Jirachi probably goes through some Sleeping Beauty magic effect where it's 'not alive' during the thousand years, but the week is the only time its lifespan even matters.
I wasn't even considering any kind of perception of time while aslepp. But just imagien that every week of your time is vastly different, ina new place. All the people you met last week are gone and forgotten (probably even any Ninetails) and even the places are likely to be dradstically different. There is no continuity, no stability, only a few glimpses at an ever-changing world you can vists but never truly be at home in.
Nightmareish.
And the last batch of BW:
Capacia Island UFO! At first blush, I thought this was going to be just another dull episode following a similar vein to the others with Beeheeyem or Elygem.
And then it turned into something really awesome, with the whole invasion of the face-snatchers, Ash with Team Rocket. All through the episode, I was expecting the that amulet coins they found were what kept them unaffected...
And then came the "idiots are hard to hypnotise!" line. And I had to pause the video, because both the delvery and the reaction shot were absolutely priceless. It was about five minutes before I calmed down enough to be able to carry on.
(And I really needed that laugh too; earlier we'd got the bad news one of Dad's mate had died, barely two weeks after we'd met him at the park and he'd said he was ill.)
So, yes, I really liked this one.
The Journalist From Another Region! Finally, some context for Alexa. Having started on XY, I had no idea how she'd met Ash... In fact, the first episode I saw, I had made the assumption she was the person who beat Ash in the League, Harrison-style (dude who beat him in Johto!) (Giving you too mcuh credit, BW, clearly...!)
Nice pretty much final-hour for Pignite (since at this point, it was clearly getting to winding down for the Unova characters).
Mystery on a Deserted Island! I actually warmed to Alexa quite quickly (not that I'd had anything against her in XY or anything), but as a temporary travelling companion, she was definitely one of the betters ones, and a darn sight better than any of the recurring characters (aside from Stephan) this arc.
Also, Ninetails are always fun.
I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't pick-up on them all being stone-evolutions until basically the found the treasure!
A Pokémon of a Different Color! Apparently there is a "one female in skin tight clothing per episode" limit. And I checked; Claire was wearing less than in her earlier appearance. Uhuh. Cam't IMAGINE why that would be...
I felt it a little odd they set up the Dragonites and then sort of never bothered to do anything with that. (I mean, I know Cilan was shipping like crazy), but there wasn't even really a sort of mutual understaning thing going on. Felt like a bit of a shame.
Celebrating the Hero's Comet Ash, you've encountered enought actual ghosts by this point, you really shouldn't be surprised.
Go, Go Gogoat! I think the thing I took away from this episode was that even ASH and co know what a complete fuckwit Jenny is, so they arefully got her to "stay in twon in case he comes back" to keep her out of their way, while tey did her fucking job for her again...
Team Rocket's Shocking Recruit! Emolga is absolutely hilariously awesome and Snivy is still the Best. This was a delightful swan-song for the pair of them as characters.
Survival of the Striaton Gym! Okay. Again with the "only one skin-tight female per episode thing." Also, Cilan... When the obvious dominatrix says next time you meet she's going to beat you... I would start getting worried, or at least make sure you have plenty of protection and come up with a safe word... Otherwise, this was a nice wrap-up to Cilan's arc (I guess Iris' was kinda Pokémon of a Different Colour).
Best Wishes Until We Meet Again! Alexa, you so silly. And foruntately, Snivy is smarter than her trainer, although honestly, that's not difficult...!
The Dream Continues! Ash comes home and immediately leaves. Seems legit.
Honestly though, despite all the jokes about it, I'm really starting to wonder about Ash's father... Because seriously he and Ash are so terribly alike! (And I am basically convined that Oak and Delia are, if not actually knocking boots, rather close friends.)
(In all seriousness; if Oak was Ash's father, there's a very plausible reason to keep it on the low-down... The whole Celebi thing. What if Oak, having started a relationship with a younger lass (perhaps after getting over the death of his wife), realised when she got pregnant... That this boy was going to that very same Ash? And that he was afraid that if he took an active role he might somehow, subconciously guide Ash into being what he met that one time and that he wanted Ash to grow into his own person? There's a certain twisted logic!)
And Team Rocket. Really. You are going to attack Ash directly when he basically has EVERY POKEMON HE HAS immediately to hand? youre just lucky they stopped with just the Unova Pokémon and not all of them!
