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Review SM001: Alola! The Starting Island, the Starter Pokémon!!

If you see a bear that can kill you with a literal bear hug, there's only one thing to do:
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jonathan keller said:
Well, they didn't show all of ash's team in that one shot. It just showed rowlet, litten, and rockruff. He still has two more slots, which one of them is most likely grubbin. They didn't put ash's capture of grubbin in the opening song animation just for giggles, it has to be of some significance.

Also, ash had three flying types in kalos, so why not give him two electric types
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Well, we don't know if those Pokémon are going to be Ash's or not, except for Rowlet, which seems to be a strong possibility at this point. The rest are all guesses. They could habe just been showing Ash's eagerness to catch a new Pokémon, an Alola Pokemon. And I'm not saying he can't catch more than one Pokémon of the same type or that he won't ever catch one, I'm just saying the Opening may not be foreshadowing Ash catching it. Plus, I don't even know what it's type is, since I'm trying to avoid Sun and Moon spoilers, as stated under my avatar.
 
No one knows the desperation I felt today waiting to return home for this (the coming home at lunch thing didn't work...)

And BLOODY HELL IT WAS WORTH EVERY PAINFUL, PROTRACTED SECOND!

Everyone else has pretty much covered it but I wanted to add a couple of things on the subject of:
1. Characterisation - for the first time since episode 1, Satoshi and Hanako's relationship actually felt like that of mother and son. I loved loved loved her referring to Pika-chan! Is that new or is it just that I've forgotten because we haven't seen her for so many years?
2. Continuity - did anyone else catch Satoshi putting his hat on backwards and then turning it round? Such an endearing hark back to the bad old days when we used to see that hat animation 5920291x an episode!

Overall, animation, characters, story-so-far was beyond my expectations!
 
OMGosh yes, ii Kanji! The characterization here was fantastic. I talked about it a bit in episode two thread, but it made me wish that his mother would stay for the long run of this season. It was nice seeing them interact and seeing where he gets much of his personality from.

There were so many great things about this episode. It felt fresh.
 
I must say... The character artwork and the emotional expressions are quite different from the rest of the series. But not that it's a bad thing. What they nailed, though, is the city and forest scenery - that has to be the biggest step I've ever seen in the Pokemon Anime. I hope they can keep up the quality and diversity here.
 
An okay episode for me. 5/10 for effort. Character artwork on Ash I cannot like unfortunately.
 
Kairyu said:
I know it's just the first two episodes, but it already feels a bit too lighthearted and childish for my taste, at least compared to what we just went through with XY. Everyone is super friendly, and the Team Skull members were the most corny and incompetent evil team grunts to date. Not really perceiving them as a serious threat, which they need to be. Just feels like this series indeed need a jerk like Paul to balance things out.

A lack of real, purposeful battling is also a big concern down the line due to the absence of Gyms. I'm worried these short, pointless battles we got in these two episodes is all we're going to get in the SM series.
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You've effectively summed up my feelings in a nutshell. I'm not impressed with what I've seen. Rather, I'm quite discouraged about all this. It's already becoming what I've feared it would become: a cartoon. I still hate the animation style, Alolan Oak's gag is already annoying, Team Skull seems even more like a joke, Ash is acting like a hyperactive 5 year-old who just stepped outside for the first time, and I fear there will be a severe lack of purposeful battles. The characters are so-so, too, which is a shame because they had such promise. That's 2 episodes down... and 2 strikes against it in my books. You've got 8 more left to impress me, Ash, but you're off to a bad start.
 
So here's the thing. Whenever I watched unsubbed episodes of Pokemon I'm always noticing that I can understand the episode just fine even though I don't know Japanese. There's a certain formula and accessibility to Pokemon episodes and I'm still not sure if that's actually a benefit or nt. At no point watching this episode did I get confused as to what was going on. Maybe it's because the showrunners are really good at telling a story, but it's hard to say.

Either way, this episode surprised me. I remained cautiously optimistic despite my knee jerk reaction to the change in art direction, and it seems that optimism paid off. There's a great sense of character and personality to these first two episodes. Yes, Ash is even more energetic than normal and nearly dies, what, 4 times? And the rest of the cast will probably feel even better to me once I actually know what they're saying, but for now they were enjoyable too.

Ash and his mom traveling together seems odd to me, but it shouldn't. They are family. They should share in things. But rarely before have we ever seen Delia do more than just hang around the house. Her last great performance for me was back in Spell of the Unknown! So seeing her and her son enjoying Alola together was heartwarming.

