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.

Pokémoments

White 2 was the first game I spent hours upon hours upon hours on. My first time getting Pokémon to level 100. It was a great game for me. I had played Leaf Green beforehand, but White 2 was the first game I actually grew invested in the game, even the horrible horrible weeks it took to get a hydreigon and Volcorona, I still remember it all with the fondest of memories.

One of my favorite memories from Pokémon was in Pokémon Black 2, when you fight Ghetsis.

It was his breaking point before going full psycho. It’s one of the most memorable villain fights in the games.

Still if we are talking about Black and White 2 I would have to say that my favorite moment was when I got into the hall of fame. The techno music didn’t hurt.

Another one of my favorite moments from the games was in Silver/Soul Silver, when I climbed up Mt. Silver and fought Red and finally beat him. It was like the culmination of everything I had done throughout the game was building up to that one intense, and difficult, moment. But, all well worth it.

I love the Pokemon franchise and have many favorite moments, but these are a few that solidified my foundation as a Pokemon fan.

I still have some Pokémon games to completely finish because I don't have my Ds or 3DS anymore. I love the Pokémon franchise. It means a lot and it gives me hours of entertainment weekly. I still play Pokémon go when I go out to places.

Collecting Nostalgia

When you do something long enough, when you engage in a hobby for years it is both modern, fresh and familiar, but it also brings with it a certain amount of nostalgia.

The nostalgia is a great feeling, and one that should be cherished. I love to have something physical when it comes to Pokémon. The smell of new blister packs. The sensation of opening something that it filled with a little bit of wonder. It is great. The online game and Go are both good. But the physical game, that is where I find myself having the most fun. Don' get me wrong, collecting your sixth lvl 100 in the video game, catching the 280th Rattata in Go or playing the card game online is definitely fun.

But for me it's not the same as with the TCG.

Every card is a small piece of art.

Collecting now as an adult also reduces my deep sadness that comes up when I think what happened to my shoebox full of cards.

Collecting is something that keeps the game interesting. When I started there were only 151 Pokémon. Today…

I have completed the Goldstars, Shinings, both Black & White secret rares, full arts, Breaks, Legends, Primes, first 4 sets, 95% of all Charizards including a 1st edition base Charizard, own 5 crystal holo cards including Charizard. My collecting now contains more than 29,000 cards and out of that number, over 900 are Ultra rare/ secret rare cards.

As a kid I dreamed of having an awesome collection.

You know the kind, the one that my parents would never buy for me because they thought it was a waste of money.

Now that I'm older I get to collect the holographic cards that came out when I was little, I look forward to the end of each month to buy another!

People still tell me that this is a waste of money, but it isn't their money, nor do I tell them what they should spend theirs on. I simply love collecting and if it fulfills me then it is none of their business.

Fan Favorites: Clefairy

Clefairy (Japanese: ピッピ Pippi)

Base Stats

  • HP 70
  • Attack 45
  • Defense 48
  • Sp. Atk 60
  • Sp. Def 65
  • Speed 35
  • Total 323

I don't know how many years ago, but it was many, I blindly played through Pokemon Blue.

Through some serendipity I was able to catch a Clefairy in Mt. Moon, though I didn't like the Clefairy at first. I quickly learned how silly I was though and it soon became a staple on my team.

Clefairy's elemental coverage helped me push my way past all the obstacles and before I knew it I had a lvl 100 Clefable and had beaten the Elite 4. That girly monster eventually found its way onto my copy of Silver version where it helped me catch a shiny Ryhorn, first non-Gyrados shiny, in Mt. Silver.

This all culminated with defeating my real life rival in the most intense battle of my childhood.

Pokémon A Generational Mix

I know that people feel so-so about this. Some love to mix and match. I am one of them. Others love to keep their deck clean and only build with one generation.

One way people do this is by running through a generation, building a deck and then testing it. If they can't balance the deck they will go and mix in other cards. This works. But it is still playing on the idea of staying with a single generation as the base. This can lead to weaknesses that that generation brings with it.

For me this does not apply because I go by theme. I always do fire/water/grass (or electric) and often dark/fighting/psychic type trios, too. Like this I can use whatever Pokemon I like in the position that I feel is the best. This goes back to my rogue deck style of play, but it is also a strong strategy. I prefer having a mix of new stuff and old favorites on my teams, although I do also enjoy familiarizing myself with new Pokémon, and I do enjoy team building with limitations in mind.

Sometimes you just want to have a team tat plays strong against a certain other team. After all the game is about the experience.

Clever Little Trainers

Pokemon Names

And even more amazing, Girafarig backwards is girafarig. And everybody knows and has at least one girafarig at home. I actually have two, but the first one that I got doesn't get much use any more and just sits in the corner. I do, however, have a giraffe-patterned rug that I call my Girafarug.

I bet you were always wondering why I am so pleased with myself all the time. 😛

Silliness aside, this works on another level in the original Japanese.

Girafarig's Japanese name is Kirinriki (here is how it is spelled in kanji: キリンリキ). Not only is this also a palindrome in Japanese, but "kirin" (キリン) is Japanese for "giraffe," and "riki" (リキ) is Psychic.

So, Kirinriki is a psychic giraffe whose name is Psychic Giraffe, spelled backwards and forwards, and it has a face on its tail so that it also is a psychic giraffe backwards and forwards.

Watch Pokémon Without the Filler

More Pokémon less filler.

I have said it before, I am a fan, just not a mega fan. I haven't watched every single episode ever made. The basic format of the episodes gets very dull after a while. But that doesn't mean that I wanted to miss out on the arcs that make up the series canon, I just didn't want to see it all. So if you want watch something like this, what do you do?

I've know a lot of people recently who want to start watching or re-watching the anime but nobody wanted to sit through a crazy amount of filler and only watch the episodes with significant developments in them. There has to be a list like this right? With that thought in mind I went about looking for such a list, and I found one. It contains every episode up until XY and it contains list of non-filler episodes.

This list is really only one person's interpretation of which episodes are crucial to the overarching plot, so there are some episodes which say they have a major plot development in them on Bulbapedia, yet, I feel like they really aren't all that crucial to the story. One point I would like to make is that Bulbapedia treats all of Todd Snap's appearances as canon, but in truth he is just there to promote Pokémon Snap.

Kanto original series is almost mental and weird, and while I like it, watching it can also be a tripy experience. If you don't want to watch for only nostalgia then there is that, but the list does a good job at keeping things to a minimum.

There are also a bunch of episodes in Unova because they have some some development in the Team Rocket plot, which could maybe be taken out. They also added a pointer where each of the movies fit on the timeline incase you want to add those into your viewing of the series.

I think there are some episodes that should be added or removed, but the list is a pretty good starting point for new fans as well as old.

Fan Picks: Heartgold & Soulsilver

Heartgold and Soulsilver feels like the peak of the series because it has so many cool features like custom safari zones and the Pokeathalon, it has a good system to rematch gym leaders, mystery events like the Celeby, fun side quests like Suicune, and it promotes trade by getting a Hoenn legendary in one game and getting you to trade in order to get Rayquaza.

There is just so much for you to expeience that it is hard to sum it up in one article.

Before Heartgold and Soulsilver

The PWT is awesome and it was the first game to get me into the metagame. Plus all of legendaries to catch throughout that make it worth playing just for that. This is also one of the Pokémon games with the best music. Not only do all of our favorite themes but you have a lot of new music as well.

Plus I feel that they still have the best story of all the games.