Bare Bones for Advanced Generation (Hoenn+Battle Frontier)... 1,3+4,6-8,13-16,18+19,21,23,28,31,33,35,40,44+45,47,50+51,55+56,58,61+62,66,68-70,73,80,82,84+85,90+91, 100,103,105,108,110+111,115-118,121-123,125-134,m8, 135-136,143+144,147,149-151,153+154,158,160-164,170, 174+175,178,180-182,189-192 (end) (pace gets choppy, character moments are lost... there seems to be a pattern here)
day 789 May starts her Pokémon journey, joins up with Ash (may says she's 10...LIES!) {ag1}
I want to say a couple things from the beginning pertaining to our new co-star, May is not Misty, and this is a good thing, it serves to establish her as her own character. May is not 10, I don't care if this is anime, unless I'm watching some weird hentai 10-year old's do not have visible and definable boobs... that appear to change size depending on the animation team for the episode..., ergo she's like 13ish. Her figure kinda makes more sense now, it puts her in the same age bracket with Ash as per the art style, and it even meshes well with her character, as May is initially put off and mildly frightened of Pokémon, of course she wouldn't get her license ASAP.
Getting back to the main star... did Ash practice his ninja skills on the boat ride over? Not only was he able to chase after a supercharged delirious Pikachu, he was also able to dive off a cliff, save Pikachu from falling and grab onto a branch protruding from said cliff that I'm pretty sure wasn't there a second ago. Oh and when Pikachu finally does release his excess energy in a violent electric explosion that disintegrates several trees, Ash is still holding him and of course is perfectly okay.
May's torchic is fine so far, bit of a crybaby but again, first episode. Lastly, damn May you meet this kid for one day he does a couple kinda brave, stupid, chivalrous things and his Pikachu accidentally toasts your bike so you quickly guilt trip him into being a source of training advice/travel companion just to be around him longer? At least Misty wasn't so obvious as to smile about it behind his back afterward. (she waited a couple eps.) ag2 lays a bit more groundwork on the whole Ash as mentor thing, and team magma is introduced, then we hit a major bump in the road.
(2013) I go into more detail further on about this, but I just have to lament on how little impact teams magma+aqua had on the Advanced Generation's plot... still did better than plasma though.
day 791 ash gets to petalburg meets may's brother max and their dad norman {ag3}
day 792 brock returns, ash gets a tailow {ag4}
<ahem> Excuse me, who is this little shit? Oh, he's May's 7-8 year old kid brother and he'll be tagging along? Little young to be a cock blocker, but nothing like a know it all kid to act as a moment-killer. What's that, he doesn't actually know everything and has to be corrected a few times by Ash of all people, speaking of age limits, what Pokémon does he have? None. He's not ten yet so he can't be a trainer!
And he has the gall to say to Ash that top 16, in a regional tournament, let alone top 8, and an honest to goodness trophy isn't good enough?! I hate him already. Though I lol'd at Ash+May's faces when they were leaving, they didn't want him around either. Worst of all, Max's entire character purpose is invalidated when Brock jumps back into the plot the following episode, as Brock is a wise mentor who actually knows whats up, and he's been stalling out Ash's relationship with Misty since episode 5.
Lastly, ag5 is pointless bad filler that I refuse to summarize in any form because its character of the day is fucking stupid, and that's the only explanation you get.
day 797 arbok and weezing leave :( but james gets cacnea :) {ag6}
Oh Lord, it's worse than Butterfree. <tear> I mean, I knew that they got new Pokémon, but this... I had no idea, they threw themselves at a tyranitar for their captured friends, and Ash's one line at the end when the group runs into the trapped poacher and he says that at least someone as bad as Team Rocket got their just deserts, punch to the gut right there. I don't get why portions of the fandom says that only the original series had truly emotional moments, I got all the feels from this. At least cacnea is adorable, but I'm still a little sad.
day 803 ash gets a treecko, jessie gets seviper {ag7+8}
Ash's new bird is tenacious and fool hardy and treecko seems like a pretty cool dude. Also, Jessie don't need no stinkin battle, if you mess with her hair she'll pummel you down herself, and you'll crawl in your new pokeball and like it snakey. Ag9, oh look Max is going to get a shroomish! Wait, false alarm. 10 is more bad filler with an obviously cheating pelliper that Max is wide-eyed innocent enough to accept. 11 follows 9's plot, as Max almost gets a mightyena... except not. He also gets a lesson respecting each Pokémon's thoughts and feelings from the Pokémon messiah himself, Ash Ketchum.
(2013) Towards the end of this series and after one episode in particular I became really sympathetic to Max's character, before that though he was just obnoxious, but with being said he was still never as bad as Cilan or Iris individually in my opinion of course, nevermind the fact that those two are a package deal thus excacerbating the obnoxiousness... and wow am I getting ahead of myself.
Next time... "Something witty about Roxanne in comparison to Brock, Something pithy about team aqua, and something clever and certainly not over used about Brawly... Kakarott!!! Eps 12-32
