On a new day in the Kanto region, Satoshi gets invited by Professor Yukinari Ookido over to Professor Sakuragi's lab-opening ceremony in Vermillion City. During the ceremonial speech, Professor Sakuragi receives an alert of a possibly rare Pokémon appearing in Vermillion City's harbor, leading Satoshi and the other trainers to rush to the area in hopes of finding the mysterious Pokémon. At the harbor, they find Lugia—a Legendary Pokémon—engaged in combat with other trainers.
Noticing the other trainers' tactics, Satoshi has his partner, Pikachu, strike Lugia with a Thunderbolt attack. Unfazed, Lugia flees, but not before Satoshi determinedly leaps onto its back. To Satoshi's surprise, he meets another boy, Gou, who leapt onto Lugia's back as well. The two ride on Lugia's back as it brings them along on a bizarre adventure across the seas. As it lets the two back on the ground, Satoshi and Gou bid their farewells to Lugia and return to Sakuragi Institute.
Impressed by Gou's findings and Satoshi's insight taken during their encounter, Sakuragi requests for the duo to be his new research partners. And so the duo's journey begins, traveling across multiple regions to meet many new Pokémon—including ones that have the ability to Gigantamax!
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
ShadowUnown
Does "fanservice" make a show automatically great? (This review does not include the 'Mezase Pokemon Master' miniseries) What I liked about "Pokemon (2019)" / "Pokemon Journeys": (+) Unpredictability (any story anywhere makes you wonder what comes next) (+) New world-scale Pokémon battle ranking system with all gimmicks (+) Continuity and fanservice (it remembers the past) (+) Yuki Hayashi was one of my top requests to make Pokémon OSTs (+) Some battles worth a look (vs Volkner, vs Bea, vs Cynthia, vs Leon) (+) Some nice little self-contained arcs and some of the best episodes in the show (mostly thanks to continuity)Even as someone who has followed this show for 20 years, I'll try to patiently explain why Ash's last season is one of my least favorites and whether I would still recommend it or not.
1. Formula / World-building / Fillers / Legendary
2. Goh / GO / Project Mew
3. Ash / Ash's Team / PWC
4. Chloe / Team Rocket
5. Fanservice / References & Callbacks
6. Conclusion / Recommendation
_____________________________________________________________________
1. Formula / World-building / Fillers / Legendary
TL;DR - The "open world" format was an interesting new setup that many fans have been asking for for a long time and it definitely feels refreshing, but the seeming lack of planning brought a lot of pacing and world-building issues.
1.1. Journeys is finally showcasing off the world of Pokémon, which is what the series is supposed to be about, and it looks like a decent job when it transports us to some of the postcard locations, but even then Kanto is probably shown more times than all of the other regions combined, which may be an issue in itself. The new Galar region that we should know better didn't get enough attention and many of its characters and locations were shown hastily or not shown at all (like half of the gym leaders). They could easily have Sakuragi institute in Galar, replace the legendary birds with the galarian versions, train Ash with Leon's master, replace some Project Mew member with Peony and so on. In the later parts of the series, it seemed like they realized that the generation was ending without showing many Galarian Pokémon and then desperately started stuffing more than a dozen debuts into a single episode to make up for it.
1.2. About that, maybe one of the most noticeable mistakes they made with this new formula is how they try to cram practically everything into one to two episodes when it would be better to have a multi episode arc. The more episodic and less directed nature of Journeys, with little use of very effective narrative devices like build-up and foreshadowing, makes for a dragging experience when you don't feel the same sense of progress and fluidity as in the pre-Alola regions and this also affects the way we experience worldbuilding: traveling on foot and camping between towns, you really get a sense of scale in the region and feel like you're on an adventure with the traveling group, but now Ash and Goh quickly jump from one region to another from one episode to the next, barely giving us time to feel that we're in a distant and different place from the previous one, and even casually meeting the TRio on the other side of the world. For a series called "Journeys" that encompasses all regions, it's ironic how the Pokémon world has never felt so small.
1.3. Now this might be a hot take: fillers are actually a good thing. Filler is supposed to give insight into the daily lives of the Pokemon trainers, where Pokemon can develop, show more of their personality with fun interactions, or even learn new moves. We've seen in previous series that MC's Pokémon often shine during filler while still provided more interesting ideas for scenarios for the traveling group, and even Sun/Moon had so many of them but yet it was mostly entertaining and successful especially because of the character moments (in addition to fitting the theme of the season and its region). However, I usually notice that Journeys fillers don't really say anything. There are lots of food contests, random races, weird rap battles, boring COTD's, tiresome two-parter comedy episodes, but all without much use with writers not even trying to fix the lack of screen time of Ash's Pokémon.
