odd...

[Naruchu_believe_it]

James lost some IQ points throught the lenght of the "series".Meowth gained alot of iq points and lost his ability to walk on 4 legs......Bulbasuar,squirttle and charmander's voices got stronger as they spent more time with ash.....So did Pikachu.

 

[offkilter06]

There's lots of little things that progress over time. I watched through most of Johto in it's original running and dropped out for a long time. Now I'm watching Advanced (Yay for Netflix) and I feel like I missed a bit. Character nuances change, as well as voice inflections (which I know kinda gets thrown completely over once you factor in the 2nd gen VAs, but I still think it's really interesting. Everything seemed to get a lot more lax and less detail oriented. The new team has pushed things a little farther in that different direction. It almost blows my mind when they play Indigo League back to back with Diamond and Pearl! Not bashing either, as each has merits and issues, but it definitely seems like two different sets of characters.

 

[Snake Bandage]

James lost some IQ points throught the lenght of the "series".Meowth gained alot of iq points and lost his ability to walk on 4 legs......

I thought it was the exact opposite with the IQ. Though I think it's more like common sense and sanity they're losing/gaining.

 

[Perxio]

I always thought that James has either grown smarter or more of a conscience (or common sense). Meowth's only lost his ability to scratch James and Jessie to ribbons, IMO. James has been demoted to 'Pokemon' in the group, and they're scared shitless by Jessie and who the heck can blame them (BALEEN WHALE). Jessie's lost her mind over the series.

 

[Mr.Nintendo]

They're all weird...and anyway...WHY'D THEY CHANGE THE ANIMATION?!?!?!?!!?IS THAT ODD?!?!?!!??!Seriously...in the fist couple seasons it looked Japanese,Johto seasons half American half Japanese & now from advance quest,or whatever,to now is ALL American!:banghead:

 

[Geodude]

Why are you complaining about the animation? The animation quality has clearly vastly improved over the years.

 

[Cybersai]

The switch to digital animation happened during the Johto league, and it makes most of the show look much better.

The battles in the newer seasons are so much more impressive than the battles of old simply because of the better animation, and the fact that battles are far more "violent" (or as violent as Pokemon gets) than they used to be.

I find it absolutely hilarious how this show has only continued to address the concerns of fans and give them most of what they want, yet people still complain. There's like no hope for some people.

 

[QuietDragon]

Yeah, I felt somewhat embarassed watching the Kanto battles.
BORING.
The Johto and AG ones were great, though.

The style was sacrificed for the sake of faster smoother animation, so I think it's a fair enough trade. Besides, the style, pretty as it was, was very out-dated.

Seriously, once I turned on the TV and thought I was watching the middle of an episode of some sixties anime instead of Pokemon (there weren't any Pokemon in the scene), the only thing that tipped me off was the fact that the colors weren't randomly changing. xD;

 

[Yamato-san]

yeah, it's pretty remarkable how out-dated pretty much any pre-2000 anime looks nowadays (with some exceptions, like Evangelion). I mean, it wasn't even 10 years ago that the new millennium started. You know what else is funny? Anime used to have a bad reputation because, compared to American cartoons, the animation seemed laggy (and I wouldn't deny that anime traditionally had low frame-rates... though in return, they seem to use pretty large amounts of detail). Nowadays, it seems like the complete opposite is true.

 

[Dogasu]

The show still has a low framerate and horribly stiff characters. They're just able to hide it a little better with a brighter color palette and CGI.

 

[Crankyman]

You know, considering Team Rocket's vast vocabluary, they're the most educated main chars. Ash and co. are still in grade school, so that's pretty understandable. So, what are you trying to say?

 

[offkilter06]

Haha. That is true...usually when Ash has to ask his Pokedex, one of the team rocket trio usually go "That's a ____". Maybe they took extensive classes over it at the academy?

 

[Sweet Blue]

Its Called Progression, Thats All It Is.

Plus Dumb Team Rocket Is Better.

 

[Snake Bandage]

Haha. That is true...usually when Ash has to ask his Pokedex, one of the team rocket trio usually go "That's a ____". Maybe they took extensive classes over it at the academy?

Jessie is a complete idiot when it comes to any Pokemon that isn't her own, and when she gets a new Pokemon, she has trouble figuring out its attacks at first. It first came up when she got Wobbuffet and had absolutely no idea that it was the Patient Pokemon until James informed her. That Pokemon Contest where she tried to get Seviper to use all these awesome attacks it just doesn't know and the episode where she got Dustox and had to ask James what attacks it can use also come to mind. Meowth is fairly knowledgeable about the names of different Pokemon species, which I think comes from being a Pokemon himself, but there are some he doesn't recognize right away.

