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At long last, the Pokemon anime series has develpoed some sense of maturity.

After enduring the Diamond & Pearl season and watching the deterioration of Dawn (a character that I liked at first but throughout the course of the series turned into a whinier version of Misty), and with the new Black & White DS games coming out, I was filled with anticipation upon the upcoming Best Wishes season. A new region (Unova), brand-new Pokemon (156 if I counted right), and a couple of new companions for Ash make for exciting new adventures for our budding Pokemon master. Best Wishes so far has met its expectations ... as being the most entertaining Pokemon season to date, despite still using the same basic, episodic plot formula.

The new characters Iris and Cilan are great addtions to the Pokeverse, and they are a tremendous upgrade to Dawn and Brock respectively. Iris especially make a excellent companion to Ash. She does have some of the brassness and cockiness as Misty, but she's far less annoying. But in a way she does have some of the same characterisitics as Ash such as dealing with difficult Pokemon in her possession (Excadrill and later in the series Emolga), wanting to be the best trainer, not backing down from a challenge, and so on. Cilan is pretty much like Brock without the womanizing that became Brock's trademark. Just by that aspect alone Cilan became a likeable and enjoyable character to watch. And he can hold his own in battle (he is a gym leader, after all).

But what really makes the Best Wishes season stand out over the prior versions is how they are utilizing Team Rocket. No longer are they the bumbling idiots that are always going after Pikachu and some other random Pokemon/Pokemon of the Week every time and blasting off after Ash & Co. defeat them. Now they have a more serious, vicious tone to their deeds. Yes, they're still going after Pikachu, but now they're not as prominent as they were in the past. I think it's a very refreshing and dynamic direction that the writers are taking them, and I feel that it was long overdue.

The music should have a familiar feeling to Pokemon players as it was taken directly from the Black & White games, similar to the preceeding seasons. As a seasoned Pokemon player, I always liked the soundtrack of the various versions of the game (even dating back to the old Game Bay Color days), however I consider the soundtrack to the Black & White games the best in the series. So watching the episodes and listening to the background music gives a good nostalgic feel.

Not much change in the artwork in the Best Wishes season them in prior season. Still have the very familiar and basic tones and colors, nothing elaborate or spectacular as one should expect from Pokemon.

But despite the improvements of some of the aspects of the long-running anime series, it's still Pokemon, and it still has the same basic plot devices and episodic formula. By no means do I consider it a bad thing - thanks to the more mature aspect of some of the characters (especially Team Rocket) and the exciting new region and the Pokemon that resides in Unova, Best Wishes is the most exciting and dare I say it watchable Pokemon season to date.