DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionPocket Monsters (2019)
ANIME ActionPocket Monsters (2023)
MANGA Action#AniPoke After Story
ONA ActionTong Meng Zhi Lu

REVIEWS

• 

  ElfChika

  43/100
  Worthless nostalgia bait just to reel in the older fans that sadly ends with a message of "Change is bad."

  (Disclaimer: This will be less of a review and more of an unfocused ramble, but I hope you like it anyway)

  I'm left with a feeling of immeasurable disappointment. @OLM really dropped the ball on the conclusion of Ash's journey, snuffing out my renewed spark for the series I once adored as a young girl growing up in the 2000s.

  Like many, I grew up on Pokemon and still religiously enjoy the games to this day thanks to the experience share (grinding will never not be obnoxious) but unlike many I jumped off the sitcom ship of loose unconnected stories surprisingly early on. Even before I reached my teens. It wasn't that I was going thorugh my early rebellious "cartoons are for children" stage because I still loved watching cartoons and anime alike. Recess, The Weekenders, As Told by Ginger, Beyblade, Ed, Edd n Eddy, 4Kids Shaman King and Sonic X are all many series I loved to bits even after I dropped Pokemon.

  So, why did I stop watching Pokemon?

  Well, through binge-watching the original and catching this weekly, I think I can confidently answer that now. My declining love for Pokemon can summed up in a word: Stagnation. Every episode featured the same old recycled plot points, rehashing the same dry villians, while rinsing-and-repeating the same methods of developing and evolving Ash's Pokemon: that being having Team Rocket attempt to steal them and evolve through the trial and error of escaping. It's a tedious setup that wore on my nerves, even 20 years ago as a kid.

  Still, some part of me deep down, loves the Pokemon anime deeply for the childhood memories it gave me and so, I tried to get back into the series with the release of Gen 9, Pokemon Journeys. Needlessly to say, I was unimpressed and shortly dropped the series, planning never to return like ever. It wasn't until I heard they would be finally wrapping up Ash's adventures that it made me want to rewatch the series from scratch while catching weekly episodes of Pokemon Master.

  Worse mistake I had ever made.

  Pokemon Master turned out to be nothing but worthless nostalgia bait to draw in fans of the original and the other subsequent series that followed. They brought back Misty and Brock from the relegation zone for one last hoorah while rotating in many of the forgotten Pokemon Ash had benched with unintentional callousness. It didn't work out. The magic that made the original trio's chemistry so special throughout Kanto and Johto just wasn't there. Or maybe, I owed much of their dynamic to 4Kids' witty writing. The comedic banter Ash, Misty and Brock shared throughout the 4Kids dub of the original series is still a joy to watch even above the many writing issues plaguing the series.

  Without that banter fuelling their chemistry, their interactions came across as remarkably dull, making me wonder what was even the point of even bringing them back. They ultimately don't do anything and barely even react when Latias scooped in camouflaged to rescue Ash and Pikachu from falling down a cliff, dropping him back up like nothing happened.

  The "returning" Pokemon - alongside Journeys - highlight just why it was such a stupid idea to keep Ash as the protagonist for 26 years while resetting his progress. Pokemon - just like the humans of the show - are characters, with their own likes, dislikes, interests and personalities and so when you give Ash so many characters to squad up with each season before dropping most off at Oak's lab at the end you're relegating those characters to the storage, falling into the pit trap many other popular shounen had fallen into like Dragonball and Naruto, where you have so many characters and instead of doing anything with them, you just bench them to the reserves to almost never be seen or heard from again. (Think Yamcha and Kiba and Tien and Shino from the two aforementioned examples)

  Much of this could've been avoided by appropriately ending Ash's journey and giving him the send off he deserved. Many fans feel Sinnoh was the right time was Ash to step down and I stand by them. Sinnoh had everything going for it. An interesting, colourful team full of diverse personalities and an godlike-written rival that not only antagonized Ash but also challenged his idealogy on raising Pokemon, contrasting Ash's warmth with cold, clinical pragmatism. It brilliantly comes full circle when Ash's infernape - abandoned by Paul for being "weak" - fulfills his potential under Ash's caring tutelage and helps his trainer beat the boy that turned his nose up at him for being "weak."

