and quit TR when she met that doctor and potentially found happiness, maybe become a full-time coordinator. Meowth could have gone back to that noodle shop and James...well he would probably have still be on the run from Jessebelle. Furthermore, James should have kept Growlie with him. Or would James have resigned himself to marrying Jessebelle?
I thought it was nice how Ash & Dawn always supported each other. But I guess that is what makes it different from Digimon (the original). Digimon never had to do soft reboots to keep people interested or change the animations.
Growlie was James' strongest pokemon easily despite being relatively untrained.
Sometimes I wonder if Brock had taken ownership of Charmander, it would have been better off. I don't know, I can't see Charmander disobeying Brock.
Goh shouldn't have taken Grookey...it should have remained with Jessie or James (whoever) caught it.
Those split fossil evolutions were ugly as hell. You can't change my mind on that.
More fossil pokemon should have been created. Furthermore, wouldn't it have been nice for Ash to catch one of those Kabuto on that island?
I wonder if Meowth would have still talked were it to evolve into Persian.
Ash's dad and Brock's mom were deadbeats. Furthermore Ash should have aged through the series.

 

[Nicolas721]

• Ash was very relatable at the beginning and it was fun to see him grow. However, his Kanto League defeat took it a little too far and it's very frustrating to watch.
• Johto has too much filler and it could have used that time to develop Ash's team more.
• Each one of the first 3 movies is great on its own.
• Both May and Dawn had great stories with good development and contests were a treat to watch. They should have been the blueprint of future companions.
• The Unova League was very bad, you could see how embarassed were the writers of Trip and his development.
• XY had great animation and it's sad part of those movements were lost in the change to SM.
• It was very refreshing to see Ash using what he learnt about the Alola region to became the champion and how it also impacted his return to the region in Journeys too.
• Journeys was a really mixed bag with a bad beginning, whose biggest problem was its lack of depth and conflict in the situations presented.

 

[DigitalGen6]

I enjoyed the seriousness of B&W TR though, they were more competent.

Me too (even though I haven’t watched much of BW and I probs won’t get to as Amazon Prime is being mean and made the entire generation like, unwatchable, you can check it out if you don’t believe me). I like the humor though, yes, but I like to see serious Team Rocket (had the least disguises, no romantic stuff, I kinda like this version of TRio to be honest)

Someone should have captured Beware so it wouldn't keep interfering in matches where TR was destined to win.

Yeah ya got that right. Literally I wanted to sick (is that the correct spelling??) my Decidueye on Bewear after it took TRio away after Jessie was about to get that baseball dude’s autograph

Don't get the hype of Serena honestly. Haven't watched all of Kalos, currently on Unova timeline wise which I need to get back into.

I guess because she reappeared in Journeys? And also, if you do, make sure it’s not on Prime because I just said.

If Ash rotated his team more often and trained them more, maybe he would have won something besides the Battle Frontier, Alola League and the Orange League...not counting the PCW.

Yeah. Wait… does PCW = Pokémon World Coronation?

Still wish they would have come out and said why Brock left Professor Ivy instead of leaving fans with all these crazy theories (like Brock got Ivy pregnant).

Yeah, but apparently they can’t because “Brock doesn’t wanna talk about it” (who the heck said that theory? If that theory was true then it looks like Ivy is going to jail unless Brock is over 17, for the longest time I thought he was 20; I’d love to see that theory be confirmed tho)

Iris is annoying. Seriously, I wanna wring her neck with all the times she tells Ash "your such a little kid" when she's like 10 years old and isn't willing to battle half the time in the beginning of the Unova series.

Yeah and we can’t get Emboar girl (NOT Bianca) to travel with Ash because it has to emulate Kanto saga meaning Iris and Cilan have to travel with Ash (and tbh Iris calling Ash a little kid is so hypocritical because Iris is a kid herself, also she looks 9)

Goh is an idiot with an OP complex with how easy he catches pokemon. Meanwhile, Ash cannot even catch a legendary in 20+ years. Meltan doesn't count since it's a mythical.

Yeah. But Goh wants to catch them all. He really doesn’t have to though. And it’s too late for Ash to catch Ho-Oh because the show ended.

Ash looks like an idiot half the time when they reboot Pokemon (B&W/S&M) when he's seen Pokemon he hasn't seen before.

Yeah. Especially SM’s art style.

Honestly, wasn't a fan of Incineroar's design nor Chespin's final design. The four leg to two leg just threw me...think it would have been better if there were a split evolution...one two legged and one four legged.

Incineroar’s… okay I guess? It sort of breaks the “walking on four legs” thing. Meanwhile, I don’t like Chesnaught’s design that much. I had it and believe you me, I wasn’t too fond of it.

TR should have either 1. Kept their pokemon or 2. Trained/caught more pokemon so maybe they would have won some battles/beaten Ash before Alola. Granted they didn't but they would have if Bewaer hadn't shown up and ruined things. Honestly...should have sent that to TR HQ. Let Giovanni deal with it.

They should have kept their Pokémon instead of just getting rid of them. No clue what they did to Gourgeist or Inkay. Also, once again, YES, they should’ve just reported Bewear to TR HQ/HR (I said HR because I felt like it) and tell Giovanni about it

Misty shouldn't have given up Togetic.

Yeah. That was sad (haven’t seen the episode in a long time)

Max was an annoying little...brat. He should have been yeeted off a cliff.

Idk lol.

Charizard vs Articuno was a great battle.

