After participating in the Johto League, Satoshi decides to begin anew in yet another journey; this time by himself and Pikachu, in the land of Houen. Though he isn't alone for long, as 10-year-old Haruka (whom dislikes Pokemon, but just wants to come along to see the world) travels with him after Pikachu destroys her bicycle. Satoshi also meets up with his old companion, Takeshi, and Haruka's younger brother, Masato. Together, they travel along in Houen, battling Gym Leaders, entering contests, and other events on the way to the Houen League.
(Source: ANN, edited)
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Comentários
SakuraForever
I didn't expect many reviews on this chp. of pokemon. The history of pokemon had done so well up until this point, as seen by many. However, hardcore/loyal pokemon fans stuck around and watched the entire ADV generation. We embraced the new characters, though many did not want to see old ones retire away. We took note of even more pokemon added to anime, though some felt the originals could never be replaced. The games were stellar, I've played every single pokemon game out there and I can honestly say ruby/sapphire or emerald are must haves. So what is about ADV? I mean, it shouldbe better than Kanto's and Johto's saga, right?
PMKN ADV features the return of our main heroine Satoshi (better known as Ash Ketchum) as he explores an entire new region, Hoenn. Here, he encounters totally new pokemon with different aspects and abilities nowhere seen in the previous regions he was in. During his journey, he meets new friends and some returning ones. Haruka(May) and Masato(Max) are some new faces this time around, both are brother and sister. May, a once serious trainer competing for gym badges, focuses on a new goal to be a serious PKMN contest challenger. Max provides the group with in depth strategies to PKMN battling despite given his age. He takes a real liking to Ash, since he too also wants to become a pkmn trainer. The final character to the group is Brock, a familiar face seen with Ash throughout the series. He is still is normal self, acting perverted anytime a nurse joy or any of the likes of a cute girl is near. Ash himself is still competing for badges, so that one day he can participate in the "Hoenn League."
PKMN ADV is divided into several different titles. When the timeline gets serious enough and Ash gains more badges, the story is known as ADV Battle. From there, the story gradually gets deeper into harder challenges otherwise known as PKMN ADV Challenge. The style of "Double Battling" ie is introduced to where two pokemon battle another two in the same fight. Everything is still considered the ADV timeline, the story just gets deeper and possibly better.
PKMN theme's around this time are very solid. Perhaps better than it's previous counterparts. I do enjoy the opening ADV Challenge theme A LOT. The art is slightly better than Johto, however much improved from Kanto sagas. Battles are better detailed, and animation is more fluid. So it seems like ADV is just perfect, right? Well no. The story lines between travel are STILL the same: Team Rocket attacks Ash and gang until he reaches a gym or certain point of relevance in the story. I do like presentation of different groups like Team Magma and Team Aqua, but still most of the time it's the annoying Rockets doing the dirty work. Another thing is accepting the fact of just understanding new pokemon and how they work. There's LOTS of names I wouldn't begin to remember then, there was like 350 known species in this timeline. Sometimes, I questioned "oh what type is this?" or "what atk was that!?"
Overall, I wouldn't be quick to say ADV is the "rotten apple" in the history of PKMN. There's good scenes and action waiting to be watched here if you haven't yet. I think it naturally depends on if you are willing to accept the many changes to PMKN when you brace this saga of pokemon.
Lil-Bird
Note: Given the nature of this series, this review will be split into two parts to cover both the Hoenn League and Battle Frontier. Regardless of what we think of Pokémon, it's a successful franchise, and the original series was popular even with its ups and downs. However, its popularity began to decline during the Johto season, and the Pokémon phenomenon that rocked the world lost its luster. That didn't mean Pokémon was done with, as the Ruby and Sapphire versions rolled around for the fairly young Game Boy Advance on November 21 of 2002 in Japan, and then March 19, 2003 in North America (April3rd in Australia and July 25th in Europe, can't forget you guys). The final Johto episode aired just weeks before the games' release in Japan, while in the U.S., it aired in late October of 2003, months after Ruby and Sapphire were released.
Statistics say the Ruby and Sapphire versions sold 16.22 million copies world-wide total as of March 2013. However, when compared to Red/Blue (31.38), and Gold/Silver (23.10), there's a plummet of sales. Why is that? It could be because of the new handheld, or it could be because the fans are moving on. Or it could be because the Hoenn region was different compared to Johto complete with new gameplay, and (gasp!) people don't like it when a formula that already works gets switched up. Who's really to say when there's millions of people with their own reasons for why they never bought the games. The anime was still on-going at this time, why didn't that help boost sales? Maybe it did, just not to the same extent as the original series.
Pokémon Advanced Generation is notable for being the first time the Pokémon anime tried something “new”, as in changing the location, changing companions (although Brock remained), changing battle strategies, and overall just better writing; and in America, there was a change in voice actors mid-series (more on that later). Saying there's “better writing” is a little weird to say since Pokémon's not the best story-driven anime in the world, not by a long shot. But when compared to the first three sagas, it's an improvement even without Takeshi Shudo's involvement (although it's sorely missed).
