Thread: BW 001-002 "To the Isshu Region! Zekrom's Shadow!!" & "Iris and Kibago!" Review

Originally Posted by Ampharos King

That's a pretty big jump considering that not much has happened yet in the series overall. Iris is going to provide a lot of comic relief down the road, especially with the way that she grabs on to cute pokemon any chance she gets.

Anyone can see the clear difference between Iris' debut and what they did with Dawn and to a lesser extent May's debut in their first episodes.

Both May and Dawn got much bigger debuts when they first appeared, meanwhile Iris just got a low-key first appearance.

Iris is the first new female that's really not getting anywhere near the amount of promotion the last two did.

This episode was fun to watch :D Ash is still 10, guess he's drinking from the 'Fountain of Youth' off screen xD Wonder if they'll confirm it in the dub. I realized that Iris didn't have such a "big" debut as May and Dawn, but whateva, Kibago looks cool. I found it funny when Satoshi through the Pokeball at Iris lol Zekrom was cool Team Rocket look more evil, they look a lot like they first appeared. I kind like Shooti too, can't wait 'till Satoshi battle him again >:D

Ohai BMGF, I did (not) miss you as well.

Now to make fun of the new gen...

BW001

-Yay new region etc. etc. etc.
-The way that Ash wears his hat annoys me. I haet change raarrgh!
-Thank you Deli-wow. The eyes man. The EYES! :0<.
-Oak now looks like how he is supposed to be. Giggity.
-No saga is a saga without our lovable losers, is it?
-I don't want to know to that secretary girl...
-Cool plane is cool.
-CHESSY 3-D STYLISTIC OPENING OMGGGG!!! <33333! I don't care for Rica singing though...
-Dun dun dun... NANANA! PLOT!
-Here comes another Pikachu power down!
-Nanana eyecandy!
-Pikachu had no idea he was fighting the Devil a god.
-Yay Prof. Araragi! <insert dirty thought here>
-Pikachu hates being scanned, they see his history in there y'know.
-Blond guys. They are evil.
-This reminds me. I need to get a cam. Like now.
-I agree with Shuuti. I would hit on be jerk a towards someone busying me during my work with his/her friendliness and hotbloodness.
-I like these intoductions of starters. They show their personality. Wait. "Persssssonality" There.
-I like my first rival battles chessily over the top like this. And with Pikachu being emo. Thank you.
-Moar over the topness.

Yes I find this to be incredibly formatic and anything else over the top. But I liked the extra over the topness. I mean, this is a kids show after all. Besides that I liked what tracks used when. Reminding of you something; that is inside a DS cartridge. And guarded by ponies.

BW002

-Ash guards Pikachu as he generates electricity. An act of huge heroicness when you think how much it will hurt. After 20 times though, I just don't care anymore.
-Araragi knows the sexual tension... Oh come on people. They focus on his eye of all things.
-Yay new eyecandy.
-Ohai new tsundere.
-Girls and electrical rodents. The dynamic comboniation.
-Ash is a cheating bastard. He gets Shikijika and Mamepato at Route 1.
- I really don't want to know what is happening inside Sakaki-sama's office./lie]
-Hmm, Koromori, what would that mean...
-Let's say it together. Epical. Failure.
-Obligatory night scene.
-Let's say it again. Epical. Failure.
-And Ash gets the dumb non-caring for what the society does Mamepato.
-This catch is over the top. Love it.
-I like this motto animation.
-Wait, they are being somewhat component? My god, this feels... weird.
-Koromori!
-The obvious next catch saves the day.
-Joy 2,0. Hai!
-Ok, why Mamepato is waiting that long to land on Ash's hand?
-Oh, because he is that cool. That explains a lot.

Yeah Ash gets Pokédex and learns about next Gym, new catches for Ash and TR, Iris bonding with Ash etc. I like the new idea of opening(how sillouhettes turn into full colored animations after the episode they debut) and yeah, it had quite a lot fun moments here and there. Seeing TR being component AND NOT BLASTING OFF was very refreshening. And Gym Leader muisc remix. God is it cool.

An additional note I should make that I loved the new Pokédex. That it shows various poses of Pokémon and etc. It really helps with drawing the Pokés AND makes the Pokédex parts of animé somewhat decent.

Originally Posted by Trainer Yusuf

Ohai BMGF, I did (not) miss you as well.
-CHESSY 3-D STYLISTIC OPENING OMGGGG!!! <33333! I don't care for Rica singing though...

Ohoho, I think you might be a minority in this instance; Many fans think the exact opposite XD

(However, both the song and the animation grew on me in no time. A part of me wants them to keep the shiny effect on EVERY TIME, but they just show it full color the next episode...)

-Ohai new tsundere.