I didn’t see that one. Idk unless you’re talking about Numero Uno Articuno, but idk lol, haven’t seen that.

Ash seemed to grow a lot in BF and then go back to being stupid once BF ended. But there did seem to be some growth in Sinnoh.

What’s BF. I haven’t watched much Sinnoh, and probs won’t get to because YOU have to buy it on the same app I said earlier, but I think I read something about Ash getting some growth in it before becoming stupid in BW

Honestly...I think James should have given up TR and struck out on his own. He never seemed really fit for the bad guy role and seemed to really care for his pokemon. Come to think of it as an adult, there were a few times where TR almost broke up. I bet that would have been quite the break for Ash and co.

Yeah and James was kind of a doofus tho-

Jessie shouldn't have focused so much on being flashy and did okay as a coordinator.

Mhm. All she wants to do is get married (probs marry a rich guy and take all his money) and live the high life since she grew up poor lol.

Latias had a crush on Ash. I think that was rather obvious from the movie but I'm surprised I don't see more of that shipping.

I don’t remember that in Pokémon Heroes lol

Jessie should have gone through and quit TR when she met that doctor and potentially found happiness, maybe become a full-time coordinator.

Yeah but then when she saw him and Beatrice, she was like “yeah he probably won’t like me back so I’mma say bye bye and leave”

Meowth could have gone back to that noodle shop and James...well he would probably have still be on the run from Jessebelle. Furthermore, James should have kept Growlie with him. Or would James have resigned himself to marrying Jessebelle?

1. Yeah because then he would get to see his friends and probs Meowzie again
2. He doesn’t like Jessebelle AT ALL so maybe instead he could try to start a bottlecap selling business and get a restraining order on her

I thought it was nice how Ash & Dawn always supported each other. But I guess that is what makes it different from Digimon (the original). Digimon never had to do soft reboots to keep people interested or change the animations.

I like Ash and Dawn supporting each other and I also shipped them for a long while (I still kinda do)

Growlie was James' strongest pokemon easily despite being relatively untrained.

Hmm…

Sometimes I wonder if Brock had taken ownership of Charmander, it would have been better off. I don't know, I can't see Charmander disobeying Brock.

I don’t really see Charmander with Brock but it would be nice to see

Goh shouldn't have taken Grookey...it should have remained with Jessie or James (whoever) caught it.

Yeah you got that right (and when Goh asks why Grookey never evolved, I’ll just say “it’s because you are its Trainer”

Those split fossil evolutions were ugly as hell. You can't change my mind on that.

I don’t really care for their designs either

More fossil pokemon should have been created. Furthermore, wouldn't it have been nice for Ash to catch one of those Kabuto on that island?

Yes.

I wonder if Meowth would have still talked were it to evolve into Persian.

I don’t know. It probably can’t evolve due to him knowing how to speak (same reason he can’t learn Pay Day)

Ash's dad and Brock's mom were deadbeats.

Yeah ya got that right again. At least we got to see Brock’s mom

Furthermore Ash should have aged through the series.

…This. THIS is like what 80-90% of the Fandom agree with. Ash should have aged.

 

[galacticarticuno]

Me too (even though I haven’t watched much of BW and I probs won’t get to as Amazon Prime is being mean and made the entire generation like, unwatchable, you can check it out if you don’t believe me). I like the humor though, yes, but I like to see serious Team Rocket (had the least disguises, no romantic stuff, I kinda like this version of TRio to be honest)

Yeah ya got that right. Literally I wanted to sick (is that the correct spelling??) my Decidueye on Bewear after it took TRio away after Jessie was about to get that baseball dude’s autograph

I guess because she reappeared in Journeys? And also, if you do, make sure it’s not on Prime because I just said.

Yeah. Wait… does PCW = Pokémon World Coronation?

Yeah, but apparently they can’t because “Brock doesn’t wanna talk about it” (who the heck said that theory? If that theory was true then it looks like Ivy is going to jail unless Brock is over 17, for the longest time I thought he was 20; I’d love to see that theory be confirmed tho)

Yeah and we can’t get Emboar girl (NOT Bianca) to travel with Ash because it has to emulate Kanto saga meaning Iris and Cilan have to travel with Ash (and tbh Iris calling Ash a little kid is so hypocritical because Iris is a kid herself, also she looks 9)

Yeah. But Goh wants to catch them all. He really doesn’t have to though. And it’s too late for Ash to catch Ho-Oh because the show ended.

Yeah. Especially SM’s art style.

Incineroar’s… okay I guess? It sort of breaks the “walking on four legs” thing. Meanwhile, I don’t like Chesnaught’s design that much. I had it and believe you me, I wasn’t too fond of it.

They should have kept their Pokémon instead of just getting rid of them. No clue what they did to Gourgeist or Inkay. Also, once again, YES, they should’ve just reported Bewear to TR HQ/HR (I said HR because I felt like it) and tell Giovanni about it

Yeah. That was sad (haven’t seen the episode in a long time)

Idk lol.

I didn’t see that one. Idk unless you’re talking about Numero Uno Articuno, but idk lol, haven’t seen that.

What’s BF. I haven’t watched much Sinnoh, and probs won’t get to because YOU have to buy it on the same app I said earlier, but I think I read something about Ash getting some growth in it before becoming stupid in BW

Yeah and James was kind of a doofus tho-

Mhm. All she wants to do is get married (probs marry a rich guy and take all his money) and live the high life since she grew up poor lol.

