Pokémon Ultimate Journeys Episode 36

[Amatista Sheeley]

Somy partner and I started watching the original Pokmon Indigo League series, kind of as a nostalgic joke, kind of as filler, in the same way you eat popcorn just to keep your hands and face busy during a movie. Then, we decided to switch to the more modern Pokmon series (partly to see how it had evolved, and partly in hopes of seeing a Snom), and we settled on Pokmon Journeys, which is the most recent Sword and Shield tie-in season... and, spoiler alert: It kinda rules.

I'm sorry to people who've been banging the Pokmon anime drum for years. I was shocked to find out that Pokmon Journeys is the twenty-third season, and although I've played almost all the games (so it wasn't too hard to catch up), I'll admit that my diligence has slipped on the TV show.

With series newcomer Goh, a charmingly excitable boy who genuinely wants (and tries) to catch 'em all, Journeys is the first time that two protagonists have had equal billing in a Pokmon anime season. Goh and Ash are both very well-written as pre-teen best friends: They have stupid fights, lofty goals, and teach each other important things about life and growing up. Ash is, as we know, a courageous and knowledgeable young scamp, and Goh's catch-first-ask-questions-later attitude, mixed with an overabundance of cautiousness in battle, is a great balance to Ash's enthusiastic ambition.

The Pokmon that star in Journeys are full of personality, too, with Pikachu seeming more mature and supportive than before, and Goh's partner Pokmon Scorbunny having an entire story revolving around wanting to help the disadvantaged, and later becoming a sulky teen Raboot. Pikachu even gets a backstory about being adopted by Kangaskhan, and it's genuinely quite weepy.

Put that all together, and what you get is a series that's built on the same Pocket-Monster-of-the-week tropes as the original, including Team Rocket's Jessie and James as foes, but updated for the modern era. Messages about consent, burnout, and trust are woven in to a structure that we all know and love, making it a surprisingly deep show for both adults and kids (at least, I assume that it's good for kids... I have no kids myself, so it's just me and my partner, two adults in our 30s, watching Pokmon as we eat our lunch).

I'm so invested in this show that's supposed to be about little animals that fight, aimed at children, that exists entirely to sell games... and I'm not ashamed. It's painfully cute, and I've laughed out loud at multiple points.

I know that your backlog of TV shows to watch is probably just as long as mine, but if you're ever looking for something that's both light-hearted and surprisingly meaty, then you might enjoy Pokmon Journeys, too.

Formerly of Official Nintendo Magazine, GameSpot, and Xbox UK, you can now find Kate's writing all over the internet. Her latest projects include writing for Moonstone Island, a deckbuilding creature-collecting game, and [REDACTED], which is very [REDACTED]. Sometimes she writes things here, and sometimes they are about cows and crabs.

It's good, but the original series will always be the best. That's not by influence of nostalgia, it just hits so many points harder. I mean, when's the last time Ash had to save a pokemon who nearly died because of their abusive trainer?

Meh... this anime really is boring for me. Goh is way too perfectly written, there is no interesting female companion character this time around, Ash feels like a side character, and all the fan service feels more like ratings traps.

Original series will likely always be my favorite. Show was fresh at that point. Great chemistry between the leads. Some genuinely emotionally devastating storylines. And the comedy still had a sharp edge to it. It felt much weirder (and, on occasion, darker) and willing to take risks because it was less of an established cultural institution at that point.

IMO the anime needs a complete reboot with new characters. If the show isn't going to age with its original audience, then it can at least provide a new protagonist for this generation of children to grow attached to. Satoshi is a relic.

I might give this a go actually. I do think cartoons that run for decades should allow the characters to age and then pass the lead role onto new generations of characters, but it's good to hear Pokemon is still staying relatively fresh despite that. I suppose the fact that Ash's companions (human and Pokemon) change every few years probably helps, it's only really Ash and Pikachu themselves that stay the same. Very sad to hear Snom isn't more prominent (Snominent?) though.

But, I still need to agree with everyone else that the OG had the best writing in it, Tho in my opinion XY&Z is the best pokemon show, being a runner up for first place, Its the best show that isn't the Original.

