Anime’s I’ve watched this week:

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Episode 6 – 10

History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi Episode 28

Nana Episode 42 – 43

There are possible (minor) spoilers if you haven’t watched it yourself already so read at your own risk!

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Episode 6: Forest of Hesitation! Shinji Again! (Different Strokes for Different Blokes)

Rating: 6/10

The part where Satoshi and Naetle (Turtwig) were in the Forest of Hesitation and getting chased by a group of Odoshishi (Stantler) were quite entertaining, however having Satoshi lose to Shinji left a bad taste in my mouth.

Episode 7: Try your best, Pochama! (Like It or Lup It)

Rating: 6/10

This is the first time I’ve watched Diamond and Pearl in dub, and I have to admit that although I actually liked the dub for Pokemon before, the new voice actors for Ash and Brock kinda puts me off. I wonder why did they change voice actors after so many years. Satoshi/Ash could have done much better instead of just staying still and watching Pochama (Piplup) attempting to peck Team Rocket’s Magikarp sub to death.

Episode 8: Gereggru of the Mysterious Gym! (Gymbaliar!)

Rating: 7/10

We got to see Hassam (Scizor), Gereggru (Croagunk), Dokucale (Dustox) in battle along with Pikachu and Aipom, what’s there not to like? 😀 Kojiro (James) was funny as the obviously biased referee as well.

Episode 9: Let’s Play with Mimirol! (Setting the World on its Buneary)

Rating: 7/10

Someones got a crush on Pikachu, and Team Rocket is out to make use of that fact to get their hands on Pikachu. I never knew Mimirol (Buneary) could use Ice attacks… *hurries off to train Buneary in Pearl*

Episode 10: Poketch Unavailable! (Not on MY Watch Ya Don’t!)

Rating 8/10

Let’s see, I’ve always wanted a Poketch for myself too Kolink (Shinx) made an appearance as the Pokemon of the son of the Poketch Company’s President. It would have been nice to see it battle, but all it really did was charge up Pikachu to blast of Team Rocket. Go Koduck/Psyduck! 😀

History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi
Episode: 28

Rating: 7/10

Nijima announced the 3 generals of the Shinpaku alliance, and soon after that a fight broke out between the Shinpaku alliance’s generals and Ragnarok’s 4th Fist, Loki, and his men. Kenichi demonstrated many moves in battle and quickly went against Loki, leaving the other 2 generals to take care of the grunts. The final twist in the end was quite hilarious, proving once again that Nijima definitely has a talent at running away.

Nana

Episode: 42

Rating: 6/10

Blast seems to be doing well with their recording at Gaia’s training camp and both Blast and Trapnest are already back in Tokyo before the end of the episode. Nothing that’s really worth mentioning, except at the end where Nana went into hyperventilation.

Episode: 43

Rating: 8/10

What made this episode cool is how Nobu seems to have found a new friend in Gaia’s hidden dormitory, who happens to suffer hyperventilation as well. Blast then continues to rock up a storm in front of Shinjuku Station with Hachi watching from afar. And it would seem that Nana has finally made up her mind about her relationship with Ren and Yasu just as the episode comes to an end. Just 4 more to go 😀

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The 10th Pokemon movie that will be hitting the theaters in Japan very soon (14th July 2007, to be exact). It would be based on the 10th season (coincidence?) of the series – Diamond and Pearl.

The movie is pretty much self-explanatory. The main event would be the 3-way showdown between the God (or Titan) of Time, Dialga; of Space, Palkia; and Darkrai, the mysterious Pokemon that holds the key to the movie itself.

Both Dialga and Palkia are the iconic Legendary for the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games. These two are unique Pokemon that were created by the Original One, Arceus.

It is then the two masters of time and space created the world. Together with Darkrai, these 3 are part of the 4th generation of legendary Pokemon.

Legend has it that Arceus created two creatures after its birth and from these two, Time and Space were born. After which, Arceus created another three from where Knowledge, Emotion and Willpower was born.

According to “The Original Story”, a book that can be found on the top floor of the Canalave Library (Diamond and Pearl game) –

“In the beginning, there was only a churning turmoil of chaos. At the heart of chaos, where all things became one, appeared an Egg. Having tumbled from the vortex, the Egg gave rise to the Original One. From itself, two beings the Original One did make. Time started to spin. Space began to expand. From itself again, three living things the Original One did make. The two beings wished, and from them, matter came to be. The three living things wished, and from them, spirit came to be. The world created, the Original One took to unyielding sleep…”

Dialga and Palkia are two Pokemon that should not and must never meet, else the world will be pulled into destruction (again). Ash/Satoshi and co.’s job is as usual, to try and save the day by calming down Dialga and Palkia before the whole world is thrown into chaos. It is unknown what role Darkrai will play, but it is certain that Darkrai holds the answer to the fighting rulers of Time and Space.

The plot here somehow reminds me of the 2nd movie, where the three legendary birds were rustled and began to wage war against each other, threatening to drag the world into certain doom and “the world turns to Ash”, who, with the help of the guardian of the sea, Lugia, managed to stop the fighting and restore peace and balance once more.

I’m actually quite looking forward to this movie being released, although it would probably still be a while before anyone will be able to see it outside of Japan. I’ve heard rumors that many of Ash’s old Pokemon and friends would make an appearance, including his Charizard and Misty. How true this is, I don’t really know, but it’s enough to spark quite a bit of interest in me.

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Pokemon was one of the very first anime that I started to watch about 10 years ago. It wasn’t aired on the local TV channel at the time so I had to rely on buying VCDs to watch it. It easily became my favourite at that time (and still is one of my fav now) but somewhere during Johto I stopped watching for reasons I can no longer remember, although I was still playing the many different Pokemon games on the GameBoy.

When I finally got my broadband, there were already hundreds of Pokemon episodes which I’ve missed and that discouraged me from watching them again. However, when I recently bought my Nintendo DS and Pokemon Pearl after being influenced by Dyna-Storm, I once again fell in love with the game. That’s when I started to watch the 10th season of the anime, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

*Possible Spoiler Warning*

Although I’ve missed out a lot of the seasons, I’ve always kept myself up to date on the story development from visiting forums and watching all the movies that came out. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl has been good so far but I am pretty disappointed with Ash’s development. It’s true that he started his journey in Sinnoh with just Pikachu and leaving his other pokemon behind (again), but he should already have enough experience as a trainer to not lose to a new trainer, especially one as stuck up and arrogant as his new Sinnoh rival, Paul (Shinji in the Japanese version). It was especially disappointing to see Pikachu, despite being the most experienced of Ash’s pokemon and has fought other stronger pokemon, to be just on par with Paul’s Elekid.

*Spoiler Warning Ends*

However, so far it’s still a great anime and Diamond and Pearl is still tops in my book. I especially can’t wait for the release of the new movie – Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai which would be released in Japanese theater on July 14 this year.

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