Let it be known I was waiting to post this- The torture scene was more brutal in the original:
By the way TPCI didn't do this edit, it was OLM as TPCI doesn't have the requirements to completely redraw and animate a scene in exact same style.
This change was done because of the religious implications with the crucifixion-like pose and to make it less violent by not having Ash scream in pain.
Not surprised, sadly, little disappointed maybe - but that's always the trade-off for stuff aimed at this level (not that shonen anime don't also suffer from it as well, though they at least sometimes get an uncut release). But that's the trade off one has to make if one wants to watch it in English. (Which I do - and among the reasons are the purely practical ones like I can't watch a sub while I'm eating (and mealtimes is basically when I watch stuff, period).)
Onto the last gasp, then! (Forgive a bit of brevity and any spelling/grammar errors - by the time I'd gotten through five episodes, it wasn't as clear in my head and was about half-three when I finally posted!)
Battling With a Clean Slate!Wrap-up from the last episode, completely with pointless Team Rocket Pikachu-stealing attempt. Not really much to say here.
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life!So, the last Serena episode. Slightly surprised that she didn't take the offer up, but hey, it gets into contests, which are far better than showcases, so all to the good.
Facing the Needs of the Many!So. One last foiling of evil by Clemont (haha! Whatshisface was well out of his league!); one last moment of sheer, unadulteraed Ash-ness ("hey, let's leap off a cliff onto a moving aircraft that's invisible!" Pahahahaha! Nice!) And ta-ta to Greninja. Actually... Not a bad send-off, considering. It's not like Ash really released him, and protecting Kalos with Squishy is kind of badass. I was expecting much worse.
Also, Bonnie's gonna come find Squiahy when she becomes a trainer. Again, she is going to be terrifying.
*Pikachu tanks Braxien's fireblast without even gettign sooty*
Ash: "Your Pokémon are really strong!"
Pahahahahahahaha! Oh you, Ash!
Still, nice of you to stop there before your cruified the poor lass.
Till We Compete Again!And the final farewell. Again, Bonnie steals the thunder (DAMN, she's well acted). The montage of the Pokémon saying goodbye to each other was a nice touch.
And Serena is off. Huh, I guss the whole crush on Ash thing is just going to get dropped entirely. That's disappoint-
- THERE we go, now that's...
...
Are you fucking kidding me?
They didn't show the actual kiss? Just implied it?
WHAT THE FUCK? WHY? Why in Arceus' name would you cut that? Really?
Now, I am usually the last person to complain about that, but that is just STUPID. I mean, it's not like it was long enough for her to her stuck her tongue down his throat or anything, and its not like kissing on the cheek is anything that Pokmon literally hasn't done before! That is just WEIRD.
Don, you're the expert - is that piece of idiocy from the original Japanese or the localisation?
Bonnie talks Dedenne down, again, rather maturely.
Once again, Bonnie, trainer. Fucking terrifying. And I don't doubt for a moment she could blast both battles and showcaes/contests out of the water.
One last conspicusouly-undeclared fight between Bunary and Pikachu to round off, and then last montage.
And we finish on Ash going home.
Huh. Not setting up the next region, then - and ending on a different blurb.
Okay then.
And finally, a cool-down:
The Legend of X, Y, and Z!Um, that lady does not look like a statue. All my years of D&D says that looks like a petrified per-
Shit.
That got dark fast didn't it?
Whelp, that Talonflame's fucking dead.
And no show, I'mma not buying Yveltal is bringing balance to natuyre, where it is going around fucking murdering everyone unprovoked and then draining the life out of it. Yveltal goes in the "Evil" pile, not fucking doubt.
That was better than I was expecting, mostly because if was fucking dark. Not often you see a couple of Pokémon up and kill hundreds of people (and Pokémon). Funny, there was this debate on a forum the other day about how someone was saying Pokémon was a uptopia and the rest of us were saying "while sure, it probably has a higher standard of living than a lot of 21st Earth, it is also fully of fucking danger!" Case fucking rests!
Okay, final wrap!
Series OverviewWas XY a good series? Yes.
Was it the best series? ... No...?
XY was by far and away the best animated series to date, no question. The battles in particular were gorgeous. The high-points were very high, and the low points were merely unremarkable. But... It has some flaws.
1) Threat. This is the biggest one. The main plot was completely abscent in the first two season,s and only crowbarred in by the specials (which don't even have the decency to be included with the DVDs, which is incredabily stupid). The specials themselves were also pretty poor, unlike the main series. Unlike DP, there was never a quiet sense of impending stuff going down which I felt improved that series - nor was there anything like Hunter J to up the ante. The rivals were largely banal, with Sawyer taking the Stephan role and being pretty alright. Alain...
