Of course that’s not to say I don’t love the anime, the first two seasons were great, but it sort of died in the Hoeen saga, which in my opinion was somewhat watchable. I could tolerate it simply for the battles (which a this point hadn’t quite become the shit that Valum mentioned, and I was pretty much preempted by Valum on raging about Ash’s decline to mediocrity in Pokemon Battles). Though, another thin that pisses me off about this new direction (and I think this started in Hoenn) is that Team Rocket shows up every DAMNED episode, I mean back in the day they showed up like every 3-6 episodes. I think that it’s only gotten worse, I saw absolutely no upturn in Diamond/Pearl, in fact that’s what killed the anime for me the most. I was so happy when Cartoon Network aired a marathon of the old anime episodes about two months ago (it was orange League, I believe, but still good nonetheless), though like all Pokemon fans I long for the days of Ash dressing in drag to fight Erika and when his Pikachu was actually cool.

One of my friends recently (Within the past 4 months) told me to read the Pokemon manga, and it really is amazing. I loved it so much that my constant nagging on people to read got at least 5 people to do so. I’ve read pretty much as far as possible for someone in the U.S. and I say that it beats the anime in its prime. Yeah, if you like Pokemon, read this it’ll get the bad taste of the new anime out of your mouth.

Oh, and anyone else horrified that there will most likely be an even worse continuation with Pokemon Black And White?

13 episodes is acceptable if the narrative is fairly light. If the story is longer and needs to be explored more thoroughly, it should be extended as needed. AIR in 12 (+/- a couple eps if you count the recap and Kanna extras) worked. Clannad in 13 would be… Well… Look at the Clannad movie. That’s an example of a story that needs a longer narrative, otherwise you end up with an abridged story that no one really likes. I prefer a full season (24-26 eps) as it lets you get closer to the characters and the show. On that tangent, i herd u liek mudkipz.

@digitalboy: The first season of Pokemon friggin rocked mah sockz. I may just get the DVDs even though it’s dub only because it rocked that much. It’s hard to think of anything bad to say about it.

@phossil: You didn’t miss much. srsly.

@Diego: We’re the oldies that still remember the first season and how good the series used to be once upon a time. I could nerd out over the first season all day long.