LOL, for some reason, I'm having a hard time understanding why people think that Iris is a tsundere. From her first major appearance, she doesn't seem to go "lovey-dovey" or even hide her conflicting emotions in an exaggeratedly flustered and blushy manner. She's just...Iris XD Meh.

Originally Posted by CommanderPigg

(However, both the song and the animation grew on me in no time. A part of me wants them to keep the shiny effect on EVERY TIME, but they just show it full color the next episode...)

Ignore the shiny part, the way the Pokémon first appear in the song is a resemblance to the way when a Pokémon is registered to the Pokédex. So that is probably the reason they are doing this.

I'm only gonna review Best Wishes episode 001, not 002. Ok I've seriously been neglecting to even comment on this episode, despite it being the beginning of a new saga and all. I just didn't have time to put all of my thoughts on this historic episode together but today was my day off so I've found some time to, once again, type my usual episode review/essay/rant. Hopefully, it will be one of my best reviews since I found this episode to be quite enjoyable which is a change considering most episodes like this turn out to be kind of bland. Well here it goes then. NOTE: I don’t understand Japanese, so maybe I didn’t get the context of things. This is just my thoughts on everything I noticed.

I liked the beginning of the episode showing Reshiram and Zekrom and all that good stuff because it reminded me of the Pokemon movies and how some guy is always giving the fans some Pokemon world backstory. A nice touch indeed. First thing I notice is that this takes place in Pallet Town to start us off. I kind of disliked that right away since usually, the new Pokemon sagas start in the new region right off the bat but whatever; I'll let this slide. Anyway, I noticed that Ash was already wearing his new Isshu region/Best Wishes clothes which makes me assume he was planning on going to Isshu right away. Sinnoh's trophies and other items were in Ash's room so at least we know the writers are being consistent and pointing at previous events haha.

Ash's eye color and hat were something else I want to talk/rant about; why the eye color change? I get the new hat but his eyes were great before this change. Totally out of left field I think. Anyway Ash's mother appeared and apparently, she fixed Ash's hat meaning she's some sort of private fashion consultant now. Then the heading out and Professor Oak appeared! I liked the car but his pineapple-print shirt was just hidious; that man has no sense of style. He then asked Ash to hurry up and board the car or something like that rather. Team Rocket's appearance in the next scene was what I was waiting for really. Their new black outfits are ugly to me though; I thought the point of white outfits was to distance themselves from other Team Rocket members and stuff. Whatever though.

Anyway Giovanni gave them some new orders and showed them the map of the Isshu region which would be the new region Team Rocket was targeting. Giovanni's new clothes in the next scene looked too Japanese for my tastes though; I liked his other clothes. At least he still has his old Persian. I liked that plane that Ash, Delia, and Oak were leaving to Isshu on; what is it called exactly? I liked that Team Rocket snuck into the same plane and were still tailing Ash; I just thought they'd find their own mode of transportation. Ash was reading about Isshu and almost wet his pants when Oak told him that brand-new Pokemon appear there. Oh please, this happens too often now, he should get used to it. Anyway, the new title card was amazing with the Isshu Dex and all. I can tell I'm gonna love this new series judging from this change lol.

Anyway they finally arrived in Isshu which looked like your generic town from the air and I still have no idea why Ash and Pikachu acted like it was their first time seeing trees and stuff. I loved the music that played as they got there since it was a remix of the ingame theme music; it was pleasant. Pikachu starting acting strange as that black cloud appeared but little Ash saw a Mamanbou and Pikachu followed him. Team Rocket's appearance then was quite predictable considering they strike at the worst time possible. Team Rocket trapped Pikachu in that movie 2-looking thing and absorbed it's electricity but then that cloud thing distracted them. Odd to see the effect it would have since it appeared that Zekrom was in the cloud which was unexpected. We got our first peek at Iris and Kibago, yay. It seemed Zekrom didn't want much else with Ash and Pikachu after that though and it left.

Delia and Oak went to check on Ash but he was fine since the impact didn't seem to have hurt him. Typical. Professor Araragi finally appeared and more Black and White music played. They all drove to her lab and Ash and Pikachu caught a glimpse of some of the native Isshu Pokemon like Shikijika, Mamepato, and Minezumi; they were so cute! Pikachu's cheeks were starting to act up though, hmm. Swana were seen in a lake and then it cut to commercials though the new eye-catch was amazing in it's own right. When it returned, we saw how the starting town looks like in the anime. It was much bigger than I thought it would be though. At Professor Araragi's lab, she ran tests on Pikachu and it seemed there was something wrong with it (but I loved the remixed Pokemon Center music!). Her fat assisstant walked in and said something that sounded like "Shinji trainer" and I thought it was Shinji/Paul but apparently it meant something like "new trainer" or whatever haha.