1.4. Despite being a commercial series and having made mistakes with Legendary/Mythical Pokémon in the past, the writers still have done a noble job maintaining the proper sense of rarity. When they weren't chased by rich and powerful organizations & people with broad resources and knowledge, they were usually only seen captured by powerful and mysterious Trainers or under unique and special contexts with some fair development. In Journeys however, we see 2-3 'Legendary encounters' almost every month with some episodes cramming 5 to 7 Legends into it. There are novices easily locating and catching with just a regular Poké Ball and a can-do attitude; characters having 3-4 Legendary with them; kids casually pulling one from their pocket out of nowhere etc; and of course, the infamous EP053 - one of my worst Pokemon episodes of all time - in which a fan-favorite one was featured intensely weak and incompetent to inexplicably let himself be part of a kid's collection at the end (they even made a part 2 in which the majestic Pokémon reappears only to clean up Grimer's waste in a stream; yes, that's how low Legendary has come). What would Takeshi Shudo - who literally got depressed when they simply 'gender-swapped' another beloved legend from Johto - think about this? (which now two kids climbed onto the back of it just for the sake of riding it) These creatures are suppose to be a fundamental segment of the mystique of the Pokémon world that keeps kids dreaming and seeking the unknown, now they're something so expositive and merchandising that I wonder why producers even bother calling them by that name. All the magic is gone.
1.5. Goh's story and Ash's battles feel like two completely separate direction teams that have nothing to do with each other, which makes the season just aimless and random - there's a prevailing sense of lack of overall storyline. This becomes less noticeable in the last third of the series as Ash approaches his climax, but for majority of the season the anime staff seemingly struggled with the dual protagonist story formula not knowing how to suitably balance screen time between Ash and Goh while still trying to find space for Chloe.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Goh / GO / Project Mew
TL;DR - Goh/Go is the most controversial companion Ash has ever had for reasons already talked to death. A gary stu rookie trainer with inconsistent skills and personality who follows his own special set of rules in the universe, while making it feel like Ash's PWC goal and his team's development are frequently taking the backseat for Goh's casual adventures.
2.1. Worldbuilding. As is known, battling and weakening or befriending the Pokémon in order to catch it somehow does not apply to Goh who's not only filling the Pokédex but getting a ton of special treatment. The goal of catching Pokemon could be a useful show for kids if it talks about the types of pokeballs and the different ways to catch a Pokemon, but instead he just throws a pokeball and the mon is all his, which it makes a large number of his accomplishments feel handed to him on a silver platter without any impact or entertainment. I know how they want to make the anime familiar to the crowd that got into Pokémon through GO to capitalize on the audience, but there just downright bending the long-established in-universe rules set up for the anime for one singular character are a different thing. The fact that Ash, who embodies the older audience and took 20 years to start getting bigger stuff, is always there by his side, not only shows a certain contempt for the demographic that played Pokémon long before GO became a thing, it makes the worldbuilding random and confusing. Goh had so many powerhouses still in the beginning of his adventure, even Alphas and Legendaries (!), what would happen if he decides to join the PWC for instance? If they were in such a rush to make Goh an Ash's equal, couldn't they introduce him as a mid tier Trainer at the very least?
2.2. Personality. This slips a little more into subjective territory, but the inconsistencies seem glaring: while the idea is great, his "shyness" only pops up when it's convenient. He is suppose to be an introverted boy with no friends and got a good contrasting characterization to Ash in EP003, but this was promptly thrown out the window to show a newcomer who is competent at everything he does to the point of even outshining Ash in battle skills progression (as in EP036). Since he was younger, he's been a know-it-all who draws attention to himself and can allure any antisocial Pokémon with literally just a look. Writers seem to have also tried to make Goh seem brave and confident to kids audience but he came to look a bit petulant and pretentious instead, as when he insolently pointed a Poké Ball at Mewtwo's face or drew the entire cast's attention to himself in a self-absorbed speech in the first Ash's return to Alola. They also made overdramatic conflicts like Flabébé and Drizzle so we can sympathize with him better but it still feels forced since it's not a clear part of any ongoing development. Only in the last third of the series do writers try to deconstruct his Mary Sue status by showing him the way he was supposed to be in the beginning, though that ended up just making his character's inconsistency easier to point out (as in EP102 in which he suddenly becomes selfish and uncooperative when he never had that problem posed by the script before - only mishandlings - just to force "development" at the end of it). Regina (EP087) was an antisocial kid much better written in 1 episode than Goh in over 100.
