Pokemon Sun & Moon

yesRein Jan 22, 2019

8

I've watched most of the pokemon series, and so far this is one of my favourites for some reason. The animation is not as crisp and feels a bit more 'childish'. But that's the only negative thing really. It has more of a laid-back feeling and really relaxes me while watching. It's an easy series, you don't have to think or really follow the story. I like this to watch whilst eating or early in the morning when still a bit sleepy. It gives a positivity boost :)  So it's relaxing, positive and easy entertainment. Not a complex story with multi-layered characters, but it doesn't need to have all of that always.

MagonRex Apr 3, 2019

3

Pokemon is becoming like that drunk brother you keep hoping would get sober someday, but never did, so you stuck with him for years like a fool. Then one day you realize that things will never change.Even with its best season, Pokemon XY, I was still reminded constantly of just how little substance there was in the plot. It could be summed down to, "Bad things happen. Protagonist doesn't give up. The power of hope and love wins." Basically, every typical shounen plot, ever. The repetitive formula became even worse when mixed with the slow-paced slice-of-life genre in Sun & Moon, a genre which doesn't work for many people, myself included. Do note that I'm not saying shounen anime in itself is bad; it just so happens to not be the kind of anime I could enjoy or tolerate any longer. Pokemon Sun & Moon sees our never-aging protagonist, Ash Ketchum, landing in yet another new region, Alola. He meets new friends and Pokemon, but this time, he's no longer pursuing his childhood dream of "being the best that no one ever was," and instead chooses to settle for a more peaceful school life full of hijinks and quirky comedic antics. Basically the perfect plot for 7 year olds. So don't be mistaken - Pokemon is essentially a show for kids, now more than ever. In spite of its TWO episodes with more mature themes (which are still family-friendly parables designed to teach children about the meaning of death anyway), it's not really the "darker and grittier" kind of show some have exaggerated. It's Pokemon, a shounen show where the power of friendship triumphs over logic. Whereas the previous seasons had the excuse of being entertaining with its more fast-paced battle scenes, those moments are now few and far between, replaced by cutesy moments of Ash and his friends fooling around with whatever Pokemon they wish to market for the day. Basically your average filler episode of Pokemon filled up to 90% of the season.The characters are written decently enough, but I didn't watch Pokemon for some deeply complex characters; I watched it for the epic fight scenes that were once prevalent in XY. Decent and functional character writing just isn't good enough to cut it for my entertainment. Most of the characters are written in such a way as to teach about familial bonds and not giving up in the face of failure anyway; basically your average shounen moral lessons for 7 year olds. They are characters designed to educate children about the most generic and basic form of humanity, the kind that have been seen many times over in thousands of other shounen anime. Unless you're some Pokemon superfan, you'd find yourself spending your time much better watching far more quality and original writing elsewhere.

