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Previous rants:

Pokémon (Part 1)
Brutal Legend's publishing issues
Activision/Robert A. Kotick
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 4)
The Sims
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Welcome to the second part of my Pokémon rant which covers the anime show and the card game. If you've yet to read the first part and want to hear my thoughts on Pokémon itself and the video games, I suggest you head over there before reading the second part. Anyway, like I said on the first rant, 12th November 1999 is the day I became a Pokémon fan after watching Here Comes the Squirtle Squad. This episode made Squirtle one of my very first Pokémon favourites as well as the beginning of my Pokémon fandom.

In the anime show, the phrase "Gotta Catch 'em All" certainly doesn't apply to the show and as a matter, maybe it didn't in the first place. Sure, Ash was wanting to catch all 150 Pokémon at the time but this became redundant as soon as he released Butterfree. You're not really becoming a Pokémon master if you start releasing most of your Pokémon. As for becoming the best Pokémon trainer, Ash has won at least one of the Pokémon leagues but still continues this quest after 600 episodes. And we're still following Ash because...? Perhaps there isn't even a reason at all.

The fact that the anime show has over 600 episodes is frightening, most especially when they've followed Ash and Pikachu the whole time as well as Team Rocket causing havoc almost every goddamn episode. Although anime episodes can be released more frequently, it's still quite a shock that Pokémon has more episodes than The Simpsons and they've been running roughly twice as long as Pokémon.

The worst of it is how in almost every episode, you see Team Rocket planning to take the main cast's Pokémon and any others that are involved in the episode, spend half a minute saying their motto speech and always blasting off again at the end as they always say. What makes it even more cringe-worthy is how they disguise themselves most of the time and Ash and his friends ALWAYS fall for it! You could put a moustache over your mouth and you're automatically a completely different person to them. -_-

I don't care if this is just a cartoon, they need to have some psychological sense and make them suspicious of seeing two "strangers" with red and purple hair. That's not all, they keep falling for traps they set up, most especially the one which they suspected of being yet another trap by Team Rocket. Goddamn, they make the citizens of Springfield look like rocket scientists and they've fallen for a wedding for Bart Simpson and Lotta Cooties (I swear, I am not making this up).

Another thing about the anime are the movies. Although I've never watched any of them after the third film (which I couldn't get past 10 minutes as I got bored watching it), anyone can agree that Pokémon has an unhealthy amount of sequels considering they have almost as much sequels as The Land Before Time! Each movie involves the Legendary Pokémon which is how they managed to make so many sequels within 11 years but honestly, most of them would be better off in the anime show rather than having to make full-length movies about them.

The anime show really needed all new characters to start off new arcs involving different regions. It seems pointless making a new series of the show when it's just showing Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Team Rocket all the time. Sure, new main characters were introduced in those series but if they dropped the old cast altogether, they would have new characters who'd have a fresh start on their adventure rather than hanging with old-timers who seem to be traveling around the Pokémon world for nothing. Too bad that's not so and continue to repeat the same old shit for over 600 episodes and will continue doing so.

The other major part of Pokémon outside the video games is the card game. Those who were into Pokémon during the height of its peak almost certainly owned a Pokémon card. This was a fun game in the past but these days, I'm completely lost. Maybe it's just I lost interest in the card game when Yu-Gi-Oh came out but when you look at Delta Species and Crystal Pokémon, you just wonder what the card makers were thinking. The only reason why they'd make Charmander and its evolved forms an electric-type (I am dead serious here) is running short on ideas but it's still inexcusable to completely fuck up the elements the Pokémon are well established for. It's like making Ifrit a wind element summon. Its makes no logical sense whatsoever.

Surprisingly enough, the card game is still going strong, even though it's no longer at its peak like the franchise in general. It's not something I'll ever get back to since not only do I wish to stay away from horrible variants of Pokémon as far away as possible but going back now would mean having to catch up on a lot of cards I won't even recognise due to being absent from the game for so long. On top of that, I hear you can't even use the old cards anymore so if you built a deck consisting of cards from the first and second generations, you won't be allowed to compete in tournaments which is a damn shame.

In conclusion, Pokémon isn't entirely bad and it's still enjoyable. Maybe I'm just older now but it's certainly lost its charm when the amount of Pokémon became excessive as well as milking the older Pokémon by giving them evolved forms as well as pointless baby Pokémon. They've come to the point where they've used up all their great ideas but of course, they have intentions to make yet more Pokémon. They really need to give it a rest with these new Pokémon, though.

The phrases "Gotta Catch 'em All" and Pokémon master have lost some meaning when there are far too many different species to collect, most especially when several are only obtainable from Nintendo Events and that only leads to Gameshark or hacking the games to obtain the unobtainable (Someone sent me an egg which contained Arceus). This is something that should be avoided at all costs after the infamous MissingNo. glitch.

The anime show has become stale and repetitive from making Ash the main protagonist and Team Rocket the main bad guys to ruin the day each time for over 600 episodes. It doesn't help when there are far too many movie sequels to go with it as well. The later series could have been much better if all new characters were introduced and left the original characters behind.

The card game isn't in such a great state either when they made horrible variants of Pokémon after running short on ideas for cards, most especially the illogical Delta Species. Anyone trying to get back into the game now would have a really hard time fitting in with all the new stuff they made.

So yeah, a decade later and it all came to this. Now that I've done ranting on Pokémon, I should relax and re-watch the first season of the show for nostalgia sake as well as playing LeafGreen again. Yes, I know that's more recent but it's the closest I'm going to get considering the DS doesn't play GB games. :(