Pokémon anime

I still think Ash-Greninja appearing in the dust cloud during Frogadeer's push back is one of the hypest things ever.

Its not the budget. Its the technology used for the animation thats changed.

edited 1st Dec '16 5:42:28 PM by Demongodofchaos2

To me, Pokémon Speak can be natural and even favorable if you know what kind of tone, emphasis and other vocal factors is needed.

One method is to only say a part of the name and leave everything else. Or keep the Japanese dub if it sounds more natural than the English name. Or if the Pokémon is more animalistic than anthropomorphic, have real animal sounds.

Contrary to popular belief, the anime uses all kinds of vocals and voice methods for their Pokémon, not simply just Pokémon Speak.

edited 1st Dec '16 5:43:52 PM by Shadao

I know it's not the budget, I was just using lazy shorthand.

XY, and most of DP before that, should really be watched in Japanese/subs over the dub. The music changes and the sketchy VA really drags down the dub for years.

The dub stops being relevant by the end of the AG saga.

Dat Bewear tho.

That one scene alone almost made up for all the issues I faced trying to get the video to play. XD

edited 1st Dec '16 6:00:27 PM by HanabiraKage

To tell you the truth, the Pokespeak is one of the more tolerable things to listen to in the dub. At least a few of the English Pokemon like Inkay and Bulbasaur are rather endearing in how they are voiced.

That dream episode where the Pokemon could speak English just gave them the most laughably stiff dialogue in the dub, and it was mostly for Pokemon that sounded decent in the dub.

The Sun And Moon dub thus far is still of average quality because of this. While it has some huge plus points from it's preview (using the complete Japanese soundtrack, Natochenny sounding FAR more expressive as Ash and most of the new V As matching well enough) it still uses that bland Totally Radical type translation.

edited 1st Dec '16 6:06:08 PM by Psi001

so whats this dream episode where the pokemon spoke?

There was one way back in the original series, and one recent one where Squishy talked with this fucking amazing deep posh British voice (which it used outside the episode for internal monologues and telepathing with Squishy 2).

Remember the one where all the Pokemon talked with subtitles?

Yes. And all the human characters spoke in a Hurricane of Puns. XD

Isn't that the one where everyone got drunk at a bar run by a Slowpoke? XD

I got a slight chuckle out of Lana's voice dropping an octave when Team Rocket pissed her off.

Also, of Bewear coming out of nowhere to make the catch and carry Team Rocket off.

Team Rocket needed some variety to keep them fresh (since both the original head writer, and other subsequent writers insisted they be in EVERY episode, a decision that was a huge ass mistake, because they were definitely episodes where they had no part to play), but it took until the—massively disliked—shift in Unova / Isshu for that to start.

Having some episodes where they don't show up, some where they succeed, some where they blast off, some where a random pokemon comes out of nowhere to do what Bewear does....that would have been great.

Instead, for 4 fucking arcs, it was WE BLASTING OFF AAAAAGGGGAAAAAIIIINNNNN!!!!! over and over and FUCKING OVER.

Shudo made a mistake insisting they needed to be in every episode. If they were that important to him (more so then Ash I feel, considering he created them), then he needed to learn to moderate things.

Then again, he never planned for Pokemon to still be going to this day, so I suppose it can't be helped. Plus, at that point, Team Rocket in the games was rather bare bones in personality. That doesn't change the fact that using the same three clowns was a big error.

Edit: Got so caught up in my rant that I totally forgot to mention that Lana being a water trainer with two younger sisters (being the eldest by default) makes her feel like a reverse Misty to me.

Their personalities are very different however. There don't seem to be many Fiery Red Head Tsundere females anymore with the current trend of subservient loyal Waifus.

I might be wrong on that though.

edited 2nd Dec '16 8:25:47 AM by HandsomeRob

Yeah, that's why I really started hating Team Rocket. It made every episode way too formulaic, they only wasted time that could have been dealt with the actual plot instead. As long as they don't return to that in Alola I'm fine with them still sticking around.

Eldest Sibling, Calmer personality (most of the time), Blue hair...

Could we be looking at Mirror Universe!Misty?

*gets bricked*

Seriously, I did mention that three of the Captains were Calm!Misty, Female!Cilan, and Fat!Clemont. Changing "Calm" to "Inverse" isn't too much of a stretch.

We'll see how much the last holds true next week. But has Mallow gotten her first Day in the Limelight yet, or is that still to come?

EDIT: And who is Kiwae most like? Probably a Rival, but which one?

edited 2nd Dec '16 9:37:24 AM by DonaldthePotholer

So far Mallow's personality seems like a mix of May, Dawn and Shauna to me.

I'm kind of hoping that the first few episodes have shown they have learnt from their mistakes. They put all emphasis on the heroes and giving them a developed introduction for the two part pilot, not to mention giving them very vibrant personalities (they don't seem the type that need Team Rocket or another antagonist around just to shake the plot up).

When TR did finally arrive, we've been getting a few clear formula breakers, with Mimiyu being established as a very dangerous and sinister Pokemon instead of an Unknown Rival for Pikachu to curb stomp, and their usual beatings being downplayed in favour of Bewear muddying things up (wish they'd go back to different motto animations every now and then though).

I could be wrong, after all XY TR didn't get all that bad until near XYZ, but like a lot of things in Sun/Moon, it looks like they want to dumb down the repetition of the past two decades. I do want to see how the trio's methods might alter now they have a static location to stalk Ash in (amusingly Jessie even lampshades that could get dull).

edited 2nd Dec '16 11:31:04 AM by Psi001

I dunno, TR always seem like Villain Forgot to Level Grind , Pokemon like Lickitung, Seviper and now Mimikyu are legitimate trouble, but they seem fixed at that, and once the heroes get time to train and build teams, they become a non-issue.

edited 2nd Dec '16 3:47:29 PM by Blueace

As said, that's why it would be neat to see it subverted for once. They've broken a lot of other formulas (you know, outside that big one...). XYZ was a particularly bad example, since neither Serena nor Clemont remotely level grind either but could suddenly curb stomp Inkay and Gourgeist. It's a cheap, boring and repetitive way of making the heroes look more competent over, you know, an actual challenge.

Truthfully I wanna see how their formula might be altered by the school setup. Their little meeting with Samson Oak and Jessie's annoyance to the new dynamic leaves me hopeful they're foreshadowing to some changes in method. I'd love it if they tried to integrate themselves into the school to antagonise the twerps shrewdly from the inside (along with likely starting to enjoy whatever perks come within the school).

You know, just something to downplay the whole "Why are they even here?" notion. They've been doing a decent job with Ash so far.

edited 2nd Dec '16 5:12:42 PM by Psi001

IMO given how we have Older Red and Blue in the mainline SM games, the Anime version of Alola is definitely a parallel since Ash is still in the same age group as the Trial Captains-to-be.

Indeed, if I didn't know better, I'd say this saga having a timeskip somewhere half way in with an older Ash and the SM character as Island trial captains would happen.

But the writers have refused to age Ash in 20 years so it won't happen.

Well... now that a week has passed, it's time for me to share a brilliant theory from That Dude In The Suede had in the "Island of the Giant Pokémon" review:

Skip to 5:55 to see theory.

The giant Dragonite that Bill was searching in "Mystery at the Lighthouse" was actually a malfunctioning animatronic from the Pokémon Land theme park that somehow travelled all the way to Bill's residence.

...Huh.

That does make some degree of sense.

Of course, that does kind of make that whole episode kind of a "Shaggy Dog" Story.

It's fucking hilarious.

Hey guys, do you think Ash will catch and use an Wimpod in the Alola region?