Pokémon has always been a difficult subject to bring up when you are a little bit older than the youngest target audience. Much like Power Rangers and any other kids show, Pokémon is regarded to be just that, a kids show. This whilst the games are surprisingly deep and fun to play. The show on the other hand, not so much. No need to wonder then why Ash is still ten years old after YEARS of in show time has progressed. And I’m not kidding here, they frequently mention that months have passed and if you do the math, years should have passed. The reason why Ash is still ten is because the makers don’t want to alienate their target audience.
Up to the Advanced series, I would have agreed with you. Most of the series up to the end of Advanced can be described as being fun to watch with Nostalgia Goggles and great entertainment for kids. Kind of like rewatching Power Rangers. You know everything about why it’s childish and cheesy, but you’re enjoying every last minute of it.
After watching the old series again, I saw that it had its moments. Like Charizard freezing over, Butterfree being released and more moments like that. Buuuuut, those moments were far, far apart and most episodes were nothing more than stupid filler episodes.
This improved somewhat in the Advanced series, but by the end of it you realize they were on the right track, but not quite there yet.
Then came Diamond and Pearl.
The story of Diamond and Pearl is that Ash Ketchum travels to the Sinnoh region with only Pikachu and Aipom at hand. There he meets up with a brand new trainer named Dawn and his old pal’ Captain awe … I mean: Brock. For the rest the series follows the already familiar formula of Ash going on the road from Gym city to Gym city whilst Dawn fills in for May to participate in Pokémon Contests. Brock is there to be the medic and all around smart guy.
This time however, there is a lot more to the story. For one, the rivals are actually interesting. As great as Gary Oak became in the end of his run, he is no Paul. Ash’s rival, Paul, is quite the number. Easily the best character in the entire series. Paul, you see, is the exact opposite of Ash in every way. His training methods are ruthless and cruel and he treats his Pokémon like tools that need to listen to him. They’re not even allowed to show emotion and even if they win, Paul will berate them. Most notably is his Chimchar. It is the only one of his Pokémon that isn’t happy with the training method, but it does it only because its trainer wants it to do it. And the training method is quite heavy, if you ask me. It’s animal abuse, if you get down to the core of it. (Yes, I know how that sounds considering this is Pokémon. Get over the joke) Basically, Chimchar gets hurt pretty badly, not only physically but emotionally as well as it is not allowed to show any kind of emotion at all. Otherwise it just gets yelled at by Paul.
It was very interesting to see how not only this character evolved, but how Ash evolved as well. And their inevitable battles always had me at the tip of my chair just because of how intense their rivalry was.
There’s still the matter of the main plot of the D&P series to talk about. Now, the main plot revolves around several villains. These are Pokémon Hunter J, Team Galactic and … Team Rocket, as usual. Whilst the Team Rocket trio is still a joke, they do get some great story episodes devoted to them. Still … they’re a joke. Hunter J and Galactic on the other hand all have amazingly tense and exiting episodes devoted to them. They really dig deep in the lore of the Pokémon world, going as far as how Time and Space was created. On a more here and now level though, Hunter J provides a whole new take on the Pokémon world and how Pokémon are considered to be tools to be enslaved by corporations and collectors. Hunters, you see, go out and capture Pokémon on a fee.
The League and Grand Festival stories are quite entertaining as well. Ash’s journey doesn’t provide us with a lot of new material, save for his interaction with Paul, but Dawn’s story was very good to follow. And the Contest Battles were a sight to see as well as they really showed that there is still a lot of creativity left in the series.
What I did hate was how Brock’s story was shoved in to the story in the end to give him an excuse to leave.
The Pokémon, let’s talk about them. Yeah … they’re great, if you ask me. Diamond and Pearl is still a prime example of how Pokémon is done right. Like with every new batch, there are some questionable ones to be sure. BUT, overall though, they are great. Unlike the Black and White Pokémon that is reversed. There they tend to be either generic or ridiculous if they’re not “okay”. Some of the Sinnoh ones are in fact really cool like Lucario and Infernape.
The music in this series is … not so great. Let’s just skip over this one because the songs are just phoned in, if you ask me.