2.3. Concept. There's a reason they never went "Gotta Catch 'Em All" with Ash: it doesn't work. If the MC catches all the different Pokémon he sees, the sheer volume of them makes it impossible to have enough time to focus or develop each one of them. One of the major themes and appeal of the anime is how Pokémon are characters themselves or valued companions, not tools, but Goh has stored all but three of his captures in a lab without ever getting to know them well. They're not his friends, they're just part of his collection. Writing staff tried to fix this by doing stories about Goh "bonding" with some Pokemon, but this is still innocuous because 1) they're still ignoring the vast majority of the other catches, 2) keeps consuming the Ash's much more interesting screen time with stories that do feel fillery, and 3) we pretty much never see these Pokemon again doing anything interesting anyway. There are so many damaging aspects about the goal of "Catch 'Em All" (which is kinda a discarded western slogan): it means eventually becoming literally a God-level Trainer; it lessens the thrill fans used to feel about captures by becoming so common and easy matter; makes the character's identity lost since the Pokémon is the expression of its Trainer; etc. (in addition to being ironic to happen precisely in the generation of Dexit). This all makes sense from a gameplay perspective where the protagonist is you, but for an anime adaptation that's supposed to be the portrayal of living in the Pokemon world, rejecting this concept was probably one of the best OLM/TVTokyo's decisions ever.
2.4. Project Mew. It gave Goh a plot structure for his goal paralleling Ash's and brought some solidly written and entertaining episodes as far as adventure and exploration can go, but unfortunately it came too late. Writers didn't tell us anything about the new characters, they took too long to remind us that Goh is indeed in a competition, they hard-nerfed Ash in it, the missions don't have any clear correlation to Mew, and it has such an anticlimactic conclusion that the only reason I didn't find this arc a waste of time was Gary. On top of that, it was more of a Legendary showcase to make them feel more like prizes waiting to be caught and less like extremely rare and strong living mystical beings.
Now that Goh will simply leave the show with his goal at 10% after all the damage the production has done through him, you really wonder what was the point of introducing a character like this into Ash's final season in the first place.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Ash / Ash's Team / PWC
TL;DR - Mostly due to the previously mentioned issues, Ash and the most important campaign of his life are sidelined for a sizable part of the season which gives rise to serious development and powerscaling problems, lack of interactions and rivalries, and huge missed opportunities.
3.1. Profile. Ash spends the first half of the season often being overshadowed by a rookie companion when he should be more like a mentor figure to him, which doesn't help his status as still being the fairly strong Trainer from Sun & Moon despite his current design and personality doesn't sell that impression. Unfortunately, his success in the Manalo Conference is his only previous feat mentioned and Ash is never properly treated as a League Champion until 100+ episodes later.
3.2. Difficulty. Although the writers got it wrong by making any Trainer allowed to register for PWC/WCS (World Championships) instead of giving worthy value to Ash's history, the underrated Vs Visquez battle set up the difficulty level of the Championships very well; however, Ash's battles to make up for his early losing streak started to take place against random opponents off-screen taking the weight off each victory and making progress seem unimportant. Even when Ash starts to face stronger and familiar faces, the matches still feel weightless as they are almost all 1v1 or 2v2 in addition of happening in an isolated way after long gaps with unrelated episodes (where Ash barely mentions PWC as if he isn't interested or engaged at all). Furthermore, Ash's progression through the ranks was so fast that he jumps thousands to hundreds to dozens of positions with just the occasional quick match without ever suffering a single loss, which makes it feel like his skills isn't really being tested. And speaking of being proven, where have all the rivals been? Ash had many of them even in Alola but in the world ranking he only has Bea who barely appears? They could easily make Volkner, Marnie, Raihan and a ton of other options be recurring rivals interacting with each other based on the Class he's in but pretty much all of Ash's competitors look more like NPCs that he will predictably beat on the first try than real challengers with their own dreams and development.
