I don't have many hangups about Pokémon stuff. But there are a few nonetheless. I may use some stronger language in here, not that it's going to be filled with swear words, but once I get passionate and/or angry about things I tend to forget to censor myself.
Who here buys Pokémon DVD's? Who here lives in Australia? I know I do. Some of my precious money earned through the years has gone into building a fine little Region 4 collection of both episodes and movies. The first movie I purchased was Mewtwo Strikes Back. Soon to come after it were Pokémon 2000 and 3. Inspired by this I decided to buy the rest as soon as they were released. I found 4Ever and Heroes easily one day as I browsed the entertainment section of a shop. But even two years after the Japanese cinema releases of movies number 6 and 7 I was unable to find any sign of the Western dubbed versions. I knew they had been released in America - there they were on eBay and Amazon, as if taunting me with their so-close-yet-so-far-away presence. I went on DVD website after DVD website, endlessly searching local stores for any sign. Until it finally dawned on me. Apparently, whoever had been in charge of releasing these had either forgotten about us or just didn't care. I tried to find an official reason. A Poképal of mine said one time that it had been the change in movie companies. Whatever the reason was, I just didn't understand why the new company in charge didn't just belatedly release them. I wanted those DVD's, man.
I still do to this day. Sure, I made do with buying the American versions from Amazon; watching them on a region free DVD player purchased especially for this Pokécentric reason. Could you believe I was that desperate to catch up movie-wise? A year or two ago, whilst the latest Australian Region 4 Pokémon DVD was still Pokémon Heroes (number five!) I was mourning Lucario and the Mystery of Mew already - surely we'd never get it here. I pre-ordered the American version only to find that, amazingly enough, there was going to be a release of it! So far we've gotten that one, movie 9, 10 AND 11. Once it became clear that 9 was going to only be one disc with no special features this side of the hemisphere I just grabbed the 3-disc American one, figuring I could put up with the wrong region if I got a mini-movie and other stuff as well.
But herein lies the anomaly. I still don't know the full story. And yet I don't know why someone doesn't just pipe up and put forward a motion to just release the damn missing two in the centre there, albeit belatedly. Why didn't they release them in the first place? Why ignore them entirely and jump onto the eighth movie so quickly it was brought out before the American one? The only reason we were starved for mon-movie-goodness in the first place was because we'd entirely missed out on two whole movies - the last of the Hoenn-centric ones. I'm so OCD it makes me feel odd to have a 'collection' when in fact the official collection is incomplete. I think if something happened (although it won't now so much time has passed...) I would just go out and buy the two of them even if they were substandard releases with only one menu, no subtitles and non-widescreen.
As a character, Ash has irked me from the beginning. When I was a young child, I grew up watching the episodes on TV; practically tearing out my hair at how inept the chosen protagonist and face of the Pokémon franchise (besides Pikachu of course) was at both battling and identifying the little critters. That Pokédex of his was opened more times in the show than any of Brock's potential love interest's legs! Now I'm older and I understand just why Ash is who he is - I'm not so geared towards mentally putting myself in the Pokémon world and taking him and little Pikachu on with a volley of Earthquakes from Quagsire on my old Gold version. However! I'm still a little annoyed at the fact Ash's characterisation as a Pokémon trainer has been warped over the years until he's turned into some sort of golden wonder boy... hence the rant's title.
For example, in pretty much every movie, it's Ash who always manages to save the day. Gone are the days when trainers used their Pokémon for that reason. No, it's Ash who tackles things to break them, Ash who communicates with antagonistic Pokémon in the hopes they will listen, Ash who stirs the emotions of originals and clones alike so much so that they weep for his death. Not only is Ash titled the Chosen One in the second movie by the humans undergoing a traditional ritual, it actually turns out Ash is the Chosen One! (Yes, I know this is only in the dubbed version, but still.) In the eighth movie, Ash finds out he's able to access Aura. With no training whatsoever, the ten year old manages to get a pretty powerful Aura Sphere going a la Dragonball Z. The eighth movie is one of my favourites, so I was able to put that aside, figuring Ash was allowed to have his five minutes of fame in this movie since Aura was just that epic. But come the ninth movie I was fed up at the sheer Gary-Stu-ness of the entire movie climax; complete with flying Ash encased in yellow glowing spaghetti-power. Once more saving the day with the new title of the Sea Prince.
Fair suck of the sav, I have been mentally pleading for another character to take the spotlight ever since the Johto episodes started. I hoped Dawn was the answer to Ash's uber-power when I heard about the new episodes debuting in Japan. Well, Dawn hasn't really become the female equivalent to Ash; once she met him all she has become is another May. It's the fourth movie all over again. Once Samuel Oak (and the audience watching his adventure through time) met up with Ash it became another huge Satoshi-fest. I'm just sick of it. Ash is the titular character of an episodic story. We're meant to learn with him, share his aspirations, mentally struggle as he physically struggles with danger and challenges. But recently it seems the story writers are sick of coming up with deus ex machina from outside forces (Pokémon with tears of life, Lugia, Charizard, Celebi and of course Pikachu) and have resorted to deus ex machina from Ash himself. Apparently May is a descendant of the People of Water. Well too bad, May, you have to wait your turn to receive the yellow glowing spaghetti-power. Ash gets it first, because he's special.
