Anime Overview: Pokemon

So we've talked about Pokemon a few times before and with the review of Digimon going on I thought it might be fun to talk about it's counterpart at roughly the same time/pace. First let's talk about exactly how Pokemon differs from Digimon again just to sort of get a feel of ourselves again. When people think of the two we have to acknowledge that people really only focus on what Digimon does better than Pokemon as opposed to the reverse. We've talked about how Pokemon's choice to keep Ash as the central focus of the series has helped keep the series going as well as it has been whereas Digimon usually makes each season it's own separate entity providing more creative freedom with characters. Ultimately Pokemon tries (and sometimes fails) to create one big universal experience where Digimon wants to make each season/arc feel different and unique to itself.

When you look at the series I do think at times it feels as if the series doesn't have any idea how the world itself works. The show exists primarily to introduce watchers to the video games and get them to buy product.  This is best seen in the character of Ash and the characters he interacts with, Ash looks like Red in terms of his clothes and he has always followed a red and blue color motif with a  Pikachu (Red, Blue, and Yellow). In addition he often travels with characters from the games such as gym leaders and characters who look like characters unique to the game. Again, this serves to enhance the gaming experience and fleshing it out and as good as it is, it leads to some inconsistencies within the world itself. This is best seen in the Pokemon themselves with new facts and information being introduced which at times retcons already established ideas like the ever changing number of Pokemon and where they live along with changes made to them.

The series is by definition repetitive. Ash arrives in a new region, travels with 2-3 people, gets a starter Pokemon, takes on a challenge, finds a rival, battles criminal organizations, rinse and repeat. The formula at times breaks up a bit with some subtle noticeable changes to the formula. It's been one of the key criticisms of the show for years. The biggest weakness of this is the inconsistency of Ash as a trainer and as a character, while I believe Ash is possibly one of if not THE best trainer in the series, how his character functions each series shapes how he acts as a trainer. This will be a constant thing we will see throughout the series

Since it's debut, Pokemon has been a monster of a series and like Yu-gi-oh! refuses to die no matter how much time has passed. So let's take a look in the world of POKEMON (starting next month).