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  #101  
Old December 29, 2014, 12:33:57 PM
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Once More with Reeling - So now that Ash finished his Battle Frontier quests it's time yet again for the group to go separate ways. The town with the port is holding an unofficial contest and Ash decides to sign up as well. Ash decides to enter with Pikachu in appeals and Sceptile in battling and May chooses to enter Eevee for Appeals and Combusken for battles. May has gained quite a few fans as a coordinator. I'd like to point out it is pretty cool seeing Ash participate in a contest appeal. Since this is an unofficial contest Ash and May go straight to the finals. the rules here make no sense at all. Of course before Team Rocket then shows up to steal pokemon. They're easily defeated but Combusken ends up evolving into a Blaziken. This leads to a contest battle between Blaziken and Sceptile which is quite amazing especially this shows off how far May has come since the beginning of this saga. Sceptile's overgrow is activated while Blaziken's Blaze is as well. We're left on a cliff hanger over won and I can't stand this tension.

5/5

Home is where the start is - How do you create a perfect ending a saga? Making this. The battle of course ends as a tie and since this an unofficial contest in a tie and since this is an unofficial contest there's no over time so May and Ash both decide to split the medal. Well isn't that just convenient. After the contest the group has dinner May decides to announce she's decides she wants to enter the Johto pokemon contest by herself. She reveals she wants to be on her own because she wants to be less dependent on the others so she can find her own way as well. I like how Max is clearly upset so Ash decides to talk to him promising to one day battle with him. I love this moment, it's my favorite Max moment of the entire saga and May deciding to off on her own is also a terrific moment of character growth. May and Max both leave on there own while Brock goes back to Pewter City and Ash goes to Pallet town. Of course now that Ash is off on his own Team Rocket decides to attack however instead they go after an Electivire. It turns out this Electivire belongs to Gary! Of course Electivire easily defeats Team Rocket and Ash's pokedex has no data on it. Gary decides to head back to his grandpa's lab while Ash continues his journey back to Pallet. Ash arrives home to an empty house so in turn he goes to Oak's lab only to be greeted with a surprise. Ash immediately challenges Electivire to battle stupidly with Pikachu who both know all the same attacks. Just like the last time Ash battled Gary at the end of a saga he looses despite winning the Battle Frontier. But this battle is still really important for the next saga. Ash of course hearing Gary talk about Sinnoh he decides to head off there. For a 10 year old Pokemon researcher Gary sure acts like an adult. Ash leaves behind all of his pokemon while Oak gives him a new Pokedex. However Aipom runs off to join Ash with of course Team Rocket on the boat.

