Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Poke-Matic
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I remember being too old when Pokémon first landed over here, but still loving it. Needless to say, I didn't make many friends in high school. I bought and played the games (even Snap), I collected the cards for a while (but honestly only played on a few occasions), and yes, watched the show, even religiously for a while. I have an addictive personality, so it became my "thing" for a few years.
I saw the first Pokémon movie, in Japanese, with subtitles, before it came over here. And to me, it was a huge deal, and felt really special and more mature than the show. It wasn't, of course, but I was blown away by the higher budget. (Although I'm pretty sure Mewtwo killed a bunch of scientists, so maybe it was a bit darker.) I went and watched it when it got released in theaters, too. But this was sort of the show's last gleaming to me. I lost interest in the show around the Orange Islands arc and only revisited the show now and then to see what Ash and co. were up to. Usually the same old same old, but with new Pokémon. I caught the occasional movie, but none held that special feeling Mewtwo Strikes Back had. I was shocked to see that Ash finally did beat Gary in the show, but I didn't know about it until years later. At that point I had found a billion better anime and the craze had mostly ended. I still buy the games, but that is the extent of Pokémon in my life now. Last edited by penguintruth on Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:35 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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malvarez1
Posts: 2114 |
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I used to love Pokemon, but I stopped watching a few years ago.
However, I still love Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Both are tons better than Pokemon. And I agree, the NA film for Digimon was terrible! |
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bj_waters
 Posts: 234 |
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I consider Pokemon to be my entry into anime. Sure, I had seen Samurai Pizza Cats and My Neighbor Totoro (I think) before that, but I just thought they were cartoons and nothing more. Because of the video games, Pokemon was my first experience of realizing that a cartoon from Japan would be different in certain ways. I followed through the Orange Islands arc, but by then, I had discovered Toonami and other series, so I found Pokemon not only repetitive, but even worse, endless. Since then I've given up on the anime stuff all together. However, I've slowly gotten back into the games in the last year or two, mostly because they're competent JRPGs.
Over time, I've generally considered Digimon to be superior, at least in terms of anime series, mostly because they would have a big ending at the end of the season. While Pokemon were rehashing formulaic episodes, Digimon did something I've never seen a television series ever do: DROP ALL THE CHARACTERS AND WORLD RULES FOR A COMPLETELY NEW SET OF EACH, something they've done multiple times now. And to have Digimon Tamers be something a little darker and more complex than your standard monster-of-the-week series (though it still had that) was pretty impressive. Don't see kids shows doing that kind of stuff anymore, which is a bit of a shame. I don't think kids should be underestimated too much, but whatever. While Mike mostly focused on the boom of the early 2000s, I think it's worth mentioning that this style of anime (and simultaneous merchandise campaign) hasn't necessarily died. Since then, we've seen Beyblade and Bakugan, and I'm sure there's more to come. It may be easy to scoff at these shows as mere 30 minute commercials, but I would argue that a majority of anime fans today came in through those heavily commercial doors; I admit that I did. New kids who've discovered Bakugan will look it up online and find themselves on CrunchyRoll or ANN, opening up a whole new world of entertainment that they never thought existed. Even begrudgingly, I think we all have something to thank for the explosion of Pokemon, even if it means just greasing the anime localization wheels. |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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Ah the Digimon movie.. if there was a time the Digimon dub more hacked up and mangled than the Pokemon dub, it was when it came to the movie. Take three unrelated movies, cut a bunch of stuff out, fuse them together, throw in awful pop/rap music, and rewrite everything and say it's one movie, and act surprised when it doesn't even make any kind of sense. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they subjected little kids to a godawful Angela Anaconda short before it. At least 4kids had the decently of only cutting up, rewriting everything, and inserting pop music to one movie at a time rather than three at once.
As for currently, Diamond & Pearl is definitely the peak of the Pocket Monsters franchise. You had amazing characters like Hikari, Shinji, Nozomi, and one of my favorites: Kouhei, the creeper who stalks Hikari and popped up behind her with his perma-rape face all the time for comedic relief and scared her half to death. And the final Satoshi VS Shinji battle is pretty much the best moment in the entire franchise. Best Wishes is currently pretty good, though, but I don't think it'll reach Diamond & Pearl level of quality or success. Still, with characters like Dent, Bel, Langley, and Cabernet, it's certainly enjoyable and a fun time. I do wonder what they'll do for Black and White 2, though, so that has me excited and looking forward to where they go with that. |
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kamui85
Posts: 267 |
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What got me into anime without realization was gatchaman or g-force, and then sailor moon, dragon ball z in the mid 90s, but pokemon really was my first rpg (because of the series wich i loved in the beginning). I remember the first movie as something really emotional also... I somtimes blame pokemon for filling up my brain's hard drive with useless information (couldn't memorize 118 elements from the periodic table but was so easy to remember 350 pokemon with all their characteristics hehe...)