3.3. Powerscaling. This has to be one of my main annoyances with this season: how did Ash's newly captured team manage to defeat the world's most powerful Trainers and their longlife partners with just a few 'months' of training? I can see how Ash would be an Elite-level Trainer at this point of the show, but the Pokemon he uses is a different story. Even though it's an inexperienced team, they've all somehow able to reach the Elite Four degree with very insulated arcs (when theres actually one), a few official battles, mostly off-screen training, and as a result, Ash's victories feel like the most ridiculous plot armor ever seen on the series. Dracovish's resilience is aberrantly inconsistent and it just beat a Champion-level mon in its first battle ever knowing only Water Gun until a few episodes earlier. Lucario is basically still a baby Pokémon and was able to beat a well-trained Gmax Machamp without practice his newly acquired Mega Evolution even once, literally one-shotting a Champ-level Trainer's Gmax ace without even using Mega boost (!), and even taking down the two greatest Sinnoh Champion's threats, and this was the Pokemon with the highest screentime among the new ones. Remember when Ash used to try some of his strongest partners at the time against an Elite and was completely humiliated? He didn't even scratch Flint's Infernape using Pikachu + two Pokemon that were already strong before they were caught (just like Gengar and Sirfetch'd - what makes these special?). All that godlike aura Elite Trainers used to have is gone thanks to JN team making them look like just the usual gym challenges, with Drasna and Raihan being the worst cases alongside Wallace who has literally become a joke. I know 'powerscaling' has never been this anime's forte, but since Ash is in his last and most important hooray, it's fair to expect the writing staff to be more careful in this regard in such a special competition. On top of that, we rarely see them interacting with each other or with other characters throughout the season to build some genuine bonding and empathy with the audience like we see happening with other Ash teams, and the writers still have the daring to make them win major battles with literally the power of friendship - a friendship that was never really shown. Alola Team felt like a family; JN's team look like battle bots. I just couldn't ever root for these new Ash Pokemon and their success never felt earned to me. Pikachu was the saving grace.
3.4. Rotations. Sadly, Ash hasn't used any of his reserves at any point in the World, Global, All-Region, Biggest Competition. Using the old Pokémon from the start of the championships not only would it automatically create the emotional connection with the older audience that they failed to do with Gengar and Dragonite, it would also make the power curve more organic and believable. Need to do Gen 4 propaganda? Bring back Infernape, Torterra, Buizel. Need to advertise Gen 8? Dynamax Melmetal, Kingler, Snorlax. This event should represent much more the culmination of all of Ash's past adventures than just "the Gen 8 thing", so making teams with his older partners would be very symbolic and a pleasing gift to fans. This was the unparalleled waste of the season.
3.5. Battles. If you don't care about things like powerscaling and plot convenience, some great battles can be found here, but never expect the dynamic animation of XY's heydays. The animation is more stationary, angles and camera are static and there is a strange practical absence of evasive movements this season. I know about the production hell OLM has been through over the last few years and therefore I tend to cut them some slack. What really bothers me is the lack of emotional weight in the battles. Without the heartfelt conflicts, clash of dreams, rivalries (even between Pokémon), as we saw in other seasons, there is no soul in the fights. They're just fights.
3.6. Masters Tournament. The greatest tournament of all time... or it should be. Atsuhiro Tomioka (writer) really nailed the presentation of each Champion's battle style, wrote many references to combos and move effects from the games, and gave Pikachu due spotlight on every round. The staff also granted the necessary attention to Vs Cynthia and Vs Leon matches, the latter being perhaps the biggest and best battle in the show from a technical point of view, as well as delivering some surprises during battles with some unexpected highlights for secondary Pokemon like Spiritomb and Rillaboom. Unfortunately they missed a few key elements and really brought the experience down: It's literally a showdown between Champions but the choreography is constantly slow and unpolished making the battles feel actually turn-based; There are no rivalries between Pokémon like we've seen in Leagues; They made Leon way too superior to other Champions, and the lack of significant buildup within the confines of Journeys itself for all matchups except the Monarch vs Ash made the results too predictable; Alain was brought back only to make the Worf Effect barely interacting with Ash; Champion's aces never felt menacing enough; etc. Most matchups lack energy and intensity and just look like exhibition battles for fanservice, and with such an easy and quick climb through the ranks utilizing a freshly caught team, Ash seems out-of-place among the greatest Champions in the franchise (it was particularly painful to see Cynthia being beaten by this team and specifically by a baby Pokémon). We know it's only fair that Ash becomes the very best after so many years, but from a short-term perspective it felt undeserved. The event to decide who is the best Trainer should have easily been the utmost challenge test of his character and for the most part felt like a side story without any strong sense of hype or competitiveness. At very least, the ending was so well done that maybe it made up for all the plot armor Ash putted on to get where he got.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Chloe / Team Rocket
Chloe/Koharu's personality has a very well written, flowing and authentic evolution, but her arc about not having a clear goal is just not interesting at all. She rarely interacts with Ash, and at the end of the day she was just a walking advertisement for Eeveelution. As for Team Rocket, the charisma of the Pokemon they bond with are the only element I really like about them and writers took that away with Rocket Gachat. The rest of the core cast was irrelevant to me.
