What do you hate about Pokemon?

**Hollywood53** · 02-08-2002, 12:32 PM

Since this was done for another anime, I really want to see why many of you hate Pokemon?

Do you hate the show, or the way that it is run?

**Wyloms** · 02-08-2002, 01:01 PM

I hate everything about pokemon it so lame...The voices are annoying the whole concept of shooting these "things" out of balls to fight something else is stupid...

**RogueMartian** · 02-08-2002, 01:39 PM

I'm just weird, and I know most people hate pokemon, but I like it.

The animation is a boat load better than that of ANY of the cartoon cartoons.

Like I said for DBZ, a sense of humor always wins me over. Pokemon does not take itself seriously at all. It makes fun of itself constantly, puts in snide little remarks about the characters, humans in general, society, etc. I could list some quotes, but I won't bother, they wouldn't make any pokemon haters like the show anyway.

The storyline is for kids, I'll admit that, but so what? At least it HAS a storyline and kids deserve to be entertained too. I watch the show with my 7 year old sister, and we both get to enjoy it. I get the inside jokes and the side remarks and she gets a story about cute little animals fighting, we both win. How many cartoons can do that?

I have a theory that the majority of people that hate pokemon haven't even watched it. I know because I used to hate pokemon. I saw one episode and loathed it. But I started watching it with my sister and noticed the cleverness, the subtle sense of humor, and the quotes that most people miss. I claim that most people hate, not pokemon, but the pokemon fans. Screaming annoying children at grown up comic shops interrupting our quiet reading with screams for pokemon cards and pikachu t-shirts. But if people don't want to watch pokemon, they don't have to. Its on KWB where it belongs.

**JTurner954** · 02-08-2002, 02:55 PM

I turn it off with the awkward animation. They have smiling and frowning eyes. Where are their eyebrows?? To me, the animation looks cheap.

Want something better? Check out Jokamal.

**Cyclops** · 02-08-2002, 04:43 PM

I like Pokemon myself.

**ccffan01** · 02-08-2002, 06:06 PM

I like it.

**Sumi_Masen** · 02-08-2002, 06:10 PM

uh, I kinda like it.....or maybe it's just Team Rocket that I like. James!!

**Elven Moon** · 02-08-2002, 07:10 PM

Well, I LIKE Pokemon. And I'm not afraid to say it. I know I can't change anyones minds, but I used to be a Poke-basher myself. Then I actually sat down and watched an episode... and slowly I fell in love with it. There's just something about this show that makes me love it so much. It's hard to describe, but in my mind it's a valid anime series. It really makes me happy when I watch it. Go ahead and laugh if you must. The new episodes, though, I tend to avoid. I prefer the earlier episodes, personally. And mostly I love the Japanese version more. It's 10 times better.

Now I'm not saying that if a Pokemon hater sat down and watched an episode, they would love it too. I've watched several DBZ episodes and I still don't like it.

**Jowy Blight** · 02-08-2002, 07:23 PM

I started hating it when Kids WB started over showing it and when I started drowning in a sea of its merchandise. Then the episodes storyline were starting to be the same thing over and over again.

Oh, but I still like the gameboy games though.

**Polychrome** · 02-08-2002, 08:04 PM

I don't *hate* Pokemon, but I think the concept is a bit absurd. The parody they had on ReBoot kinda spells out my feelings on it.

On the other hand, the game is a good time waster. Better than playing Free Cell anyway.

**Deltamon** · 02-08-2002, 08:38 PM

I'll be honest here-I like Pokemon for *THE POKEMON*. I like watching them in the way one watches a nature show-studying their behavior, how they interact with other species, how game elements like evolving and Type classifications (Grass, Fire, Psychic, Steel, etc.) fit into the world.

And of course, I love drawing them. I'm disturbingly notorious for being part of a sub-breed of Pokefans that draw Pokemorphs, Pokemon with human qualities (my very first fanmade Pokemon character was a rather buff kickboxing Pikachu named Long

)

The 'I watch 'em for the critters' element is also shared with Monster Rancher, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Flint the Time Detective, etc. as well as shows with uniquely designed robots, such as Medabots, G Gundam and Zoids.

However, with most of these other shows, I end up being intrigued by the actual storylines and the main human cast (except Yu-Gi-Oh!, which I mostly watch for the card battles).

But not Pokemon.

Why? Well, let's say Ash Katchem is NOT my favorite character in the series-its like Reenie/Chibi Usa to the average Sailor Moon fan, only Ash is the main protagonist.

Where to start...well, things got off rocky the day he let Butterfree go, though at the time it was forgivable (Ya gotta be free to love, baby!). But then he started repeating the formula, letting Mankey, Haunter and a few others go as well, usually for very dumb reasons. It was when he let Pidgeotto go(after HE EVOLVED INTO A BADASS PIDGEOT, no less) that I started to question his ability as a trainer. Not having Bulbasaur or Squirtle evolve (and Pikachu to an extent) is also on my list of 'Dumb Trainer Tricks'.