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Lynx Amali
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Pokemon 2000 (And Pokemon 3: Spell of the Unknown) is my favorite part of the animated series. Well, aside from Chronicles. I went to the theatre when I was younger to see it, literally dragging my Dad with me as I was too young to see it by myself.
Digimon, on the other hand, I still absolutely love. I have the majority of the seasons released on VHS and DVD. I love the movie, despite the chopping they did. (I'd call for a full version of Hurricane Touchdown which ironically came out before Season 02 premiered, if I'm remembering right.) I still wish it were as popular as it once was (I'd kill for a Xros Wars release, but that's probably not going to happen any time soon) I still prefer Savers though. Well, partially because of the Savers movie. Not to mention the movie trailer still holds and makes me want to rewatch it again This one First time I saw the trailer was on TV and my jaw literally dropped to the floor.) Now if only I could get my hands on X-Evolution and maybe some of the season movies on DVD.... As for Duel Masters, I remember it very fondly. That dub still holds up because they had fun with it, at least IMO. Still have a binder full of cards too. Super Bolshack Dragon < 3. |
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1799 |
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I was born a pokemon kid, Ah yes I remember watching the show and getting pokemon silver because I thought it was the game of the movie, and in the end I never beat it
 Around this time I did begin to like digimon but that didn't happen until tamers came on, it was the only one I found acctually funny and intresting and still is my favorite season to this day.
At this point I no longer watch the pokemon show(well when the leage matches come up, I do tune in) but I still buy the games finding enjoyment in them but once I beat them am met to begin hell-ish training to fight people online. Digimon is at the back of my mind, I saw savers and liked it but have mixed feelings on xros wars and am pretty much ignoring the second xros series until tai and the other show up, which I heard they have so I'll go check it out. I remember a while back having a tape that recorded three tamer episodes, but at the same time caught a ep of mon goly knights(If I spelled that right) I wanted to find the rest of the series but never did and forgot about it until just now. I also wished you mentioned medabots though. yeah it was a robot show but it felt like such a freakishly funny parody to pokemon, even when I turned older I laughed lots of times at the lines they gave the characters and Medabee was just great. The 'Mon' show that really got me into anime was untimatly zatch bell. not that it was a card game franchise, but TV tropes seems to call it that. considering it feels like a one up on pokemon a bit, taken more seriously, I can't say they're far off. Basicly mons and battle buddy shows haven't left my mind and I remember them. |
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catsithx
Posts: 1 |
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Going to be honest I like digimon more than pokemon. It always felt there was more of a story to it then pokemon. I do belive it more watching the Original Japanese versions. Though they did fudge it up with the movies more with Digimon than pokemon. With pokemon they change some of the themes to match how the show was being done in America. With Digimon they got a chainsaw and went to town with three movies and well you all saw the Digimon movie all.
Still I am happy for the world of fansub I was able to see all the movies in the original language and with little edit to them. Yes they do tend to make much of the anime nurtured when it comes here. I only blame the fools who run televsion thinking they know anything sometimes. Still After watching pokemon the first few season and digimon (both english versions) Digimon was far superior than pokemon even with the story over haul at time. I jsut felt there was a main point they were achieving in the digimon series then pokemon. Also to be honest my first introduction to anime would not be these shows but Actually robotech or macross as it real name to all true anime fans |
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Kyjin
 Posts: 126 Location: Los Angeles |
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I'm a child of the 90's so of course I grew up watching Pokemon and Digimon. While I liked the Pokemon games, the show never did anything for me, but I was obsessed with Digimon. I consider it my first anime despite seeing DBZ/Sailor Moon/Pokemon first since it was the first one where I figured out that it was from Japan. I watched the show religiously when it was on tv growing up, and even downloaded fansubs of Savers when it aired as I started college. (Actually one of my best friends and I became friends in college due to our mutual love of Digimon- she had Ken on her notebook and I flipped!) I don't watch the show much anymore (Xros Wars turned me off :/) but I have fond memories.
Also, I distinctly remember seeing both the first Pokemon movie and the Digimon movie in theatres. I still apologize to my mother for taking me and my brothers to both of those films. I still wish they released an uncut version of the three films for the Digimon movie in the US; at one point the later films were dubbed and aired on tv. I started watching Pokemon again when Best Wishes started airing in 2010, but that was only because I was in Japan at the time and it aired while cooking dinner. The show was okay, but again, lost interest. The games however... |
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AgitoZ
Posts: 53 |
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I think the most vivid memories out of all these would be the Digimon "movie". It was very bizarre, for me, because where I grew up we got a basically uncut dub even with the Japanese insert songs kept. But when the movie came we retained the rap, odd pop music placement, the works basically.