5. Fanservice / References & Callbacks
The main selling point of the season is a pretty mixed bag. Ash and the other previous characters look younger than ever and because they haven't grown up a bit with their audience most of the redone flashbacks and callbacks don't pack as much emotional punch as they should. Writing staff have delivered things fans have been asking for for years but it feels so mechanical, insincere, and in contrast to the rest of the season, like they were just doing it because they're being ordered by executives to sell a product and not out of passion and understanding of the material, that as a result much of the fanservice feels hollow and surface level (many returns are just used to serve as springboards for new characters they haven't worked successfully on to make us care about). As an example, Dawn got 8 episodes for Gen 4 merchandise and her first proper interaction with Ash was only at the very end of the eighth (their trademark high-five), and while she has changed virtually nothing since D/P, Iris with only two appearances got one of the most massive buffs in the whole show with the power of off-screen (twice!). Sure, we also have the bright side of the picture: they found the perfect balance with Gary and Serena (except for the long-awaited reunion scene with Ash I guess) and they put so much genuine heart into the episode about the comeback of a certain memorable rival from Diamond & Pearl as well as into Sun & Moon's two-part conclusion that both are a must-watch for any fan of these series. Also, even though the cameos during the final tournament are just thrown at our face, the last 10 minutes of Pikachu displays what might be the greatest fanservice moment in Anipoké history.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Conclusion / Recommendation
Pokémon Journeys lack soul. It feels corporate - like it's decided by a board of executive rather than by a team of writers and a director, where they just throw in what would be the most marketable material without really delving into it from an in-universe perspective; misdirected - like it doesn't know its own identity for trying to be a fanservice season, a GO ad and a Gen 8 showcase all at the same time; alongside a lot of missed opportunities. When we see Ash singing to Pikachu, being celebrated by Alola people, or slowly remembering Greninja at the sight of a Frogadier, we can recognize that there's still soul somewhere there, desperately trying to untie itself from the corporate shackles and show its full potential. You can argue "It is just a commercial show for kids", which is fair enough, but again, I wouldn't be writing all this if appealing and pleasing older audiences wasn't part of the very purpose of the season.
TL;DR - 'Pokémon (2019)' is all about chasing "hype", so I still recommend this show to fans who just want to "see" things happening (Ash with mega evolution, Ash becoming the very best, protagonist catching everything, old characters showing up, etc.) but don't care all that much about the "how" (powerscaling, worldbuilding, development, interactions, rivalries). And I also recommend it for the kids in your family, if you have any. It's still Pokémon nonetheless.
NOTE - At the time of this review, the "Mezase Pokemon Master" sequel miniseries is yet to air and looks like it will be the true final tribute to Ash that this season should've been entirely about, so let's hope they don't waste the last moments of the end of this era.
(My apologies for the lack of synthesis skills, but if you like to talk more critically about Pokemon I'm sure you've read everything.)
Thanks for reading.
GakutoDeathGlare
Pokemon has been an incredibly big part of my life and especially so during my childhood. I would wake up in the early hours of the morning and plant my backside right in front of our family TV, anticipating another new episode of Pokemon, wondering what new species I'll witness next. I would play my Gameboy Color that I got for Christmas in 1999 along with Pokemon Gold, under my blanket during bedtime, hiding it away from my parents as I relentlessly played it through the night. I would nag and nag at my Grandma the following year to buy me Pokemon Red, which wasseemingly still on the shelves for sale, and eventually got what I so desired. I would collect Pokemon Trading cards, trade and battle with friends, buy figurines, I would eat, sleep and breathe Pokemon. Suffice to say, I was very addicted.
Twenty plus years later, I am caught up with the latest installment of the Pokemon anime, and while I still check out the newest games, I have only ever played through Gens 6-9 once over. Personally, it just doesn't hit the same. The previous series, Pokemon Sun and Moon was a highly controversial anime that split the fanbase with it's newly non linear story line and a lack of gyms, Pokemon Journeys follows suit as Ash does not travel a single region, collecting badges along the way. This was very refreshing to see after so many years, something different than the bog standard story and I enjoyed the change. Ash's homebase is in Pallet Town, Kanto, at the Sakuragi Institute where he works as a research assistant alongside new companion Goh, and travels to different regions investigating or simply observing Pokemon.
