Pokemon Sun & Moon

I remember seeing the first few episodes of pokemon Black and White on TV when they were first coming out over here and I was rather upset about them. My biggest gripe was with Ash’s character design, which was made to look younger. So I can totally understand the mindset behind the people who are upset about the change in art style the show has made, which is much bigger in contrast than it was in Black and White. Yet I’m not on their side this time. In fact I really love the new art style and how colourful and round it is. In fact I love almost everything about the new Sun and Moon anime, so much so that it might be the most I’ve ever enjoyed pokemon. Even as a kid I wasn’t as entranced by pokemon as I am now; back then it was just day to day business. Yet despite how much I think it’s great, Pokemon Sun and Moon is very controversial amongst fans and there’s a lot of people who are very mad at it. Clearly these people, most of whom are certainly long term pokemon fans, have ideas about what a pokemon series should contain, that Sun and Moon isn’t living up to. So in this review I don’t just want to talk about all the things that I love about the anime, but I will occasionally also lightly touch up on some criticisms of the show and why I don’t share them. I’m hoping I can not only show people whether they fall into the group that would actually enjoy Sun and Moon or not, but also help some people to appreciate it, who didn’t already. Naturally there is one aspect of the Sun and Moon anime that is immediately obviously different from the earlier installments of the show: the art style. Gone are the spiky haired shounen character designs of the original series, as they’re replaced by these new round and colourful ones. The water colour (or at least water-colour-looking) backgrounds of the original series are replaced by digital ones, that are even greener. Though that is an earlier innovation from long before Sun and Moon. The animation, too, has changed considerably. The animation is much more fluid now, with the animators having incorporated a lot more smear frames to make it more expressive. Everything about the look of Sun and Moon is much more poppy and expressive, which adds to the much more lighthearted tone of the show. But why did Ash’s character design change so much? X and Y seemed to be going excellently, with lots of fans loving it and lots of people in the industry praising it. Why suddenly make such a big shift in such a big aspect of a show that’s going really well? Was it an evil scheme by the producers of the show to make pokemon look more like youkai watch so they can make more money? Well, no, not exactly. The thing you have to realize is that Ash’s character design has always been changing and it has always been changing too slowly. Even during the original series you saw his design slowly change and the makers of the show have always been very careful to implement new digital technology as gradually as possible, so that people wouldn’t notice. The difference here is that there is suddenly a big change, instead of a gradual one. An often noted fact about X and Y was that though the battle scenes were able to look really great due to all the innovations the team was already starting to make back then, Ash himself was rarely animated and the team even had a couple of stock animations of Ash throwing a pokeball, because no one wanted to animate him. The thing that pushed the team over the edge to change the character designs so drastically now, was that OLM was experimenting with more modern digital animation techniques and simpler, more rounded character designs are useful for that. The reason why pokemon now looks more like youkai watch, is because the character designs in youkai watch were also made to fit the same criteria. Though the fact that people unironically and without question put forth the idea that the character designs were made to match those of youkai watch, as if pokemon is some cheap cash grab that’s trying to leach off the popularity of that series, is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever heard. Despite that, I’m not actually a huge fan of Ash’s redesign. His original design came from a time of spiky haired shounen protagonists, animated with coloured cells. His design was made for a different era of animation and so when adapting his design for modern animation techniques, it’s impossible not to lose something along the way, especially if the priority was to make him easy to animate, rather than nice to look at. If you try to play a game of spot the main character in Sun and Moon, you wouldn’t be spotting Ash, as he just doesn’t look as well designed as the other major characters in the show. Then again, that might have more to do with the fantastic character designs the other characters in Sun and Moon have. So what’s up with the rest of the Sun and Moon character designs? The original series started in the 90s, when it was very common for TV anime to make up for a lack of animation quantity, with beautiful and detailed character designs. And pokemon has always had great character designs, even if they didn’t always animate as well. Sun and Moon takes the opposite approach, using very simple character designs to have them animate better. What you have to consider, though, is that when you make a simple character design, you draw significantly fewer lines, and as such, every line becomes more important and has to be more carefully considered. As such, creating a simple character design, that’s also really good and very memorable, is a lot harder that it may seem at first. It’s incredible to see just how many unique and extremely memorable designs Sun and Moon manages to have and how many designs from the games were flawlessly adapted for 2d animation. And the games themselves had a different design focus as well, moving