2) Alain and the League. I've ranted about this quite a bit before, so given that (and the late hour!), I'll be relatively brief. I did not like Alain. Alain came across as a mary-sue, an OC-do-not-steal straight out of bad fanfiction
1. He annoyed me pretty much throughout. His main saving grace was that he was not Trip, which is damning with as faint a praise as possibly. And because of this, the League was extremely poor and felt short-shrifted, with the only battles shwon that MATTERED being verses Tierno and Sawyer. Was it the worst league? I dunno. It's close to BW, but I think BW still takes bottom because it only had ONE decent match, and the stupid one-v-one BW obessesion and the sheer gall of Cameron's victpry outweigh the blindingly obvious outcome of XY - Ash's fight against Alain was actually at least better animated and Alain actually felt like (albiet clearly writer-favoured) competant enough to actually win.
3) Showcases. I found them rather dull. They lacked the interest contests had.
Good points.
1) Ash. I loved his design in this, and the fact that actually made him feel like a veteran, for once. It actually felt like he HAD done it all before. (Which is why I am so put-off by his SuMo design.)
2) Team Rocket's usage. In that they were not crowbarred into every episode, just MOST episodes (still too many, but it's an improvement). That was, at least, one good thing BW did that needed to be carried on.#
3) The League may have been a lame ducklett, but the final crisis was probably one of the best of the entire run, with a real feeling of danger and getting everyone in at the last.
What about the companions?
Clemont was fine. I wouldn't say he was outstanding, but he was perfectly servicable. He had his moments, and it was nice to have someone with legitimate brains around.
Serena. *sigh* Serena. I feel she was largely wasted potential. She had her few moments of awesome (and good job, too), but her arc started too late and even to the last was marked more by indecision than progress (what do I do now?) Her crush on Ash was not milked nearly enough for comic relief as I'd expected (and short-shrifting it at the veyr last was a dick move). Contests, as noted above, just fell flat with me.
Bonnie. Bonnie was the Cilan of the series. I normaly find the young kid characters annoying (see: Maron), but Bonnie had enough grist to her mill to rise above it. Not only was she sharp and insightful (arguably more so than most of Ash's companions ever), given her years, but mature for her age as well, and several shades of badass. That bit with singing to Zygarde, for example. That could so easily have been a trite scene, but it really worked for me. Or her casual don't-give-a-shit towards the ghosts.
For the final time, Bonnie as a trainer.
Fucking.
Terrifying.She's a shoe-in for champion, and out of all the companions and rivials Ash has ever met, SHE could be the one he needs to watch his tail with most.
However... As a group, the foursome were also a bit too harmonious and easy-going and that robbed the dynamics of some needed punch, I feel. Again, I think Serena has to shoulder some of that, since out of the three, she would have been best suited to generate some friction (a la Misty or May or Iris, even).
The Pokémon were... Pretty cool, and the smaller number than BW was definitely better, as they had their time to shine. Talonflame was fucking awesome, in particular - and Greninja too, obviously - but Chespin was not really a Piplup nor an Oshawatt. It wasn't until the last batch of episodes I even realised that Ash did NOT get any mega-evolving Pokémon - presumably so they didn't have to carry the idea on next season - which is probably why he got Greninja instead. Sort of clever, I guess.
So... On balance, I think DP is still arguably the best region, though XY is pretty close behind. But DP had a bit more of serious tone and that worked well for me. (Though I also binged DP in its entirity on the internet, and that probably did t a lot of favours by compressing it all much more than I got with XY, so that it a factor to consider.)
So my friends, that it is for the moment. I still have some movies to watch, so I might pop back at some point again for those. And I may eventually get SuMo on DVD, so I may do a run through that at some point - the re-appearance of Misty and Brock might be enough to tempt me to have a look - but we'll see when/if (this year's DVD budget is slated for catching up with Naruto (since I had a volume about four ahead of me for Christmas) and maybe Dragonball Super or even Kai (in a bit of a DB jag at the moment - blame TeamFourStar!)
So thank you all for reading and following (and liking, since it's nice to know folk are reading my drivel!) this through with me over this extended - and somewhat erratic! - journey through the back chunk of Pokémon! Until next time!
*salutes*
1Disclaimer: I read a lot of fanfiction. GOOD fanfiction.
