>>49955762i started it in japanese recently and its been great, just got to primeape
if you've read about takeshi shudo's vision for the show, how ash was meant to fail as a trainer but have fun on the way, (which is why the battles in indigo league are mostly afterthoughts,) and the lore on how poke-society works, separating it all from the 4kids wackiness makes it come across a lot clearer
ash and brock become far more interesting, misty less so as she was forced by execs and they had no female writers, and the setting becomes more plainly "dystopic, low-budget poke-japan"
also i think "monster ball" is a way better name than "poke ball"
i've heard that the tone changes around erika, when pokemania happened and they had to keep the wheels spinning with a shitload of filler until gold and silver came out, but the first stretch of 20ish episodes has been wonderful in jp and i'm gonna stick it out to the end of johto (hoping the guy who subbed indigo and orange islands has subbed johto by then)