We can't talk about Ash and not talk about Goh, another controversial thing about this series. Goh is quite simply the co main character for the first half of the show, an energetic, emotional and sometimes naïve boy who's goal is to capture Mew. He spends all his time capturing anything he sees, wanting Mew to be the last Pokemon left for his Pokedex. A lot of people didn't like Goh stealing the limelight from Ash and also absolutely abhor some of the decisions made from the creators when it came to what Pokemon he captures (he's just doing what every little kid did, capture every single damn Pokemon). Purists. I had no problem with it and hoped to see more. His character develops as he deepens his bonds with his main Pokemon and finds courage in battle, something he lacked.
Another recurring character is Koharu, this seasons Misty, May, etc. She's a lot more laid back and her screen time or importance isn't as great as previous heroines, but she also gets some nice development. Struggling with an identity crisis, and the pressure of having a Pokemon Professor as a Father, she grew up not liking Pokemon at all, or at least indifferent to them. A chance meeting with an Eevee who cannot evolve leads to a significant relationship, and they both help each other understand their own predicaments and grow from it.
Now we have Ash. He's mostly along for the ride until the latter half of the show where the World Championships arc is in the forefront of the narrative. This arc is by far the most interesting arc of them all and has many older characters making small cameos and comebacks from time to time, quite a bit of fanservice for us older fans.
Ash's team is absolutely stacked in terms of popular Pokemon and even strength wise as well. There are many things to like and dislike about Ash's battles and his Pokemon this time around...
Strengths:
- The useage of abilities and in game mechanics and tactics are comfortably the best I've ever seen them used in a Pokemon series so far. A lot of first time plays as far as I'm aware.
- A lot of switching in and out Pokemon from Ash's rivals.
- Sublime soundtracks for stand out Pokemon.
Weaknesses:
- A complete lack of simple dodging, something that used to be a common occurrence.
- A lack of a sense of hard, episode to episode training, it never felt that Ash's team was the best it's ever been.
- Which in turn garnered a bit of disbelief as to who he was facing often times.
- Some Pokemon didn't really get their dues.
Look, it's something different. I'm well aware that this will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the ride and am excited for what's to come in the near future. There's already a few brilliant shorter series out there, released in the last 3-4 years, what I would give to a TV show in similar quality.
Ichijiku
This series was something that as I returned to just because of the nostalgia bit. Told myself I would watch the finale, the same way I swore in grade school I would watch Naruto, Bleach, One Piece to the very end. (Of course, that doesn't imply any obligation towards movies, spin-offs, legacies and so on.) What could I say, other than the fact that I enjoyed one or two battles and reunions, there isn't much of that nostalgia brought back in here. The show oscillates between couple fillers, couple interesting episodes, but this gamble actually killed some expected interactions, some reunions got lost in thefiller spectrum of events, training for relevant battles sometimes is expected to be imagined, the alternative stories struggle to make a point or to become relevant, and some characters are so empty of their nostalgic originality that it's depressing to watch.
Other than the fact that the show is ridiculous as it always was (what can you do, that's the risk of the job), some fights are decent enough, some bonding moments are heartwarming and you're happy that everyone's happy and almost everything stays the same even after the end.
Maybe they do a better job to close the curtain in the next short series about Ash, who knows?
Overall, on one hand I am thankful that I got to see the end, on another it was pretty much no difference if I didn't. Thank you, Pokemon, for that reunion that I expected at the end, that made my day, but it wasn't enough for the whole impression. No thank you for the new side stories, fillers and redundant dialogues, zero real character development on the humans, and arguably on the Pokemons too, since getting new moves isn't relevant to character development in almost any way.
It's a company. This it how it makes money. The previous seasons are almost no different. But take a look back at the first few seasons, and you will see a huge difference. Just stop getting it mediocre scores or better because of the nostalgia bait. It incentivizes it to create further crap content, and you are directly responsible for it.
3/10 with huge efforts and bound by nostalgia, otherwise 1/10.
Duckielover151
I actually ended up watching this season all the way through twice. Which ended up being a good thing, because it really hit different the second time around. I wasn't that impressed with it during my first watch-through. What really made the difference was that, going into it the second time, I was already aware that this would be Ash's farewell season. That gave me a different opinion on the way Journeys is structured. So to get some of the initially negative things out of the way first... Pokemon Journeys can feel pretty disjointed at times. The idea of Ash and Goh being research fellowsand going on a different adventure-- visiting a different region each time-- every episode or so sounds fun. And it was at times. But I've mentioned countless times before that I'm not really one for episodic storytelling. I miss the long continuous journey through a region.