away from their more anime inspired character designs, giving them a much wider appeal. As a result, Pokemon Sun and Moon has a completely unique look within the wider anime landscape. What Sun and Moon has actually retained from older pokemon, however, is that the character designs of the girls tend to look better than that of the boys. Suiren is a very cute and unique looking tomboy and Moa looks very sweet, but Kaki and Maamane look pretty boring in comparison, though certainly not bad. On top of that, there’s the ever adorable Lillie, who seems to be the unanimous winner among all the Sun and Moon characters and has a genuine cult following behind her. Sure, not every design in Sun and Moon gets to be that unique, but there are a lot of great ones, even outside of the main characters, and I personally think this season of pokemon might have the largest quantity of great looking character designs yet. So what about this animation that I keep mentioning? A lot of people didn’t just lament the character designs and the “graphics” of the new pokemon anime, when Sun and Moon was just announced, they also called out the animation of the show for being bad. Now, many of these people were the type of people who would pause on a smear frame and call it bad animation, completely negligent of the fact that animation only happens when you have multiple frames, or of the fact that the usage of smear frames is an industry standard, so don’t take them too seriously. But what would someone who actually knows anything about animation think about Sun and Moon? Well, mostly that it is extremely impressively well animated. You have to note, pokemon is a long running anime, so every episode has to be made, on average, in about a week. So the fact that it has been consistently one of the most impressively well, if not the most impressively well, animated anime of every season it has been a part of, is ludicrous. In fact, Sun and Moon might be the most animated long running TV anime of all time. And that is no exaggeration. I think the big disconnect people have with Sun and Moon is in the animation …

Pokemon Sun & Moon is a weird story, its simultaneously widely hated and widely loved, so much so that its existence itself divided the Pokemon community into two halfs, "SM Stans" and "XY Stans". Personally while I love and appreciate the XY Series as well, Sun and Moon is just on a whole another league for me. After 20 long years of being on air, the Pokemon anime found itself a formula that it applied on every series, whenever the games came out, Ash went to the region said games are set and, traveled around the region, made friends, caught new Pokemon, collected badges and lost the league, this is the "basic plot" of Pokemon summed up in one sentence, even when this is done well as is the case in the XY Series, watching the same formula again and again got repetitive in my opinion. Sun and Moon, while retaining the core themes and concepts of the previous seasons, took a very different approach, Ash didn't travel, he did make new friends but those were his "classmates", Yes, he went to School, he didn't collect gym badges as there are no gyms in the Alola Region but he did participate in the Island trials, so here are my thoughts. Characters : 8/10 The Sun and Moon Series, despite having a way bigger cast than the previous seasons, developed each and every member in some way or another which I didn't think was possible for the Pokemon anime, Ash himself didn't get "reset" like he did in the Best Wishes series, he very much retained his skills which manifested in the XY Series, but one problem I had with XY's characterization of Ash is that outside of battles, he was quite stale. Sun and Moon fixed that, they made him childish and goofy while still badass and serious, a perfect mix. Story : 9/10 The series has no "main story" all the small arcs and episodes build up to give us a really great Pokemon experience. Lillie's growth from a girl who is afraid of Pokemon and had problems with her family to battling her own brother in the Pokemon League and mastering a Z move was quite fascinating to see. Other characters like Sophocles, Kiawe and Lana got growth as well, Mallow despite being a okay character didn't get much development but she got an amazing episode which was episode 108, what shined was how the stories were connected to the main cast, we already talked about Lillie's story, that same story developed Lusamine, Gladion in more ways than one, that story itself made Gladion Ash's rival. Other small arcs like The Guzzlord and Zeraora mini arc or the return of Brock and Misty were really fun to see. It was really sweet to see all the interactions and relationship the characters shared, from the father and son dynamic Ash and Kukui had to Guzma who was sorta like a "dark version" of Ash, who quit his dreams after facing failures too many times. Animation : 7/10 The new artstyle which cause a lot of controversy especially because of the look of Ash was implemented to enhance the character's movements by making the designs simplistic with less shading and details, the animators' job became a lot easier as opposed to the well detailed designs of XY, while this sounds good on paper and the character animation did factually improve a lot, the battles for some reason were lackluster in terms of animation, despite being well written if a battle looks boring, it loses a lot of points, why do you think people like Ash vs Kukui? it was well written AND well animated, the next series is also taking this simplistic artstyle approach but my only hope is the battles look as good as the character animation does which is honestly amazing and the best in Sun and Moon. The backgrounds too look the best out of any series prior to it. Music : 10/10 Nothing to say, Pokemon, be it the anime or the games, never disappoints with music, from beautiful remixes of games' tracks to original tracks, Shinji Miyazaki is consistently amazing, this was his last series as the music scorer of Pokemon Anime, next series its Yuku Hayashi who is amazing as well (he did the score for My Hero Academia) Overall : 9/10 Sun and Moon is just fun, it has a lot of ups and downs but which series doesn't? ignore the artstyle and give it a try, you won't be disappointed,