I don’t remember that in Pokémon Heroes lol

Yeah but then when she saw him and Beatrice, she was like “yeah he probably won’t like me back so I’mma say bye bye and leave”

1. Yeah because then he would get to see his friends and probs Meowzie again
2. He doesn’t like Jessebelle AT ALL so maybe instead he could try to start a bottlecap selling business and get a restraining order on her

I like Ash and Dawn supporting each other and I also shipped them for a long while (I still kinda do)

Hmm…

I don’t really see Charmander with Brock but it would be nice to see

Yeah you got that right (and when Goh asks why Grookey never evolved, I’ll just say “it’s because you are its Trainer”

I don’t really care for their designs either

Yes.

I don’t know. It probably can’t evolve due to him knowing how to speak (same reason he can’t learn Pay Day)

Yeah ya got that right again. At least we got to see Brock’s mom

…This. THIS is like what 80-90% of the Fandom agree with. Ash should have aged.

James certainly is a doofus lol.

Yes, I mean the Pokmeon World Coronation.

I forgot about Mewoth being unable to use payday. That was really nice of them to throw James' bottlecap collection to help Meowth 'pretend' to use payday.

BF = Battle Frontier

And yes, it's that one with the battle with Charizard vs Articuno, the Numero Uno Articuno episode. Always liked when Charizard showed up to help Ash.

They really should have. I wish they had gotten a new ekans and koffing too in the show...even James getting a new koffing in galar would have been nice. Though I'm not a fan of Galar Wheezing design.

Oh my gosh, Bianca! She's also annoying and cries a lot. Probably my second most disliked character after Iris.

 

[DigitalGen6]

I forgot about Mewoth being unable to use payday. That was really nice of them to throw James' bottlecap collection to help Meowth 'pretend' to use payday.

When did they do this?

And yes, it's that one with the battle with Charizard vs Articuno, the Numero Uno Articuno episode. Always liked when Charizard showed up to help Ash.

I knew it lol, and I guess since AG is free on Amazon, I’m gonna watch it today

They really should have. I wish they had gotten a new ekans and koffing too in the show...even James getting a new koffing in galar would have been nice. Though I'm not a fan of Galar Wheezing design.

Yeah. Which is why I didn’t catch it (although I’m gonna have to if I wanna complete the Pokémon HOME research tasks for Shield lol)

Oh my gosh, Bianca! She's also annoying and cries a lot. Probably my second most disliked character after Iris.

I thought she was an okay character (probably because I haven’t watched all of BW), but yeah I’m not super big on her. And when I said…

We can’t get Emboar girl (NOT Bianca) to travel with Ash

I meant Hilda (I called her Emboar girl and said NOT Bianca because I knew Bianca also has an Emboar) lol

 

[galacticarticuno]

For the life of me I couldn't remember the other Embroar girl. Most of the characters fly out the window with me. Sorry, haven't been on here in a while.
As for the episode of James using his bottlecaps for payday...I can't remember if it was that episode where he was seen as 'the meowth' of the prophecy in that episode or if it was the one where TR heard about that masked burglar and his meowth (Spinarak Attack episode) who could use payday and tried to steal items/copied being the crooks. Ah okay, it is the Spinarak Attack episode I'm thinking of where TR used James' bottlecap collection to pretend Meowth could use payday.

 

[NeoMediaMind]

First off, I hope I'm posting in the right thread. Second, this is the first of two posts I will upload onto here.

Moving on to the main subject at hand, let me start off by saying that I absolutely love the Pokemon franchise, and have loved it since 2008. I love it so much that I am currently working on a large Fakemon project. However, I also have my fair share of issues with it, particularly regarding the mainline games and the English dub of the anime. While I think the mainline games have been declining in quality since 2013 with X & Y, the English dub of the anime is another major problem to me, specifically when it comes to the voice acting, in which I will be explaining in detail the latter. I might have not watched every episode, but I saw and heard enough clips to formulate my own feelings regarding all of this. Keep in mind that this is all just my opinion, but this kind of thing has been irritating the living hell out of me for years.

Characters that are poorly-dubbed/voice-acted:

Ash Ketchum - what better place to start than with the face of the Pokemon anime himself, Ash Ketchum. I'll be honest, I initially didn't really like Veronica Taylor's portrayal of Ash, and I much preferred Sarah Natochenny's take on him. Nowadays, while I think both VAs are good as Ash in their own ways, I unfortunately believe Sarah's performance as him has been getting worse in recent years. Starting in Sun & Moon, I thought that her portrayal as Ash was starting to go downhill because she prematurely had to adapt to the more energetic and over-the-top nature of that series; in previous iterations (from Battle Frontier to XY), I found her portrayal played off better because those sagas of the anime were generally more down-to-earth feeling (the Team Rocket trio is in a similar situation, which I will get to later). But especially in Journeys, the big problem I have with Sarah Natochenny's Ash is that he sounds WAAAAAAAAY too insufferably high-pitched, over-exaggerated, and kid-pandering, which really hurts and devastates an older fan like myself. I very much prefer when Ash's voice was deeper and gruffer, and to be fair, it can still be heard quite a bit in both SM and Journeys, but sadly, the high-pitchedness overshadows it, and just makes Ash's character a whole lot worse for me.

Serena - I'm gonna say it: Serena's English voice was the indicator of TPCi and the whole dub going downhill since XY. Basically, Haven Paschall's portrayal of Serena makes her sound WAAAAAAY too much like an attractive older woman rather than a young girl who's supposed to be around Ash's age. It's very distracting to hear, and the problem stays even when Serena cuts her hair later on in XY. Furthermore, when Serena screams, it almost sounds like she was voiced by someone else, that's how jarring her whole voice is.

