Serebii.net: Upcoming Pokemon Episode Postponed

It has been announced by TV Tokyo that the originally planned episode due to air this week in Japan, The Castle on the Seabed! Skrelp & Dragalge!!, has been postponed. This episode featured Ash & co. investigating a sunkern ship and city with Skrelp and Dragalge. The reasoning for the delay has yet to be confirmed but presumably relates to an incident last week involving the sinking of a boat. In its stead, the next episode, The Cyllage Gym Match! Pikachu VS Tyrunt!! is to air. It’s unknown when the episode will eventually air or what episodes have had changed airdates.

 

 

Note the part I underlined. In case you’ve been living under a rock, a ferry capsized and sank in South Korea last week, taking the lives of almost 300 people with it, most of them school children.  Anyone who’s been following the Pokemon Anime for as long as I have knows this isn’t the first time an episode’s airing has been delayed  due real-life events. You can see the full list of banned episodes on Serebii.net for yourself if you want.

Except for Episode 35: The Legend of Dratini, none of the banned episodes had a longterm impact on the storyline. That episode’s the exception since Ash catches 30 Tauros in it and unlesss you knew the episode was banned in the U.S. you’d have never known how or when Ash caught the Tauros, who appear in a later episode. As I understand it the banned episodes are NOT included with the Indigo League DVD set since they were never officially aired. 4Kids and Nintendo have yet to comment on why this episode has never been aired in the U.S. almost 20 years later.

As for the recently announced postponed episode, I don’t see it getting aired at least for a few years if they decide to air it later. Except for the episode I mentioned above, all of the epsiodes that have been banned/delayed don’t have a longterm impact of the series. As an aisde, it’s interesting to note Porygon, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z have never made an appearance in the Anime since the imfamous Electric Soldier Porygon episode XD

Fullmetal Alchemist Manga set almost complete

 

All I need are volumes 23, 23 and 24 and it will be complete ^_^

 

I bought 3-in-1 books, which contain 3 volumes but cost $15 each. I got singles for volumes 25, 26 and 27 before I knew the whole series was getting the 3-in-1 treatment. For those who don’t know, a single volume of FMA costs $10 so it makes more sense to buy a 3-in-1 these days. Bleach, Naruto and Dragonball Z are also releasing 3-in1 versions of the manga as well so…yeah.

Once I finish FMA it will join my complete Death Note and Code Geass sets. I will then focus on adding to my Blue Exorcist and Ouran High School Host Club sets. I also have seversl Bleach and Naruto volumes but in those cases, I’m more interested in getting all of the volumes for certain Arcs. While I do have most of the volumes for Rosario + Vampire and Oh!My Goddess, I’ll wait until AB2015 before I look at getting more volumes for those series.

I almost forgot to say this before but Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood faithfully follows the manga’s storyline. The original Anime from 10 years earlier uses an original storyline with the same characters. Those who saw FMA:B after seeing FMA but before reading the manga will find FMA:B much darker than the original Anime. The original storyline has been critically acclaimed for the more narrowed focus on what it means to seek “The Truth”.

I think it would I would be pretty cool if an after story was done but things are fine as they are. For those who may have heard of FMA and wondered about the name, Edward Elric is given the codename Fullmetal by King Bradley when he becomes a state alchemist. He’s universally known as The Fullmetal Alchemist because of his prosthetic arm and leg. He lost his limbs and his younger brother Alphonse lost his entire body after tried to transmute their mother back to life. The main story is their quest to find a way to get their bodies back.

 

Final Verdict on Hulu Plus: Anime Library not worth putting up with the Ads

The crazy thing was I foolishly hoped I would be spared having to deal with ads since Hulu Plus is a PAID service.

Not so much.

It’s as I said on Facebook a few minutes ago: Hulu Plus may have the largest legal streaming Anime libraary possibly ever due to the Neon Alley buyout but it’s not worth sitting through the ads.