  Where does one go after such a peak Gen?

  Nowhere.

  Nowhere but downhill.

  And straight into stagnation.

  And because of the excessive resets and failures, many fans feel his path to Galar region champion was sped through at two times the speed, leaving it feeling unawarding. This, again, could've been avoided just by having Ash conquer (arguably) the most appealling Generation in Sinnoh and win that league. There was no need to continue rehashing the same stuff because it eventually catches up on you. I'm a firm believer that you should always strive to evolve; (pun intended), and change. Better to change than risk becoming predictable and boring, after all.

  One positive I can afford Pokemon Master is that the new artstyle and animation have been well defined and polished from the awkward mess it previously was in Sun and Moon. (Ash's and Pikachu's smiles on the promo picture will never not be creepy to me)

  The sound design was a remix of the osts from the original series; just added bait to draw in the older fans.

  In fact, most of the side stories Ash experienced this season were soullessly recycled from past gens just to play on your nostalgia. They even did another "Pikachu and Meowth get lost together" episode as if that wasn't old the first time it was used. That was the episode that almost made me just give up on Ash's swan song series altogether, and It wasn't until I saw spoliers on YouTube of Team Clown's alleged retirement that ignited my interest to power through it. I was delighted to see them split up and FINALLY give up the goose of capturing Pikachu, thinking "YES! Pokemon's finally gotten the message, that doing the same thing over and over again is super boring!"

  ...

  How wrong I was to get my hopes up. After being defeated by the brief cameo of Pidgeot, the reunited Team Clown soar off into the distance, reaffirming their goal of taking Pikachu; as if their life now only amounts to stalking the Peter Pan of anime all across the world. The final episode then ends with them closely following Ash, as though to say, "Change is bad. We should strive to stay the same and not change in anyway." It really leaves a bitter, sour taste in my mouth.

  I'm far less enthused for the new series now. The ending has told us all we need to know, that Ash won't grow up, he'll remain the forever 10-year-old kid and thus the new protagonists will probably remain 10, too.

  And that's just incredibly boring.

  Final score - 4.3/10

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• 

  ChirekachiMizu

  82/100
  Some say it's mid, some say it sucks. I say it's actually really good.

  - This ain't gonna be like my other reviews. This one will just be straight forward -

  Ah how well of a mixed bag this last season is for Pokémon. Some saying it was pretty decent at most while others are just getting out their torches and saying that this is not a good finale. Specially due to the fact that after 26 years, this would be the last time Ash would play as the main protagonist for this series.

  Now it's time I address on my own opinion for this series. And I'll just straight up say it:

  In my opinion, Aim to be a Pokémon Master is really good. Allow me to explain why.

  So Aim to be a Pokémon Master is an epilouge that takes place directly right after Journeys ended. To which if you recalled what went down in Journeys (specifically the last episode), Ash and Go had split ways to go embark on journeys of their own.

  Now, this continues where we left off. Thus starting this series. Simply put the synopsis of this series being "Ash and Pikachu venturing off to places they have never been to. Meeting new Pokémon and traveling again with some old friends (those old friends being Misty and Brock)." At the same time, this is where we get to see Ash actually rotate his team, using his old Pokémon in which he has used from the past, in which fans have been wanting for a long ass time. This does have some limitations tho, as not all of Ash's Pokémon can make it back, such as Goodra, whose taking care of the swamplands, or Primape, whose possibly still training for god knows how long until he evolves into an Anihilape. And this is basically the rundown of the series until the final episode.

  Now something that some fans should've known but completely forgot about because of how much busy they were shitting on this series:

  • This is basically the standard Pokémon format for the anime. It always has been Ash helping out a Pokémon, battling, and stopping crime in the Pokémon universe, and it has been like this ever since the anime started.
  • No real "finale" needs to be overarching, orverachieving or grand. You can make the most mundane filler anime possible, and the finale would still be good.