Voice acting-wise … same ol’ same ol’
Final verdict:
If Pokémon before Diamond and Pearl was Jak and Daxter: The Precursor’s Legacy, then Diamond and Pearl is Jak II.
8/10
Up to the Advanced series, I would have agreed with you. Most of the series up to the end of Advanced can be described as being fun to watch with Nostalgia Goggles and great entertainment for kids. Kind of like rewatching Power Rangers. You know everything about why it’s childish and cheesy, but you’re enjoying every last minute of it.
After watching the old series again, I saw that it had its moments. Like Charizard freezing over, Butterfree being released and more moments like that. Buuuuut, those moments were far, far apart and most episodes were nothing more than stupid filler episodes.
This improved somewhat in the Advanced series, but by the end of it you realize they were on the right track, but not quite there yet.
Then came Diamond and Pearl.
The story of Diamond and Pearl is that Ash Ketchum travels to the Sinnoh region with only Pikachu and Aipom at hand. There he meets up with a brand new trainer named Dawn and his old pal’ Captain awe … I mean: Brock. For the rest the series follows the already familiar formula of Ash going on the road from Gym city to Gym city whilst Dawn fills in for May to participate in Pokémon Contests. Brock is there to be the medic and all around smart guy.
This time however, there is a lot more to the story. For one, the rivals are actually interesting. As great as Gary Oak became in the end of his run, he is no Paul. Ash’s rival, Paul, is quite the number. Easily the best character in the entire series. Paul, you see, is the exact opposite of Ash in every way. His training methods are ruthless and cruel and he treats his Pokémon like tools that need to listen to him. They’re not even allowed to show emotion and even if they win, Paul will berate them. Most notably is his Chimchar. It is the only one of his Pokémon that isn’t happy with the training method, but it does it only because its trainer wants it to do it. And the training method is quite heavy, if you ask me. It’s animal abuse, if you get down to the core of it. (Yes, I know how that sounds considering this is Pokémon. Get over the joke) Basically, Chimchar gets hurt pretty badly, not only physically but emotionally as well as it is not allowed to show any kind of emotion at all. Otherwise it just gets yelled at by Paul.
It was very interesting to see how not only this character evolved, but how Ash evolved as well. And their inevitable battles always had me at the tip of my chair just because of how intense their rivalry was.
There’s still the matter of the main plot of the D&P series to talk about. Now, the main plot revolves around several villains. These are Pokémon Hunter J, Team Galactic and … Team Rocket, as usual. Whilst the Team Rocket trio is still a joke, they do get some great story episodes devoted to them. Still … they’re a joke. Hunter J and Galactic on the other hand all have amazingly tense and exiting episodes devoted to them. They really dig deep in the lore of the Pokémon world, going as far as how Time and Space was created. On a more here and now level though, Hunter J provides a whole new take on the Pokémon world and how Pokémon are considered to be tools to be enslaved by corporations and collectors. Hunters, you see, go out and capture Pokémon on a fee.
The League and Grand Festival stories are quite entertaining as well. Ash’s journey doesn’t provide us with a lot of new material, save for his interaction with Paul, but Dawn’s story was very good to follow. And the Contest Battles were a sight to see as well as they really showed that there is still a lot of creativity left in the series.
What I did hate was how Brock’s story was shoved in to the story in the end to give him an excuse to leave.
The Pokémon, let’s talk about them. Yeah … they’re great, if you ask me. Diamond and Pearl is still a prime example of how Pokémon is done right. Like with every new batch, there are some questionable ones to be sure. BUT, overall though, they are great. Unlike the Black and White Pokémon that is reversed. There they tend to be either generic or ridiculous if they’re not “okay”. Some of the Sinnoh ones are in fact really cool like Lucario and Infernape.
The music in this series is … not so great. Let’s just skip over this one because the songs are just phoned in, if you ask me.
Voice acting-wise … same ol’ same ol’
Final verdict:
If Pokémon before Diamond and Pearl was Jak and Daxter: The Precursor’s Legacy, then Diamond and Pearl is Jak II.
8/10
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