Here's the thing with Sun and Moon. If you're going into this after watching XYZ, and expecting it to be similar in any way. Don't. This show isn't anything like that. And to be fair, it isn't TRYING to be anything like that. For this season (or region, or whatever), the show takes on a more slice of life style, and as a slice of life show, it is decent. You have some likeable characters, each with their own personalities, and they're all in a school. Why is Satoshi (Ash) in a school? IDK, but don't question it. Now, although the characters are decent to begin with, after 146 episodes, you would expect them to like. Change. But that doesn't really happen as much as I would have liked. We do get some decent development through Lillie, and to be honest, this show would have been a lot more engaging if there was a more prominent overarching arc about her and her family. (Like seriously? There was so much being hinted at with her family, BUT it just doesn't end up being talked about). The other characters don't really get too much development, instead choosing to solve small problems that they have, but not too much else (I.e., one character is afraid of the dark so… his electric mouse lights up. Solid development I guess) The biggest change is clearly the animation, so I'll briefly touch on that. It's worse, but it's still alright. Satoshi's design is kind of annoying at first, but it's not really a big deal. In all honesty, it fits very well with the intended slice of life format, so it's not really something to hold against this show. The biggest problem for me is the actual story/plot. I know I'm saying that it's more slice of life, so like. This shouldn't be a problem. But it's really missing that little something that makes pokemon, pokemon. So we no longer have gym battles, and instead have the island challenges. What are these island challenges? That's kinda the problem. I DON'T REMEMBER. Nothing about this is memorable. I NEVER remembered how many of these challenges he had completed, or even what he did to get them. This is mostly my own fault for having a bad memory, but I really feel that it could have been done in a better way. Maybe the fact that the school setting is there throughout is part of the problem. I don't really know. (as in, the fact that the setting is the same for most of the series makes it easier to kind of mesh everything together and not remember as much as I would have liked to) (There's also another problem that I have with the story, but I won't go into it as it would involve too many spoilers) Overall, although there seems to be something lacking in this series, it does do a good job at what it's attempting to actually do. And don't get me wrong, there were many, many enjoyable moments throughout the series. If you go into this KNOWING that it will essentially be a slice of life, then this will definitely be a very good and enjoyable show, so if after reading this, you think you might be interested, then you should definitely watch it! The issue for me is that I didn't want this to be what it is, because I don't feel as though this is what pokemon SHOULD be. But don't let that stop you! (Unless you're like me, in which case, let it stop you. Although if you are like me, you'll be watching it anyways). See you all in Galar!

Man, this anime has been a fun ride for me. Initially, I hated the anime the moment I saw how Ash was designed which was like 3 years ago, then I thought let's give it a shot. After like 10-15 eps I gave up the anime for a really long time because at that time I was more into shonen anime and SuMo anime wasn't my cup of tea. I had questions also like why would Ash want to go POKEMON SCHOOL after travelling 6 REGIONS wherein he won 48 gym badges (8x6, do the math) and competed in 6 Pokemon Leagues and why wouldn't you go an adventure like you did for 6 regions? So many questions, then after I heard that Gladion, Nebby made entries into the anime, I kinda kept up with it due to previews of next eps however slice of life still wasnt my cup of tea. Also I knew about these characters because I played the SuMo and USUM games and because of that I could watch the episodes here and there which contained some adventure, however thanks to their power ranger ripoff which was cringey to me I kinda narrowed down on eps to avoid thanks to people revealing the spoilers of next episodes on YT. However, this Summer I kinda wanted to watch something light hearted cuz I watched a lot of heavy shonen anime and I don;t know I just wanted more variety so I decided let's watch SuMo anime without skipping this time that too during my rewatch which I started on October 4th and was also watching the Alola League side by side. I am on the 22nd episode of my rewatch, and gotta say its been fun so far.....Oooof so many words dont want to be that other user who added 4200 words into it.....so will leave you to this that this pokemon series addresses a lot of deep themes on life for a kids anime like death (ep 21) Overall, I'll say this that I will try to finish SuMo rewatch before Galar arc for sure because it's just 12 days away now at the time I write this review and Bye Bye Alola you were awesome ( I know that its just I need to see the missed eps) Overall it's an 8.5/10 for me but here there's no 8.5/10 so the 0.5 is for Bewear who made chuckle EVERY DAMN TIME! THANKS AGAIN ALOLA!!! HOPE TO SEE SOME OF THESE CHARACTERS IN GALAR TOO IN SOME FORM!