THE HOENN LEAGUE
STORY: Continuing on from where the original series left off, Ash Ketchum arrives in the Hoenn region with his partner, Pikachu, and shortly afterwards met the new trainer May from Petalburg City, who picked out a Torchic. Accompanying them are May's brother, Max, and Brock, who chose to return to traveling but still doesn't change in personality even with his new roster. Ash explores the new region and Pokémon in his quest to collect the badges to challenge the Hoenn League, and May discovers her love for Pokémon Coordination. Team Rocket is still adamant in catching Pikachu, but have convinced Giovanni they were setting the foundation for the rest of the organization to infiltrate the region. They develop a brief rivalry with two other teams, Team Aqua and Team Magma, who proved to be slightly more competent than the Rocket gang.
That's pretty much it. There's not a lot of difference outside of what's on the surface. Likewise with the previous seasons, fillers still abound, but they're not taking up half of the journey like in Johto, and it's still used to give the illusion the Hoenn region is huge—although Ash and company don't cross the ocean as much as the player does in the games, and it's all in a later season anyway.
There are improvements from the first season such as better gym battles, and the presence of Teams Aqua and Magma (mostly Magma), and the two teams do occasionally clash. The payoff, however, is disappointing to say the least. The Pokémon anime tends to do that. But even so, there's still some enjoyment to be had during the season, especially with a fresh Pokémon roster that aren't overshadowed by Ash's older Pokémon for once. The Pokémon Contests shakes up the formula a bit by giving May a character motivation of her own, as well as some different rules and performances, showing some impressive and uniques strategies in Pokémon moves both inside and outside of battle. Luckily, the journey to collect ribbons is given equal focus and importance as the journey to collect gym badges.
ART/ANIMATION: A continuation from the late Johto episodes, the digital art and animation is the same, and remains rather consistent throughout, though wonky art still slips through on occasion—this WAS still the awkward early-to-mid 2000s transition. The biggest upgrade are many Pokémon moves being done in CG to make them look flashier. Sadly, outside of the Pokémon Contest events, nothing of note sticks out in this department. The two-parter episodes involving Kyogre and Groudon could've had impressive animation with their battles, but they were reduced to painted (or colored pencil) stills. They could technically pass off as beautiful paintings, though.
I didn't know where to put this, but I figured I'd mention it here. One of Pokémon's well-known traits is its “Who's That Pokémon?” eye-catch halfway into each episode. While it's still on-going in Japan, in America, 4KIDS decided to go a different direction starting in episode 41 with Advanced Challenge. Up until their contract expired, “Who's That Pokémon?” was replaced with “Trainer's Choice”, kind of like a trivia question in which out of three choices, the viewer chooses basically the “best” choice for type advantages, or what Pokémon evolves into what. It's a pretty good idea—however, someone in charge of it apparently was not that knowledgable about his or her Pokémon facts, with some questions having either multiple possible answers or incorrect answers, and some Pokémon's names were misspelled. What most people remember is the most infamous moment of “Trainer's Choice”, episode 77's “Which of these Pokémon evolves into Seviper?”. Advanced Battle got better with it in asking actual trivia with match-ups, battle strategies, and callbacks to episodes, but the damage had been done.
SOUND: The soundtrack is honestly the best part of this section and it's not just because it's full of trumpets—well, in actuality, the brass section (the trombone was the most prominent). Well, the reason is because most of the score, like with the previous seasons, are covers of the game score, and they sound fantastic. Unfortunately, the dub noticeably got iffy with the music by this point unlike with the previous seasons. The original soundtrack does still remain (which, if YouTube is anything to go by, consists of less new scores than with Johto), but more often than not, you're hearing the 4KIDS-implemented score from the movies or albums, and it's a little more easier at this point to not catch the original score if you weren't already familiar with it.
Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, Maddie Blaustein, and Dan Green still give good performances. However, by Advanced Battle, the vocal evolution of the cast becomes apparent, particularly with Team Rocket. Jessie had the least change to her voice, but James got noticeably whinier, and Meowth's Joisey accent had become almost slurred that he started sounding a little like Elmur Fudd.
CHARACTERS: This is a bit hard to truly gauge because the Hoenn saga's a continuation. Ash, Brock, and Team Rocket are the same as they were from before (sort of with Team Rocket, I'll explain shortly), although Ash has some character development in becoming a mentor to his new friend, May—I say some since this is mainly up until after Advanced Challenge when she becomes able to stand on her own two feet, then he seemingly regresses back to the same-old Ash, just mature. There's also no shortage of COTDs, though whether they stick with you or not depends on your tastes.
Judging the new main characters, they aren't bad. May is a rookie with some lack of self-confidence, and her brother is a know-it-all who gets annoying at times. What makes the two endearing, however, is their sibling relationship. They have their squabbles, but they truly care about each other. What also makes them a little bit different is they're the children of the Petalburg City gym leader Norman, and we do get to see them as a family on occasion. Sure, when it comes to Brock and Misty, we've seen them interact with their families, but not to the same extent. Still, the character development all went to May as she slowly became more confident and independent, who gained rivals in Drew, Jessie (in various disguises), and later Harley in Advanced Battle. Max was hinted at to have some gift with Pokémon bonding, but due to his young age, there wasn't much he could do about it, even though he once made a promise to a Ralts to be its trainer one day. He also later took up Misty's mantle of dragging Brock away by the ear whenever he got girl-crazy, but that's got nothing to do with his character in the slightest.