Mallow - one of the three Alolan girls in SM (alongside Lana and Lillie), Mallow unfortunately has a similar vocal problem to that of Serena. While Jessica Paquet's performance as Mallow does admittedly sound more age-appropriate (usually) compared to Serena, there are times where it becomes noticeably jarring. Probably the worst example of this was in the episode "Memories in the Mist!", where upon seeing the spirit of her deceased mother, Mallow starts to cry and her voice sounds WAAAAAAY too deep and woman-like (the deep voice also occurred when she was discussing her mother with Lana prior), but then after it sounds tolerable again, which doesn't really make sense to me. Additionally, in Journeys, Mallow was instead voiced by Emily Cramer, and to be honest, her take sounded slightly better than that of Paquet; at least Mallow sounded more consistently young there, and Cramer probably should've been voicing her from the start in SM.

Lana - Lana's dubbed voice by Rosie Reyes is probably the best out of the three Alolan girls in SM, since for the most part, she manages to make her sound young enough. However, like with Mallow above, there are slip-ups which, again, make her voice jarring to hear. When Lana raises her voice (such as when she performs Z-Moves), it pretty much sounds too adult-ish, proving that there really should've been better vocal direction in order to not break the immersion the dub was trying to go for. In other words, Rosie Reyes seems to nail Lana most of the time, but there are also moments where I could tell it's clearly coming from an older woman who struggles to make a younger girl sound natural. But the voices of both Lana and Mallow will seem peaceful compared to the next voice I will be discussing.

Lillie - Ah yes, Laurie Hymes' portrayal of Lillie is possibly the most infamous voice to come out of the whole English dub of Pokemon, and I can absolutely see why: whatever words come out of Lillie's mouth always give her the voice of an attractive older woman instead of that of an innocent young girl. Unlike with Mallow and Lana, Lillie sounds the way she does practically every single time in the dub, and it's simply mind-boggling. Not only that, but I did hear Lillie's vocals actually increase in pitch a few times, to the point that Laurie Hymes made her voice crack and sound very squeaky. It's like Hymes knew the whole time that she made Lillie sound too old, so in some kind of attempt to make her sound younger, she had to crack her voice to where she starts sounding out of breath. I don't know about you, but if a VA has to literally strain their voice just to make their recordings sound natural, then I think both the direction and the higher-ups are to blame.

Chrysa - she's from Journeys, as one of Professor Cerise's lab assistants. While Casey Mongillo seems like a fine VA, their performance as Chrysa sounds all wrong IMO. Whenever I would hear her, she would always sound very stilted, toneless, and sometimes slurred. Out of all the characters I take issue with in the current Pokemon dub, Chrysa has the most poor, empty, monotone voice I have heard; at least the other characters TRY to convey different emotions even if they all come out too horribly forced in the end. I'm sorry, but Mongillo sounded much better as the Scorbunny line in Journeys to me.

Rotom Phones - You might have noticed that many human characters in Journeys own Rotom Phones (practically as stand-ins for real-life smartphones), but sadly, I have to critique their voices too. First off, they sound nowhere near as good as the Rotom Dex did in SM, and second, they have very lackluster vocals in general. Specifically, I'm referring to the Rotom Phones belonging to Ash, Goh, and Chloe, where they all have very stale, sluggish, and emotionless deliveries, and they sound awful IMO. At least Rotom Dex was able to sound and speak like human beings regularly do, and express beyond just being a Pokedex, but I find it sad that the PHONES were stripped of most of the charm and intelligence they really should've had. It's inexcusable and a complete downgrade. Ironically, the DEX comes off as more sentient than the PHONES do.

Team Rocket trio - Similarly to Ash, I liked Michelle Knotz as Jessie, and James Carter Cathcart as James and Meowth more than their 4Kids counterparts of Rachel Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein (RIP) when I was younger. Again, I believe each of these VAs are/were good in their own terms, but just like Natochenny's Ash, Knotz's Jessie and JCC's James and Meowth have had their English voices deteriorate since SM, albeit from the very start. Ever since the trio arrived in Alola in "Loading the Dex!", Team Rocket has become consistently less likeable to me, and I think a large part of that is due to the VAs having to adapt to SM's more relaxed and free-spirited atmosphere too soon, in which they probably weren't given enough time to fully comprehend the subject matter. That may have been the case, but it doesn’t change how much worse they've gotten towards my ears. Jessie seems to have gotten higher-pitched, but her voice is too all over-the-place as well, especially in Journeys, where I heard Michelle Knotz's voice slip-up and crack many times, indicating that voicing mostly the same character for over a decade would indeed take a toll on one's vocal cords overtime. Meanwhile, James sounds overly-goofy and it comes off as more bothersome than funny, but when it comes to Meowth, I think he's also a perfect sign of when it comes to relying too much on a limited amount of characters (in a single franchise no less) in one's voice acting career. With Meowth, Cathcart tried to make him sound more over-the-top while maintaining the character's raspier and more gravely tone of voice, but it did not mesh well at all, and his screams are certainly ear-grating on top of that. I think particularly due to this, it may have strained Cathcart's vocals as well. Overall, I don't think Team Rocket's more relaxed and down-to-earth voices from previous iterations of the anime blended very well with the SM dub. To conclude this segment, I am aware that James Carter Cathcart himself isn't in the best health, and I do hope he heals, gets better, and lives a peaceful life in general.