Shortylynnchaos Jul 22, 2020

9

Alrighty lets get this started I want to point out I have NOT played the Sun & Moon games, and I have seen all 3 seasons, so this WILL contain SPOILERS!!!! Also I watched it dubbed, not subbed since my kids watched with me Story:I am giving the story aspect a 9/10Reason being, is that my husband and I agree that out of the last 4 different seasons of pokemon we watched with our kids, that we prefer this one. It has character development, on both the good and bad side. It has lore development. It takes great steps to getting to that. Heck even the pokemon have character development! Mimikyu learns to get over its hatred of pokemon, Litten proves to trust Ash, Lyconroc learns how to get over its anger, Ash BECOMES A POKEMON CHAMPION FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!Heck we even get to watch the adults go through character development! Including minor characters!!! Its honestly so well written!!They even added a new world to explore, which gave me serious Pokemon Platinum vibes with the realm giratina is from XDThere is SO MUCH packed into 3 seasons of anime!Animation is 7/10I say this because I HATED the animation when I started, but the more I watched, the more I enjoyed it. The soft animation worked for the series and even the pokemon looked good in it. The pokemon moves even looked better in this series! Alot more animation was added! Alot more fights looked movie level. I'll also put the new Alolan pokemon forms here, as they offered new animations with new moves, and while I wasnt a fan of the new forms, I later learned to enjoy them, especially when PoGo started adding them!As well as Ultra beasts. They were interesting to say the least, but the animation with a few of them were subperb.Z-moves are legit awesome. They are my new fav thing as far as finishign moves. Sound 10/10Nothing unusual here, great voice acting, great pokemon voices. Primiara has no business having a voice sounding that pretty for a pokemon XD  Characters are 8/10Characters I will be doing one by one, their pokemon will be with themAsh & Pikachu: I wasnt a huge fan of him, he did get better and he did learn, but its kind of the same lesson over and over with him each new pokemon season. I did like how he treats his pokemon as he gets them but otherwise eh? Also, other than being the main character, WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HIM??? Why are none of the other seasons canon? Did you forget about all the other legendaries you met in Black & White or even the first episode when you met a Ho'Oh??? Like why do you keep attracting all the legendaries and then forget about them???Kiawe: My first thought was literally "What an edgelord" and I serisously have no idea why he was like that at the beginning when hes really not all that strict? He was fun to watch with his emotions firing up and constatnly reminded me of Natsu from Fairy Tail with that attitude. His pokemon also went through their own respective character arcs, though turtonator happened before we met him. Flashback ftw?Sophocles: What is the point behind him? I didnt really see why he needed to be here? Though I guess he acted as Ash's best friend? And what is with the level of technology this kid has? Where did his brains come from?? Why is he the only one scared of the dark??? I legit cant remember what his character arc even is, if he even has one? Hes also the least motivated to do anything physically and relies on data to get things done instead of doing it himselfMallow: Another one who had multiple character arcs. One with Orangatru (Spelling sorry!) and "Grandpa Forest" She learned to not take the brunt of all the work and to make her family's restuarant the best it could be! Which as a fellow foodie I cant help but admire XDLana: Another one I have no idea why shes even here tbh. However I enjoyed having her on screen cuz she was funny at least. Her Popplio's character development was pretty good and it was nice to have a water type. Also her eevee is cute!Lilly: Her character arc was by far the most complex out of the whole group. You start off with her unable to touch pokemon for some unknown reason, then shes slowly able to touch pokemon, but then looses the ability to again after coming face to face with Silvally. However once they get passed that, and they ended up dear old mom who almost fuses with an ultra beast, shes able to touch any pokemon she wants again. Yeah trauma will keep you from doing things, that checks out. She also gets braver as more problems arise and she proves herself over and over. Legit I like her.Gladion: One word. Edgelord. Why. Why are you like this? You're literally the black ranger from Power Rangers too. Just why. Though again his character arc was also well written. He learned how to trust others and then even got back with his own family. Still an edgelord when calling out attacks though XDTeam Rocket: They were actually good. They had character arcs where they actually learned from their mistakes. Jessie learned to trust Mimikyu and even helped Mimikyu in the process. James learned how important it is to help others by being taught about love??? With Meranie having to choose between him or Toxapex and then choosing James as James apprecated her more. And finally Professor Kukui: He was fun to watch honestly, he had so much energy and so much info to give. And he was also the Masked Royal??? How no one ever figured that out till the end of season 3 is anyones guess. But that season 3 Champion fight. That fight. Oh my lord. I know they are cartoon characters but he just looked like he was having SO MUCH FUN when he was battling Ash! The music, commentary, and expressions! I could watch that batlle and not get bored! One complaint I have is about his marriage to Professor Burnet. Now dont get me wrong, I like her alot, she is an amazing amount of fun and they are really great together as a couple. My main complaint is what I'm guessing is an anime problem. The entirety of season 1 we never see her until they say her name cuz shes getting a reward and he does a "hero I saved the day" moment and they arent really seen together and suddenly their getting married??? In the anime they are never seen falling in love which is a tiny pet peeve of mine for romance. I'd assume it was shown more in the manga if anything, as anime has a tendency to remove bits that are "unimportant" to the anime and all. Either way cute couple, super excited to probably never see the child they will have, sadly Now lets talk about the seasons Season 1: Adventure! So much adventure! Thats kind of it XD We basically have to learn how this world works and how theres alolan forms. Even going as far as to reintroduce Brock and Misty at the end to show off the differences in Kanto vs Alolan region pokemon! But yeah, most interesting thing is when Ash does his two grand trials and beats them, lots of fun animation with the attacks here.Season 2:There is SO MUCH THAT HAPPENS HEREFirst you start off Ash being put in charge of a weird creature called an Ultra beast named Cosmog. This lasts for 10 episodes, turns out its LITERALLY the legendary pokemon of the area in baby form??? Or something like. Technicalities ami'right? Anyways, Lilly gets PTSD from her mom being abducted by an ultra beast and they have to go save her, they save her all is good. EXCEPT now THEY GET TO PLAY POWER RANGERS to go and catch rogue ultra beasts and send them back home. Ok cool, weird, but cool??? The professor Kukui is "Not" The Masked Royal and that character shows up and hes a bit of fun and interesting to watch. We meet Viren- screw him, and Ash passes another grand trial, this time with Nanu. Ash learned alot about his Lycanroc here, so more character development! Season ended with the two main legendaries fighting to the death almost against the "legendary" ultra beast Necrozma and surprise surprise win. Oh and Poipole is in there somewhere, love me some Poipole XDSeason 3:Alot less Power Range- I mean Ultra Guardian stuff going on here, which was sad since it had so much in the last season. More pokemon are introduced, we meet a new Kahuna and watch her become the Kahuna. We meet Guzma who I think is the main baddy in the games? I could be wrong, I legit dont know. Ash also gets thrown into the past here and learns about "Guzzlord" an ultra beast that destroyed the island, and helped remove it. And then its mostly alot of a filler up until the Pokemon League which is an interesting tactic. Ash wins as champion for the first time in his life and right before hes supposed to fight The Masked Royal, I mean Proffessor Kukui, wait their the same??? Oops! He gets revealed here! They get attacked by not one Guzzlord but THREE?????? Honestly this whole scene was poorly timed and my husband and I were not a fan of it. Cuz then you were supposed to be hyped for Ash's and Kukui's battle after a finale feeling ending??? Yeah no. That being said, the battle was really well done and Again I could watch it a few times. The rest of the season dragged on and finished with a super sad episode which just killed the anime for me. Oh and in case your wondering, they never finish up if dear old dad is found in the anime, but he is in the manga or light novel and he lost his memories, hence why he was missing. Overall the anime was very action packed, full of lots of twists and turns and character development, and we are currently rewatching all the seasons on Netflix with our kids. Hey they like pokemon too! My 1 year olds favorite pokemon is vulpix! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy this anime as much as we did!