Shooti finally made his debut and he was seen taking pictures of things with his digital camera; I understand where his name came from now. His Japanese VA sounded like a girl though; yuck. Professor Araragi introduced Ash to Shooti though Shooti found something funny about Ash's home region and town. Arrogant little shiz. Araragi introduced Pokabu, then Mijumaru, then Tsutarja and all were cute but I liked that Ash and Mijumaru got along from the start. Shooti chose Tsutarja and Mijumaru was clearly surprised he wasn't chosen lol. Tsutarja will do well with Shooti though; arrogance loves arrogance as they say teehee. He then got his Isshu Dex (which looked like an MP3 player) and his six Pokeballs and started leaving but Ash followed him. Shooti seemed surprised about Pikachu though and took pictures.

I was surprised that he scolded Ash about having Pikachu though; I mean, what's wrong with that? Anyway Ash and Shooti challenged each other to a battle and as soon as it began, Shooti takes more pictures? Weirdo. At least Mijumaru was watching the battle like a cute little Starter haha. I laughed out loud that a weak little Tsutarja withstood Pikachu's Quick Attack at the start haha. Then when Pikachu attempted a Thunderbolt, Pikachu's power was revealed to have been cut short, most likely by that Zekrom from earlier. Even Volt Tackle was out at that point! Ash had to use Iron Tail instead in order to deal with the suddden lack of Electric type moves, but Tsutarja, being the agile snake that it is, dodged it quickly. Cheater. Tsutarja then ended things with it's Grass Mixer and knocked Pikachu out! No.....

Well things got more complicated after that point in several ways. Shooti's win meant that naturally, he'd get 10 times as arrogant as before so that was expected kinda. Pikachu was tested again and just as Professor Araragi was talking, Zekrom's black cloud appeared again. Lightning made the machines in the lab turn off and Professor Araragi finally identified the cloud as being related to Zekrom. This first episode of Best Wishes ended with the best cliffhanger in the longest time, which is why I love this episode so much despite it's various flaws. I think I have a lot of good things to look forward to in this arc so I'll try to stick with it for a long time to see the entire Best Wishes anime saga resolve. I think this episode deserves a 10/10 for being pretty much perfect all the way through.

Originally Posted by ☆ Lady Starlight ☆

I liked the beginning of the episode showing Reshiram and Zekrom and all that good stuff because it reminded me of the Pokemon movies and how some guy is always giving the fans some Pokemon world backstory. A nice touch indeed. First thing I notice is that this takes place in Pallet Town to start us off. I kind of disliked that right away since usually, the new Pokemon sagas start in the new region right off the bat but whatever; I'll let this slide. Anyway, I noticed that Ash was already wearing his new Isshu region/Best Wishes clothes which makes me assume he was planning on going to Isshu right away. Sinnoh's trophies and other items were in Ash's room so at least we know the writers are being consistent and pointing at previous events haha.

So you dislike that Ash starts this time in Pallet because it's different from how previous sagas started? I thought what we needed for the series was a sense of freshness and CHANGE... To be fair, I'm glad they not reused AGAIN the same "Hi mom I just got back from X-regi-Good bye mom I'm going to Y region!" start for the saga.

How does different clothes imply he intended to go on a new Pokémon journey? Is it a must to change clothes when you travel and only when you travel to a new region or start a new series? He just spent enough time in his house to change clothes, that's all.

Ash's eye color and hat were something else I want to talk/rant about; why the eye color change? I get the new hat but his eyes were great before this change. Totally out of left field I think. Anyway Ash's mother appeared and apparently, she fixed Ash's hat meaning she's some sort of private fashion consultant now. Then the heading out and Professor Oak appeared! I liked the car but his pineapple-print shirt was just hidious; that man has no sense of style. He then asked Ash to hurry up and board the car or something like that rather. Team Rocket's appearance in the next scene was what I was waiting for really. Their new black outfits are ugly to me though; I thought the point of white outfits was to distance themselves from other Team Rocket members and stuff. Whatever though.

Well the eyes changed because if you look closely at the anime website, you'll notice that characters were redesigned to better match their official Sugimori designs (take a look at Oak: his hair changed a bit and he was made chubbier like his FRLG artwork), so Ash got eyes that resemble Sugimori style better, how can you be out of field when you're actually getting closer to the source material (that is, the games, which Sugi illustrates).

Oak's pineapple shirt was to tell us they were going on vacation, which was partially the point of going to Isshu. Although I agree totally with you with the Rocket outfits color: while I do like them for looking more serious and aggresive (because you know, black is darker and edgier), it makes them lose their distinction over regular low-rank Rocket grunts.