Korrina - Voiced by Lisa Ortiz (the current voice director for the dub), I find Korrina's portrayal in Journeys to be analogous with how the dub is handled nowadays, which I will explain later on. But basically, how she sounds in Journeys is very forced and somewhat nasally, and I know she was always voiced by Ortiz from XY, but I think she might just sound better in the latter than in the former.


As I stated in the beginning of this post, this is a two-parter, so I will upload the follow-up of this explaining my further thoughts on the modern dub (and probably Pokemon as a whole) later. However, depending on how much I have to say, it could be more than that.

 

[NeoMediaMind]

Okay, here is the second part of this post as I stated in the first, going over extra English voices.

Honourable mentions:

Misty - honestly, I didn't see or hear much of Misty when I was younger. I will say, however, that Michelle Knotz's portrayal of Misty in SM and JN is of very jarring quality. When she raises her voice, it sounds really ear-piercing, but when she speaks normally, it's probably not as bad, and comes off resembling Rachel Lillis' original portrayal of Misty more.

Brock - once again, Brock's dub voice is something I preferred from TPCi over 4Kids when I was younger, but in the present day, I think both Eric Stuart and Bill Rogers' interpretations of him are both equally good, even if they both sound a bit different from each other.

Dawn - I always enjoyed hearing Dawn, and think that Emily Jenness' performance as her is one of the best voices to come out of the whole English dub of Pokemon.

Iris - Like Dawn, I have always liked hearing Eileen Stevens voice Iris, and also think it’s one of the best performances in the dub. And although Eileen reprised her role once in Journeys and still sounded pretty good, I wasn't too impressed when I first heard Anaris Quionnes' interpretation of her. At least when she raises her voice and cries, Iris' 2nd Journeys voice was pretty hard on the ears for me, but when she speaks like normal, it sounds more tolerant and actually on par with Eileen Stevens. Despite this, I'm sure Anaris Quionnes is a fine voice actor herself.

Clemont - in my opinion, I never had a problem with Michael Liscio Jr.'s portrayal of Clemont. Sure it sounds deep, but I think it's pretty fitting for a boy around Ash's age, since boys' voices usually deepen more than that of girls.

Bonnie - I also never had a problem with Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld's portrayal of Bonnie. I'm aware that some didn't like it, but I think it's very fitting, made better by the fact Bonnie's younger than Serena.

Kiawe - Marc Swint as Kiawe is one of the best performances in the SM dub IMO; it sounds very natural, and even when he screams and begins to sound higher-pitched and wacky, it doesn't come off as assaulting to the ears as many of the VAs' performances.

Sophocles - Sophocles seems to be one of the characters whose English voice was more well-received, and I can totally agree; just another character Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld perfectly nails in terms of sounding organic in vocal execution.

Professor Kukui - I never had an issue with Abe Goldfarb as Kukui. He probably could have sounded a bit more energetic considering the region he's in, but the voice I actually heard wasn't bad either.

Rotom Dex - as I stated in my critique of the Rotom Phones, I believe Rotom Dex is one of the best voices to come out of the SM dub, TPCi's dub overall, and the entire English dub of Pokemon in general. I always liked how sentient it sounded and acted, reminiscent of talking cartoon animals in general (though Team Rocket's Meowth technically is a talking cartoon animal as well).

Lusamine - on its own, Bobbi Hartley's interpretation of Lusamine probably isn't too bad on its own, but my gosh, how did TPCi/Lisa Ortiz get it wrong? From what I heard, Lusamine sounds too horrendously bland (which yes, I think is just as bad as voice acting that is abysmal in conveying emotions and less-than-favourable casting choices).

Risa (from The Power of Us movie) - Fun Fact #1: Risa is voiced by Haven Paschall, who also happens to voice Serena.
Fun Fact #2: The former has the exact same problem as the latter in sounding too much like an attractive older woman.
Fun Fact #3: Risa is pointlessly given an Eevee for no good reason, other than to disappoint Eeveelution fans.
I'm sorry, but those things I stated above about Risa kind of taint any interesting potential she had as a character.

Goh - Zeno Robinson does a pretty serviceable job voicing Goh in my opinion, though if I did have to complain about it, it would simply be for the kind of dub he's in, one that's operated by a greedy and incompetent corporation in which he has to strain his voice just for the sake of delivering lines (a trait shared with many TPCi voice actors).

Chloe - Cherami Leigh as Chloe in Journeys is also one of the best performances to come out of the entire English dub of Pokemon. I for one, admire her voice acting work a lot, and her most memorable role to me is Asuna Yuuki from Sword Art Online. However, because of the type of dub she's in, her presence there begins to fall short. I think there are four major reasons why:
1. Chloe sometimes sounds too high-pitched.
2. Chloe didn't appear as often as Ash and Goh, yet TPCi acts like she's a major character for some reason.
3. Chloe was pointlessly given an Eevee for no good reason (like Risa), which feels like a huge slap in the face for Eeveelution fans, especially since the last new Eeveelution we got was Sylveon all the way back in Gen 6.
4. I think Cherami Leigh ended up voicing Goh's Grookey more than she did with Chloe, which in my opinion, is a gigantic waste of genuine voice-acting talent.
On one hand, it may seem great that a VA as talented and experienced as Cherami Leigh was able to lend her voice to something like Pokemon. But on the other hand, it saddens me that such a great opportunity was largely underutilized, which makes me think that TPCi/Lisa Ortiz managed to get Cherami on board out of sheer luck.

