April 2012
11 posts
Next Time On Pokémaniacal: Starter Pokémon
Right. That’s enough of that. For now, anyway.
A few weeks ago (or… maybe it was months… or… something) reader NateyM suggested I review and rank the starter Pokémon. I wasn’t so sure about the ranking, mainly because I have to admit I’m horribly biased on this one: I like all the Grass-type starters better than all the Fire- and Water-type ones; in fact...
6 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 26 and 32
Pokémon Scent-sation – The Ninja Poké-Showdown
Last anime review for a few weeks so we can look at something else, so let’s make it a good cut-off point: Ash’s next two Gym battles, against Erika of the Celadon Gym and Koga of the Fuchsia Gym. Can he defeat these fearsome foes? Don’t be silly; of course he can. He’s the main character.
When the gang arrives in Celadon City, Misty immediately...
9 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 30-31
Sparks Fly for Magnemite – Dig Those Diglett
Sparks Fly for Magnemite sees Ash, Misty and Brock visit Gringy City, an industrial town that is almost as pleasant as it sounds. Dirty, smelly, and blanketed with choking smog, the place seems to be all but abandoned, and as if today weren’t bad enough already, Pikachu’s cheeks are discharging sparks at random. The distressingly ineffectual Nurse...
8 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 27-28
Hypno’s Naptime – Pokémon Fashion Flash
(Apologies for the delay on this entry - internet connection conked out last night and I wasn’t able to post it. Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from writing, so my next entry will be up on schedule.)
There’s little to connect these two episodes other than the fact that Misty and Brock each happen to gain new Pokémon, so for the most part...
7 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 25 and 29
Primeape Goes Bananas – The Punchy Pokémon
Ash has been messing around with only five Pokémon for three episodes now, and it’s time for him to get a new one to refill his party (what, use Krabby? Don’t be ridiculous!). Unfortunately, the Pokémon he winds up catching to fill his sixth slot… presents certain methodological issues for Ash’s training style; put it that way.
(…he’s...
7 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 22-24
Abra and the Psychic Showdown – The Tower of Terror – Haunter vs. Kadabra
It’s time for the Saffron Gym episodes already? Ash does the Gyms in kind of a weird order, since he doesn’t take roundabout routes through underground paths the way we do in the games to avoid pointlessly obstructive gate guards. As a result, Sabrina, normally the sixth challenge for players of the games, is Ash’s...
8 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 19-21
Tentacool and Tentacruel – The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak – Bye Bye, Butterfree
Yeah, yeah, I know, I missed episode 18. Beauty and the Beach was banned in most Western countries because James wears a set of fake boobs to enter a beauty contest (yeah… he does that sometimes) and it doesn’t air on the official website with the rest of the series because they’re trying to pretend it never...
12 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 15-17
Battle Aboard the St. Anne – Pokémon Shipwreck – Island of the Giant Pokémon
Fresh off Ash’s victory at the Vermillion Gym, Ash and his friends are given free tickets by a pair of teenage girls to a lavish Pokémon trainers’ convention aboard the world-famous luxury cruise liner, the St. Anne! THERE IS NO WAY THIS COULD POSSIBLY BE A SCAM!
We quickly learn that the ‘teenage girls’ were Team...
March 2012
12 posts
6 tags
Anime Time: Episode 14
Electric Shock Showdown
Oh, the excitement! Ash is on a roll, and now he’s in Vermillion City for his third Gym battle! Oh… but we forgot to mention… the Vermillion Gym Leader, Lt. Surge, is a total nutcase who’s hospitalised sixteen Pokémon in the past month. Pikachu doesn’t like the idea of fighting this crazy person, but Misty taunts Ash for the two pity Badges he collected in...
An Interesting Year
Y’know… now that I come to think about it, it’s totally my blog’s one-year anniversary today. I mean, I was on Blogspot for most of that time, but it still counts.
(The archive may tell you differently, but it is a lying bastard, and is also confused because I live in a country that is in the future. I’m… pretty sure it’s a year today.)
To recap: in...