Team Rocket... ehhhhh, this is basically a continuation of their Johto personalities, except it got taken a step further depending on the writer. The Giovanni fantasies were a thing at that time, but they became ubiquitous by this saga that it began to get rather uncomfortably annoying rather quickly. Sure, it's a possibility we as children loved those segments, but the older we got, the more creepy and “ho yay” (although not necessarily in the same boat) it became. Maddie Blaustein enjoyed doing those parts, good for her, but when looking at it from a character perspective, it's like looking into the mind of a mad man, or in this case, a mad cat who may-or-may-not have a thing for his boss. This is similar to how Brock chases after every skirt he sees, except this is how Meowth sees his boss and believes this is how he's going to react for every rare Pokémon they bring to him. The ways the Pokémon are being used in these fantasies are rather reminiscent of servitude, and Giovanni doesn't look like the man who treats his Pokémon very well outside of his Persian (who is absent from all of these fantasies, funnily enough), but I personally doubt he'd use rare Pokémon for such mundane tasks as breaking open coconuts for him or be his personal alarm clock or workout partners.
THE BATTLE FRONTIER
STORY: Upon coming home from Hoenn, Ash stops by for a quick invited battle with Agatha, the temporary Viridian City gym leader and one of the Elite Four, accompanied by a man named Scott, who took interest in Ash because of his skills in the Hoenn League. Although Ash lost, Scott encouraged him to take the Battle Frontier challenge, and thus he travels the Kanto region once more, briefly visiting familiar places along the way, but there were more new places than there were old.
ART/ANIMATION: Outside of CG becoming steadily more abundant, there are no changes, although the battles get more clever. But there is a funny scene in the Deoxys two-parter of Meowth having one of his fantasies of Giovanni riding on the back of a Deoxys. You might've seen it around.
CHARACTERS: Everything still carries over, there are no changes to the main cast, not even to old faces who make appearances (since this is in the Kanto region). The Frontier Brains, however, fall under here. The problem(?) is, they don't all get the same amount of character development—well, screentime. The most notable Brains are Lucy of Battle Pike, Anabel of Battle Tower, and Brandon of Battle Pyramid, the former two because they had showed interest in either Ash or Brock (weirdly enough), though with Ash for the most part, it was mainly due to his skills.
SOUND: The voice cast is where this gets messy for the dub. From the beginning of the saga until “Pasta La Vista!”, it's still the classic 4KIDS cast. But thanks to the previous airing of “Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon”, the audience knew the voice cast was going to change at some point or another and were fearing the worst. This didn't come to fruition until the contract expired and there was a change of networks from Kids' WB to Cartoon Network (this was a problem personally, but by then I was turned away by the replacement of the voice actors, though I was disappointed to see it leave the network). Pokémon USA, wanting to find a cheaper company to produce the dub, went to TAJ Productions (when it still existed) where they cast newcomer (and actual Pokémon fan) Sarah Natochenny as Ash Ketchum, plus others—although a few such as James Carter Cathcart (Jimmy Zoppi) still remained, but were cast in new roles, or in the case of the narrator, Rodger Parsons returned.
Weirdly enough, the change wasn't AS jarring as people claim it to be. It's a gradual change in style in terms of the localization and script, but the quality wasn't any different. The theme and end credits songs are the only things I can say weren't as good as 4KIDS' themes, although they're both short and easy to brush off. On the plus side, the soundtrack from the original remained, so it's not a constant cacophony against your eardrums like it was before.
But needless to say, the Battle Frontier can be the roughest sit of the dub if you let it get to you. Although yes, some episodes and characters were better dubbed than others.
ENJOYMENT AS A WHOLE: Eleven years—that is how long it took to finish Advanced Generation. Hoenn was oddly enough not as memorable as the original series was despite being the “more recent” of my childhood. Upon my rewatch, I have no idea why that was the case, though it could be there was something different about it from the start. But there wasn't anything completely terrible about it, so I must've just had slowly lost interest. And even as an adult viewer, it was still a bit of a chore at times to watch even before the Battle Frontier saga, which had a noticeable change to the feel of the show. The season may not have had the 4KIDS touch, but it didn't really need to.
Still, there were good moments, good ideas, and memorable characters that helped make the Hoenn saga stand out from its predecessor. The transition from Johto to Hoenn was a bit of a whiplash, and again with Battle Frontier, but over time, it calmed and felt more natural. There were more places to see in Hoenn than in the past regions, because this time, it was an entire region getting coverage. It left almost no stone unturned, though in the process, it still skimmed over a bit in order to progress.
While not a personal favorite, Advanced Generation still left a good impression behind, generously rewarding those who stuck with it to the end. I'd dare say it was a better reward than the end of the Johto saga. But like they say, the journey continues, and so it does.
User-Name
One of the reasons for the Advanced series to be likable but still not a favorite for the fans, most of it is since the Advanced series comes right after the lousy Johto season, though effected by it creating some boring and excepted "filler" episodes the Advance series tries to fix them, in the most parts of it succeded but once the filling episodes that are not connected to the main story appears, the quality of those episodes are going down like the most of Johto episodes. The simple reason for the improvement is Misty - the female character in Ash's gang - is replaced byMay, a young beginner trainer who begins her Pokemon travel at the start of the anime, not much later Brock is returned and May's little brother joins the gang. the big change in May's appearance is not that she is much better than Misty, not any fans will say that and even me, but still her role in the Advance series is much larger than Misty - if Misty was only served as the company of Ash without effecting much the adventure of Ash and the series, May's role is much larger since her reason to travel is to be a coordinator and show her Pokemon in contests than gym battles, her choice to do that is filling the series in more important episodes except the usual Capturing and gym battles episodes with contests and grand festival episodes, besides that even the "filling" episodes feeling much more connecting to the main story to be an unnecessary episodes ("filler episodes"), and not just this but Ash also have much more mind in his Pokemon battle and raising it's Pokemon.