In the Pokemon anime series, it’s common among the fans about the quality of each series that varies and changes from each other, where it’s lowering from the Indigo season to the Johns season, starting picking up a little with Advance, goes higher with DP, dropping low in BW and then going back high with XY. So when I started watching Sun and Moon (SM for short) it’s inventible to ask if it continued XY quality, or dropped it. The answer Is kinda surprising: it’s neither. To understand why I’m saying that, I will explain some introduction - Pokemon SM games were actually the first for a long time in the Pokemon franchise that tried to do something new - making “new” format with the games. New format doesn’t mean there’s no Pokemon training but spinoff kinda thing, but taking the games in another way of presenting the old familiar adventure - not only the region structure, but the game drastically changes the adventure. Instead of going from town X to town Y, the player needs to go through varies a variety of challenges and trials scattered along the islands, and though of course it's about Pokemon and battling, they present another way of handling our beloved creatures in more challenging and interesting ways presented in the trials, in other words: there are no gyms here, only “final boss” in the name of Kahuna of the island. In the map area, there are no more towns but 4 islands where the player is gonna play a full play time on them. So when OLM went to adapt the games, it was inventible to make a new format for the anime as well - Ash once again reaches our new region Alola which contains once again new Pokemon, new friends, new challenges and etc , but as the game map isn’t big as mentioned, you can’t handle the same way of travelling in SM but creating “new” format for the games. The producers of the anime probably were sitting hours in their planning meeting to know how to handle the less adventure “feel” and the smaller map of Alola to create a long-run Pokemon anime, and then they reached a kinda silly conclusion - why don’t we send Ash back to school? Yeah, it’s just as you heard, now that the map isn’t big, and the same element of adventure can’t be done, there’s need to create a new format of Pokemon where Ash goes back and forth to the same place during the time he is supposed to train, catch, make new friends, and learn about the new generation of Pokemon. The only way they found how to make it works is getting him back to Pokemon school after he almost won the Galos league in XY, to learn about types, evolution and stuff that all of us know already from the age of 6 when we watched the Indigo season, and surely Ash does know already. Kinda ridiculous isn’t it? But is this ruining Pokemon? It’s actually not, Ash is still training and catching some Pokemon, aiming to be Pokemon master by winning the challenges, battling the Kahunas, and spending his time with his Pokemon of course (how can Pokemon be without that?). Obviously Ash makes new friends. In fact, the main cast in SM is the biggest yet, if ‘till now he traveled with groups of 3-4 people now he have 5 new friends to the main cast besides the recurring returning characters, so there’s lot of room for character development for each of them. So though there’s a new kind of format for Pokemon episodes - Ash maybe stays in the same place and doesn’t have much of “Pokemon adventure”, but he still does his Pokemon training and catching thingy like all Pokemon series. So, what wrong with SM? To explain it, I will start with what is good in SM - in fact, though the episodic format, SM have maybe more story arcs than most of Pokemon series, the first of them that features the legendaries Pokemon - Ultra Beasts in fact, was one of the best to my taste and made a really good impression, and there’s more of them, some of them maybe not in the level of the first one but still entertaining. Well, maybe except one which made me cringe so much. Ash still behaving as he should be after the XY series, though he kinda acts like he is in vacation from time to time, he still makes a good impression with creative training (literally) and variety of Pokemon that we haven’t seen him holding yet. The problem is maybe the common episodes in every Pokemon series - the “fillers” of the Pokemon anime were never really good, they always had some formula of the same pattern, some trainer and his Pokemon, annoying team rocket and stuff, unless there were good events in those episodes that developed the characters or the story they were always average. You would say - in SM it would be the same, average episodes and all. But no, SM taking a new level in “filler” episodes, making the most bizarre and strange stories about what’s not. even in the lousy Johto season there wasn’t that low level of stories. There’s truly here and there some golden ones, and even in the strangest episodes there was one good cute or funny moment, but those episodes was my no.1 cause to watch SM in very long times with lots of breaks, mostly due the feeling I’m wasting my time. And I won’t even start talking about the Power Rangers thingy they made, true that the some stories of the Ultra Beasts were good but the Power Rangers approach was really annoying and pointless. Thing is, those low level quality episodes don’t come at any specific time like they usually do, they are scattered all over the place, between the story arcs and sometimes even created long run of those episodes without stopping. This situation made me think that the writers of SM were not the same for the whole series. Unlike previous Pokemon series, yeah even the bad ones, had consecutive level of writing, SM doesn’t seem to have this, there’s some really good high