Series Overview:This was a LOT better than I thought when I saw the odd episode (especially from some of the early epiodes). It was a bit variable in quality. The nadir was definitely the League (counter to normally where it's usually the high-point), though the continuous one-on-one in every competition got very weraing very fast. The series DEFINITELY suffered for the lack of something else - like contests - to do, to break up the "plot" gym episodes.
Doubly-so as for the first bulk where Team Rocket was not being very interesting and aside from once (with the long set-up of Meowth's faked defection) their arcs didn't work so well until the last one. Competant Team Rocket (like against Team Plasma) is quite welcome... Unfun Team Rocket... Really not so much. Coming in, I never thought I'd say it - not being a big Team Rocket fan at all - but I missed their shananians wen they were being all serious. (But I definiately do NOT mind them not showing up every episod. Squeezing them in for one qucik scene and a blast off never added anything to an episode in my opinion.)
The rivals were pretty meh on the whole, with onyl Stephan really being up to much. Trip was fracking dreadful and ultimately meaningless. I've spoekn at length about Cameron already and Virgil was the usual "older chap who beats Ash," whioch thus far only Sinnoh has broken. I think it would have been much better for Ash to have been knocked out by Stephan - like the Contest Finale with Dawn and Zoey - because then we would have Ash losing to an actual friend who we could get behind having won. (I think it telling that Trip, Ash's supposed Paul/Gary for the season, got ko'd before him.)
Otherwise, I would have said that either Trip or Cameron should have been dropped (preferably Trip!) and the other taken over his role, because I think that would have just been better narratively.
Alexa was fun, and again I think she could have benefitted from a slightly earlier introduction.
The Pokémon character-work was excellent, outstanding awards to Snivy, Emolga and Oshawatt. I did feel that this lot wasn't quite so close knit as a famlily as the Sinnoh team were, where I think they did a particularly good job. I think a few more Pokémon-interaction episodes would have been fun as well.
They brought back bloody Charizard as a rgular, and that only made the post-league worth it.
The high points were very high - some of the funniest moments with perfect pay-off that I can think of; onat least a couple of occasions I had to pause the episode while I laughed so hard.
I think the animation got much better towards the end, I'm sure they were using slightly less of the stock-attack shots and dong a bit more dynamic stuff. (And was Ash subtly getting more tanned towards the end of the Delcour Islands, because he is a bit more tanned in XY? I'd have to check.)
As to the companions:
Iris was alright. I think she was perhaps a bit too childish (with great irony) and I can see how people could find her grating; but she had her moments.
Cilan was, to me, the surprise success. From what little I'd seen of him in the scattered episodes, I was less than impressed. But seeing him in all his various states, he grew on me rather a lot. I also liked that so much was made of his battling skills; unlike Brock, who while a capable battler, never got quite the notority for it as much. I mean, Cilan got the rare privildge of beating the Designed (if crap) Rivak at least once. His people skills were also quite well show-cased as mediator. And credit to Pansage, the little guy mixed it up with some serious opposition (including legendaries!) While I don't think anyone could quite ever replace Brock, Cilan can stand tall, having done a grand job.
The music was - as is often the case - excellent. I particularly liked the game music for BW and as always, the anime takes the game music and amps it up to eleven. It is a crying tragedy that the soundtrack for the series is not out, since those anime battle music track were fantasic and could have stood to be a little louder, come to that.
So overall, not bad. Was it the best series? no. Was it the worst? Well... I'm honestly not sure I can say it was overall. The early Johto crawl probably takes that prise, with so many rather banal fillers (contests were a genious idea, it gave the Twerps something to do between gym battles!) The hgih point were very good, and really the low point was the invenitable League problems.
Am I gald I watched it? Definitely. My fears upon starting though this series were unfounded, it wasn't anything like the slog I though it was.
So, that brings me pretty much the the end of my archival binge. After binging through DP, Battle Frontier and BW, I will now continue at a more sedate pace through XY and the movies on DVD. (Blither updates will perforce be slower!)
Sadly, it also pretty much brings me to the end of the main Pokemopolis guides. (Perhaps until when I eventually go back and pick-up my aborted "watch from start on DVD" I left part-way through Johto!)They have been very fun, and certainly have added a dimension to the proceedings (though I'll continue to read the one on the forums as I find them for XY episodes.)
I played the first Ranger game (I think) when I first bought my DS, played it for a few hours until Diamond came out, and then have never touched it since.