But all that not change the fact that the Advance series is such a good series - three full seasons is only on the Hoen league and the Hoen grand festival while the final season of the Battle Frontier somehow has much more important episodes but however have more problems than the first three seasons, to make the comparisons I will divide this review to two:
Hoen league Arc
One of the good things about the big arc of the Advanced series is like I said above, it contains a lot of important episodes, from the first gym battles to contests battles and the capturing Pokemon episodes, unlike Misty who caught a Pokemon only in a while, as May is a beginner she has a lot of room in the anime to make her Pokemon team, not only that but Ash also not disappoint and except for some Pokemon he evolved all of his team.
Not that alone, the gym leaders have a lot of room in the Arc to be explained and a lot of development even before the gym battles, which makes them a lot more interesting to watch.
But all that aside, the Arc still suffering from "Johto episodes" that comes to time to time, but what makes the Arc better is that those episodes are much rare than it was in the Johto seasons as I said above, the contests and the grand festival episodes making this Arc much better.
Though that to be said, the contests episodes and battles feeling much less tense and thrilling than the Gym battles and the League episodes, though their necessity and preferring them above the filler episode, they don't feel like canon episodes of the Advanced series and have a feels of "come to fix Johto seasons problem".
Battle Frontier Arc
In Battle Frontier Arc Ash and his friends are going back to the Kanto region, or much more accurate, they meet again after a short splitting in the Kanto region, from Pallet Town again for two goals: for Ash to conquer the Battle Frontier and May to win the Kanto grand festival by gathering five ribbons all over again.
Before the review I will introduce a little thing about the Battle Frontier, in the games, the Battle Frontier serves as the post-game materials, in the games, all the Batlle Frontier's facilities are placed in one big island west to the Hoen region, the point of the Battle Frontier facilities is to challenge the player in Maze quests or different ways of Pokemon battling in challenging way to test the Player knowledge, one example for that is the Battle Factory, which the player not using his Pokemon at all but choose between three different Pokemon, testing the knowledge of the player in abilities and types of Pokemon against NPC random player who using also three-to-choose Pokemon, after a couple of winnings in the facility, the player is battling the Frontier Brain who like the player using random-pokemon-to-choose, once winning him the Player gets the Knowledge Symbol that presents the Facility challenge.
Now let's get back to the anime, in the anime as I said, Ash and his friends already split only to be rejoined in the next episode to continue traveling again, it makes the same feeling as the Battle Frontier in the games is - only a post-game after the League and nothing more: the story isn't that interesting and the battles at the Battle Frontier are much less intense, the rules for each facility are much less rigid than the Gym battles and the "excitement in the air" to beat the Battle Frontier isn't there as to win the league.
But that's not my point, my main point is that the Anime ver. to the Battle, Frontier is the worst adaption ever seen not only in the Pokemon anime but in the anime ever. if in the games the battle frontier facilities have much more point on testing the trainers abilities the battle frontier in the anime is as Scott the founder of the battle frontier states - "like" gym leaders, while he says "like" the facilities is more "unofficial gym" than a battle frontier facility that designs to test the trainer, the only fact that they are "much stronger than gym battle" is of course since Ash just win the Hoen league gyms and if they weren't strong that strong what will make Ash go to them?
Though it may be a real bad adaption, it makes sense once you say the reason - the studio didn't really mean to create the Battle Frontier season but just to not make more "fille episodes" and to stretch more episodes on the Hoen league, so they only created this Arc to wait 'till the diamond and pearl games to release, in their actions of that they actually said - "if we will make much more accurate adaption of the Battle Frontier for the games, we will make more seasons only for that since it's requiring more than one season to do that, and we don't want to since we don't really need it, and it's not that interesting", though I didn't read officially statement it's clear from the rush "feeling" of the arc.
And that rush "feeling", though make this arc much more eventful actually make it worse - though every 2-3 episodes there's a contest or battle frontier battles this "rush" make the things made the Hoen arc good to bad - the Frontier Brains are much less introduced and even those who are much developed not so interesting; not only that, though it's Battle Frontier arc, the winning of the battle frontier feels much less necessary and meaningful than win the league, even to win the grand festival feels much more important and meaningful to "beat the battle frontier", which makes this season though more eventfull to less interesting.
Story - 9
Now to the characters.
Ash feels much more confidence in the advance series, no more "friendly gym leader" or "not to think" strategy and touch of luck, Ash really trains his Pokemon not only in theory but dedicate his time to raise them well, this makes Ash much more than "guy who loves pokemon" to a strong trainer, although his personality didn't change much, it's much more interesting to watch him in this series.
May, though to be Misty's replacement, is more girlish than Misty either in her attitude or her look, but with that being said she still has some "tomboy" in her, though not to be likable like Misty, she's still much more effecting the story.
Max who joins the group, has some mystery effect fading off in the series, in the start his smartness makes him useful and has much more effect on the story, but with time his importance is fading away quickly and feels like "extra character" than even supporting character.
