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pkmnjesus · 4 years

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The 2010s Decade of PokéAni (An overview - Part 1 of 2)

It is now 2020! Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. We are now entering a new decade of new adventures. Before the next new episode (first episode of this decade) that airs this Sunday, I’d like to reminisce the past decade on the Pokémon anime’s most memorable moments. Besides the annual PokéAni Rewind post I did, I want to additionally do a decade’s worth review of the anime throughout the different series from 2010-2019 just for this new year. From Sinnoh to Galar, we’ve seen many major events throughout the anime. Contests, Gym Battles, connoisseur battles, performances, races, leagues, Legendaries, Mythicals, Ultra Beasts, specials, introductions, farewells, evil organizations, shippings, background stories, emotional episodes, and crossover we’d never thought we’d see happen! There were also a lot unique PokéAni films shown within the decade from Zoroark: Master of Illusions to Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution. We've had movies with 2 versions like the games, more telepathy Pokémon, and a new format/alternate universe of Pokémon movies starting with 2017's I Choose You! But right now, let’s just keep our focus on the main series anime for this particular post. I will not be counting Origins, Generations and other mini-specials shown this decade since these were more in the game-verse continuity of the franchise. This might be really long (and annoy some people’s dash), so I’m going to split this into two posts. *These posts will be following the original Japanese air dates, but will still be using the English/game dub names for a universal understanding by all.* So, let’s get right to it! Here are my personal favorite PokéAni moments of each year from this decade, starting with the first half of the 2010s:

2010: Ash vs. Paul - their final battle at the League

August 19, 2010 With the climax of the Diamond and Pearl series approaching, this is by far my favorite battle in the Pokémon anime (next to Ash vs. Gary in the Johto League) because of how well they developed this rivalry. Paul was a real jerk when it came to training his Pokémon, releasing them when he felt like it. Paul was honestly THE REASON to watch this series because of how well they built up this rivalry up to this final showdown. Every character involved with their story from Cynthia to Paul’s brother Reggie to Pyramid King Brandon, played an important role adding to the story especially when it comes to their Pokémon teams. Paul was also an anime original rival (he shares a bit of similarities with rival Silver from the games) so his character was really fresh and new. The hype surrounded their final battle was astronomical to me! I clearly remember during this time I was still in my sophomore year of high school in the middle of an exam week but all I could think about was this battle!

It was a 3-parter, but I would like to focus on the decisive outcome. Both had one Pokémon left, Ash had Infernape and Paul had Electivire. All this time, Paul always thought of Ash’s Infernape was weak and pathetic not being able to control its Blaze ability which is why he released it as a Chimchar when it was still under his care. In the end, when thought he won and called it weak once more, the Blaze fully kicks in showed him how powerful it has become ever since training with Ash. In the final moments of the match, Electivire throws a Thunder Punch, while Infernape charges Flare Blitz. When the smoke clears, everyone thought that Electivire withstood that attack, but it was only a few seconds later it would faint resulting in Ash defeating Paul for the first time in their most meaningful battle that they ever shared. It’s almost symbolic as this was once the Elekid that first battled with Ash when he first arrived at the Sinnoh League. This battle was intense, fun to watch and superb storytelling between the two trainers and their Pokémon. But most of all, seeing Ash overcome and proving a stubborn and prideful trainer in Paul wrong by beating him in battle was one of the MOST satisfying feelings for any Pokémon anime fan to ever watch (unless you’re a Paul fan).

They properly end their rivalry with Paul finally giving the rightful respect to Ash, as he looks to challenge Brandon again to get stronger. Meanwhile, Ash advances to the semi-finals and has a battle with Tobias...we all know how that turned out, but was still a hard hitting battle. But still not as awesome Ash and Paul had. That to me was the battle of the decade! And this was just the start of the 2010s. A bar set so high that no other battle can compare it to, so far.

