Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Following the end of Satoshi's Hoenn journey, he travels to the Sinnoh region for his next adventure en route to becoming a Pokémon Master. Immediately upon arrival, Team Rocket makes another attempt to snatch Pikachu, only for it to fail once again. However, Pikachu has fallen deep into a forest and it's up to Satoshi to find him! Along the way, he reunites with Takeshi—a Pokémon breeder with whom he has traveled through many regions—and meets his soon-to-be rival, Shinji, a power-hungry trainer who cares little for his Pokémons' feelings.

Still in search for Pikachu, Satoshi notices a powerful electric attack in the distance and heads toward it to find Pikachu with Team Rocket and Hikari—a novice trainer aiming to be the top Pokémon coordinator. After foiling Team Rocket's plans, Satoshi reunites with Pikachu and Hikari joins the group. And thus, Satoshi and his friends begin their journey through the exciting land of Sinnoh.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satoshi Main

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Pikachu Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Takeshi Main

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Hikari Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Pochama Main

Kozakura, Etsuko Japanese

Kojirou Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Shirona Supporting

Sakurai, Tomo Japanese

Haruka Supporting

Kawana, Midori Japanese

Musashi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Nyarth Supporting

Inuyama, Inuko Japanese

Tanaka, Shigehiro Producer

Mori, Takemoto Producer

Yuyama, Kunihiko Director

Sudou, Norihiko Director

Reviews

Jun 17, 2022

WEEBS_Taste_Ryuu

Recommended

Contains spoilers but I am keeping the major ones aside. I will be focusing on the characters and story as a whole, not stuffs like the arts or the music in any kind.

This is clearly the best Pokemon series story wise.

This series takes the best things from the previous regions and evolves one step further. The story now introduces us to the Sinnoh region and Hikari as the main heroine. Here, the things are kept really simple with goals set to the both characters Satoshi and Hikari from the get go.

All of the episodes are about Sinnoh region and so this is the longest region ... episode wise till this day. Because of this, it succeeds in giving time to develop not just Satoshi and each of his pokemons but also Hikari and her contest battles. Satoshi in this region is already self-flourished and knows what he can accomplish unlike before with a winning habit developed. He already was a mature and composed trainer but also learns to battle in an adaptive way giving him the freedom in his battles and imaginations.

Hikari on the other hand isn’t as experienced as Satoshi, so she learns through her journey and mistakes. The contest battles here are so much better visually and tactically which are now equally interesting as Satoshi’s battles. Hikari has her rivals to grow as a contest trainer with new tricks every now and then. Her wins and losses are carefully explained with valid reasons and solutions are also presented and are agreeable. The contest battles are now focused on the visual representation which wasn’t always the case before.

Pocchama (Piplup) made this series many times better.

The best thing from this series is introduction of a genuine rival for Satoshi. Satoshi had some rivals in the past trips but none of them really convinced to be one. We get Shinji in this series who gets introduced in first few episodes and plays a big part in the journey of Satoshi throughout the whole series. There also is the story of Shinji and Chimchar that left a good mark on the journey. There are rival battles here and there some with 3-on-3 and some with full battles.

There is a huge involvement of the enemy team (team galactic) and the champion, Shirona across the episodes. The legendries in this series are well explained of their capacities and origins. All of the elite fours also make their appearance with quite enough screen time. The league battles were also executed well than before.

To decorate the masterpiece with a cherry on top, the movies of Sinnoh regions are by far the best ones. Not only they are great individually, the movies are connected to each other forming a story on its own.

Not gonna lie but there are surely episodes that you get bored with and better off sleep but when you look at the whole journey, it's different than the others in a good way.

Overall, the series focuses on the story as a whole unlike before so they seem logical as well without much of plot armor or plot holes. The seriousness in the story keeps this region ahead of the other regions.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 22, 2014

JordiTaylor

Mixed Feelings

I'm going to start off my review by stating that I will treat Pokemon D&P as a full flege anime and negate from the games and other chilhood influences. At this point it should be noted that Pokemon D&P is apart of the long running Pokemon FRANCHISE. A franchise that has a basic formula. That formula is aimed towards kids so there will be a lot childlike situations and themes. It just so happens that that formula continues to be reused time after time again. Its old to a lot of veteran viewers but new to the younger and newer generations. However, despite D&P being ... a "rehash", it still finds it's place amongst the other series.

Story: Satoshi or Ash for us American viewers is traveling by himself as he makes his way to the Sinnoh region. He eventully meets up with his long time traveling friend Takeshi/Brock and a new friend Hikari/Dawn. Like the other series, Ash along with his friends explore the area they are currently in while seeing and capturing new Pokemon, participate in Gym battles, make new friends and rivals, battle Team Rocket all while learning about growing up, friendship and other themes of such nature.

Art: Compared to the older series, D&P is a step up in the art department. Of course the original has a nostalgic touch to it and Advance Generation has that sequal value but D&P is very vibrant in color. The environment is abosulutely beautiful and the way that some of the attcks look are perfect! It appears as if some of the attacks have texture to them. Somthing the recent series have picked up and started doing. the characters are drawn well. Although Ash and Dawn are 10 they very well look like they are at least 13 giving off a more mature appeal.

Sound: The music is good. It's not "rock your socks off" good but for its target audience, it gets the job done. A lot of the battle and travel music returns from the previous shows so if your a fan of those, you're in for a treat. The sound effects are good like the colision of attacks or something simple like the characters walking.