Brock, though returned for the series is a good point, feels in some way more of "supporting character" than main, if in the previous series his ideology and his guidance feels necessary for the story and Ash, feels now only the "cook guy" who helps from time to time, his appearance in the series let me feels like he can be with some other groups of trainers and do the same things, his "sick of love" feels more important than his supporting the story.
Though Ash doesn't have the main rival in this series except for his league temporary rivals May has two main rivels except for temporary ones, one is Drew, which in the start can be rude and evil, as the story continues he feels much more like stubborn-friendly rival than evil, in his replace for evil-rival she gets Harly that not just evil but rude and cunning.
Team Rocket didn't change at all from the Johto seasons, and though being funny from time to time, their stubbornness is still annoying, though for some episodes James can be interesting enough to still the show, Jessy stubborn to take part in the contests don't help Team Rocket much.
Team Aqua and Team Magma, on the other hand, not only interesting but feels much more canon than Team Rocket, though the adaption of them can be much better.
Character - 8
The Art, though being "feels" better does good only on the character designs, but the backgrounds still feel like child paint, in the Battle Frontier season though it's getting better but only slight improvement.
Art - 7
The sound didn't change much than the previous seasons, but still enjoyable.
Only one note on the dub, although I have already gotten used to the Pokemon company dub, in its start on the Battle Frontier season it's pretty horrible and even Sarah dubbing Ash doesn't sound like the Ash I know from the newest season, only in the last few episodes of the series there's some improvement, but May's and Max's voice annoyed me a lot in this dub.
But if we talking about the voices, one of the annoying things in the dub is the narrator getting replacement halfway through the first season, but returned in the new dub for the Frontier season, and that was actually one of the good things I admired about the new dub, the new narrator 4Kids got was not only as good as the old (or rather, the known one) but his narrating feels as he didn't wanted to get the job but forced there, at some episodes it even feels as he's bored from Pokemon and his narrating is not as exciting and interesting, that is actually one of the good things I enjoyed hearing when watching the Frontier season, and the usual narrator doesn't fail.
Sound - 7
Enjoyment\Overall 8\8 - though the Advanced series still has problems, it's much more enjoyable than the Johto series with good character development and better animation.
Rascaz
First of all, I'm a 28 years old dude who still loves Pokemon. Me and my brother grew both with Pokemon. And to be honest its still a great serie to watch. The story in short, you follow Ash with he's journey to become a Pokemon Master. And together with he's friends he will try to conquer the League and the Battle Frontier. There were funny, drama and sometimes sad moments. But overall its still great to watch. (anno 2019). The artwork in this serie is just decent. Its a old serie and you will see that sometimes. Its easy to watch for kids. Thats all Iwant to say.
Sound and then I will talk about the Opening and ending first. Its really motivated music. And to be honest, as a child the opening was my favorite. The sound in the serie is not to great but good enough.
Not the fun part the characters. First Ash: Great trainer and to exicted for new adventures. He's partner Pikachu really looks like him. Ash has in this serie new clothing more adult. Its a really nice person.
Brock: Mr. Playboy? Man he's really funny. Always in love with pretty girls. And besides of that he is a care person. What I mean is that he always take care of he's friends, injured Pokemon and helping he's family.
May: One of Ash he's new friends. She is new with Pokemon and kinda clumsy in the beginning. But later she will learn alot of the Pokemon World and besides she want to go to the League. She will join the Cordinator tour. (the serie will explain it.) And for a girl sidekick of Ash. She is not to bad ;)
Max: Mr wiseguy and the little brother of May. He is the most anoying child if ever met in in Pokemon series. (For now.) I dont like him and he is always thinking he's the smart guy. Well with May and Ash...Its not to hard to be the smartest.
My enjoyment was good. Its was a long time if watched this serie back on the TV. But it was fun to rewatch it. In this serie you will see always a Pokemon you will like in the serie. For me it was Torkoal. Man he is awesome.
If you like to watch Pokemon you will need to watch this serie. Great adventures and decent Pokemons after Gen 1 and 2.
This was my review
KittenCuddler
While Advanced Gen starts out looking like a carbon copy of Ash's journey's in Kanto and Johto, make no mistake - this is the pinnacle of the Pokemon franchise. Half of the main cast remains, as Ash tackles the Hoenn league with a new team (and Pikachu), and his old pal Brock returns to cook the munchies and explain the bs of Ash's pokemon battles to us watching. But they are joined by two compadres who bring opposite value to series: May and Max. There isn't much good to say about Max. He's too young to have any pokemon, so he just causes problems for thecrew and whines a bunch about how his older sister isn't a pokemon master immediately. That sister, May, however, is the brightest spot in the entire Pokemon franchise. While she has her struggles at first, her talent as a trainer and coordinator is undeniable. May brings renewed life to the series with her energy and hunger for coordinating. Despite being the trainer with the least experience in the series, she quickly becomes a focal point in helping the team overcome Team Rocket and any other obstacles that the crew faces in each episode. While she (unfortunately) takes a secondary role in some episodes (most notably the gym battles), May is frequently the star of the entire series. Her charm and wit provide the series with moment-to-moment energy to help flesh out each episode, while her food craving and frequent nervousness provide comedic relief as necessary during more intense moments. May grows to love her travel mates and creates multiple rivals in her coordinator contests, giving the show a much needed "oomph" and pizzaz that the series was previously lacking. It is impossible to understate May's importance to the Advanced Generation. Whether it is bravely battling Team Aqua to rescue her friends, or attempting to conquer a mighty pokemon contest, every single highlight in the series exists because of her incredible actions. She is also at the center of the most heartwarming moments of the series, as she shows her compassion for her brother Max (despite him not deserving it!).
