Pokemon
Overview
I will never understand what it is everyone has against this series. It is a unique and unless your just a hard a$$ it is a enjoyable series. It's more or less training wheels for future anime fans. You can hardly throw a 5 year old in front of a tv with Kenshin on. This gives them something to enjoy and introduces people to the lighter side of our world of anime.
Storyline & Narrative
Basically you've got a young boy named Ash who lives on this planet inhabited by "Pokemon" various creatures who can be caught and taught to battle other pokemon, and can be trained as pets. Ash leaves his mother to become a pokemon trainer on his 11th birthday and along the way meets Misty and Brock, fellow pokemon trainers. They all ban together and travel to various citys competeting against other pokemon trainers. Along the way they capture new pokemon and get into several battles with the bad guys of the series Team Rocket, a trio that consist of Jessie, James, and Meow. All of wich who are hell bent on getting Ash's Pikachu from him.
Characters & Dynamics
Ash being the star of the series is just a boy, he's determined to become a great pokemon trainer. He does however grow tiring, his attempts to catch everything that isnt human do get annoying. Misty is also a pain, you'll not find one episode where she doesnt flip out into some high pitch squeal that forces you to turn the tv down to avoid headaches wich she has delivered to me. Brock is in his teenage years and thats apparent when he comes across a young women in the series. He hits on everything with boobs that he lays eyes on. He offers very littel to the series. Pikachu is Ash's starting pokemon and is...well..hes a pikachu, his vocabulary consist of variations of his name. Jessie, James and Meowth are just annoying..
Animation & Visual Direction
Anyone who finds this animation and character design anything short of enjoyable is just a tight wad. Theres hundreds of these pokemon who are all unique and amazing. The characters themselves are rather bland and offer nothing new to anime art wise, they are still done nicely. The background are also nothing amazing to watch you'll find mostly woods and flat land scapes. But dont however take anything away from the pokemon, there extremely well drawn and the battle scenes are most enjoyable balancing it all out.
Voice Acting & Soundtrack
Excluding season one where they have some very bad voice actor do Ash's voice, the voice overs were very well done. Yep, no girls doing guys voices in this one.
