Fan Favorites: Pokémon Types

This has always been a tough question for me to give a committed respond to. Ice, Steel, and Dragon all deserve mentions, but I'll ultimately hand the chalice to Ground.

I know few Ground type lovers, and I've always pondered why. It's not my favorite, but it's offensive presence is huge and the Pokemon can range from cute, like Trapinch and Numel, to awesome like Groudon and Mamoswine! It's a very cool type.

Truthfully, it's a lot of simple things that culminates it into my favorite. Their design is broad, yet definable. Earthquake is probably my favorite move in the franchise. Their role as a tanky powerhouse is fun to go berserk with. And of course, ol' Mamoswine is Ground type.

Ground would be followed by Grass.

Grass has always been put out to pasture, though Grass is a powerful type when played well.

For example: Grass/Fairy is a subtle combo! Whimsicott is perceived as weak, yet when you look at the stats it can be very well played. Considering how closely nature and fairies are related. Florges should have been Grass/Fairy.

Fan Favorite: Black 2 & White 2

The reveal of Black/White Kyurem was done spectacularly. The game made use of the DS' visuals brilliantly here.

As for the gameplay, it's almost the same as the gameplay in Black and White, which is not a bad thing in the slightest since those contributions to the series were excellently done. And at the same time almost everything bad about the first Black and White were improved with these two games.

My favorite new feature was probably the Black Tower/White Treehollow. It was basically the Battle Tower with levels, EXP, and prize money, plus you got a free shiny dragon out of it.

I liked that it had its own final boss, too, Benga wasn't too bad. And in addition to that the evil team actually did something catastrophic and there wasn't a clear-cut happy ending.

Easily the most underrated feature.

There are so many items here. It's a great resource for a lot of items, including rare stones, thanks to the Black Tower/White Treehollow.

Almost all of the available Pokémon appeared in the game, with very few of the monsters being left out, and most of those were starters or legends. Speaking of legends, this game has 'em in spades. Heatran, the Regis, and Lati@s are just a few examples.

I don't care what you say, Ghetsis was gonna kill the player. Even if he only wanted to freeze you, that would have killed you, just a bit more slowly. The rest of the game is smooth sailing from there on out, I guess. The champion reveal is done well, though I feel it could have been someone else, as there was already a Dragon-type leader in the region.

The end credits theme is possibly my favorite in the series to date.

I will probably see Black 2 & White 2 as the perfect Pokémon games until they inevitably top themselves.

Pokémon – The Series is for the Fans

I don't know if I would call myself a die hard fan or not, I mean, I love the series and have played/collected a lot of it but that doesn't mean that I have seen or done everything that they offer. There is only so much time in the day and there are only so many things that you can do before you get a little burnt out and that means that with all of the content available it would take me forever.

And new stuff comes out all of the time anyway.

On top of that, for me personally, my favorite is original series. I have seen it multiple times and it has the best writing imo and pacing. But in general, the first five seasons have well written stories, funny moments from Ash doing stupid things and it introduced me to world of Pokémon.

On top of that you have Tracy’s temporarily replacing Brock. This led to some good stories and it was nice seeing Ash growing from a rookie to good trainer.

The only downside was that Misty is more of a side character than a legitimate Pokémon trainer due to her so-so character development. It isn't until later that both Misty and Serena become more original. But fans had to wait until SM for that to happen.

The wait was worth it.

One is a tomboy who stood up to her sister's verbal abuse, and latter showed actual growth/ independent development from a girly girl who didn't know what to do to a more matured girl who stood up against her mom's wish and followed her dream as a Pokémon performer.

Sure for Sun and Moon some of the character designs are horrid. And I have yet to find anyone that thought Rotom was anything less than obnoxious, but the animation is fantastic.

Also the story would be better if they could introduced a new groups to replaced Team Rocket, and would be even better if Ash didn’t have to get up his best Pokémon for newbies in Johto season. The worst episode in the show has to be the gym battle vs Liz and Tate in the 3rd generation. People criticize the season for a couple of reasons: lackluster characters, lack of character relationships, as well as Ash turning into a different character.

I enjoy Sun and Moon because it is a lighthearted and fun contribution to the series.

The Music of KHR

Hibari's Theme

Not exclusively used by Hibari later on, but it always serves as a reminder of how dangerous he is.

My favorite instance of it is when he's about to beat the shit out of Yamamoto (I think) for doing something suspicious, but is calmed down before he can let loose. So the piano part of his theme plays, but cuts off right before the rest of the orchestra can enter.

Nice story/music integration there.

Holy War

A more intense version of Hibari's Theme that's used a lot in and around the Varia arc. The band nerd in me loves the strong low brass here that adds a sense of urgency and seriousness that wasn't as strong before this arc.

Tsuna Awakens

It's very "Rocky"-esque, but with the orchestral flair that the KHR soundtrack does so well instead of 70s funk.

And the key modulation in the middle really adds to the energy. I just wish the whole thing was longer than like a minute and a half! The far and away best usage of this song was during the Tsuna vs Mukuro battle in Kokuyo, at the first appearance of Hyper Dying Will.

You can tell how pumped I was when I saw that, and the music did a lot of the work.

Smile For You

Okay, this is just a pet one that I like. It's cute, what can I say? Boo on me for not liking most of the OPs and EDs, but anything that captures the essence of Pretty Cure/Hamtaro/similar Japanese cuteness gets an A in my book.