The story is the one area of Pokemon Advanced Gen where the series stands on shaky ground. May joins Ash's adventure with the intention of winning pokemon contests to compete in the Hoenn Grand Festival. Episodes that focus on May and these contests are easily the best chunk of the series. Seeing her training with her Pokemon is a joy given how much she loves all of her Pokemon, and watching the training pay off in the contests is beyond tense as you find yourself rooting for May's victory. Unfortunately, the writers frequently push May aside to focus on Ash's attempt to conquer the Hoenn League. Ash lacks the interesting and fun that May possesses, and he's already had multiple shots at taking league titles, so why the writers decided to focus so heavily on Ash again is a conundrum I may never understand. That doesn't stop May from shining through, however. Her spirit is too strong and she is too wonderful a character for the writers to ignore completely. While she might not get her due every episode, May is still in the limelight frequently.
The art style is largely the same as the series before it. It ain't the prettiest thing on a whole, but they nail the shots when it counts. Newcomer Max's outfit puts the (pig) sty in style. Both Ash and Brock get a new snazzy get up, but May again takes the cake when it comes to character design. Easily the best in the Pokemon series and certainly a contender for the best in all of anime, May's standard outfit is beyond genius. The top is sporty red short-sleeved shirt with a navy accent, and a popped collar gives it the true flare that only she could make work. A white skirt and biker shorts make up the bottom half, with color-coordinated shoes, pouch, and gloves to give this ten year old the look of a pro. Her hair and bandana push her look into the "legendary" status, as no one else in anime - NO ONE - can look half as good wearing a bandana while combing their hair to resemble motorcycle handlebars. It may sound absurd, but it works so incredibly well that you'll be wishing for fewer pokemon battles and more shots of May doing anything.
The sound design also largely stays standard in Pokemon with two notable exceptions. Max's voice actor tries his heart out, but Max is such a one-note blob that he can't save Max despite his efforts. May (voiced by Kathleen McInerney) is on the opposite side of the spectrum, and makes sure May comes across as cool as she looks. Kathleen takes the road less traveled when voicing May, giving it her all for every single sound and helping May look like a star. Whether it is a scream of terror or a simple hum, Kathleen clearly worked hard to give May the performance she has earned.
Despite the story focusing too much on the Pokemon League over the Grand Festival, Pokemon Advanced is still far and away the best portion of the Pokemon series and among the best anime ever. Pokemon struck gold with May as she shines even when the story attempts to push her aside. May single-handily pulls the franchise to amazing new heights not just with her solid battling skills and incredible coordinating abilities, but with her bubbly personality, intense passion, and her beautiful smile. May is so unbelievably well written that Pokemon Advanced Generation is an absolute must watch for all anime fans. It will be a long, long time before anime sees someone half as MAYgnificant as her, so be sure to give this portion of the Pokemon franchise a watch.
DarkRaven804
Pokemon Advanced. Another enjoyable pokemon series. Its full of humor, lovable characters, and a AMAZING soundtrack. Advanced really doesnt fail with the enjoyable formula pokemon is so well known for. Storyline9/10-NO SPOILERS. Ten year old Ash Ketchum is now on his quest to go to the Hoenen region. He is joined by May, Max, and Broack. Ash once again is going to collect gym badges and become a pokemon master. Pokemon once again has that really fun and enjoyable storyline. Its cute, adventrous and full of laughs. Its like the first series, just newer. Characters8/10-The charaters are once again, enjoyable, Ash is once again, my favortive,because hes stupid and funny. Team Rocket still are enjoyable characters, mostly Mewoth. The characters mature qutie a bit in the series. I find Lance(from the first series when ash was in Jothto),To be a good character.(He only appears for a few episodes. May is a character that matures very well, but I think she wasnt as good as Misty. Max is very annoying.(Hes like a replacement for Misty). Broack is still annoying, but the characters are still enjoyable.
Soundtrack8/10-One thing the pokemon anime DOESNT fail at is the music. There is nothing wrong it. Its catchy, and fits the mood really well. The battle music is the most enjoyable. There are no flaws, and no problems with it, but its not amazing, so it doesnt get a 10. Just a 8.
Art8/10-The new design is good. The character design is very good in my opinon. The art for the pokemon are also well made. Like the soundtrack, theres nothing wrong with the art. But its not perfect, so it gets a 8.
Enjoyment10/10-I really enjoyed pokemon advanced. I always enjoy pokemon. The characters,and art, and soundtrack,and storyline,its all enjoyable. All of it I pretty much enjoyed. Its always great,(not counting best wishes! and X and Y).
Overall8/10-I enjoyed this series ALOT. I loved it. For a ture pokemon fan, watch. Someone new to pokemon, WATCH IT. Its very good.