Now I'm a little torn about this aspect. On the one hand, I can really appreciate the opportunity it afforded them-- to go back and revisit all the people Ash had traveled with before. That helped contribute to a really beautiful sendoff.
On the other, I can't help feeling that, because it had to share the season with all the other places in the Pokemon world, the Galar region wasn't really done justice in Pokemon Journeys. That was another big thing that changed for me. The first time around, I hadn't played Sword/Shield yet. The second time, I was already familiar with this region. But I'm a big believer in an adaptation being able to stand alone. I don't feel like you should have to play the games to feel like you got the full experience. And the first time around, I felt little to no connection to the episodes that went into the main storyline of the game with Eternatus and the Darkest Day. We'd just spent too little time in Galar up until that point. It definitely clicked better the second time, but I'm standing by my 'blind' opinion of that particular flaw.
But aside from that one aspect, I really have nothing but praise for this season. Particularly, Journeys crafted some of the best characters Pokemon has ever seen. Chloe's story was a little weak, but Goh really impressed me. I can't remember another time a Pokemon character's backstory held such a clear influence over who that person grew up to be. There is such a clear pipeline from: Lonely kid whose parents didn't have time for him, so he comforted himself with solitary research... to Know-it-all kid who couldn't make friends and learned to get defensive and combative at the slightest hint of judgment after the first few bad experiences. It really makes his character growth-- watching him make his very first friend in Ash and becoming the open, well-adjusted person he is today-- kind of beautiful. Especially because you really get to watch him grow over time. It is by no means effortless. I loved the little details they threw in along the way-- how awkward and on edge he'd get the first few times he met some of Ash's older friends, having to acknowledge that other people had a claim on his new friend too. For a character I initially found annoying, it was really great.
Similarly, there was a lot of depth to Leon. Even not having as much time to explore him, that's one place I felt the anime did one-up the game. I loved the episode where he spent one-on-one time with Ash and revealed that, as much as he loved being champion, that stress of being known as 'unbeatable' was starting to get to him. I don't feel like it's talked about enough that the Galar region's presentation of the Pokemon League is a very modern one. Its stars are celebrities in an age of social media. Their fans are constantly watching. They never get a break. There's this really great little scene, when our heroes first meet Sonia and she's talking about how she grew up with Leon and watched him become the star he is today. It's this still-shot of a much younger Leon, surrounded by adults aiming to capitalize on his early success, and just looking totally overwhelmed, almost fearful even. A picture is worth a thousand words, indeed. That really tells the whole story, right there.
Which all goes towards making it so satisfying to see him hand over the crown at the end. Those last few minutes of the Pikachu v. Charizard battle genuinely gave me chills. And overall, I think this was the best tournament arc Pokemon ever had. I don't think there's ever been another League where I felt connected to all of the competitors and everyone felt like real competition.
Pokemon Journeys got off to a questionable start but bloomed into something beautiful by the end. I thought I was ready to say goodbye to Ash years ago. Now I'm sad to see him go.
PineappleRobin
Not my favorite Pokémon series but what a ride! After winning his first regional Pokémon League and becoming the Alola Champion, Ash returns to Pallet Town. Eventually he goes to Vermillion City where he meets Gou and together they become a researcher duo. Both Ash and Gou have different goals. Ash eventually decides to participate in the PWC aka the Pokémon World Championships (which was teased in the Diamond & Pearl series, gotta love some forshadowing!) where Ash eventually wants to enter the Masters Eight, which are the eight strongest trainers in the world with Leon being the number 1. Gou wants to meet Mew and doesso by catching as many Pokémon as he can. Honestly, I needed some time to get used to him but I eventually learned to love him. At some point he also joins Project Mew which is a group of people that want to find Mew but not everyone is allowed to join. The people who want to join have to collect Mew tokens and only if you have the right amount of coins, you can join. Because of this Gou does have a few rivals like Tokio and even Gary, Ash's old rival.
Overall I loved the series. It's not like all the previous Pokémon series where Ash just stays in one region. Ash and Gou go to every region, including Galar, the only one of these regions that Ash has never fully discovered. Because of this we do see older characters returning like Iris, who now the Unova Champion (and member of the Masters 8), Dawn (who still does contests) and more.