Acerola - Looks like Acerola is another example of a female character who was given the distracting voice of an attractive older woman in the dub. I've got to say, this one probably feels the most out-of-place, because I initially expected Acerola to have a voice that would reflect the Ghost-type Pokemon she uses, as well as sounding akin to someone like Monica Rial (another really talented VA who I admire).

Leon - Leon's voice in Journeys is okay, but screaming at the top of his lungs the same way many TPCi VAs do cheapens Alejandro Saab's performance as him, that, and pointlessly being given a Charizard to his character as a whole.

Illima - While I think Michael Liscio Jr.'s Clemont is good, I think the opposite for his Illima. When I heard it, it was the epitome of a voice actor completely phoning in their performance in a single take, not to mention being a total miscast in general.

Verity (from the I Choose You! movie) - Now, I did watch M20 in its entirety back in 2018 (dubbed, of course), and I remember not being very impressed with it either. Regarding the character of Verity, I could be wrong but she also sounded much too old for her supposed age.

Bea - Tiana Camacho as Bea is not too bad on its own, it's the kind of dub she's in that makes it of lesser quality. Not only that, but Bea in Journeys otherwise feels more like a plot device than a genuine character, considering she mostly existed as an obstacle for Ash to compete in the Pokemon World Coronation series.

Oleana - another female character whose English voice was screwed over by TPCi/Lisa Ortiz. Oleana sounds WAAAAAAY too seductive, and considering she's supposed to be Chairman Rose's secretary, you'd expect her to sound deeper and more stoic.

Cynthia - I enjoyed hearing Cynthia in DP and BW, but in Journeys, it seems to have gotten worse. This makes me think that whatever voice was previously serviceable in the dub was immediately tainted when Lisa Ortiz stumbled upon them.

Danika - for my last honourable mention, I will be critiquing the English voice of this Project Mew member. Now Anjali Kunapaneni seems like an okay voice actor, but Lisa Ortiz also made her sound too attractive for someone who treats her job very seriously.

Next and final post, I will be discussing in detail all of my further thoughts regarding the current state of the dub, as well as perhaps Pokemon and voice acting as a whole. Now I'll probably have quite a lot to say, but I'll end it here with this interesting observation I think perfectly sums up the dub:
A voice actor who chooses to limit themselves to voicing a small handful of characters, especially within a SINGLE media franchise, isn't really benefiting their careers in the long-run.

 

[SushiBurrito]

Spell of the Unown is the best of the original 3 movies

TPCi ruined Team Rocket.

The Pokemon League in Kanto was a joke aside from the Grass Battle

The Johto seasons were terrible

Dawn> May

 

[NeoMediaMind]

Now, I'm going to do something different for my third post in this thread. During late-summer of this year, I actually managed to gather lots and lots of voice clips for characters whose portrayals in the TPCi dub have disappointed me greatly. I have implemented these clips into a large compilation on YouTube, which I will leave the link here: Pokemon Cringe Compilation (TPCi Voice Acting Edition)

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Now, I'm going to do something different for my third post in this thread. During late-summer of this year, I actually managed to gather lots and lots of voice clips for characters whose portrayals in the TPCi dub have disappointed me greatly. I have implemented these clips into a large compilation on YouTube, which I will leave the link here: Pokemon Cringe Compilation (TPCi Voice Acting Edition)

For all their (many) flaws, one thing I did genuinely think 4Kids knew how to do well is direct their main cast of VAs well in this franchise (I concede as an exception Dunstan faltered a little with James, but even then I still didn't hate the voice either like most on BMGF do and generally everywhere else it is considered OK though not Eric's best which is my sentiment-- after where JCC and Bosco were directed to take the role respectively later on I have even come to miss Stuart's OTT, hammy later take in comparison these days: was not my favorite, but it was nowhere near the worst either).

I used to think as a petulant child (very mature, yes, at that age) it was the VA's fault, but it's truly the VA direction that seems to be a real problem in modern English Pokémon IMO: even in Horizons, about half the cast seems competent but the other half seems to falter thus far 6 episodes in IMO.

When the legendary, fabled VA Crispin Freeman (Zelgadis, Itachi) currently struggles with a character like Friede and is about two octaves too low in pitch to me, there's a genuine issue there.

To answer your question in the video, ultimately I think TPCi deem this lackluster VA direction & music replacement work acceptable because the Anime is for 5-12 year old children: much as I dislike this mentality as it is what characterized most dubs in the late 1990s-early 2000s...not just this one by any means...and TPCi is stuck in it in 2023 (I thought the script writing also was not good, though, post-4Kids it may have been less "liberty" prone but I felt it was also a lot more unnatural in terms of being filled with far more slang, alliterations, and generally just too much "trying hard to be hip" phrases when JCC got promoted to the only writer and head one for the rest of the English dub from Seasons 9 onward to 25 before his retirement due to severe illness), it is what it is sadly.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Original Series

• Gary is the most iconic rival (under the scope of the casual viewers and mainsteam)
• Ash's character peaked here
• Brock and Misty are Ash's best traveling companions
• Misty best female companion
• The COTDs and Comedy were peak here
• The Kanto League was the worst
• Team Rocket peaked here

Advanced Generation

• Most balanced version of Ash in terms of character and trainer
• Drew and Harley are the best companion rivals
• The whole Hoenn Arc excluding the Battle Frontier is underrated
• This series has the best opening themes for both english and japanese
• Ash vs Brandon third battle is tainted due to Charizard jobbing to Dusclops