level stories here and there, some good story arcs, there’s the usual average episodes, and there’s some really low written episodes like each writer took turns to write his own episode. So the above question - is SM continuing the level of XY, or is it lowering it? Answer: neither, it has some really high peaks in the story with good training and battle episodes and some good story arcs, but some stories and even one arc that makes you cringe, SM truly has more ups and downs than most of Pokemon series. But still, the good stories of SM are what is holding it so it won’t go down, whenever I remember the good character development and some arcs, and some of the battles that remind me of the XY battles, it makes me think good of SM. So though all the complaining, I still like SM story, though it's not one of my favourites for being inconsistent. Final note: about the Z-rings in SM, though I really appreciate how OLM has done them, but they had the annoying thing of clashing moves together from the first seasons, and instead of using the Z-moves in interesting ways we would except, they are only doing them for the thrilling blasting and stuff and not for the real purpose, making Z-moves feel like useless addition and not tactical and powerful attacks. Some of the Z-moves battles were okay though and the problem is starting only little later on in the series. Still, the Mega-Evolution in XY was much better used than Z- moves, while in the games Z-moves are supposed to be a better upgrade than Mega-Evolution. Story: 6/10 As I mentioned, Ash definitely doesn’t change a lot in SM from XY, his design maybe returned to be childish and caricature, and sometimes acting as he is in vacation, but he still has lots of confidence and love for his Pokemon, training and raising them with love and care, and aiming of course to be the strongest and the best. Maybe he’s not the same kind of mentor he was in XY, but he didn’t dropped to BW lvl1 trainer. The only complain on Ash is the usual complain of being corny and cringe, in XY since he had some “mentor” rule that characteristic kinda disappeared, OLM made sure In SM that we will remember he still has that. Now, as I said, there’s a really big cast o…

Gotta catch em all, Let me just start the review by giving a very basic explaintion to the series. Ash goes to new region to become pokemon master...basically it’s the same as every other season except it’s in a new region!! AKA the Aloha Region Now one thing I will say is the animation, this was a hard one for me at first because I hated how Ash looked but my final conclusion, it’s Refreshing with new animations. A lot of people hate it. I hated it. But after staring at new design in shock for a few hours, I got used to it. And honestly I like the new design for Ash. Apart from ash the new Region and characters is simply beautiful, the animation really does bring it to life and it’s deserves all the praise it gets, all the Pokemon look the part and it keeps you invested to see more of the region. Unfortunately the big down side to this anime is the plot, unfortunately for long stretches there is none and that’s a big problem in all of Pokemon not just this anime BUT! any episode with plot is always great to watch and the ending of this anime is one of the best endings to Pokemon I have ever seen and it’s one of the big reasons that got me so hooked to the series/games again My final conclusion is this, if this is the new direction they are taking Pokemon I cannot wait to see how Pokemon (2019) or Pokemon journeys (however you want to say it) turns out. This series is defiantly worth a watch and it’s a great way to get back into the world of Pokemon

[SPOILERS] Wow, I did not expect this to make me nearly cry. Better yet, at the time, this was my first time watching the Pokémon anime since 2014. But, damn, is this show actually pretty fucking amazing. I’m surprised that this show- THIS show that was mocked by the community when it was announced... would become not only my favourite anime, but also win the hearts of many who previously despised it. Let’s cut the shit: This is no way the best anime I’ve seen. But, it is my favourite. (If you watch Schaffrillas Productions’ Best Animated Feature video, he says that The Incredibles is a better film than Spirited Away, but the latter is his favourite.) The cons are as follows: - Inconsistent Pacing - Some characters don’t get enough time in the spotlight - Ash’s design Pacing can honestly be a mixed bag. Sometimes, episodes can feel slow. Other times, they go too fast for your liking. Pacing does somewhat improve in the later episodes, but it can throw off your groove. Seriously, some characters get thrown under the bus. Other than Ash, Pikachu, Team Rocket, and Professor Kukui, the classmates I found to be well-developed were Mallow and Kiawe. I like Lillie, but she got way too much development with no goal in the end. Lana is just eh, and don’t get me started on Sophocles (he’s not that good...) Ash’s. Design. In. The. First. Half. Sucked. Although XYZ refined Ash’s appearance and honestly gave us his most impactful and memorable design (before Journeys), he looked kinda dumb and a bit of a goof. At least later on he looked way better and began to mesh well with the world more. NOW ITS PRO TIME: The animation IS AMAZING. OLM is honestly an underrated studio and should be respected more for their work. Sun and Moon did not hold back in the animation department. XYZ had 3-D Camera shit and CG backgrounds, but Sun and Moon said, “fuck that CG shit” and went mostly hand-drawn. There’s still some CG, but it’s not noticeable. The animation is smooth like butter and now, feels less stiff thanks to the art style change. Battles