PokeFan2112
Pretty good, but a step down from the Original Series. In terms of negatives, the contest episodes mostly were pretty boring. A lot of them were all flash but with none of the intensity that usually makes the gym battle episodes so good. The battle centered ones were usually fine, however. Adding to this, the high amount of tournament arcs, as well as a lighter, more relaxed tone, resulted in there being less interesting episodes than the OS. But though it was weaker than the original, that doesn't mean it was BAD. There was still more good episodes than not, and quite a few (such asthe Swampert episode, Kyogre vs Groudon, or the one where Pikachu loses his memory, to name a few) that i'd definitely consider highlights of the overall show. The animation was still solid, and the humor was very good, with a lot of funny moments in most episodes. And when it came to emotion, it would consistently deliver.
Overall, weaker than the first series, but still enjoyable. If you liked the OS, you'll probably like this.
Lord_Valzin
This one is better than the prequel. This region gets ash in the top, where he might've won first, but this region makes ash start the trend of losing forever to make it seem like he never ages, but he does age, just keeps him looking young.....weird. This season ash gets May and annabelle (second to last frontier brain) there might've been another girl or 2 earlier, but highly doubt it. They scuffed charizard in the end lost first round and didn't defeat a dusclops. On the contest side of things they did great as a first time, they introduced a gay harley out of nowhere,where he is a like-able character, second favorite character. I think this region of anime they introduced combo attacks, but I think I am wrong, maybe they did that last in original pokemon. Well let me tell you who is my favorite character, it is the magikarp dude, he showed up like 3 or 4 times it's before the frontier arc. Pokemon advanced starts off good like always, but then it always seems like it's getting stretched out, this does have quite a bit of filler, just skim it, but if it looks like a good ep watch it, if not skim through or skip. There are a few good fillers and or eps not really needed. Ash's life lessons and advice/teaching of brandon, just got forgotten in next season, ash's dense and idiotic ways have to live on for the kids, can't have some smart kid on tv, the kids find the stupid hot headed ways of protags cool.
Story-6
Art-7
Sound-7
Character-7
Enjoyment-6
Overall-7
Duckielover151
So, as anticipated, I did end up enjoying Advanced quite a bit more than the Original for most of my viewing experience. Though you may have noticed that the overall score doesn't reflect that... And it wasn't for the same reasons I'd expected... As I mentioned in my review for the original series, Hoenn was my generation. I didn't get really into playing the games myself until Sapphire/Ruby. I expected to connect better with Advanced because the towns and gym leaders and some of the special events with teams Aqua and Magma were more familiar to me. But that wasn't really the case. It was kindof nice to know what was coming next, but for the most part, the gym battles were just... gym battles. It was the way the second season was handled that won me over. The format changed a bit for this second season, and I feel it changed for the better. I think adding in the contest side of the Pokémon world broke up the time between Ash's gym battles very nicely. Ash and May switched off pretty evenly. And I felt it just gave the series a better... flow. Much less felt like it could be skipped without consequence, which I think is a huge plus.
And there were a few other places Advanced really shined. I feel like training took a much more prominent place in this season. We saw a lot of Ash actually working with his Pokémon to learn new moves, instead of the miracle, in the nick of time learning that happened a lot in the original. There were still instances of it, for both Ash and May, but it felt like more time went into preparing for each battle or rematch, and it showed Ash growing as trainer. On top of that, the battles got a lot more creative. This was true of the contests where appearance was just as important as effectiveness, but also when it came to Ash's battle strategies. Don't get me wrong, there were still some bullshit plot armor moments. (Because no, Ash, hitting your bird with a bolt of lightning would not give it an electric shield.) But overall, I felt it was a step in the right direction.
At least... This can be said for the first two-thirds of Advanced. More than one thing about Battle Frontier didn't sit quite right with me, but I'll start with the formatting.
Okay, so I know I'm going to soundl like a total hypocrite saying this, but... Frontier just felt rushed. I know, one of my biggest complaints about the original series was that it was too drawn out, but I didn't get the sense that they were really going anywhere throughout Battle Frontier's run. Which shouldn't have been possible, because Frontier took us back to Kanto, where everything should have been familiar. But stopping in towns where Ash previously won his Indigo League badges just didn't have the sense of connection that I felt they should have. For a comparison, I ask you to look back to his Johto travels. To be honest, I don't remember exactly why, but our heroes had to double back through Ecruteak over the course of their journey. And during those episodes where they returned to Ecruteak, they met back up with Morty-- the gym leader-- and had another little adventure having to do with the ghost tower in town-- a prominent aspect of Ecruteak. And I felt like it was a really nice callback.
That's the feeling Frontier should have had. But it didn't. In fact, I don't think I really appreciated the characterization of the gym leaders until that point. It can be kind of subtle, but each gym leader is a really solid reflection of their town. Like Roxanne also running the trainer's school. Rustboro is the first town in Hoenn where you can earn a badge, and the trainer's school being such a big part of it was a really strong reflection of being The Beginning. It gives the towns character and makes them memorable, and I just felt like they really dropped the ball bringing things back to Kanto during Battle Frontier. Of course, there's another thing Frontier can be remembered for...
And now... I suppose we have to discuss the voice acting. It's not typically something I bring up in my reviews unless I have something specific to say. I think it goes without saying that I, like most people, watched Pokémon dubbed. (That's just part of it stemming from my childhood.) Yup, from the company notorious for bad dubs. Who would have thought it would actually be something to mourn when 4Kids lost the rights to a show?