5/5

Last edited by Magmaster12; December 29, 2014 at 01:01:42 PM.
  #102  
Old January 1, 2015, 07:07:53 PM
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Character Development    
Ash gets the most character development this season over probably any other. While he may have had the typical hero stuff for most of the beginning it comes to fruition during battling the enemy within. It's established that his wreck less personality allowed him to get possessed by the king of pokelantis. It's here Ash actually questions himself of whether he really just some kid, while he has doubts he sees Ho-oh again and decides to have a rematch even after loosing again. Despite loosing twice he gets a spark reading a letter from Gary reminding give up because after all Ash did beat Gary in the pokemon league which was the biggest achievement at the time. I love how Ash goes with the idea of going back to his routes by calling upon his original Kanto starters again even though it doesn't really come to much. I can totally understand why he'd turn down the offer to become a Frontier Brain, as much as he loves battling he just happens to enjoy traveling and meeting new people and pokemon more. I like this idea, you can't have a protagonist journey for nine years and just suddenly get sick of what he's doing out of nowhere. Seeing his battle with Gary again was also pretty cool but it's more in the name of set up for next season. As for his pokemon they also get a fair share of screen time. Pikachu learns Volt Tackle an awesome move that will drives fans like me crazy when it's deleted. Pikachu also defeats a Regice which I'm going to say again is pointless. Swellow and Corphish had that one frontier brain battle but didn't do much else the entire season, Swellow began the trend of the flying type having no personality this season. Grovyle surprised many this season by finally evolving, at the time many people though Charizard would be the only fully evolved starter but I'm glad that didn't turn out to be true. In hindsight it was kind of a cop out to have Sceptile unable to use grass moves after evolving as if Ash needs to try EVEN harder if he wants powerful pokemon but at least it was a lot more brief then Charizard plus it was nice having some pokemon go through an arc this season. Phanpy also evolves into Donphan, I like how even though it evolved it still has the jolly personality it had as a baby plus it gets a nice Frontier Brain battle. Ash's new capture this season is Aipom who is quite trouble maker and welcomed addition to Ash's team and I totally glad it snuck on the boat since even it took up WAY to much screen time this season it never had any serious battles. It was also awesome to see the return of Snorlax, Heracross, Tauros, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard this season but not much to say about there appearances. May's main character development this season about her leaving the group and how she needs to learn to be more self reliant. And unlike when Misty left this was well set up throughout the entire season, she learns early on Drew and Harley are heading for Johto. She even regains her hope to being top coordinator after running into Harley and Drew. It's also terrific to see Dawn finally beat Drew even if she looses to him soon afterwards. As for her pokemon she only gets one evolution in Combusken. Combusken evolving into Blaziken was a huge surprise at the time no one thought that the pokemon that Ash lost to in the Silver league would end being owned by a main character but it totally happened! May also gets an egg that hatches into an Eevee, that's basically it though it seriously had more personality as an egg then a pokemon. At Squirtle and Munchlax made up for that, I especially liked how they continued to have Max paired up with Munchlax. This season Max participates in Pokemon Orienteering with Munchlax and looses, has some weird connection with a Deoxys this season and my favorite moment. The moment where Max realizes his journey with the group is over and how upset he is my favorite moment with the character and I seriously do hope we see him again some day. Brock actually does more then Max this season with him returning home to the Pewter gym, Mudkip finally evolving into Marshtomp only to be used twice after evolving and never seen again, the writers remembering he still had a Forretress and the capture Bonsly. Brock capturing Bonsly was a good move since we finally have Brock the pokemon breeder actually take care of a an actual baby pokemon. He also participates in a pokemon contest, that was also cool. Seriously though if this season never happened odds are the writers would have stopped using Brock but he's going to stick around for one more saga after this one. Finally there's Team Rocket, it seriously got to the point this season where the writers were as sick of them as I was so I'm just going to be brief. James swaps out his Chimecho for Mime Jr in an episode that shows off what a great person he can really be which I find totally believable seeing him like this is probably my favorite of the "James Trilogy". Jesse makes no captures or much of note other then failing in pokemon contests. Also Meowth is Meowth. Also this is the the season where they yet again change there motto.  


Final Thoughts    
So that was the Advanced Generation saga and overall it was a MASSIVE improvement over the previous ones. All of the characters had a set goal in mind with a satisfying conclusion for each character and an arc that makes sense. It also introduced the idea of recurring rivals outside of Gary, contests, and a shifting supporting cast. All were really good since it allowed more stories to be told without filler after filler. The final season on it's own is probably the best because both May and Ash have great character arcs while the supporting cast also gets there best moments, Brock returning to Pewter City and Max sulking over saying goodbye. What this series left on was great the plots were well connected, the battles were also terrific the fallback I can say of this season is a few lacklaster fillers and how the contests and a couples of Frontier battles are rushed but other then that this season is the one I hold as a standard for what I expect of all future seasons. 


5/5

6 To watch
Home is Where the Start is
Kaboom with a View
Grating Spaces
Battling the Enemy within
Thinning the hoard
Unbeatable Sight of Seeing

3 To Skip
Three Jynx and a Baby
Aipom and Circumstance
Strategy Tomorrow Comedy Tonight
 
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