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Old 03-23-2007, 01:27 AM   #1
Talon87
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PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

Has anybody else watched the first two episodes (in Japanese) as fansubbed by Dattebayo? I downloaded these after a friend gave them rave reviews, and here's what I thought: still a lot worse than Kanto ... still about as bad as the new Pokemon episodes are ... yet made better by its authenticity.

The Japanese voice actors weren't as bad as the American ones. Satoshi's VA reminded me of Edward Elric's from FMA, and Takeshi's VA really rocked. Some of the voices were a little worse than ours imo (Professor Oak's), but others were far, far better (Kojiro's, Musashi's).

The animation's as crisp as those of you who still watch Pokemon are used to. For me, who quit watching regularly back during USA Season 4 (a.k.a. some time between Morty's ghost gym in Ecruteak and Jasmine's steel gym in Olivine), it's really nice to see that the animation frequently looks as resplendant as the frames from the first few movies. The colors feel a lot purer and brighter (probably because it's all done in CG these days, no more inking), but the creatures (especially Pikachu) seem a lot more emotive than they did in the original show.

The plot is as wretchedly mindnumbing as when I dropped it. I miss the days of Indigo, where the story felt like it was going somewhere and we weren't watching Ash, for the third time, declaring that he was setting out on a quest to become a Pokémon Master. The one thing I sort of like is that, much like with Johto, he's left behind all of his Pokémon except for Pikachu and Aipom. Aipom is pretty cool in the anime (even if he does suck hardcore in the games), and I really like that Ash ends up getting a Turtwig (Naetoru) and whatever the cool bird is called (Mukkuru). Ash is almost as much a grass-type trainer as he is anything else. Kickass Bulbasaur. Kickass Bayleef. Kickass Sceptile. And now a Turtwig. Man, I look forward to seeing "Ash the Grass Trainer ... plus Pikachu" in the sequel to DP. ;)

Is it worth continuing to watch? Probably not.
Does it make me want to find the original Kanto episodes in Japanese? Oh yeah.

So ... anyone know how I might try to go about doing that? The only options I see are downloading American episodes from the Internet (blegh) or buying American DVDs from stores that don't have Japanese audio on them (blegh).
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Old 03-25-2007, 06:45 AM   #2
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

Indigo was so damn good. Orange wasn't as consistent, but some of its episodes had very high ceilings. Johto was even more inconsistent, with lots of horribly generic episodes sandwiching occasional gems (I like how one of the best episodes, Ignorance is Blissey, is right after the worst episode of all time, The Whistle Stop).

Now how good this new stuff is, I really couldn't tell you since I barely know when the show is on anymore, and my nocturnal schedule doesn't help. I miss the really early days when YTV used to play the show at 4:00 AM. But I remember Dopple rating Mewtwo Returns pretty low which is just wrong!
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Old 03-25-2007, 09:13 AM   #3
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

Honestly, the show seems little better than the Johto anime; I think that most of my enjoyment of the new series has been "seeing good old friends who have come so far since the last time I saw them." There are other contributing factors (listening to different voices, seeing new Pokémon) but it's mostly the enjoyment I get out of seeing good ol' Brock and seeing Ash and his trusty Pikachu interacting with the complete newbie Hikari.

I just woke up from a very vivid set of dreams (woke up because of a phone call; vivid because I'm [supposed to be!] recovering from the sleep deprivation of last week). One of the dreams I briefly had involved one of the things the series seems to have finally come to terms with, which is Pokémon level. They still refrain from explicitly stating things like "Pikachu is Level 100!", presumably because:
a) that would make it difficult to justify new growth for Level 100 characters, and
b) that would make it difficult to believe that a Level 100 Pokémon could lose to a Level 5.
But in spite of holding back on the specifics, the show still displays the difference in "sheer power" level between Pikachu and every other Pokémon the group has discovered as yet.

As for the dream, I dreamt that somebody called Ash using his PokÉtchi (PokéWatch?) and asked him about his Charizard. They seemed to be telling him more than asking him (weird how dreams work), as if they were informing him of the following: that while his Charizard is awesome, is Level 81; but there's another trainer named Max who has two Charizards, both at Level 80; and so the kid on the phone wants to know why Ash, whose Charizard trained so friggin' hard in the Valley of the Charizard, is only one level ahead of two other Charizard trained by this dude; and why they seem to be better (in terms of "movepool", *shrug*) than Ash's Charizard. The kid also seemed to be suggesting that Ash better fix his Charizard soon because (just as it happens in the video games!) "once your Charizard hits Level 100, he's pretty much locked in except for TMs and Heart Scale moves."
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Old 03-25-2007, 09:16 AM   #4
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

The anime's broken. >> First, Ash has Pikachu beat a Regice against the strongest Frontier Brain.

Then in early Sinnoh, Pikachu draws with an Elekid. Now, I'd be able to believe this if the situation had the following two stipulations:

1) Ash had never seen/fought an Elekid before
2) The opposing trainer wasn't a newbie trainer.

The. Anime. Is. Broken.

xfd Apart from that, I quite like DP so far, tis cool that one of my fave Pokemon so far from that region (Subomi; Don't ask why), has had an episode. ^^

However! I quite like the cameo appearance Dunsparce had in the first ep. :P I shall get a pic if I can, but til then, you'll have to find it yourself. >>
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Old 03-25-2007, 10:19 AM   #5
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

What I like about "Gregal" (Croagunk) is that he just seems too evil/mean-spirited to be Brock's Pokémon. He's much, much more in line with what I always imagined Dark-type Pokémon would be like. Good examples of the behavior I'm talking about are when (in Episode 9) he throws the potato sky-high that Brock politely asks him to toss over to him, and when he Poison Stings Brock in the stomach for crossing the line (by mentioning how you can tell the different Officer Jennies apart based on smell). It's weird that he's Poison/Fighting and not something like Poison/Dark based on his behavior, but whatever.

What I like about Mimiroru (Buneary) is that she's infatuated with Pikachu and is already an absolute cutey + about Pikachu's same body size + they're both "mammals of the forest." What I like even more than that is that she evolves into an absolutely (pardon my weirdness) sexy evo. I mean, DAMN, if Gardevoir is the first Pokémon to make me drool, then [b]Mimiroppu (Lopunny) is the second. And unlike Gardevoir -- who is elegantly graceful in her beauty -- Mimiroppu is like this gorgeous vixen. Seriously, the guy who designed Mimiroppu has got to be a furry -- check out those legs! Check out the fact that her "cute poofy fur" is conveniently in the shape of and in the location of where her boobs would be (if she were human).

I like Naetoru (Turtwig)
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Old 03-25-2007, 10:41 PM   #6
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

Here are some images for those interested:
Pokémon Diamond & Pearl!
Pikachu In Da Hood
Buneary flirting with Pikachu
Brock's Croagunk
Why I love Brock (view entire thing)
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Old 05-26-2007, 01:15 PM   #7
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

I agree, the Japanese VA's are waaaaaaay better.
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Old 06-01-2007, 11:28 PM   #8
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Re: PokÊmon Diamond & Pearl

Quote:
Originally Posted by Coordinator
I agree, the Japanese VA's are waaaaaaay better.
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