As I also mentioned in the same post on Facebook, due to licensing issues and/or the latest update, half the Anime I bought on Xbox Live is no longer usable. I’m hopeful it’s just a bug due to the update from last week but I’ve already accepted it as a loss. I already went through Xbox Live’s customer service twice for a refund and they came up with everything they could think of to not give me what I was owed.

It’s because of that experience I started buying Anime on DVD and iTunes: The chances of gettting screwed over because of DRM are significantly less likely that way.

Review: Pokemon Origins

 

The Anime that should have been.

That’s the first thing that came to mind after the first 10 minutes of the first episode. And this:

The obvious tie-ins with Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue’s 20th Anniversary and Pokemon X and Pokemon Y’s release last fall aside, how the existing Pokemon Anime series SHOULD HAVE been done is laid out in this four-episode special.

Good Arceus, this show was AWESOME. If you don’t like the Anime starring Ash but you are a fan of the original Pokemon games, you owe it to yourself to watch this. It’s available on Hulu/Hulu Plus right now.

I give it a 10/10 for reminding me of why I fell in love with Pokemon in the first place:

#150: Mewtwo Type: Psychic The Genetic Pokemon Height: 6’7″ Weright: 269 lbs. It was created by a scientist after years of horrific gene splicing and DNA engineering experiments.

The final battle in the series, it’s Mewtwo as I envisioned it in the video games in all its glory. I’m proud to say in all SEVEN instances I battled Mewtwo, I never used the Master Ball. Why? Because only the unworthy would dare use the Master Ball after going through the Elite Four. Oh and yes Mewtwo appears in seven games: Red, Blue. Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, X and Y. You wanna know the REAL reason the Special Stat was split after the first gen? Mewtwo is why =O

Those who skipped the first gen, try to picture this: Mewtwo learns Amnesia at level 81, which after the first Gen just boosts a Pokemon’s Special Defense by two levels. Try to imagine a Pokemon with an already MONSTER combined Special stat (345-370 without using Calcium but caps at 420 with Calcium) basically using Calm Mind (boosts both Special Stats by one level) twice in the same turn.

Now try to imagine trying to beat Mewtwo after it uses Amnesia just ONCE in Red/Blue/Yellow. After using it once, it can OHKO everything except Chansey, Snorlax, Hypno and Jynx. In the first gen, only Electrode and Jolteon are faster than Mewtwo but even if you successfully get a Thunder Wave off, you still have to deal with the fact Mewtwo can sweep your whole team after using Amnesia. More so if it has Recover. Did I also forget to mention Mewtwo can learn almost every TM there is?

I used to run this rotation back in the day with my Mewtwo: Psychic, Blizzard, Thunderbolt and Fire Blast. Easily sweep everything that moves. If I want to deal with Chansey and Snorlax I’d replace Fire Blast with Submission. Hopefully now you get the idea. Mewtwo was the original UBER Pokemon and five gens later, Mewtwo is still a force to be reckoned with.

Moving on, I loved Giovanni’s portrayal as well:

He plays his role as Red’s nemesis very well. Again, how I envisioned Giovanni in the current Anime series. It’s not until they battle in the Viridian City Gym that Giovanni remembers the thrill of battle. In the above picture, Red challenges Giovanni in Silph Co. and Charizard gets 3-shotted by Giovanni’s Nidoqueen. In their Gym battle, Giovanni uses Rhyhorn and Rhydon.

As I mentioned at the top there is a tie-in with Pokemon X and Pokemon Y:

Those with X and Y already know this but which version of Mega Charizard you get depends on which version you have. I have both myself so…yeah. Mega Evolution is shown off during the battle with Mewtwo. Unlike normal evoliution, Mega Evolution is not permanent. In the games, only one Mega Evolution per trainer is allowed per battle. If the Mega Pokemon faints you can’t Mega Evolve it again in the same battle.

Whew…all I can really say is it’s a shame the current Anime is all most kids know about Pokemon. Those of us who grew up playing the games or collecting the trading cards were pretty lucky!