Pokémon anime

Liko is endearing, Weed Kitty is cute, Captain Pikachu is my captain, and Ceruledge is such a natural fit for an evil person's Pokemon. Honestly surprised at how antagonistic Amethio is. Hope Anne shows up again. Roy better give Fuecoco lots of hugs. All the Pokemon working to keep the airship running is neat. Good start. Maybe this will be the season where I finally watch Pokemon.

https://www.cbr.com/pokemon-anime-professor-oak-james-carter-retires-cancer/

Voice actor James Carter, who has played Pokémon characters such as James from Team Rocket and Professor Oak, announces his retirement due to throat cancer.

Considering the fact that Pokemon Horizons is coming up, at least we won't get Other Darrin James just yet. Still, throat cancer sucks - I hope he gets through this okay.

Edited by HoloMew151 on Apr 19th 2023 at 9:59:59 AM

Such terrible news. :(

They'll just get Eric Stuart to come back, ez.

Well good on him for focusing on his health. But damn, gotta give him credit, he held it down as Gary since Day fucking One. Respect.

And kept it up as James and Meowth.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 19th 2023 at 10:39:34 AM

I wonder what these Explorers are ultimately up to. And is Amethio the real leader, or just The Heavy?

literally the first place they go is Paldea, so there's that.

It seems like they're trying to set up some kind of twist with the villains but it's in that annoying way a lot of media likes to do where information is withheld for no real reason besides surprising the audience later. It's pretty obvious they're not evil, Amethio's had several opportunities to show his hand there and they've been very careful to never let him do anything particularly mean spirited or heinous, but also we don't know anything about their motivations or intentions besides being opposed(?) to the heroes.

Well I’m liking Liko so far. Quiet, contemplative, we’ll-intentioned, but also flawed enough to receive development as time goes on. Def a refreshing contrast to Ash.

After twenty years, anyone would be a refreshing change from Ash.

There's a brand new energy to this show, there's no doubt about that.

It's like, that speech that Liko's grandmother gave at the beginning of this episode applies to the anime as a whole. The writers are on a new big adventure, and this time they have no idea where things will go because they don't have their usual fallback of Ash and Team Rocket.

That said, I saw some promotional material of Roy acting more energetic and boisterous than Liko. I hope it doesn’t get to the point that they’ll just constantly fall on Roy doing antics as if he’s meant to be an Ash clone, taking attention from Liko in the process.

Edited by electricmastro on Apr 22nd 2023 at 4:51:05 AM

I like how the penultimate Aim to be a Pokemon Master episode had an expy of Hunter J seemingly to settle the question of whether Ash was now strong enough to defeat someone like her.

I think that's going to be a bit of a problem with her in general - she's surrounded by a bombastic cast of characters and Roy's just going to make that worse, so without careful writing she might get swallowed up by the rest of the mainstays.

Thinking about it again, I suppose because of how she was introduced is meant to have us think she will indeed be the long-term primary focus and even Roy being the other main protagonist there alongside her would still leave her with plenty to work with. He might end up being the one who leaves while we stay with Liko, or perhaps another direction entirely. Could go any way really.

What do you guys think of Max and Bonnie? Trying to determine if either qualifies as a Base-Breaking Character, I added them hastily last year and second-guessed myself. I figured hearing your thoughts on them and maybe reactions you've seen could help with that.

So I haven't seen the finale yet, but does Giovanni ever get arrested?

nope hes still at large. Only time he ever got real Karma was when Mewtwo destroyed Rocket HQ back in Season 1

Wow, that is just a major fail of writing.

He went from being played up as a big bad to not getting a gym match with Ash, to being reduced to a meme by the Meowth fantasies, to FINALLY fighting Ash once, and then nothing.

I'm still baffled as to why the writers didn't have Giovanni and Ash fight back in the Kanto era.

Or in the "Return to Kanto" saga. It was Agatha IIRC.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 28th 2023 at 9:17:31 PM

Writers probably had no idea what to do with him, especially when the T Rio became the main representative of Team Rocket as a whole.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 28th 2023 at 9:21:20 AM

Like not to excessively praise Red and Origins since I prefer Ash, but I liked how Origins used him as a villain and how Red defeated him. Yeah it's got problems but it was a satisfying character arc for both Red and Giovanni.

Heck, I've been really enjoying Giovanni as a character in Masters, since he's got a very interesting dynamic with Mewtwo there. Even managed to forge a bond strong enough to allow that specific Mewtwo to mega evolve.

A good villain can bring out the better traits in a hero as an obstacle to overcome.

Ah well. It's still weird that the mob boss that's been built up since the start got away with everything.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 28th 2023 at 9:25:14 PM

From what I read they considered making the defeat in Unova the end of the entire organization but not wanting to commit to losing them they decided on simply advertising it as the end of the organization with the plan always to have them return after the Unova Leauge. //

The writers and producers would then use the response to the Meloetta arc and the idea of Team Rocket leaving to determine whether or not the Rocket Trio should go to Kalos or be dropped from the anime after Gen V. As you can clearly see Japanese fans loved them too much

Edited by Mariofan99 on Apr 28th 2023 at 9:28:44 AM

I really loved the Kalos saga but that ending was a slap to the face.

Ah well, Ash won the more important victory.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 28th 2023 at 9:28:49 PM

Honestly, I found Max to be pretty annoying, not only for acting like a know-it-all, but for often getting on May's nerves. But Bonnie was an okay character. Running Gag of playing The Matchmaker for her brother aside, she wasn't really that unlikeable to me.

Do you think Max is hated enough to be A Scrappy? Liked enough to be BBC or falls in the middle ground of qualifying as neither?

Tough to say. I think you might want to get a few more opinions on this.