Pokémon BW Rival Destinies

Pokémon really hasn’t changed at all of last few years. This is coming from someone who hasn’t watched the show for at least 10 years. I’m sure some of the fans who have watched the series from start to beginning will dispute this… Any takers? I gathered not. The character of Ash still remains the same foolish, at times moronic main character with a variety of companions that have the most random encounters and wonder why they keep meeting the same people when they are all headed in the same direction.

I was initially excited about getting to see how something from my childhood had changed or grown, but it has just stayed in the same place. You could simply change the name of each town and the characters from first series and it plays out fairly the same way in terms of story line and interactions. Despite years of series, the characters are still shallow, and Ash still doesn’t realise that his Pikachu is probably the strongest Pokémon alive by now, and fails to use it for every battle.

While I seem to be fairly negative against the release, that’s purely from a critical standpoint of a young adult without any special interest in anime at this point. I’m sure for the avid viewer or school aged children, the series must still be working, or surely it would have been overtaken by something new and better by now. The fact that it hasn’t must attest to some kind of quality in the series, although after watching this series - I’m yet to see what that is.

The original theme track was by far better, and I’m surprised that 10 years on the same person is still voicing Ash, especially when I always found their voice to be very abrasive. In terms of new additions, the Pokémon just seem to be getting weirder and weirder in both names and visual design. If you love the abstract or are a massive fan, go ahead and watch it – if you’re after nostalgia, then just go and find a DVD of the first series somewhere.