feel more lively and some ingenious camera work and character animation make it feel impactful. Even when the events are mundane, the animation still shows off the charm of life and breathes life into those scenes. Back to the battles, the final battle between Kukui and Ash offered THE single-best animated battle sequence in Pokémon’s 20-year history. But more on that later. The story is surprisingly fun despite the earlier pacing issues. Once you get down to it, it’s pretty good. But, once you understand the underlying context behind it, it gets real good. You see, for most of the time Ash and Pikachu are in a region, they don’t really take a good look at all the sights and sounds. However, since they’re forced on a specific island, this allows them to fully take in the wonderful region that is Alola. Compared to XY’s I GOTTA WIN story, SM’s approach is to slow down in life. It focuses on world-building rather than battling and it gives off a Ghibli vibe. It’s about the bond you share not only with your friend’s but with nature and the environment itself. You meet all these characters and, unlike previous seasons, they aren’t one-offs. They leave a profound impact on Ash and help him along his eventual journey and goal to travel the world. Once you realize you’re at the endgame... you realize that Ash will say goodbye to everyone, and you probably wouldn’t want that. Just like K-On told us that Graduation is not the end and Assassination Classroom told us to look towards the future, Pokemon Sun and Moon tell us that your family is closer than you think and will always stick by your side, even when you come back. This gives way to a finale that’ll rock you to the core and will likely make you shed a tear or two. The music is BANGING. FEATURING SOME GREAT AND CATCHY OPENING SONGS AND SOME GOOD BOPS IN THE CLOSING, YOU’L BE BOPPING YOUR HEAD ALONG TO THE TUNES. Not only that, the background score by Shinji Miyazaki is excellent and a great send-off to his 20-year stint with Pokémon. Some highlights include Hau’oli City and Lillie’s Theme. Then we get to Type:Wild and the Battle against Kukui. And OH MY IS THIS ONE OF THE GREATEST ANIME CLIMAXES. IM NOT CRAZY, YOU ARE. The League in general was great at tying up arcs and made everyone (even Sophocles) grow as a character. However, the battle against Kukui is not only a culmination of the entire 146-episode show, but the show’s entire story up until that point. Ash’s Pokémon get more highlights and give way to some great Arc conclusions for some, but the fight with Pikachu and Tapu Koko single-handedly may be one of the most impactful climaxes in anime. For 20 years, Ash tried to win a league, but failed. It wasn’t until he beat Karma- I mean Gladion to secure the bag. He is the champion now, but this moment solidified why he’s the greatest trainer in history. To win the league, he used his Lycanroc, but to solidify himself as the strongest, he used his day-one buddy, Pikachu. To defeat the giant Tapu Koko, they used the memories they made over their time in Alola as a stepping stone into their untapped power. They culminate everything they learnt from studying Alola to this single Z-Move in order to overpower a god. In a Studio Trigger-esque sequence with ambitious panning shots, flashy visuals, guitar shredding, and a large focus of coming together as one, you could tell that the impact Ash and Pikachu made in not only in Alola, but anime in general was undeniable. He did not need a divine intervention. He did not need some flashy transformation. All Ash really needed was friends who would stick by him and a partner that created an everlasting bond with him. And most importantly, all he needed was just some fun under the sun. And that’s what Sun and Moon is: a story about bonding with nature and people. It has episodic arcs, it’s flashy, it’s wholesome, it’s a show that’s willing to tell stories that break the boundaries of Pokemon, it’s... fun. Honestly, Assassination Classroom, Little Witch Academia, and K-On will be fighting over which one is better in my anime list, but it will never top the fun I had with Sun and Moon. And that’s why i fucking love this show. 10/10

BY FAR the most underrated Pokemon series of all time, and I completely stand by it. Arguably, it is one of the most underrated anime of all time. Pokémon Sun and Moon objectively has the best-written episodes of all Pokémon. The episodes are directed much better than any other Pokemon series. The voice lines , the direction of scenes , the animation , the humor , the attention to detail , the introduction to stat moves and many more. Alola is also one of the most well-written regions in the franchise. I couldn't believe myself tearing up to some of the episodes. I have heard a lot of criticism about Z-moves, but IMO, other than the slight redundancy (which gets a little better as you progress through the episodes), Z-moves are entertaining to watch. The only downside to this anime is the Ultra Guardians arc. Kinda childish to make 10 year old pokemon students to be "ultra guardians" . I do LOVE the Ultra Beasts though. They are cool, not overpowered, have different personalities, and are unique in their own way. Not to mention the regional legendary Pokémon such as Tapu Koko, Zeraora, the Island Guardians, Solgaleo, Lunala, and of course—Necrozma; Alola has some of the best Pokémon overall. Despite the flaws I think this anime is a solid 9/10 in comparison to the other Pokemon series , however since this show has outscaled my expectations , I am more than delighted to give this series a 10/10. I think the internet did Sun and Moon dirty. Sun and Moon deserves its praise. I would genuinely argue that Sun and Moon is better than XYZ.

