yet another

I bought my mother this DVD box set for her birthday. Secretly though, I bought it so that I could watch them too. I love love LOVE the first season of Pokemon. I know I’m always ranting about how anime series these days are pure shit, and I know that Pokemon isn’t exactly ground-breaking or thought-provoking, but COME ON. It’s Pokemon!

I’ll probably come back later to write a whole anal retentive review of the DVDs. But in a nutshell, I’m pretty disappointed by the overall lack of quality. These look and feel like bootlegs, and that just shouldn’t be the case. The price is comparable to, say, the Cowboy Bebop or Big O collections, but they completely lack their polished, professional look and feel. And on top of that, it doesn’t include the Japanese language track. I mean, what the hell? Plus this isn’t even the full first season. In fact, it’s only about a third of the way through. Why would you make a box set if it’s not even going to include all the episodes?

I better stop now before I get into full-blown anal retentive mode. :P

But anyway, I love these episodes. I’m not a dub-hater, and if anything I’d rather watch the dub than fansubs for these first episodes if only for the nostalgia. This is what my sister and I grew up on! So even though there are some really funky things going on in this episode (Pikachu’s voice alternating between a freaky-sounding American VA and the original seiyuu, noticeable shifts in the bgm, Ash’s VA still trying to get used to the role, everyone completely mispronouncing “Pokemon”) it’s still awesome.

First thing I noticed right off the bat is how obnoxious everyone is to poor Ash. :P His Pokedex’s voice is dripping with snark and sarcasm, Pikachu obviously doesn’t want anything to do with him, Gary is just the most repulsively obnoxious person ever, and Misty is a total bitch. Meanwhile Ash is just doing his best “Excuse me, I’m sorry, could you please help me” routine, which is just so adorable. Later on he’ll find his courage to stand up to assholes, and he’ll become even more sarcastic and arrogant than everyone else. >P