Pokemon XY anime - Saw the first episode!

So I just watched the first episode of Pokemon XY, and... I liked it!

Yeah, I wasn't going to write a blog post about this, but since I made a MASSIVE post about it on Facebook, I figure I might as well.  Click the break to read my thoughts...

Actually, no, watch this, and then also click the break the read my thoughts.

First a little background; I watched the Pokemon anime almost religiously up until the end of the Hoenn league. I definitely remember earlier episodes better since I watched them repeatedly, but the one thing I remember about the Hoenn region was when I officially stopped watching; it was when Ash was fighting another rival he met at the league itself and Ash freaking lost, again. At that point, I was getting REALLY sick of Ash never making it to even the final battle of each new Pokemon League. Heck, I THINK this might have actually been the Johto League championship, and I was pissed that Ash finally managed to beat Gary yet didn't beat this other guy... Either way, I stopped watching the anime, though I kept tabs on what Pokemon as got, and which ones he released, and hoping that some of his old Pokemon might make a surprise return here and there. Other than that, never bothered to try and watch any of the Diamond/Pearl or Black/White anime. The Black/White anime I WAS almost tempted to watch, if only because Team Rocket is actually a serious threat this time, and Ash finally meets Giovanni face-to-face! However, I'm also told that Ash's new traveling companions this time around, Iris and Cilan, weren't that interesting. Not to mention it seems to take place after the events of the game so N and Team Plasma are barely in it, so whatever.

So why start watching the Pokemon anime again now? Well, mostly because Derrick Bitner of GameXplain highly recommended it, not to mention, like him, I'm in a bit of a Pokemon kick right now, having really been this excited about Pokemon in a while! Plus that one video of all the main characters' Pokemon singing was super adorable, and Ash has a Greninja, one of my new favorite Pokemon ever (and a Hawlucha, sweet)! Plus it's on Netflix, so I figured "What the heck?" and gave it a shot!

So far I'm just one episode in and I'm already intrigued. This new girl, Serena; the Internet being what it is, I already know quite a bit about who certain characters are and what their deal is, so I know that this new girl is not only a new potential romantic interest, but it's the most blatant the anime's ever been with ship teases for these kinds of characters... Of course, Ash being an oblivious idiot never catches on, at least that's what I hear. Ash doesn't even meet her in this episode, though; he arrives via plane in Lumiose City and the moment he gets off it he wants to battle a gym leader. Like, why don't you wait until you get some more Pokemon first, dude? He gets kicked out of the gym in Lumiose (after getting zapped and shot out via a trap door) and we meet Clemont and Bonnie, who I can only assume are our Brock and Max stand-ins (except Clemont is more like Max than Brock and Bonnie's just... a cute girl I guess?). Ash is so itching for a fight that he demands to fight the guy that just saved him with a Pokemon he only recently caught, way to show some gratitude dude.

So we get our first battle and HOLY CRAP THE ANIMATION FOR THIS FIGHT!!! Like, the intro was a trip, there were these swirling bubbles and we get an "Ash vs. Clemont" split-screen and we see Clemont's Pokemon, Bunnelby, and for a Pokemon he recently caught it surprisingly holds its own very well against the highly experienced Pikachu... and Ash. Like, the best part of this battle was showing that Ash isn't an incompetent idiot. Something I didn't like about the anime was how often Ash would do something stupid or idiotic despite the fact that being a trainer for as long as he is, he should know better and not make such armature mistakes! Here, he's showing legitimate strategy against a surprisingly competent opponent...

Then of course Team Rocket shows up and what's this? No goofy shenanigans? Perhaps they're still trying to be serious from the last season but it's actually pretty darn remarkable just how threatening they can be when all they have is Wobbuffet... Actually, what surprised me the most is how the actually USE Wobbuffet this time and how deadly he can be as a result! Oh yeah, speaking of which, Ash STILL impulsively has Pikachu shock Team Rocket; so much for learning from the past, you'd think by now he'd know that after all the encounters they've had Team Rocket ALWAYS manages to have a means of making sure Pikachu doesn't zap them... Hell, here, they didn't even have any equipment, they just used Wobbuffet, which I guess might have caught Ash off guard and excused this blunder; he didn't see any zap-proof tech and thought they were unprotected but didn't expect them to use Wobbuffet!

You know what else is unexpected, how much ASS Wobbuffet kicks in this episode! Seriously, Bunnelby and Pikachu attack him at once and Wobbuffet dodges Bunnelby's attacks and reflects Pikachu's attack again! Talk about taking a level in badass!

But wait, Froakie to the rescue! And what's more, Froakie beats them on a technicality! He throws his "Frubbles" at Wobbuffet, and that's not an attack so Wobbuffet can't reflect it...

...Like seriously, how do you define a Pokemon attack? I mean, I guess if Pikachu managed to beat Cubone in season 1 by spinning the skull it wears around and by biting and scratching it, which aren't moves Pikachu learns, I guess they can do this. Also, I want to go back on the word "Frubbles"... Great stuff!

So Team Rocket blasts off again but Froakie's injured! They have to take it to Professor Sycamore, since there aren't any Pokemon Centers close by. And that's the first episode! There's a bunch of other stuff in this episode, but I don't have much to comment on them and this post is already massive as is, holy Hell, I didn't mean for it to be this long, I just wanted to get this out there.

Sorry guys, bottom line, this is a good start and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series