I have to admit, when i first saw the artstyle change after xyz, and saw ash in the new school setting, i was furious. i thought it was the ultimate middle fingeer from the writers to long time fans of the show like me "OH YOU THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA WIN THE KALOS LEAGUE? WELL GUESS WHAT? HE DIDNT AND NOW WE ARE GONNA TREAT HIM LIKE A STUPID BOY. AGAIN" I wanted to leave the show and leave pokemon. i didnt want another BW I'm SOOO happy i was wrong. true, its filled with fillers, but sun and moon is at its core, a character based series. and thats what makes it special. Mallow, lana, kiawe lillie saphocles and ash all grew along with the series. the things ash got from his time in alola are things he will never forget. its the first time he has a father figure! he raised and commanded a legendary, he was the commanderof the ultra squad (even tho i didnt like those episodes) he got his own exclusive z move that even defeated the legendary tapu's z move. he helped so many people and cherry on top was him becoming a champion. those are things no other pokemon series has ever done. I even started to like the artstyle (but only by the kukui battle) even though i thought the xy group was better as a group (and im an amourshipper) i smiled so hard in that final alola surprise scene in the last episode. such a special series. (but be patient with it. its not gonna be easy if you came from xy)

As a Pokemon fan,i watched almost all the movies and some of the series.I love Sun and Moon because its different from the other Pokemon series.That's why some people don't like it and some people love it.Its not for all people,in my case,i just wanted something different from all the series.The story,is not the best, i liked it overrall but sometimes it doesnt make sense.The art is the best in my opinion,Alola has a very good design,a tropical beautiful region.The sound are also very good,in my opinion the best so far.The character is the thing i kind of dislike.There are too much characters.Some of them,just dont make sense,and they sounld'nt exist.Also,Ash is different,a more comedic appearance than the other series,where Ash was more competitive.As for enjoyment,i like it for most of the time,there are just some weird episodes but in rest i just love it.In my opinion the best pokemon series ever done.

I've been going around in mental circles for a while, trying to figure out how I wanted to do this review... Because the thing is... This IS a good season. It was just-- by a wide margin-- not my favorite season. There were a lot of things it did well that just weren't for me. But I kind of knew that would be true as soon as I saw the trailers for it when it first came out all those years ago. Everyone kept telling me I would get used to the art style. I still hate it. It looks fine on all the new characters, but it looks awful on Ash and Team Rocket and all the old faces. And that may sound like a really insignificant, don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover sort of complaint, but the art style can say a lot about a show. Especially when it's changing from season to season like Pokémon does. Sun and Moon's designs were a little goofier. In line with the season as a whole being a lot more lighthearted. And that's fine for a kids' show, and it could be perfectly enjoyable at times... (I liked all the characters. In fact, as a whole, I think this season has the most likable cast of characters of any Pokémon season I've watched. And the final episode was really heartfelt. Watching Kukui and Burnet hug him goodbye actually made me tear up a bit. Ash's mom has had some good moments over the years, but we've never really gotten to see Ash have a real family dynamic with anyone, and that aspect of it here was really great.) But Pokémon really hit its current peak with XY&Z for me. I loved that it got a little more serious. Anything toned down from that was going to be lesser in my eyes. Just a matter of preferences, I guess. Storywise, it was just weaker overall in my eyes. It really brought me back to the early seasons of Pokémon, where we went so long in between gym battles that it barely felt like there was a story at all. The island trial episodes were cool... but they really didn't feel like they held any significance over anything, especially because you didn't even end up needing ANY sort of qualifications to enter the region's first Pokémon League. The Ultra Guardians aspect of the story... watching these kids form their own sort of pseudo-Power Rangers team was cool. (I love me a good magical girl-esque transformation sequence.) But suffered from the same problem. Everything just felt so disjointed here. The Ultra Beasts could show up on a whim... whenever the writers ran through enough of their other episode ideas, I guess. They posed enough of an actual threat to the region that I feel like the kids could have at least been looking for some way to keep the portal closed... I just really needed an overarching story for this season, and never quite found it. Like, once we got into the story with Lillie's family and amnesia in season one, things got really good for a while. Gave me hope. And then it all kind of just fell apart again. But ultimately... all the real complaints I have about this season... come down to me starting to believe that the writers and I must have very different opinions on what makes up the fundamentals of Ash as a character. Yes, he's easily excitable and has this unrivaled love for all things Pokémon... but I just can't see him ever being happy settling down in a place like Alola to go to school. Not even with great friends. Not even if