Honorable mentions from this year: The DP series’ final year! Dawn had some great moments too with her “Dee Dee” (’Pikari’ in Japanese) nickname story to be finally revealed after all these years, meeting her royal doppelganger and getting a Togekiss in the process. Let’s not forget that Dawn also had her first Grand Festival, ending up at 2nd place after Zoey defeated her in the final round. This was also the same year where we saw Monferno evolve into Infernape that helped Ash win his final Sinnoh badge. The return of his old Pokémon he caught in previous regions made appearances in the Sinnoh which was the last time we saw them considering that Ash is now only using the Pokémon he caught in his currently traveling region moving forward after this. Doc Brock is born with a new dream, and how can I not mention the debut of the Best Wishes (Black & White) series?! Iris’s accidental encounter in the wild and Cilan’s gym challenge was a great way of introducing the new characters! Finally, we got to see Ash caring for an abandoned Tepig that was tied to post, and the smoothest and coolest Snivy that Ash caught. 2010 was a great year!

2011: Excadrill trusts Iris again

September 17, 2011 Ever since Iris was revealed to have another Pokémon besides her Axew, I always wondered how she ended up with an Excadrill that won’t seem to listen to her and just get stuck on its own curled up body in drill-mode as if it doesn’t want to move. This heartwarming episode explains it, and explores Iris’s past growing up with playing with wild Pokémon. This was the same episode they introduced the self-professed “Dragon Buster” Georgia whom would start a rivalry with Iris, forcing her to use every Pokémon she had with her, preferably Dragon-types. When she called Excadrill out, the same thing always happens resulting in being unable to battle. Iris finally opens up about why this happens.

When it was still a Drilbur, it had been causing trouble with the other Pokémon Iris played with because it was always stealing their berries. Iris decides to teach the little thief a lesson with her own skills to counter its powerful Metal Claw attack, but would fail every time she attempted to. One day, when she finally outsmarted the Drilbur, he ended up getting tangled on vines that he couldn’t get out of. Iris then rescued the Drilbur from getting hurt, and the two became battling partners. During their battles in the Village of Dragons, that Drilbur eventually evolved into Excadrill and would learn Drill Run. When the powerful Dragon Master, Drayden shows up, Iris boldly challenges him to a battle. This would be the mistake that would strain their relationship as Drayden and his Haxarus easily defeated them. Iris was overconfident going into the battle giving commands without realizing that none of Excadrill’s attacks would do any effect on a very experienced Haxarus. It was a crushing defeat that would lose Excadrill’s trust on Iris and her capabilities of being its trainer.

Fast forward to the night after Georgia defeated Iris, she decides to sleep with Excadrill and tearfully apologizes after realizing all these years that she shouldn’t have pressured it to battle against a very powerful opponent in Drayden without considering her Pokémon’s feelings going into it. It was clear that they still needed more training before going up against a Dragon Master, but Iris selfishly went for it anyways. After the heartfelt apology, Excadrill finally gets out of drill-mode and trains out in the forrest trying to learn Focus Blast. After Iris wakes up seeing its new determination, she decides to train with Excadrill until they perfect the move. With a renewed partnership, Iris has another rematch with Georgia’s Beartic. Although the battle still resulted in a tie, it was the first time we saw Excadrill fully in-sync with Iris, and more importantly is very happy to be his trainer again. The trust between the two is rejuvenated better than ever, and will continue to get stronger until their next big challenge. This is one of my favorite BW episodes because I simply love redemption episodes like these, and this made me appreciate Iris’s character more.

Honorable mentions from this year: The BW series’ first full year! We had 3 Gym battles that year. How can I not forget the birth of Ash’s Scraggy hatching from egg? I miss that little guy thinking its the strongest Pokémon out there. Also, the beginning of the Snivy-Emolga rivalry, Oshawott overcoming his fears opening its eyes underwater to learn Aqua Jet, the group meeting an aspiring filmmaker, and Zorua-trainer, Luke, the beginning of the explosive Don George Battle Club tourneys, Bianca’s father attempting to get her daughter home instead of traveling, Ash & Cilan challenging subway bosses Ingo & Emmet, Unova Champion Alder making his anime debut, another heartwarming Iris episode with caring for a lonely Deino, a brotherly visit from Cilan’s brother Chili, and the Unova Forces of Nature trio made their presence felt after Team Rocket attempts to capture them. Speaking of serious Team Rocket agendas, this year was supposed to feature Team Plasma’s debut clashing against Team Rocket in a double special episode however had to be postponed due to the impactful 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan the week it was supposed to air. These two episodes was scrapped and re-written completely for future plot involving Team Plasma. It was such a shame really considering how much hyped I was for this (I’m sure many others as well at the time). Though I kind of understood why they had to. I was living in Southeast Asia at the time (this was before I migrated to the U.S.), and my country was dealing with heavy typhoons during that same week too. In the end, we never really got to see an epic clash between the two evil organizations as their stories became separate arcs that never even crossed with one another. Team Rocket had to revert back to their old white attires, and had to scrap/retcon Pierce’s character completely. He was one of the more interesting Team Rocket members they’ve ever had, and it’s a shame that we never got to fully see a different approach they were trying to do with Jessie, James, and Meowth’s character having a more serious role in the anime. Maybe one day we can see these unaired specials if they decide to release for a novelty watch, and we’ll all be happy...including myself :)

