h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I.. Can't remember what I had on over there, to be honest. I'm back home now and we're getting Orange Islands (sometime Indigo League), and Johto, as well as one of the new ones, I forget which ^^;

But these are on Toonami, a Cartoon Network spinoff, methinks.

Yeah, Pokemon is gone from network TV where I live. Digimon's been gone for awhile, but maybe Digimon Savers is still running in Japan so they can't dub it yet.

Not sure about Toonami. Don't have cable, good thing too. Can't imagine how much stuff I'd be taping and watching if I did.

Yeah, I've noticed since I got satellite television that I've watched more and more old cartoons and game shows, lmao.

But that's really sad that you don't get Pokémon where you live! I'm glad to just be able to catch the old ones now!

I've been on the fence for awhile about whether I want to start buying the first season tapes. I think we can all agree that the Kanto episodes are the best. Partially it's the novelty, partially the freshness of the ideas, but mostly I think because they really put more effort into characterization and making running gags that they could stretch in original directions. Plus there really wasn't "filler" as such. Sure, one of the premesis of the show is that we have to be introduced to each of the over 400 (with the release of Diamond and Pearl) species, but they did that a lot better with the first season. Johto was so much more of the "here's a Pokemon, look quick because you'll never see it again" and "here's another Trainer of the Week with one of the same four voices that we keep using over and over again" and "how can TR rehash one of their four basic plots THIS time?" and so on.

If you're out for Season One purchases, as opposed to buying the individual videos, you may be interested to know that they're going to be releasing a Season One boxset (with others to come hopefully)

http://www.amazon.com/Pokemon-Season-1-Box-Set/dp/B000I0QLF0/sr=1-2/qid=1160899663/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-6390834-2829735?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

If the link doesn't work, then go to Amazon.com and search for Pokémon on the DVD section. What's unclear at the moment is whether it's going to have both language tracks on it. But here's hoping! Either way, I'll probably import this. My VHS recordings are getting unplayable XDD;

My previous reply got lost in cyberspace, how odd.

Yeah, I knew about the box set. Too bad at twenty-six episodes it'll take three sets to ge through Kanto. I think I'll stick with buying the tapes, less to scratch.

I think it's still a neat idea though They have/had quite a few episodes uploaded to YouTube as well! But my videos are running thin, and it seems expensive to hunt down all the videos (given my videoplayer doesn't work), so DVDs if i can get them!

If your VHSs are running thin, then you watch them too often.

Would you really buy three boxsets just for Kanto?

Yes, I would

And sorry I haven't replied sooner! I just started a full-time job a coupla weeks back and things have been hectic.

but Kanto was my favourite of all seasons!

Mine, too, but three boxsets is a LOT of money. Part of me wonders if there's any filler in there that you could cut out and get it down to two boxsets, but then again, one wonders if there was ANY filler in Kanto. In Jouto, no question. Five seasons that you could compress to three, no question.

True, but for me it's cheaper because of conversions..

But Kanto really didn't have much in the way of filler, that I can recall. Most every episode drove the plot forward at least a bit!

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Suddenly it occurs to me that it's a shame that we never got to see the episode where Ash caught the Tauros. To this day, I think that herd of Tauros consists of half of Ash's total Pokemon collection, right?

At least that. He had thirty of them, after all

Suddenly I wonder how many Gary had, and for that matter, what happened to them after he retired from Pokemon training? Oh, and does Professor Oak get HUGE kickbacks from the government to sustain all of those Pokemon? We get the feeling that long-term Pokeball storage isn't feasable, and that you have to let them out every once in awhile, no exceptions. Maybe they're like transporters in Star Trek; you can only maintain the pattern for so long at a time.

I know Gary got a LOT of Pokemon, I don't know an exact number though. He just went catching them like there was no tomorrow. As for Oak, I'm sure as a researcher, he must get some sort of government fundings to keep his research and Pokemon care going, as well as to fund having aides, like Tracey.

Gary does strike me as someone who'd want one of anything possible, just to have them.

I wonder, does Tracey get paid, or is it just room and board?

Yeah, I think he did. From what we saw of Gary, he didn't seem to have that ultimately close bond that Ash ever had with any of his Pokemon. They would fight for him out of loyalty, sure, but never out of love. There were so many times when Ash's Pokemon would come to his aid out of love, be it to fight, support him, keep him from freezing..

As for Tracey, probably just room and board, because he got everything he wanted just by being there.

Tracey brings up an interesting question that I've had for awhile. How many Trainers go on to Pokemon careers (Gym Leaders, Professors, Nurse Joys, etc), and how many basically chuck their Pokemon into storage (or release them) and go on to basically non-Pokemon careers (utilities, restaurants, retail, etc). For that matter, could we assume that only a small percentage of Pokemon trainers that start out at ten return to the field after their first year? I can see how travelling for a year and meeting many different kinds of people and Pokemon would help many preteens mature enough to decide what they want to do as a career.

Then again, how fair is it when eleven-year-olds with experienced Pokemon enter a league at the same time as the ten-year-olds that still need to catch their first Pokemon? Doesn't really seem fair to me. You'd assume that the levels of Gym Leader Pokemon is geared toward the levels of the Pokemon of beginning trainers (and the levels of the usual wild Pokemon), so what about Ash and his uberPikachu? By the third league, a level 100 Pikachu would wipe the floor with level 10 rock Pokemon, no matter what the type disadvantage, right?

That is a good question.. Although at the same time, one could assume that not EVERY child goes out on a Pokemon journey. Some kids might stay at home and study, but a lot of them do seem to go out.

As for experience levels, although the series has hinted at them, I don't see them applying quite as rigidly as they do in the games. I do definitely see your point of Ash's Pikachu being at a hugely high level and fighting Pokemon in gyms in the new leagues, but then surely as the Gym Leaders battle trainers, their Pokemon level up too!

That's probably also the reason Ash starts over with new Pokemon every league (that and so he can catch some of the terrible new Pokemon). Although trainers officially begin at the age of ten.. What's stopping them being given/catching a Pokemon and just taking it outside to train before their journey? True, Pokemon should be weakened, but a weaker Pokemon, like a Caterpie or Pidgey, could probably be caught with enough persistance.

I had a post with a great set of calculations in it to guess the number of trainers in each league, but cyberspace ate it up. The short version is that given what we've seen, one (or more) of the following applies:

1. The regions are REALLY tiny, if a majority of ten-year-olds go on Pokemon Journeys and go on to at least one League Tournament.
2. The majority of ten-year-olds do NOT go on Journeys.
3. The majority of beginning trainers fail to get their eight badges and return home after a year or so.

While I have no doubt that Gym Leaders have uberPokemon, those couldn't possibly be allowed in Gym Battles against starting trainers. We know that Pokemon levels exist in the show, from the Pokemon Tech and Pokemon Academy episodes as well as Max spouting off about them from time to time.

But even if Gym Leader Pokemon are geared toward starting trainers, which ones? After all, if the order at which badges are offered is truly random, then they'd have to be ready to give a fair fight to level five (beginning) or level forty (last gym) or level fifty (Elite Four).

We have seen Pokemon pets, and children of Gym Leaders no doubt do play with the Pokemon, but catching and out and out training wouldn't really be allowed, would it? After all, we have seen in the past that Pokeballs are stamped somehow with the ID of the trainer that owns it. That's why the Pokemon data has to be physically transferred from one Pokeball to the other during a trade.

I've been meaning to ask about this for awhile, but what is Katzii Yataki? Is it your real name, have you graduated from SailorMercury to a new webalias, or what?