6 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 10-12
Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village – Charmander: The Stray Pokémon – Here Comes the Squirtle Squad
Okay, last entry was so long this is starting to get ridiculous, so I’ll try to blaze through the synopsis of these three episodes as quickly as I can so I can spend more time on commentary; here goes nothing!
These are the episodes in which Ash meets and catches, in rapid succession, his Bulbasaur,...
8 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 8, 9 and 13
The Path to the Pokémon League – The School of Hard Knocks – Mystery at the Lighthouse
Yep; I’m doing these out of order, for a couple of reasons. One is that I really want to do episodes ten, eleven and twelve as a group, and spend a whole entry just on episode fourteen, which sort of leaves thirteen as the odd one out. The other and far more important reason is that I feel these three episodes...
9 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 5-7
Showdown at Pewter City - Clefairy and the Moon Stone - The Waterflowers of Cerulean City
In which Ash… earns… his first two Gym Badges. Arguably. Also stuff happens with some Clefairy.
When Ash and Misty arrive in Pewter City, they are greeted by an aged hobo selling rocks. Don’t scoff; rocks are the whole basis of Pewter City’s economy. The hobo leads them to the Pokémon Centre...
6 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 3-4
Ash Catches a Pokémon – Challenge of the Samurai
These two episodes record Ash and Misty’s journey through Viridian Forest, during which Ash captures his first two wild Pokémon: Caterpie and Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto really isn’t very interesting; he’s mostly a utility Pokémon who turns up whenever Ash needs to take advantage of his flight, and I don’t think there are any episodes that focus on...
4 tags
Anime Time: Episodes 1-2
Pokémon: I Choose You – Pokémon Emergency
Today I begin my journey through the Pokémon anime, scheduled to last… until I get bored, though I’ll be taking breaks periodically to keep doing stuff related to the games too. Well, there’s no sense wasting time; here we go!
The first episode, Pokémon: I Choose You, introduces us to our hero – and I use the term loosely – Ash Ketchum of...
Next Time On Pokémaniacal: Anime Time!
I haven’t really watched the Pokémon anime in… I don’t even know. Years. I stopped paying attention about midway through the Johto series, largely because the timeslots just weren’t convenient for me anymore. However, I’ve just recently begun watching it again on the official website, which has about ten episodes available at a time from each of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and (as of last...
5 tags
Pokémon: the Rise of Darkrai (Part 2 of 2)
So, Alamos Town is surrounded by thick fog, no-one can leave, most of the town’s Pokémon trainers have just been summarily crushed by a living nightmare, and apparently there is an extradimensional god/pink magic dinosaur hanging out somewhere in the town. Also the local baron is a Lickilicky.
That’s great odds.[[MORE]]
Once Ash and his friends learn that Palkia is in Alamos Town, they rush out...
5 tags
Pokémon: the Rise of Darkrai (Part 1 of 2)
This movie…
Oh, this movie…
My so-called “best friend,” Jim, gave me the DVD for this movie, the tenth in the series, (along with the eleventh, Giratina and the Sky Warrior) for Christmas. A couple of weeks ago I managed to make him watch it with me. This movie…
It’s not that it doesn’t make sense, because it does eventually, it’s more that the whole first half of it is one...
5 tags
Pokémon White: Victini and Zekrom (Part 3 of 3)
Where I left off last time, Ash was chilling with Zekrom in the basement while Damon continued his ill-advised plan to return the Sword of the Vale to its original site. While Ash is gone, Mannes (who has been doing recon in his crazy-awesome home-built Klinklang-powered helicopter) tries to suggest to Damon that something might not be quite right here, since the Dragon Force appears to be doing...
5 tags
Pokémon White: Victini and Zekrom (Part 2 of 3)
Now, where were we? Ah, yes; Ash, Pikachu, Iris and Cilan were in mayor Mannes’ office with him and Damon, who were about to tell our plucky young heroes the history of Eindoak Town and the Sword of the Vale. Right.
One thousand years ago, according to Damon and Mannes, their ancestors lived in the Vale, a now-lifeless area which is just visible from the battlements of the castle. At the...
