Another one that was a fav for many of us as kids. Cassidy and Butch were still competent funny villains, and the gimmick allows for a lot of great character-based comedy. Your rewatch has really illuminated how a lot of early Johto filler is more solid that is often given its due too.
Interesting. In that case, what are your memories of the phrase’s use in Advanced or Diamond & Pearl, offhand?
Considering how arc-heavy the current anime is and how much Gen 9 game lore and mons it hasn’t yet used, this honestly isn’t the worst idea. Though the real best solution would be to stop Pokémon having to be a weekly anime, a model that barely exists anymore. Make it a seasonal one instead.
To those of us who don’t have the Japanese show 100% committed to memory; given it took nearly a year for that mantra to appear again after its first use, when would you say it started becoming a more common thing the trio would say?
Also, the show still being celebrated-animated with only very subtle stylistic changes since Kanto makes them not visually stick out too, given every future generation has at least a mildly notice artstyle shift (or digital coloring/aspect ratio change) to mark it out compared to the prior series.
According to the Bulbapedia article listing Pokémon by their animated series debut, only 33 of the new 100 mons had appeared in the series to this point. There’s another 21 if you include the movies, mind. Still, the drip-feed and it feeling like Kanto.5 is all too real…
Having Ash’s mom involved was a really great move as it gives him personal stakes, and while their connection isn’t developed per se (see Dogasu’s link about Takashi Shudo’s troubles writing the movie), it still does a lot when he’s otherwise involved “because script” in these movies.
Watched on April 6th 2026, full review on Letterboxd. Mild spoilers. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (★★) – Hard to imagine a more review-proof movie; even the mild connective tissue from the first film is gone. Just direct anaemic translation of the games’ experience with no modulation to this medium. No needle drops, at least. (1/2)
I honestly still think this is probably the “best” of the first three films. The smaller scope after Revelation Lugia, plus a more character-based focus, makes it feel more personal and intimate than these movies almost ever get. Psychedelic and still a franchise movie, but touching enough.
Judging by how many people have watched and loved it, I think most people do. Plus, it’s not like he was there directing the stop-motion daily himself anyway. But it helps that his visual fuzziness which can feel “off” in live-action, is, well, just good craftsmanship in animation.
Don’t forget Fantastic Mr. Fox! But I suspect I’ll probably feel similar once I give other films of his beyond the “these work even for the doubters” ones a look (I say as much in the long review).
Watched for Alternate Ending Fill Your Blind Spot, Any Genre Edition, on 28/29th March 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...
The Grand Budapest Hotel (★★★★1/2) – Totally see why this is an Anderson fav, even for those cool on him. His usual tics are applied with utmost care and thought, wonderful acting from everyone, constant momentum. Both the saddest farce and funniest tragedy all at once. (1/2)
PLANET OF THE APES was released 58 years ago today. Regarded as one of the great science fiction films and a movie with one of the great plot twists, the behind the scenes story is like talking a walk through The Forbidden Zone…
1/50
Image from Planet of the Apes.
Rewatched via reperatory cinema screening on March 28th 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...
Dumbo (★★★★1/2) – All the visual "cheapness" is there to see, and yet in presenting a parable, and one of the most emotionally raw cases of design and animation acting in Dumbo himself, it's every bit a masterpiece as its Golden Age brethren. One of my fav Disney flicks. (1/2)
Rewatched via reperatory cinema screening on March 21st 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...
Pinocchio (★★★★1/2) – Still one of the peaks for technical ambition in commercial animation, in a way that makes the bizarrely-shaped narrative work at all. I don't always love it to watch (Monstro climax excepted), but I respect every inch of the thing beyond compare. (1/2)
The sad truth is this will almost certainly just result in studios tightening the deals for sequels and merch even when they have no expectation for such. But it is nice to see the creatives win for once. They certainly deserve it more than the massive fees voice actors sometimes grab for sequels.
“And I, for one, welcome our new rodent overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground cheese caves.”
A very on-brand move for you to refuse to use the English name point blank and opt for a photo and “this mon” rather than say the Japanese name and risk most people not knowing who you mean. I should really not be surprised by such anymore, shouldn’t I. 😅
Didn’t think so, yeah, just wanted to check. Also it didn’t read as obviously official to me at first as you didn’t capitalize “iro chigai”, but I recognise now that’s not an error, but a reflection of the translation process.
Played this for the first time a few years ago. Quite liked the first DS game some years back, and after Shuffle burned me out in the 2010s, this was a nice middle ground. Didn’t feel overstuffed or padded despite 700+ Pokémon either, quite well paced! Sadly gone legally now, alas.
And then it almost never showed off that crafty nature again, or or take the battle against Morty’s ghost types, and became mostly a balloon popper. Sigh. Such in the characters of many party Pokémon before Advanced…
Does the Japanese version of the franchise’s official term for this still not use the term “shiny”, even nowadays? The West officially adopted than fan term about a decade ago, but I know the Japanese version is far more selective about such.
Also the same Dogasu, despite barely watching the anime’s newer eras regularly in ages now and largely just playing the video games. Power of childhood nostalgia for you! I always forgot Satoshi’s one is smaller too.
I always like these movie-centric ending segments for the weird nostalgia kick of seeing the 1.85:1 letterboxed frame. Really emphasizes how they’re “bigger” than the show, even when it’s just the Pikachu short. Weird relic of when tv was 4:3, but still works today.
The episode where Takeshi returns it to Yuki (Susie in English) was just 4 months away. Dunno if that’s enough advance notice to appear get some last few appearances (it also battles in the Entei movie, which would have been in production first despite releasing a month later), but oddly fitting…