2012: Ash proves Skyla wrong

March 1, 2012 In one of my favorite Gym battles, I had to put this satisfying victory on my list. Skyla was one of the more stubborn and prideful Gym Leaders we had in the anime because of her appointment “Air Battle” method where she would predict the outcome of challenger battles mostly based off of type disadvantages. But you know our Ash, “type disadvantage” doesn’t really apply to him and of course he heavily disapproves of what she is doing as a Gym Leader. She would much rather fly in the skies for her enjoyment rather than actually do her job as a Gym Leader doing proper challenges. During the day of their scheduled Gym battle, he hopes to avenge Cilan who tried to prove her wrong the other day that Gym battles shouldn’t be based off what she sees in her head but what happens in the battlefield. Skyla still believed that based on the team Ash was using against her that she’d still be victorious.

During this 3-on-3 battle, sometimes you can’t predict the unpredictable. When both are down to one Pokémon left, Skyla had her ace in Swanna out while Ash had to bring back his Tranquill who already had been in battle. The sky battle was fast paced but in the midst of it all, Tranquill evolves into Unfezant! Ash finally takes down Swanna thanks to the new moves Unfezant had to offer making him the victor and more importantly exposing how her “Air Battle” prediction was never 100% accurate in the first place. I love episodes like these when characters like these get shown up and learn the error of their ways (and I loved Skyla in the games). After this battle, Skyla officially retires Air Battles, and apologizes to her grandfather that she was wrong all along that it truly depends on how the trainer and Pokémon bond in battle and not just go off on basic type disadvantages. She saw that with Ash and his Pokémon proving him to be a unique trainer that takes all challenges no matter what. It was a great battle and a well-earned Jet Badge for Ash on his road to the Unova League!

Honorable mentions from this year: The BW saga continues with hard hitting episodes with the final gym battles Ash had to fulfill before entering the Unova League. This League even kicked off by Ash taking out his rival, Trip, in the first round! If you ask me, the pacing of this series has great. The distance between Ash’s next gym battles, and the good amount “fillers” (which some comprise of mini-tourneys like the Club Battles) in between them were great. It was straightforward, even while tackling the Team Rocket Operation Tempest storyline with Meloetta. Speaking of which, it’s been YEARS since Giovanni played a prominent role in the anime, and it was great to see him in action as the big bad villain again. It also marks the big return of Dawn (continuing the tradition of returning previous main PokéAni girl...which actually breaks after this series), and she really blended well with this group! Especially from her friendship with Iris (much to Ash’s dismay xD). And of course had a great bunch of episodes from our favorite Dragon trainer. I was so surprised and hyped and she actually caught a Dragonite! A main character in this show has a DRAGON FREAKIN’ NITE. It took a while for him to actually obey Iris, but she eventually was able to get a hold of this aggressive Pokémon. We also get a glimpse of her pass when we finally got to see the Village of Dragons, and her long awaited rematch with Gym Leader Drayden. Another one of my favorites from 2012, was Tepig confronting his old trainer and cruelly abandoned him (because of being too weak for battling) before Ash rescued him. Ash, the trainer of proving people wrong, with the help of QUEEN Snivy, helped Tepig show his old trainer that he was strong all along by defeating his Emboar & Heatmor in a tag battle. In the process of all that, Tepig evolved into a Pignite in a very satisfying mid-evolution during that tag battle. Oh and how could I forget that Ash dressed up like a cute girl again along with Cilan to help Iris teach some rich ladies a lesson. Definitely gotta note that in here! xD I LOVED 2012 PokéAni.

