day 811 brock gets lotad {ag12}
So Brock left all his Pokémon except foretress back in Pewter, which is explained in the 1st Pokémon Chronicles episode, a side-story mini series, as him lending them to his oldest younger sibling Forrest as he can't trust either of his former dead-beat parents to run the gym correctly. His lotad is ok I guess, but it weirds me out that the rock gym leader has no rock Pokémon.
Other good Chronicle eps are 2,5,11 which follow Misty as she gets her gyrados and gets the gym back up and running and turns down a secret admirer because she's already got a man natch. 3 and 12 are great because one is a TR focused mini-episode and the other gives us more back-story on how the team actually got together. Man, who knew they were such good operatives? 1-2 great years, but then there was that mess in Viridian, and it was all down hill from there. The rest of them suck, except for the 2 newest ones, but they don't happen till way later in post Sinnoh/Unova so shifting focus back to Hoenn.
day 815 pikachu learns iron tail, may+jessie each get a wurmple {ag14}
13 gives us a nice introduction to Contests, as a way for May to slowly acclimate herself to working with Pokémon without adrenaline fueled battles, and sets up a budding May/Jessie rivalry that is further highlighted when they each get the same Pokémon in 14. These eps are also the first to put Ash in the back seat while not exclusively focusing on another character. It's handled well, and I like how they actually have to train to learn new moves now, good stuff.
day 818 ash gets first badge {ag15+16}
Hey Brock, why aren't you hitting on Roxanne more? You're a rock gym leader, so is she. You both love kids, and you both got your butts kicked by the same electric rat, look at how much you have in common. Also 3 weeks and 15 eps is a lot better than that snail's pace Ash had in Johto... probably b/c he was trying to get rid of Max... what you think I'm projecting? Sure, the kid'll probably grow on me, like a fungus, but until then, I just twitch every time he says something.
17 is (sigh) another Max focused ep, and team aqua is introduced. 18 follows up on aqua, and Ash gets on a boat to dewford, 19 is a Jaws parody and Ash arrives on the island. 20+21 are gym attempt #1 and training for the re-match, all important stuff and except for 17 easy to get through. Lastly I want to point out that May strips down to a bikini in public in front of Ash and then poses for him... and the studio said they didn't want to promote shipping... really? (Also she's supposed to be 10)?
day 824 ash meets steven stone {hoenn champion} {ag22} day 827 ash catches corphish {ag23}
day 828 both wurmples evolve into silcoon+cascoon {ag24} day 831 brock gets mudkip {ag25}
day 835 may's silcoon evolved and jessie's cascoon both evolve again {ag28} day 838 ash gets second badge {ag31}
So much plot happens, but nothing interesting to comment on. Steven's one appearance is cool tho, and the teams get split up and reorganized for a little while. Jessie is apparently either colorblind or retarded if she can't tell the difference between the two cacoon Pokémon though she's delighted with her dustox when it evolves anyway. Corphish is like a better version of totodile, so that's good I guess.
26 is more training with new Pokémon, 27 has the 1st aqua/magma confrontation, 29 is bad filler with sableye and 30 is the lead up to the brawly rematch where treecko gets to show off his skills. Finally 32 is a good interlude showing how they get back on the main land wherein Max is temporarily kidnapped and off screen by a swampert.
(2013) Like yeah, there's not much else here... no rant inducing badness, nothing I can comb over for a hidden gem. Just generic plot progression that happens consistenly and repeatedly... I mean it's leagues better than the wasteland of nothing that was most of Johto, but it was kind of... mediocre. Although why does Steven only get this one episode? Even Wallace got a mini-arc technically.
Next time... Brock gets nothing, Ash gets a badge, Misty gets a cameo, May gets a plot and a ribbon, and Max gets a Jira-zzzzzzzzzzzzzz (huh? Something happened? I fell asleep.) movie6+ eps 33-55