Character: Out of all the catergories in this review, the character catergory got the lowest rate. Ash and Brock are pretty much the same. They don't develop much however the introduction of the Sinnoh rival Shinji/Paul does add a bit of flare to something that was very well missing in Ash's life after the absence of Gary. Paul did in fact challenge Ash. I won't say that he helped Ash develop his style of battling. That actually came over the course of the series but Paul was serious about his job as a trainer. He was a tad bit cliche with the whole "pokemon are tools" outlook but nonetheless he gave Ash a run for his money. I was a bit disappointed with Dawn. Despite being the female lead to level out the male ratio, she didn't do much for team development and was a bit of a wasted character. Like her previous female lead, Haruka/May, Dawn is a Pokemon Coordinator. The main difference is that Dawn starts off as a coordinator while May grew into it. Also Dawn is the child of a famous coordinator. But that's really it. Dawn isn't that great at coordinating (at first) and the series introduces her as a rookie. She pretty much was in the same spot as May. When it comes to the overall character of Dawn, she felt forced. Forced to be liked because she was a good guy. Forced because she had a dream to be a coordinator. Forced because when she felt sad, the viewers ahd to feel sad as well. Honestly, I would've liked Dawn more if she was already somewhat advanced in her craft similar to Misty. The dynamic would've changed greatly if Dawn wasn't your avergae Pokemon rookie. The coordinator thing has already been done and it doesn't help that the previous female lead was more profound in the skill than the current. The rest of the characters were either short lived or not memorable. Did I mention that Team Rocket is still trying to capture Pikachu?

Enjoyment: I enjoyed D&P fairly well. As expected, things have changed but it's a new enviornment with the same fundamentals.

Overall: Pokemon D&P is an upgrade in the battle sequences, the story and is overall is visually stunning. Unfortunately the characters were lacking. Paul was an interesting add to the series but Dawn was a step backwards from the other two female leads especailly since she gave no reason to be liked or rooted for other than the fact that the audience is SUPPOSE to like and root for her. However if you've been riding the Pokemon train this long, why stop here? It's a decent addition to the series and it came at a good time where things were getting stale. Pokemon D&P defintely holds a place in the Pokemon family tree and is sure to be liked by the younger generations and the veterans who know how the Pokemon formula goes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 14, 2014

3rdStrikeFreak

Not Recommended

Preliminary (73/191 eps)

There is so much wrong with the Pokemon Diamond & Pearl anime in every general way. Such cringe worthy dialogue and an awful attempt to make Pokemon's fan base even more childish then ever before. While also repeating the same formula over and over... The original Pokemon anime did so much for me as a child. Now we already know the video games were a perfect match made in heaven for both adults and children. While some people thought the Pokemon anime was take it or leave for many of us who did watch it, We enjoyed it to death. It had a lot of ... great moments, some awesome character growth and of course seeing Ash mature even more. Also I watched the Pokemon anime for a good solid 9 years. Until this came out...

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl attempt to continue the anime even more is just painful for me. Ash still continues his own quest to become a Pokemon master... Something we have been seeing for nearly 10 Years at that point when this arc was new. He's joined by Brock once again and the newcomer Dawn. But all 3 characters are quite annoying to me. The growth and character development is so lackluster it's not even funny. The first 3 anime arcs did so much better for growth when it came to it's characters. I feel like Ash is back at square one once again despite the new region. Also some of the new characters thrown in the anime are just so unlikeable. The storyline is almost non existent at the point in time. Pokemon never had the deepest amount of story but this is just lazy.

The only thing in my opinion that saves Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is the art style. Seriously it is the best Pokemon has ever looked in so long. Really everything looks so well in the anime and the art style might have been the best at the time. Also the battles look great but sometimes you'll see the same thing over and over the deeper you dig into the anime. Music is also very bland as nothing sticks in your head. Most of the original voice actors have also been replaced but this happened in the Battle Frontier arc before it. Very poor voice acting and I must say it's dialogue is very cringe worthy most of the part. Also it's seems that the 4Kids voice actors fitted their roles more then the Pokemon USA dub. But this is just my opinion.

But also here's how a typical episode goes. Ash and Co wander through the area, A Person needs help, They tell some story that the audience doesn't care about, They go help the person, Team Rocket gets involved, They battle Team Rocket, BLASTING OFF AGAIN!!!!! Stupid Conclusion. Rinse and Repeat asides from some of the gym battles and the final Pokemon league. Seriously this has gone on too much... It's also an attempt to drag on the anime even more which makes this filler so painful.

There was only one villain in the anime I also found interesting BTW. She was a Pokemon Hunter named J who shows no remorse for any Pokemon. It was the only thing that got me interested in Diamond and Pearl. As she actually tries to kill Ash at one point. The sad part is she is killed off about Midway through the anime. Destroying any promise for that the rest of the anime would be enjoyable. Seriously it's the only thing I found worthwhile in Diamond and Pearl. But other then that the rest of the villains in the Pokemon anime are typical. The other villains are Team Galactic and they are typical. Just a bunch of evil people trying to "Make The World Better"! Also of course the Team Rocket trio makes multiple attempts to make Diamond and Pearl funny but whatever... They are just there for stupid attempt at humor or of course breaking the fourth wall... Once again putting Pokemon into it's kiddy stigma that it's always gotten.

Overall Pokemon Diamond & Pearl is just something I should have stopped watching. Seriously this is just a painful way to show off the Pokemon anime. The anime reached it's peak but this is a sad showing. The non existent storyline, awful character development and lack of anything enjoyable make this hard to stomach. Asides from one villain Pokemon Diamond and Pearl has lost so much from me. But the more the Pokemon anime continues the worse it will go on in my opinion.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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