Anyway they finally arrived in Isshu which looked like your generic town from the air and I still have no idea why Ash and Pikachu acted like it was their first time seeing trees and stuff. I loved the music that played as they got there since it was a remix of the ingame theme music (told you Ash-kid). Pikachu starting acting strange as that black cloud appeared but little Ash saw a Mamanbou and Pikachu followed him. Team Rocket's appearance then was quite predictable considering they strike at the worst time possible. Team Rocket trapped Pikachu in that movie 2-looking thing and absorbed it's electricity but then that cloud thing distracted them. Odd to see the effect it would have since it appeared that Zekrom was in the cloud which was unexpected. We got our first peek at Iris and Kibago, yay. It seemed Zekrom didn't want much else with Ash and Pikachu after that though and it left.

My bet here is that Zekrom's encounter(s?) with Pikachu will be a plot point later, similar to the lake trio appearances in DP. That or Pikachu will now have the Thunder Rod ability (which I think Pika can get if caught from the Dream World) and this was the way to explain it. Plus it worked as the reason to why Pikachu was powered down, giving us newbie Pikachu again for the new series (wouldn't it be broken if Ash challenged the early Gyms with a level 100 Pokémon? I mean, this is not Dragon Ball when every new rival is stronger than the previous one, here the strenght algorithm doesn't work that way).

I was surprised that he scolded Ash about having Pikachu though; I mean, what's wrong with that? Anyway Ash and Shooti challenged each other to a battle and as soon as it began, Shooti takes more pictures? Weirdo. At least Mijumaru was watching the battle like a cute little Starter haha. I laughed out loud that a weak little Tsutarja withstood Pikachu's Quick Attack at the start haha. Then when Pikachu attempted a Thunderbolt, Pikachu's power was revealed to have been cut short, most likely by that Zekrom from earlier. Even Volt Tackle was out at that point! Ash had to use Iron Tail instead in order to deal with the suddden lack of Electric type moves, but Tsutarja, being the agile snake that it is, dodged it quickly. Cheater. Tsutarja then ended things with it's Grass Mixer and knocked Pikachu out! No.....

I don't think he scolded Ash, he was rather surprised to see a Pikachu, but since he's no Ash, instead of wetting his pants he just made a frown upon that. And remember, Ash has to lose to his rivals so the rivalry sets in. But I did want Ash to win this time.

So I decided to review these two episodes again after seeing the subbed version of the episodes:

AMAZING! It's even better when you know everything being said. Let me first say, Sakaki is the coldest bad guy of the pokemon series and that Team Rocket is still funny (they just don't have them obsessively funny as they did for many years.)

Well, first of all, Sakaki says in the beginning to the TRio to repeat what TR's goals are again, basically letting you know that they've been in training once again which then leads to him telling them where they're going and their mission.

The TRio is of course very excited to be on their own mission, mostly Kojiro and Nyarth.

Later Giovanni is told by his secretary that there's another organization that's already in Isshu, Sakaki knows and says that hopefully the TRio's presence will force them to come out and that's when the Rockets will make their move into Isshu.

She asks him if the TRio can actually succeed and here's where you learn Sakaki's true nature, "Who knows? As long as they can get the other organization to show up, I don't care. Once that happens, we'll make our move."

Later the TRio asks for their pokemon back in which Sakaki and his secretary refuse saying that it'll make them look suspicious having pokemon from outside of the Isshu region.

------

onto the main characters:

I realized something when watching this episode... Special thing... They purposely have Satoshi to mess up to emulate the video games to show new viewers how to catch a pokemon.

Iris and Satoshi are just amazing as a duo before... I
love the fact that Iris likes saying things more than once and the way she describes pokemon heavily while holding them. So cute!!

I'm also happy that Satoshi is back to being a believable ten year old on this season.

Mijumaru is still as cute as he was when I first saw him, maybe even cuter.

Shuuti is a snob! Lol. He called Satoshi a "hick" and a "hillbilly" for being from Masaru Town. Hahahhahahahahha!!!

Rating: 10/10

BW 001 okay
BW 002 horrible because Iris thinks Ash is more stupid because he forgot the basics but wait a minute...If ash had learned the pokemon stuff about catching the pokemon shouldn't ash be more smarter and matured!

Eh, before I watched this I misunderstood the Pikachu nerf for a permanent one.
At first I was 'meh' due it not being permanent. By the time the episode was over I just shook my head and didn't care for it. He's fine as he is.

My first impression on Iris... is not good at all. Her voice is way too high-pitched, and she's starting to remind me of Kasumi... Even quarreling with Satoshi at the very first episodes...

Props to the anime for making me stop hating on Mijumaru with barely the first scene he shows up.

Oh and I feel lied to. I kept reading Rocket Dan would stop doing the silly attacks in nearly every episode. So far it looks as if they're gonna CONTINUE doing that, only they had their souls taken out of their bodies. Please don't tell me the writers took away the bearable part of Rocket Dan's participation in the episodes and left the BORING one in...

I'm underwhelmed by the first 3 episodes. My first impressions on AG and DP's first 3 were much better.