Yes, thankfully, he's improving on his battle tactics and managing to get himself some decent Pokemon for a change (I want to curse fate for allowing him to have a Shiny high-stat Noctowl), but at what price? Nearly all of his original roaster save for Pikachu (DUH), Bulbasaur (Oh, yeah...he's leaving soon, you all know it!), a Tauros and (mercifully) the Kingler and Muk he hardly ever uses (now they got Heracross to join them. Joy) . And with many of those Pokemon at such low levels, you KNOW his team is nowhere near as well-trained as his old team. But again...I digress.

There are also little...characteristics that get me about him, 'annoying' being up there on the list. But I've ranted long enough, and chances are you're not even reading this anymore. So I'll shut up now

**LastSonofKrypton** · 02-08-2002, 08:56 PM

I don't hate the show. It's not Shakespeare by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a good way to waste a half hour, even if the hero (Ash) isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Besides, I'm addicted to the Game Boy Color Pokemon games, have a talking plush Pikachu, and a few other Pokemon toys.

The animation on the show is nothing great, but the show does have a good sense of humor. So it's not that the show is so bad, it's just that it's not great and certainly not up to the video games on which it is based.

Originally posted by Hollywood53
Since this was done for another anime, I really want to see why many of you hate Pokemon?

Do you hate the show, or the way that it is run?

**Albright** · 02-10-2002, 02:24 PM

I agree... Pokemon isn't the worst animated series I've ever seen, but I can think of several better ways to blow a half hour (and that might include playing the much more fun Game Boy games

).

**Vin** · 02-10-2002, 03:54 PM

Okay, I'm moving this to the Warner Bros. Club, where it's more on-topic then here at the Toonami board. I'm sure the people at the WBC can answer your question a lot better...

**RockItShipper** · 02-10-2002, 04:09 PM

I think it's good that "Ash" cares enough about his Pokemon to let them go if they'd like, not to evolve if they don't want to, or where others need them. I like the human characters, the Japanese VAs, the humor, the crossdressing (look for "James" in geisha-wear)....

What gets to me is that every month Kinokuniya has a new Digimon CD (Christmas, soundtrack, single collection, girls day album, etc.)... and the only 2 full poke-albums in '01 were Best Collection 2 and the 4th movie soundtrack. I hate that. I want more character CDs and more merchandise of the human characters out there. (Oh, and subbed DVDs would rock!)

**Geezil** · 02-10-2002, 04:28 PM

Only the fact that if I ever want to see "The Legend of Dratini" or (shudder) "Electric Hero Porygon", I'll have to spend a couple of years hunting down Japanese bootleg videos...

**MeatWad** · 02-10-2002, 06:06 PM

I pretty much hate it. I used to like it,though. I'm a number one expert on this anime. Now I hate it sooo much! I just still play the games....

**Sharklady** · 02-10-2002, 11:23 PM

I don't exactly hate it- I've always regarded Pokemon as a show intended for the younger kids, and they're entitled to their entertainment, too.

But I do get annoyed by the way those beasties repeat their names over and over, with those babyish voices. Who thought that was a good idea?

**MattL.** · 02-10-2002, 11:56 PM

I think alot of Pokemon bashing comes out of this weird sense of "its cute, KILL IT!!" some people have. Pathetically cynical and really annoying.

I will admit though that Pokemon is not my favorite out of the monster trainer genre. Digimon is my main monster trainer show, more specifically Digimon Tamers, though I also dug Digimon 02.

Its fun, and (although more so in the Japanese version) there is intresting character arcs going on and it is very dramatic at times. I know I'll have people scoffing when I say that but understand that in its own way the monster trainer genre is a one form of superhero in Japan. It is a battle of good vs. evil and at times it can be very dramatic on that level within its own context.

Alot of people seem really quick to dismiss anything that has quote "big eyes" or cute things. If its not your thing, thats fine but dont dismiss it outright as meritless just because the surface aspects of it dont appeal to you.

**DR. BELCH** · 02-11-2002, 10:04 AM

--at first I didn't care for it. Then I warmed up to the whole Pokephenomenon when I realized how psychologically complex the villains--esp. Jessy--are. Abandomnent issues seem to drive Team Rocket--Jessy lost her mom at a young age. Meowth lost a female he cared about because she couldn't accept his being so low on the social ladder, then did a one-eighty and fell for a common alley cat when her owner dumped her (and called him a freak after he tried to better himself by learning to talk!). And James is...James.

The cute beasties can be annoying at times, and even pointless, but I've noted several of them have interesting mannerisms--like the leg-mounting Chikorita (male or female? I'm never sure, but with dogs I've seen both genders exibit that dominance gesture), Heracross attempting to suckle, and Snubull's strange facination with Meowth.
Some wonder why Meowth is the only one able to speak rather than simply repeat its own name....I've noted before the cat vocal structure is developed enough to speak, but it lacks the brains. Conversely, chimps and gorillas exhibit rudimentary learning abilities--they seem to be able to pick sign language--but their vocal structures aren't equipped. So if one bred a cat with a primate's vocal chords...still it begs the question of what would it say (rather like what Higgins says of Liza Doolittle in Pygmalion....).