After rewatching it, it's not that bad (Although that godawful Angela cartoon in the beginning is inexcusable). I have to say I appreciate it more due to what it did to Hurricane Touchdown. The bits it cut, ironically, made that segment more cohesive and entertaining. All the subplots that went nowhere were gone, the dull music is gone, etc. The only flaw was trying to connect all the unrelated material.
Uh...I don't know if you're from somewhere where the release schedule was wonky but the movie never came out before the series in US or Japan. Also, tiny nitpick, but if you're going to call the second series a season just call it Season 2. The "02" part in Adventure 02 is a reference to the setting, 2002, 3 years after the original. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Honestly I prefer Our War Games to Summer Wars simply because most of the best parts of Summer Wars was simply copied from Our War Games.
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Asrialys
 Posts: 1164 |
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I still watch every Pokemon episode and movie. And play every game. A few years ago, I even started importing the Pokemon Center Pokedolls of Pokemon I've come to like.
A couple years ago, I got back into the card game. While I'm not competitive, I do attend whatever tournaments I can and just had my third annual California TCG State Championships last weekend in Long Beach. And according to the numbers, attendance continues to grow. I liked Digimon. However, Tamers (my favorite so far) was the last series I watched religiously. I never really went beyond the anime though. I did have those little digital pets that you could connect and battle, but I never touched the card game or video games. Pokemon for life for me 
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Watching Pokemon? No, but playing Pokemon? Oho, yes! Ben playing since Gen 1 and can't help but throw money at Nintendo for every main title (Gen 5 is actually the first gen since 1 where I have not gotten both Black and White already, which is to say that I have GSC, RSE, and DPPt, but I only seem to get one of the older gen remakes) and some of the spin offs (just Colosseum and
for now). I'm addicted to them and need my fix, dammit!
I'll admit, I've always had nostalgia for Pokemon up through the Indigo League (maybe Orange Islands, maybe), but have always liked Digimon more as a show. Yes, the Best Wishes Pokemon is on, but I only watch it when the only other thing on is The View or Spongebob (I am so sick of Spongebob after Nick has determined that 8 hours of it a day isn't enough) because I usually rage and am confused at what they are doing. I look at the battles and go ".....whaaaat?" and spend the entire time raging since it's not how the games work, so that's why I don't watch it. I do remember the Monster Rancher cartoon fondly too, fondly but vaguely. Also, you forgot to mention Mushrambo (aka Shinzo) in your weird adventure things involving monsters and cards (when monsters were defeated here, they turned into cards, if the card was destroyed, that was it, so it was really up to your opponent to not be a dick) Onto Ishiguro, R.I.P.  I've yet to see Megazone 23, I plan to fix that in due time. But I adore Macross to an insane level. I didn't grow up with Robotech, I blind bought the DVDs on a vacation (it was only the first 24 eps, didn't realize it was 36, I was able to borrow a friend's set to finish it out and eventually finished mine, purposely getting fuzzy 80s vision version of it). Then, when the Robotech store got in a bunch of AnimEigo Macross sets and sold them for what felt like pennies (or $60 after shipping), that was the first time I saw actual Macross not Robotech version (I'd seen Robotech version 3 times or so by then as is) and when I watched subbed Macross, it was like falling in love all over again. I like his comment about how digital hasn't improved quality as hoped but has led to a lot of mediocre stuff, couldn't agree more. I never got to meet the guy in person (and I was Otakon that year, dammit! That might've been my first year when I was acting like a newb though and had no idea what I was doing and ended up spending most of my time in the dealer's room, buying too much manga), but he sounds like he was just as awesome in real life as directing Macross would have led me to believe.
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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Unown. Still playing the games, but not liking B/W. I dunno, not having some familiar guys from past gens is just too jarring..... |
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Yorozuya
Posts: 332 |
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Digmon was my love. Jessuotaku once talked about boys having a crush on Sora but Tai was the one for me (I don't know if that was the case for other girls). There was just that extra degree of smartness to that show, it didn't talk down to you as a kid. And I loved the theme song, loved it to bits. Tamers was my favourite out of all of them, though it did give me nightmares.
I never saw Pokemon on TV, I just saw the movies, so I guess that's why I never got into it. I think I found the characters boring. I did like yugioh for a while though I actually preferred GX, maybe because Jaden was less of a wimp. And I'll let you in on a secret, I absolutely adored the Digimon film and loved to re-watch it. I probably won't watch it again (it's been years) because my memories would probably be spoiled! And I was so happy when I saw elements of it in 'Summers Wars', I think the nostalgia added to the film for me. |
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