James, however, is the most Poke-educated of the three (also the most educated in general, what with his twenty tutors or whatever it was). More often than not, he will be able to recognize a Pokemon right away, and when he doesn't, he always has his Pokemon cards on him. And most of the time, he's the one that carries the TRio's region guide, right? In terms of delivering information, he's the TRio's Brock.

 

[Cybersai]

Not to mention that whenever James is in a serious battle, he almost always does better than Jessie.

Let's not forget the Pokeringer competition in Hoenn (the ep where Taillow evolved), where James used Dustox very well and almost won, or the Orienteering competition from Battle Frontier, where James won 1st prize.

As I said, a large part of James character was sorta changed as we got further into the anime, and I suspect giving him cute Pokemon like Cacnea, Chimecho and Mime Jr. also reflect that...whereas they made Jessie more psychotic to balance that.

And that leaves Meowth largly caught in the middle, and he usually sides with one over the other depending on the ep. So yeah, this is not the same Team Rocket from Season 1. Not at all.

 

[Gryphon Turboclaw]

^^^Which in a lot of ways is a good thing, and not so much in some others. On the one hand, you get a less serious JJ&M(relative to their earlier appearances), which is more than a little grating much of the time. On the other, you get a more 'human' JJ&M(which can be related to at times, which can be a good thing).

It's rather interesting to note, however, that Jessie's pechant for melodrama hasn't exactly decreased with introduction of Contests(where she puts said penchant to excellent use). You'd think she'd cool down some, what with the opportunity to vent her creative juices and all. Ah, well...

Speaking of character progression, it should be remembered that not everyone fared all that well in that department. In fact, one of the things that rather bugged me about Johto was the effective freeze the writers put on Brock and Misty's character development until late Johto Journeys(in Brock's case until mid-Advanced Adventures; they wasted time and episodes that could have gone into developing them and their dynamic(not to mention sorting out the emotional mess that went by the name of Brock and having Misty continue the training she'd started with Togepi...maybe with some help from the others?). And contrary to popular belief, Togepi wasn't the cause of Misty's decline(which didn't even start until almost halfway through OI and accelerated in earnest during Johto).*1 If anything, the little spike-ball was a potential source of major character development for her (and the rest of Ash-tachi) that wasn't properly followed up on after OI until Hoenn rolled in(and by that point, it was essentially too late but for the wrap-up). At least Ash's personal improvement got started in Johto(then Hoenn came along, where it went from a rolling stone to an avalanche, DXM incidents aside), and has continued unabated since.*2 Brock, sadly, has gone nowhere fast(despite a surprising number of chances for him to improve thoughout Hoenn and the Battle Frontier).

-----1. Which, by the way, is a very big reason why I fell away from being a Pokeshipper. The writers fell into the Simpsons trap of locking Misty into one pattern---flareups of her ego/temper and minor development followed by long periods of nothingness---for most of Johto Journeys, and when they *did* actually try to change her personality near the end of that season, Misty's whole character went south from there...especially where Ash was concerned. Hint: Turning one's travelling companion into more-or-less a behavioral variation---or worse, a clone---of their primary rival does *not* do wonders for their emotional bonding in the least. That Misty *still* talks down to him after all this time bodes ill for any expansion of their relationship beyond the platonic.

-----2. And even in those cases, it has to be acknowledged that Ash carried himself rather well, despite having opportunities to fall back into the sort of brattiness he was capable of back in Kanto I and Orange Islands.

To Dogasu: Okay then. Who would you put in charge of the animation department? Just curious.

 

[Mr.Nintendo]

Why are you complaining about the animation? The animation quality has clearly vastly improved over the years.

It's not true anime.It's AMERICAN which I regret to being.Seriously!I loved the old animation...BRING IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bawling:

 

[Naruchu_believe_it]

I was watching the "ash's captures bulbasuar" eppie and meowth was crossing on four legs..He can't do that now...Also,James seemed more smarter before..Old "animation"....The only thing I liked about it was that it made good gags...The gags can't be made now...But other then that,the newie rules.

 

[Snake Bandage]

It's not true anime.It's AMERICAN which I regret to being.Seriously!I loved the old animation...BRING IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bawling:

Uh. Huh? What's so "American" about the animation now? ;

I was watching the "ash's captures bulbasuar" eppie and meowth was crossing on four legs..He can't do that now...Also,James seemed more smarter before..

James acted like a serious, run-of-the-mill bishounen-type villain in the first few episodes. But that was dropped very, very quickly in favor of the James we're all familiar with these days; the dorky, goofy, not-very-bright, extremely naive doormat of a villain who really likes to think he's a serious bishounen-type villain. Nowadays, he's much spazzier and even more prone to silliness, but he's more intelligent than he used to be, has much more common sense and is a little less naive (which doesn't help, as he still falls for scams very easily, even if now it takes a much longer time to convince him).

 

[Cybersai]

It's not true anime.It's AMERICAN which I regret to being.Seriously!I loved the old animation...BRING IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bawling:

lol