Ash doesn't really have a rival like he usually has. His 'main rival' is basically Leon since that's the one he wants to beat. The only other trainer that comes close to being a rival is Bea.
There are a lot of things I didn't like. I didn't like how they didn't spent more time in Galar or how there weren't more two parters and the pacing felt very off too at times. Ash jumped many spots in his PWC ranking at once. I wanted more PWC battles. I hated Team Rocket's treatment.
Luckily there are more things that I did love. Ash and Gou are a great duo. Koharu is a great addition but she deserved better. Ash becoming the world champion was so satisfying and I cried when it happened. Ash vs Leon is the best battle in the entire history of the Pokémon anime and I don't think they'll ever be able to top this (to be fair, I did say this about Ash vs Kukui too....)
Seeing all the character returns and cameos was a blast. I grew up with this anime since 1999 and it means the world to me. It's clear that this series wasn't just catered towards kids but also to the adults who grew up with this show. This is the last full series with Ash as the main protagonist and it's clear they wanted to celebrate his past with this series.
Overall a great show, my second favorite Pokémon series.
aeroror2
A lot of things happened and I'm all for it. Never in my wildest dream that I'm expecting that this is the last Pokémon anime with Ash/Satoshi as the main character. Throughout the series, there are too many theories and speculations but I used to take it as a joke, not until it became real. As someone who's been a fan of the franchise since the day I first watched this on our local television channel, watching the end is too much for me. I know that they're not yet released the final set of the last episodes which highlights the farewell of Pikachu and Ash,but thinking about it was already been a sad one for me.
Going back to this season, one thing is for sure; it's hard to love Goh as compared to the companions of Ash from the previous seasons. It feels like, the franchise somehow switch Goh as the MC instead of Ash. It's a refreshing idea since they give plenty of screen time to another character but it became too much to handle. I remember when Goh catches Suicune and the fandom lost their patience. One of the legendary beast trio has fallen into the hands of a new trainer, Goh. However, as time passed by, I tend to understand and change my hatred for Goh since I realized, Goh is like us all when we play various Pokémon games. We never missed the chance to catch all the Pokémon that we see, compile them in our Pokédex, or use it against battles.
Honestly, they miss the chance to introduce a new Eeveelution to the audience. Koharu's Eevee has been a rare one and most of us are hoping to finally welcome a possible new tying evolution. On the other hand, I didn't understand why some hated Koharu/Chloe for some reasons. The girl is such a cutie and has pure love for Pokémon with her innocent approach to everything.
The best thing about this season is the several reunions between Ash and his old Pokémon and friends, as well as the World Championship battles. These were the highlights that I surely adore that much. Every single time that a familiar and memorable character appears on an episode, I can't help but always put a smiling face throughout the scenes. And finally, our boy has been crowned as the World Champion after all the journeys he has been through. The one thing that I feel disappointed about is once again, the franchise miss the chance of letting Ash strongest from each region compete in the final round against Leon/Dante.
With all things said, I am ending the anime with a happy heart that after all these years, Ash and Pikachu have been the very best and climb their way to the top with plenty of adventures and lessons they acquired from traveling in different regions. Pokémon Journeys was a great season and did an amazing job of setting the mood of saying goodbye to the characters that engraved impact on our lives. A big thank you to Ash, Pikachu, Team Rocket, and all of the humans and Pokémon presented in this anime for being my source of happiness for more than two decades. I love you with all my heart! I wanna be the very best and I'm gonna catch them all!
AnimeSrk
Must recommend, it may have many down's to it, but it's good. The art style and animation were good, even though sometimes it disappointed me. The story could have been a lot better if it was executed even more brilliantly. Even though some episodes were not good, it made me laugh, cry and enjoy pokemon as a whole. Ash was really well developed, but sad it didn't go well for both Koharu and Goh's development, it could have been improved which would make the series more better. The action was there and it fulfilled it's rule very well, there were emotions and many more, hopewe could have got more.
I give it 7/10.
Repulzer
Sounds weird but.. the further you go, the better it gets. Especially the last part... damn just awesome meeting so many fellow souls and seeing some eastereggs for old fans especially the one with movie 5 got me so wellWere the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid?
well you knew most of them... ofc it just felt nice to see them again
Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way?
uhmm depends, it was fitting for those characters and how I got to know them over the years
Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why?
Well I bet if you loved pokemon back then, you would like or even love the nostalgic parts in masters.. I guess even more but some parts especially at the beginnng with those stupid goh guy annoyed me tbh