2013: The bonding between Ash & N

July 6, 2013 The climax of the Team Plasma/N arc quickly approaches, and Cedric Juniper acquires the Light Stone from the White Ruins near Dragonspiral Tower in hopes to study more about its powers related to summoning Reshiram. Juniper then tells a story on Unovian mythology (“White chapter”) which is about the relationship between Reshiram and a hero whom it had trusted. Eventually that hero’s pure heart will be lost in the riches he will gain. Suddenly a familiar friend shows up to conclude the disturbing tale. N shows up to the scene interrupted Juniper, and grabs the Light Stone away from him because he feels that it is in the wrong hands and should not be examined whatsoever for scientific interest.

Ash wants to understand why N feels the way how he feels, so he chases after him. The ground gives way under Ash’s feet while running and gets stuck on the floor. The kindheartedness of N went back to help him up, but both ended up dropping deep underground the White Ruins due to the collapsing floor, trapping them from reaching the surface. When Team Plasma arrives, they plan to ambush Iris, Cilan, and Juniper until Ghetsis arrives. But Cedric Juniper’s assistant, who turned out to be Looker, attempts to stop their planned attack with a PIPE! When Coloress arrived to the scene, he successfully brings his machine to take control of the Pokémon who has been helping with the excavation on the site including a huge Golurk! It was looking bad, and there was no way Looker could handle this situation all by himself.

Meanwhile in the underground, N and Ash are having a deep conversation about their ideal relationships between people and Pokémon. N wants people to treat Pokémon like family like what his sisters Anthea and Concordia envisioned, and believes that there are some good in people out there just like Ash who truly love Pokémon. N has spent enough time in previous episodes to know what kind of heart Ash has toward Pokémon. However, he still thinks Pokémon would be better off without people living in peace on their own which is why he didn’t want Juniper to get his hands of the Light Stone in fear of the knowledge he’ll gain and possibly abuse it. Ash defends Juniper’s scientific research for good and believes that he just wants to learn more about Pokémon, just like how much he really wants to be good friends with all Pokémon including Reshiram. I just love N’s character so much and that I’m glad they did a slightly modified version of him from the Black & White games, still keeping his close communication with any wild Pokémon. His ideals with Ash are quite similar, but there was a clash when it comes to how other people treat Pokémon besides themselves. This why I loved their interactions so much because it was just couple of dudes having a healthy discussion/debate with something they both care about. Like in the real world, some people take advantage or abuse the things or riches benefitting them without thinking of others, and N’s truth and ideals symbolizes those real-world problems. Eventually, they did reach the surface. When, N saw Ash’s Pokémon helping their trainer trying dig their way out, he knew that maybe he should give others a chance to see if Pokémon and humans can truly co-exist like partners or family. Even Pikachu adversely overcame Colress’s device that attempted to control him, that costed Ash a bit of physical pain from trying to get to Pikachu. N saw that too, and it changed his views. This is what helped them to later on save the world from Team Plasma’s attack and and foil Ghetsis’s diabolical plans even after awakening Reshiram with the Light Stone.