And the rest of the episode had some great atmosphere. Sure, there are some odd faces now and then (mostly for comedic effect) and it's obviously a more simple kind of animation compared to the extravagance of XY, but even that first little bit of an adorable Litten just prancing across the sand and staring at the ocean resonated with me. Eveyr scene with the mysterious Topu Koko had weight to it. That Bewear chase was short but terrifying. The unleashing of such a powerful and ferocious Z-move was energetic and dangerous (if a bit undone due to the obvious lack of incineration). And Ash's opening bit swimming under the water with the the sea life does so much to give the world life. Sometimes Pokemon suffers in that aspect, but it most certainly doesn't do so here.

I also greatly appreciated how different this episode was written compared to other series openers. Pikachu is still powerful and skilled with no apparent setbacks. Ash is still brash and confident, but he still has a fascination for Pokemon. He doesn't even pull out a Pokedex once! He sees a Pokemon and gets excited by it, especially when they are old favorites. And the lack of the TRio worked well. I feel like they would have diminished the small introduction we got to Team Skull.

All in all, a solid start to the series and pleasantly surprising one at that. I had fun... and I might be crushing on Kukui a bit.
 
I really liked these two episodes! My thoughts:

  • The art style has absolutely grown on me and the animation was gorgeous. I'm excited for things to come.
  • Mallow and Lillie are probably going to be two of my favorite supporting characters.
  • There was quite a bit of XY music in these two episodes! Maybe more older music later on...?
  • The openinng is great!! Really loved the sense of frienndship in the main cast. I still wonder how they're gonna balance that many characters. And I actually really like the way Team Rocket looks!!! Jessie and James actually have different faces from one another and they seem to be playing up the stereotypical cartoon bad guy thing which I love.
  • That Bewear scene was probably the only time this show has made me feel genuine fear. Its batshit crazy cry is up there with Victreebel's. Is Team Rocket's Bewear just super weak, is it going easy on them, or are they just that strong that they can endure what whole trees can't??
 
I can't decide what was funnier: Pikachu burning his hand on Ash's smoldering face, their faces slowly morphing into ones of horror when Bewear snapped that tree like a tooth pick, or the sped-up flashback.

Every first episode of a new Pokemon series feels fresh because there there's so much new stuff, but as expected this one felt the freshest of them all, so much so that it makes XY's first episode bland by comparison. I'm really feeling what the franchise as a whole is doing with the Alola region. It's by far their most distinctive and immersive setting aesthetically and culturally. You can tell they're going the extra mile to bring the region to life, not just by how it looks, but also showing us little things like those fire dancers in the restaurant, and how Pokemon and humans really do coexist and not just share the same space. Team Skull roams around and picks fights with people and it's an everyday thing. The new cast is already distinctive in the way that none of them are new trainers just starting on a journey or gym leaders.

On the whole, I think the main thing this episode really had going for it was how much personality it had. Ash was perpetual motion and it showed off just how energetic he is. I loved that dorky grin he gave when he introduced himself to his future classmates, and how he wandered off when Delia was fruit shopping. Pikachu was really fun to watch as well, like when he was trying to catch Tauros' tail. The animation, as hoped, is bringing out aspects of character and personality in a much more interesting way than the show ever has before. There were so many small details that I appreciated.

For the actual content of the episode, it did a decent job of introducing the new cast and building up intrigue around Topu Koko (looks at those come-hither looks its giving Ash, you know it's true love). Mallow, Lillie and Kukui made strong first impressions, where the first significant thing they did on screen showed off their characters. The only thing I didn't like was them explaining that Lillie was scared of Pokemon, since it was unnecessary.

So all in all, off to a very positive start.

A quick word on the OP and ED. Not my favourite songs, but the OP at least was by far the most unique OP, or least generic, we've seen for this series.
 
CynthiaLover said:
You've effectively summed up my feelings in a nutshell. I'm not impressed with what I've seen. Rather, I'm quite discouraged about all this. It's already becoming what I've feared it would become: a cartoon. I still hate the animation style, Alolan Oak's gag is already annoying, Team Skull seems even more like a joke, Ash is acting like a hyperactive 5 year-old who just stepped outside for the first time, and I fear there will be a severe lack of purposeful battles. The characters are so-so, too, which is a shame because they had such promise. That's 2 episodes down... and 2 strikes against it in my books. You've got 8 more left to impress me, Ash, but you're off to a bad start.
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As someone who has 7 nephews, two of which are nine, one that's eleven, and a baby brother who is also nine, I say Ash acts like he's between 9-11. In fact, out of all the seasons, he's probably acting most his age when it comes to new things. I don't see a five year old at all.

Oakido's gag can certainly be ridiculous, but it also gives him a lot of personality. It separates him from the professor.

Right now, it feels more like a slice of life show, but it's refreshing to see the show feel fresh and new. This new generation of fans will be introduced to a new storytelling style that we haven't seen yet.
 
Any idea how long it'll take for English subs? I plan to wait for the midnight launch and I might need something to do now that I no longer have a plant press to yell at
 
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