Diamond and Pearl

• Paul is the greatest rival (under the scope of the hardcore viewers)
• DP is the best written series
• Sinnoh League is the best pokemon league
• Ash vs Paul (Sinnoh League) is the greatest battle
• DP has the best contest battles
• Ash as a trainer was in his prime here
• Hunter J is the best villain
• Tobias being blatantly created as a roadblock was to show that no other trainer was good enough to beat Ash after getting past Paul.
• Ash vs Paul should've been in the finals of the Sinnoh League
• Ash's story should've wrapped up in DP

Black and White

• Cilan is the second best male companion

XY

• The animation was peak here
• The specials were peak here

SM

• Ash's win at the don george esque league was underwhelming when comparing the alola league competition to other league competition regardless of Z Move gimmicks

Journeys

• Ash vs Cynthia was great

 

[DigitalGen6]

XY

• The animation was peak here
• The specials were peak here

The animation is similar to BW lmao but yes this one is best series and the specials are best ones too

Yo that scene where Steven helps Mairin is so cool omg why am I blushing?? (It’s not because of that I promise /j)

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

The animation is similar to BW

I don't see it

 

[Poke Trey]

Yeah, even I gotta question similar to BW?

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

First off, I hope I'm posting in the right thread. Second, this is the first of two posts I will upload onto here.

Moving on to the main subject at hand, let me start off by saying that I absolutely love the Pokemon franchise, and have loved it since 2008. I love it so much that I am currently working on a large Fakemon project. However, I also have my fair share of issues with it, particularly regarding the mainline games and the English dub of the anime. While I think the mainline games have been declining in quality since 2013 with X & Y, the English dub of the anime is another major problem to me, specifically when it comes to the voice acting, in which I will be explaining in detail the latter. I might have not watched every episode, but I saw and heard enough clips to formulate my own feelings regarding all of this. Keep in mind that this is all just my opinion, but this kind of thing has been irritating the living hell out of me for years.

Characters that are poorly-dubbed/voice-acted:

Ash Ketchum - what better place to start than with the face of the Pokemon anime himself, Ash Ketchum. I'll be honest, I initially didn't really like Veronica Taylor's portrayal of Ash, and I much preferred Sarah Natochenny's take on him. Nowadays, while I think both VAs are good as Ash in their own ways, I unfortunately believe Sarah's performance as him has been getting worse in recent years. Starting in Sun & Moon, I thought that her portrayal as Ash was starting to go downhill because she prematurely had to adapt to the more energetic and over-the-top nature of that series; in previous iterations (from Battle Frontier to XY), I found her portrayal played off better because those sagas of the anime were generally more down-to-earth feeling (the Team Rocket trio is in a similar situation, which I will get to later). But especially in Journeys, the big problem I have with Sarah Natochenny's Ash is that he sounds WAAAAAAAAY too insufferably high-pitched, over-exaggerated, and kid-pandering, which really hurts and devastates an older fan like myself. I very much prefer when Ash's voice was deeper and gruffer, and to be fair, it can still be heard quite a bit in both SM and Journeys, but sadly, the high-pitchedness overshadows it, and just makes Ash's character a whole lot worse for me.

Serena - I'm gonna say it: Serena's English voice was the indicator of TPCi and the whole dub going downhill since XY. Basically, Haven Paschall's portrayal of Serena makes her sound WAAAAAAY too much like an attractive older woman rather than a young girl who's supposed to be around Ash's age. It's very distracting to hear, and the problem stays even when Serena cuts her hair later on in XY. Furthermore, when Serena screams, it almost sounds like she was voiced by someone else, that's how jarring her whole voice is.

Mallow - one of the three Alolan girls in SM (alongside Lana and Lillie), Mallow unfortunately has a similar vocal problem to that of Serena. While Jessica Paquet's performance as Mallow does admittedly sound more age-appropriate (usually) compared to Serena, there are times where it becomes noticeably jarring. Probably the worst example of this was in the episode "Memories in the Mist!", where upon seeing the spirit of her deceased mother, Mallow starts to cry and her voice sounds WAAAAAAY too deep and woman-like (the deep voice also occurred when she was discussing her mother with Lana prior), but then after it sounds tolerable again, which doesn't really make sense to me. Additionally, in Journeys, Mallow was instead voiced by Emily Cramer, and to be honest, her take sounded slightly better than that of Paquet; at least Mallow sounded more consistently young there, and Cramer probably should've been voicing her from the start in SM.

Lana - Lana's dubbed voice by Rosie Reyes is probably the best out of the three Alolan girls in SM, since for the most part, she manages to make her sound young enough. However, like with Mallow above, there are slip-ups which, again, make her voice jarring to hear. When Lana raises her voice (such as when she performs Z-Moves), it pretty much sounds too adult-ish, proving that there really should've been better vocal direction in order to not break the immersion the dub was trying to go for. In other words, Rosie Reyes seems to nail Lana most of the time, but there are also moments where I could tell it's clearly coming from an older woman who struggles to make a younger girl sound natural. But the voices of both Lana and Mallow will seem peaceful compared to the next voice I will be discussing.

Lillie - Ah yes, Laurie Hymes' portrayal of Lillie is possibly the most infamous voice to come out of the whole English dub of Pokemon, and I can absolutely see why: whatever words come out of Lillie's mouth always give her the voice of an attractive older woman instead of that of an innocent young girl. Unlike with Mallow and Lana, Lillie sounds the way she does practically every single time in the dub, and it's simply mind-boggling. Not only that, but I did hear Lillie's vocals actually increase in pitch a few times, to the point that Laurie Hymes made her voice crack and sound very squeaky. It's like Hymes knew the whole time that she made Lillie sound too old, so in some kind of attempt to make her sound younger, she had to crack her voice to where she starts sounding out of breath. I don't know about you, but if a VA has to literally strain their voice just to make their recordings sound natural, then I think both the direction and the higher-ups are to blame.