Let's take a step back for a minute, shall we? Remember those little questionnaires in elementary and middle school that tried to determine which learning style you were best suited for? Like, were you most likely to remember a graph drawn on the board, a lecture, or a hands-on activity? I've always been a very auditory person. When I recall something someone said, it's down to every last inflection of their voice. So, regardless of which language I watch a show in, the characters' voices stick with me and become as much a part of their character as any of their actions throughout the series. So it's hell on my ears when even one voice actor is replaced, never mind the entire cast.
Pokémon was one of the few things 4Kids did pretty well. Yes, even with all the censorship and localization they're so well known for. The actors put so much heart into their roles, even when they were saying truly ridiculous things. And I'd had about 400 episodes to get used to them. So maybe I'm a bit biased, but the new dub did just sound worse in general. There was either no emotion behind their words, or everything came out sounding over exaggerated and fake. Some of them (Brock, in particular) grew on me over time, but I want to specifically discuss Ash and May, because I don't think I ever truly appreciated how much Veronica Taylor was carrying this show until she was replaced.
May... I know a lot of people hate May, either because she's inexperienced and says some pretty dumb things (even though Ash did that all the time in the original series) or because she replaced Misty, or whatever other reasons. I really like May as a character. (Significantly more than Misty.) She was a much more active character, and I already mentioned that I liked the way her contest storyline split up the filler between Ash's gym battles nicely. But mostly, I just like how much she grows throughout the series. She goes from not even liking Pokémon-- just wanting to travel-- to learning to love them and finding a purpose in this world. Even throughout her contests, May is very shortsighted, so her departure-- where she finally decided on a goal for herself and started thinking towards the future-- was very satisfying to me. It felt like a complete character arc. (As opposed to Misty, who was kind of just there until she wasn't.)
But I felt May suffered quite a lot from the recasting. Further proof that WHAT you say doesn't matter half as much as HOW you say it. And everything May says after the recast comes out sounding overly timid or insecure, and that's really not who she was written or animated to be. May's defining characteristic was that she's adventurous. She has her low moments. There were lessons to be learned from both doubt and overconfidence over the course of her journey. But she was always just as brave as any of the other characters, and just as passionate about her contests as any of the others were about their dreams. Her new voice just sounded out-of-character, which is a shame because-- for the rest of the cast-- it was pretty clear they were trying to mimc the old voices.
But May was not the one who suffered the most from the recasting. Ash's new voice is the one that really made me wish they'd just gone in an entirely new direction with Ash. Now, I have heard that Sarah Natochenny improves a lot as Pokémon continues and... Good lord, I hope so. May's voice just sounded wrong for her character. Ash's lines frequently came out as bad acting, plain and simple. My biggest complaint is that it sounded, to me, like the real problem was she couldn't both maintain Ash's voice and emote properly. Which I feel should have been a major indication that the job should have gone to someone else, but... We're in it for the long run now.
So, I'm about to dive into Diamond and Pearl, and I'm interested to see how this goes. The next few seasons will be truly blind for me. I watched a few episodes of season three when it first came out, but... Eh. My interest in Pokémon kind of dropped off between Sapphire/Ruby and X/Y. Even if I didn't play much of the games, I was really familiar with the original Pokémon through the movies and just spending a lot of time with older cousins who were drawn in by the Pokémon craze. I've got a vague remembrance of some of the Sinnoh Pokémon, but I can't even remember the Unova starters off the top of my head. So it's promising to be quite a journey, truly free from any nostalgia, and I'm interested to see how that colors the experience.
WEEBS_Taste_Ryuu
Contains spoilers but I am keeping the major ones aside. I will be focusing on the characters and story as a whole, not stuffs like the arts or the music in any kind. Following the uninteresting Johto region, this series taking place in the Hoenn region actually worked pretty well. This series made the difference first by introduction of Haruka, a newbie trainer. Because of this alone, Satoshi had his moments where he looked and was actually mature and had patience in comparison. Speaking of which, this series gave Satoshi as much time he required to grow as a trainer which got us out of the nightmarefrom the Satoshi we had before. He started to gain experience and also served as a mentor at the first for Haruka.
Another win from this series is the introduction of Pokemon Contest. This gave us a different approach to the Pokemon world. The episodes weren’t uninteresting anymore and didn’t repeat the Johto region since this included a fine story for two trainers than just one. Though the contest battles worked as the secondary story, it really stayed as the sub-story of the main as Satoshi’s adventures often overshadowed the contest battles.
The series also shows the battle frontier as an arc so the whole Hoenn adventure was compact. The battle frontier takes place in Kanto and gives us the reminiscence of the things back then.
But with the things at the back end, some of them made me feel rushed and plot armored just for the sake of the completion of their dreams and stuffs. There also were some of the unnecessary character development at times.
Overall this was uprising of the Pokemon series and was just the better version fixing the bad pacing and lack of the story depth in the previous series. The animation also became better from near end.
bacd1990
Pros: - 95% of this anime is really interesting, - character development is enjoyable, - this generation we got 2 more characters, - we got 2 new evil teams, - the game story adaptation is acceptable - the best part of this generation are Battle Frontier fights, - introduction of pokemon contests, Cons:- The remaining 5% Ash doesn't win Hoen League,
- Some battles are ridiculous,
- Team Rocket appearance can get more annoying,
- The story development is being held up by corporations policy,
- some fans dislike Max character in this generation,
The story takes now in both regions Hoen and Kanto, however best part in my opinin was Battle Frontier arc. The cast shifts to permanent 7 characters in this generation.