Honestly for me, I watched when I was a kid for Team Rocket, and they are butchered in this one (mainly they don't get to develop bonds with pokemon they scare into submission/seduce, they get a random pokemon each episode) compared to the other seasons. At least as far as I remember. Haven't seen Indigo League through Hoenn in years and I've never seen Sinnoh through Alola.

Yeah, it's pretty good, it's nice that Ash and Goh show different approaches and the format which basically makes it about all the Pokemon generations rather than being focused on a single region like before.

Team Rocket having random pokemon also allows the writers to shove as many of the little buggers into the show as they want.

My only complaint is no Hop, but I guess Goh kind of takes over his role.

I've been watching every Journeys episode, up to the most recent 90th episode. Unfortunately, Snom has not appeared at all in Journeys so far. Interesting that Team Rocket is mentioned in this article as well, because they have barely appeared throughout Journeys. Hopefully Team Rocket gets more screentime soon.

@SmaggTheSmug In the last six months alone in Japan, the only episodes Team Rocket appeared in are episodes 70, 72, 74, 75, 81, 89, and 90. That's pretty poor. Also, while it's true Meowth got to Gigantamax in two episodes, it hasn't happened again since then. All I'm saying is that this is the least Team Rocket has ever appeared in the anime, and I hope it gets improved on in the future.

They really just need to oust Ash and make faitful animations of the games, like they did with Pokemon Origins, Pokemon Generations, and Pokemon Evolution. Journeys, as well as the rest of the main series anime, does not hold a candle to those series.

The weird thing is they are keeping all of Ash's adventures canon, but he is still 10. You have to watch Pokemon Origins, Pokemon Generations, Pokemon Twilight Wings, and Pokemon Evolutions. They are much more mature shows and more like the Pokemon Adventures manga.

@Trikeboy Yes! And they are so much better for it. The main series anime has been bad since the very beginning. Nostalgic, sure. But still bad. Like the first season of Yugioh and most of the original Dragon Ball.

@Kevember I can't stand any of the characters in the anime, or any of the voice acting. The entire show feels like pointless filler, and the writing is horrid. The smaller pokemon anime projects like Evolutions, Generations, Origins, and Twilight Wings are so much better, and it pains me that we will never get a full series akin to it.

@eaglebob345 What they should do is make an entirely new anime for the older audience of the games, and give them something of actual quality to watch, akin to those three series, rather than pointless filler where the characters have the IQ of a sack of bricks.

@VoidofLight I think a lot of the fan base have been asking for that but they keep denying to provide that. That's one of the reason why XY was really popular. Ash was confident, he was battle smart and acted more mature, it was a grow up Ash without having him grown up. But then S&M came out

Edit: Hell, most of the people I've seen who watch the anime are fully grown adults as well. I get it's popular with children though, and that's why I know they'll never cancel or end the original anime. It's also why the original anime takes more priority than the games at this point.

I tried to find it for you but it's old ... but around 8 years ago Microsoft responded to fans calling out the Nintendo as a "kid's" system by doing some analytics that showed the average age of Halo players was 16 and the average age of Pokmon players was 32.

Sure it's a kid's game marketed to children, but every year for the last 25 years the current fans get older, and every year they get new adult friends both from word of mouth and from parents who keep playing the game after their kids lose interested. The 10-16 year old base is never going to grow fast enough to overtake the 25-35 base that's had so much longer to grow.

The only series that attempted to be a reboot in the beginning was the BW series due to directorial changes and they ended up abandoning that later into the series. (Still the worst one by far though.)

They go through silly trips instead of going through an actual adventure in Galar, which became a completely rushed saga which should've been the climax (I gave up after that, but seen things that made me hate the series even more that come after it, like Goh catching Suicune).

Journeys definitely killed a series that for me has already been a huge waste of time with the exception of a handful of episodes ever since season one. I wished Goh was burned to his bones by Entei, on-screen. Best anime death ever.

I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings to catch the latest Pokemon episode. I fell away just after the first Johto season started, but a few years back I stumbled onto the Sinnoh seasons and was surprised at how well done it was. I rewatched the Kanto and Orange Island seasons after that, and my nostalgia got me through it (until partway through Johto again)

@HeadPirate I was a kid when I first discovered pokemon, but I've been a fan since. Most of the fanbase seems to be people who either grew up with the series, or adults who got into it from friends or other family members, so the older playerbase is pretty much the main playerbase at this point.

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