Chrysa - she's from Journeys, as one of Professor Cerise's lab assistants. While Casey Mongillo seems like a fine VA, their performance as Chrysa sounds all wrong IMO. Whenever I would hear her, she would always sound very stilted, toneless, and sometimes slurred. Out of all the characters I take issue with in the current Pokemon dub, Chrysa has the most poor, empty, monotone voice I have heard; at least the other characters TRY to convey different emotions even if they all come out too horribly forced in the end. I'm sorry, but Mongillo sounded much better as the Scorbunny line in Journeys to me.

Rotom Phones - You might have noticed that many human characters in Journeys own Rotom Phones (practically as stand-ins for real-life smartphones), but sadly, I have to critique their voices too. First off, they sound nowhere near as good as the Rotom Dex did in SM, and second, they have very lackluster vocals in general. Specifically, I'm referring to the Rotom Phones belonging to Ash, Goh, and Chloe, where they all have very stale, sluggish, and emotionless deliveries, and they sound awful IMO. At least Rotom Dex was able to sound and speak like human beings regularly do, and express beyond just being a Pokedex, but I find it sad that the PHONES were stripped of most of the charm and intelligence they really should've had. It's inexcusable and a complete downgrade. Ironically, the DEX comes off as more sentient than the PHONES do.

Team Rocket trio - Similarly to Ash, I liked Michelle Knotz as Jessie, and James Carter Cathcart as James and Meowth more than their 4Kids counterparts of Rachel Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein (RIP) when I was younger. Again, I believe each of these VAs are/were good in their own terms, but just like Natochenny's Ash, Knotz's Jessie and JCC's James and Meowth have had their English voices deteriorate since SM, albeit from the very start. Ever since the trio arrived in Alola in "Loading the Dex!", Team Rocket has become consistently less likeable to me, and I think a large part of that is due to the VAs having to adapt to SM's more relaxed and free-spirited atmosphere too soon, in which they probably weren't given enough time to fully comprehend the subject matter. That may have been the case, but it doesn’t change how much worse they've gotten towards my ears. Jessie seems to have gotten higher-pitched, but her voice is too all over-the-place as well, especially in Journeys, where I heard Michelle Knotz's voice slip-up and crack many times, indicating that voicing mostly the same character for over a decade would indeed take a toll on one's vocal cords overtime. Meanwhile, James sounds overly-goofy and it comes off as more bothersome than funny, but when it comes to Meowth, I think he's also a perfect sign of when it comes to relying too much on a limited amount of characters (in a single franchise no less) in one's voice acting career. With Meowth, Cathcart tried to make him sound more over-the-top while maintaining the character's raspier and more gravely tone of voice, but it did not mesh well at all, and his screams are certainly ear-grating on top of that. I think particularly due to this, it may have strained Cathcart's vocals as well. Overall, I don't think Team Rocket's more relaxed and down-to-earth voices from previous iterations of the anime blended very well with the SM dub. To conclude this segment, I am aware that James Carter Cathcart himself isn't in the best health, and I do hope he heals, gets better, and lives a peaceful life in general.

Korrina - Voiced by Lisa Ortiz (the current voice director for the dub), I find Korrina's portrayal in Journeys to be analogous with how the dub is handled nowadays, which I will explain later on. But basically, how she sounds in Journeys is very forced and somewhat nasally, and I know she was always voiced by Ortiz from XY, but I think she might just sound better in the latter than in the former.


As I stated in the beginning of this post, this is a two-parter, so I will upload the follow-up of this explaining my further thoughts on the modern dub (and probably Pokemon as a whole) later. However, depending on how much I have to say, it could be more than that.

Not necessarily the right thread, but I'm glad someone has actually elaborated on their opinion on the English dub who previously liked the TPCi cast more and is conceding it had its problems too (that's actually unpopular on most sites, and I would be in the opposite camp though, always thought the 4Kids cast was better + to the end still did): I appreciate someone actually providing insight, not just "omg you're nostalgic if you disagree with me" which tends to form the crux of most of this fandom's claims. Thank you for actually giving such a detailed, clear outlook as to your thoughts (while I disagree on some, namely TPCi's mainstay Brock never sat well with me in particular overall and I found Stuart to be infinitely superior to Rogers here-- though I shared the disdain everyone had for TPCi's Team Rocket, on the other hand, Dogasu and I agree for once there!).

I have always thought TPCi did a worse job than 4Kids with the dub for Ash's Series, and not remotely that the two dubs were the same-- never (most not in Dogasu's camp have finally warmed to this idea on every site, albeit it's not for the reasons I had hoped: it's chiefly due to Ed Goldfarb's BGM changes, the OPs & amount of OST TPCi excised now surpassing 4Kids' worst levels-- which I think while absolutely bad were not my biggest beef like most, it was the VA changes I felt were a huge step down overall & script writing style change I found most offensive about the current dub overall). We should debate sometime, would be happy to do so- thanks for such a well written analysis.

Anyway, to keep this thread back on track, more popular opinions I actually share:

• Rachael Lillis' Misty was the best.
• Orange Islands was a great Season.