the school offers new Pokémon-related experiences each class. It's just... not Ash. It felt too stagnant for him. I can't see the extremely spaced-out island trials scratching his competitive itch. At least when he's on the road, it feels like he's actively working towards the next challenge. I guess it's fitting but... This whole 'journey' through Alola feels like a vacation for Ash. In general, it's just not the place for him. Everything's just a little TOO laid-back. As a whole, it didn't really feel like a region for a serious battler like Ash. And in general, it feels like the writers handicapped his battling skills a bit, especially as the series went on. Like, yes, Ash is known for being the guy who can get out of a tight spot with sheer willpower and crazy ideas... but sometimes it feels like the writers forget that he IS capable of actual type-based strategizing too. There are a few exceptions throughout. Gladion and Kukui...(Hau could have been an example, but we barely see him.) Kiawe takes it seriously, and Lana also had a competitive edge, though the series (unfortunately) never seemed to take her as seriously as Ash and Kiawe. I don't think there's any better example than the few episodes where the class visits Kanto and Ash gets to really shine-- back in his element-- sparring with the gym leaders of old... while it quickly became clear that his new friends had really only understood battling in theory up to this point. Hell, Mallow doesn't have her moment where she realizes she shouldn't ever just give up mid-battle until the MIDDLE OF HER POKEMON LEAGUE MATCH... That whole League was a joke and actually really annoyed me, but... Deep breaths. Anyway. Sun and Moon was fun and cute and lighthearted and I DID enjoy a lot of it. I mean, Rowlet's the most adorable thing this franchise has ever created, so I have to give it points for that. It's just... not what I want Pokémon to be. We got to see it at its best in Kalos, and a story like this one just couldn't live up to my expectations after that. I know practically nothing about the next region... (I've literally only seen the starters and this sheep Pokémon and that's it.) But I'm hoping it picks back up again with the next season, and we get to see more of Ash as he was meant to be.

ok i have been a pokemon fan before i knew about anime and i was excited to know they were contuing but wtf happened to ash like this man looks like a 6 year old. story 3/10 the only good arc there is when ash and lillie and the kids went to save lillies mom i was hyped watching this art 8/10 the art is fine the only thing holding this from a 10/10 is ash character 7/10 ok pokemon has so many fillers it is a filler anime but i enjoy the ones with lille, mallow and that fire dude besides that i only watched it cause of my baby brother thats 3 enjoyment 7/10 ok i enjoyed XYandZ so much like easily the best pokemon that will ever be made but this started something brand new. the reason this is not a 5/10 is beause my baby brother likes it and i love that kid to death overall its a 6/10 and i do not plan on rewatching it well bye bye

First Thoughts: Pokemon Sun & Moon is very different from original Pokemon. It is more sit-com type of show with less intense scenes. There are still fights but it feels different. Story: The story of Sun & Moon isn't bad. It is just different. The story is still good because an episode can lead onto another episode but it doesn't feel as intense as earlier gens. It is just kind of boring and predictable. Art: The one time I finally get to use the art column lol. The art in this anime is so much worse and Ash looks terrible and everything is just screwed up and I would give it a 1-2 if it wasn't for Tajiri saying he only changed the art because he could focus more on the intense fights and I definitely understand but the art is still very bad knowing that. Sound: I have no idea what to put here. intros in english and japanese are decent to good and thunderbolt has a good sound. The fights have good sounds this is a hard one to answer. Character: The characters in Pokemon Sun & Moon are incredible and in my opinion the best of any Pokemon series. there, I said it. They have good backstories, unique personalities, likeable traits it is all you could ever want. Take Gladion for example, (My Favourite Character) He is mostly mean, but stays mostly calm and can be nice some of the time. He had great development. And a good rival to Ash. Overall Sun & Moon has almost perfect characters. Enjoyment: I enjoyed Sun & Moon most of the time even when repetitive and boring. The sitcom style was hard to get used to but I did eventually. I enjoyed Sun and Moon. Overall:Overall Sun & Moon is very different and in my opinion a little more for kids than other Pokemon series. That aside the fights were incredible and next to XY&Z for me in fighting aspect. That will be all for my review. I hope you understand Sun & Moon better after reading this.

Pros: - Ash wins the Regional Aloa Pokemon League, - Ash got a few mythical pokemon, - relaxing formula, - much more expanded main cast, Cons: - none for me, but If I were to find one reason then maybe the story somewhat was lacking the dark moments present in games. It took about more then 20 years for Ash to win Regional Pokemon League. Thanks to fans rally up on social media corporations policy of Ash losing tradition was finally broken. Ash losing each time the Pokemon League was one of most annoying things that happened in in all of previous generations. Some might find the new artstyle and anime formula little anoying, but for me it's alright. Up to this day this is the best Pokemon anime generation.