  And that's sorta is what the problem with MPM has, there's nothing great or spectacular that goes on in the anime. It's just Ash venturing off to places they've been or not. The only reason as to why some fans feel so let down with this series is because nothing grand happens. It just feels all the same.

  On another note:
  "NEW PLOT DEVICE: Seeing as to how Pokémon and humans can bond, let's have Latias follow Ash, experiencing what goes on in his daily life. She's the embodiment of how Pokémon and humans can bond, so let's give her Ash's pov.":
  Is basically the nutshell explanation of this new plot. See, Latias has a reason as to why she's following Ash. She needs his aid to help out Latios, who's been busy fighting off a Pokémon hunter. Though she can't really bring herself to enlist the help of him. Though, she wants to see what Ash does on his Journey, and seeing as to how he's been helping out all the Pokémon, she's grown to respect Ash because of it. This goes on for 10 episodes until they had to part when Latios is free from hellfire coming from the Hunter that's been chasing him.

  Yeah, so that's the rundown as to what MPM is. Hopefully I explained it all in a way you can easily comprehend it, lmao.

  Now to explain as to why I like it. Coming to this anime, I had zero expectations other than knowing from the back of my mind that these eleven episodes could literally be anything. It can be some random major Pokémon Battle against an old rival (Let's say it was Gary, as he is the only old rival to which shows up in the anime), some backstory about Ash and co. or even just be Ash helping a Pokémon. Surprise surprise, I was right. But that didn't take away the enjoyment factor that I've had watching this anime. There were some actually good parts of the anime in which I really do like (And a lot of them coincide with all of these 11 episodes), Such as bringing back some old Pokémon that Ash released, namely, Squirtle, Lapras, and Pidgeot. Using some of his older mons like Bayleaf, Kingler, Snorlax, Rowlet, Levanny, ya know, the list goes on as to what Pokémon Ash used in this anime. (Not really a long list tho) Usage of OST's as well. It all reigns across from the anime's lifespan. It's basically what the anime encapsulated throughout these 26 years.

  Sure. It can be considered nostalgia bait, but you also gotta understand, it's the original series alone is what made the whole Pokémon anime what it is today. From the very epileptic lights from that one episode with Porygon, to the absolute mass complaining of Ash losing to the Kalos Leauge. From being a wannabe dumb trainer, to a skillfully masterful one. From gaining badges in pity, to rightfully earning them with his element of surprise. Really, if the OS series had not aired, we would've gotten the amazing moments in which we see up until now.

  Is it "perfect"? Absolutely not. Especially with all the missed opportunities they had. I won't name them, but know that there are a shit ton of them. But it was still good enough to be at most a solid 8.2. I can only imagine as to the reason why people are not happy with how this series turned out comes from the fact that it's mostly just filler throughout the series, and how some fans expected more of a grand overarchingly finale, specially for a main character that has been the protag for 26 years. But again, I gotta reiterate: It doesn't need to be that grand or amazing. It could literally be Ash finally sinking in his feelings towards Serena and I could guarantee it'd still have good ending. (ok no, that was a shitty example, but it's fine. I'm keeping it, XP)

  If I were to come to this with expectations, I'm pretty sure I'd join the loud majority that would say MPM sucks, but thankfully, I didn't, and thus, I thought it was pretty good.
  Not perfect, but pretty good.

  To conclude it off. I just wanna say. I've been a Pokémon fan ever since I was a 6 year old. And knowing that Ash won't be the main protag anymore after the 13 years of me watching (I'm 19 now as of today), it feels weird. I do personally think that the anime won't be the same without him, but alas "All good things must come to an end" is a true quote. I feel as if OLM decided, it's time to move on now. We've dragged this character on for far too long. It's time we start off with something new. Thus, the new series, Horizons. I'm interested as to see how Liko and Roy's adventures will go.

  And as for the boy himself. I will miss Ash. If I ever wanna go back to watching a series with Ash as the protag again, I'll indeed go back to Sun & Moon or XY.

  Thank you Ash for 26 years of your service. I know it's not really the end for you (specially how open-ended your ending was), but for now. Sayonara.

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  ActionPocket Monsters: THE ORIGIN