Honorable mentions from this year: The farewell year of the BW series was bittersweet as we saw the conclusion of Unova League, and the bummer of Ash coming up short again, but still with a great effort. Meanwhile, Team Rocket’s Meowth thought that he could get Colress to leave Team Plasma, but to no avail. Besides getting to know N in the post-league, we got see him battle the Gym Leader Cheren! In the final stretch of this series, they were able to go to the Decolore/Decolora Islands where they had some fun adventures meeting Pokémon like a Jirachi and Beheeyem. We got some old school feels when Ash reunited with Charizard earlier on, and got a Butterfree flashback episode. Professor Oak met-up with them to catch a Rotom, and we even saw Johto’s own Clair in her updated attire searching for a rare Druddigon. Cilan had to defend his gym from an icy female trainer, plus even met another good chef in Brock after parting ways with Ash and Iris! This was turning over to Generation VI and along the way in their Decolora adventures, they met Alexa, a reporter from the Kalos region who brought her Gogoat with her. Then we get our first glimpse of the Kalos region! Remember the out of control Garchomp Ash had to save from the top of Lumiose Tower? Blaziken Mask does...we were introduced to our new buddies, Clemont, Bonnie and later on Serena who would join the group finding for her little childhood friend that helped her at camp. We got to see a fearless Froakie who chose Ash to be his trainer, and a cheekrubbing Dedenne that is under the care of Bonnie in her bag. Finally, Serena’s Rhyhorn racing background, Ash take on his first gym battle against Alexa’s sister, Viola, and Clemont trying to take back control of his gym from a malfunctioning robot. Ahh 2013...this year was the start of my first semester in college, and boy was I entertained during my breaks between classes! Also, the year where I got my “PokémonJesus” name and started being active on Pokémon forum sites.

2014: Ash vs. Korrina - an intro to Mega Evolution

September 25, 2014 The moment has finally arrived for Ash and Korrina to have their Gym battle. Korrina has been traveling with their group for a couple of episodes on route to Geosenge Town in order to learn more about Mega Evolution from her grandfather, Gurkinn. She fit it really well with the group and has a similar spunky fighting spirit with Ash. At the time, I actually thought she was going to be a permanent member of their group for a while (dang you OP) and I would have been fine with it. Their little adventure is what helped her achieve Mega Evolution with her Lucario. We already got preview of what Mega Evolution can do with the special that aired earlier on, and it is clear as day that Korrina and her Lucario are capable of handling the power of Mega Evolution, despite the earlier difficulties with controlling Mega Lucario. Now that she’s ready, you know our boy is ready to face her as well with full force!

Their 3-on-3 battle was exhilarating! Team Rocket tried to interrupt it (as usual), but luckily Clemont & Serena takes care of them before even trying to sabotage this long awaited showdown. Ash struggled a bit at first with Hawlucha attempting to use Tierno’s rhythmic battle style, but he soon later realized (thanks to Serena) that he has his own unique battle style that he should use just like he always does. Ash finally battling like himself was able to take down Korrina’s Mienfoo and Machoke easily. But Korrina still has her ace left.

Of course it was her trusted partner, Lucario whom we saw developing its strength throughout their journey towards achieving Mega Evolution. They immediately utilize their Mega Evolution, and do quick work of Ash’s Hawlucha and Fletchinder. In the final matchup, Ash sends his Pikachu to the field. At the end of the day, Mega Evolution wasn’t enough to counter Ash’s unique battling style as his Pokémon’s hard work and coordination earned him the Rumble Badge. The episode ends with the fist bump of the decade as Ash sets off to his next Gym in Kalos. Korrina to me was definitely one of the best gym leaders that they were able to significantly portray in the anime.

Honorable mentions from this year: The first full year of the XY series has been great, especially Ash traveling in a quarter for the first time since the Advanced Generation series. We saw a couple of debuts like Ash meeting his Hawlucha, Clemont catching his Chespin, and reuniting with a Luxio that turned out to be the Shinx he befriended during his childhood, Serena catching her first Pokémon in Pancham, plus her rivaly with Miette on Ash on Pokémon Performing, the gang meeting Kalos Champion Diantha, introducing new rivals in Shauna, Tierno and Trever during the summer camp episodes, Sky Battles, and the Battle Chateau. One of the more emotional episodes was the lonely Espurr in the “haunted” mansion, while one of the more creepy episodes was the evil Malamar trying to take over the world! And, I can’t forget the time where they had to meet their mirror selves in where Ash was a complete crybaby and Serena was the aggressive on in the group xD Ash also faced off against Grant in rocky gym battle, while Serena had to defeat her mother in a Skiddo race for her mother to approve her dream on becoming a Pokémon Performer. 2014 was truly a Mega year for the Pokémon anime, and the year I even joined the #pokeani fandom here on tumblr. It started with this portion of the XY series :3

Next half of this PokéAni 2010s overview to be continued on part 2 →

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