Show: Pokémon

Genre: Fantasy

Creator: Satoshi Tajiri/Shopro

Company: Viz

DVD Info: 211+ episodes, 83+ DVD's

Summary: This series focuses on Ash Ketchum, a boy who aspires to be an expert Pokémon trainer. He captures and trains Pokémon to fight for prizes. He must also match wits with other trainers. He must also battle the evil Team Rocket, who wants to exploit Pokémon for evil purposes.

The Good: This series teaches good values such as friendship and trying your best. The characters are admirable and the series is very humorous.

The Bad: Thanks to the anti-Harry Potter crowd, this series has received some bad PR. Some Christian fundamentalists think it will corrupt children, giving it an undeserved bad image. It’s more innocent than they make it out to be.

Offensive Material: None. The only controversy this show has even deserved is that in Japan, the original version was causing convulsions because it was so flashy (sort of like how video games can cause convulsions in some epileptics).

Overall: This series is a great anime to start your children with. There’s nothing to corrupt the children.

My Review: (out of 4): 3.0 Age Rating: A (All Ages)

Note: Pokémon is based on the video games created by Nintendo. There are also comics published by Viz and five theatrical movies on home video and DVD.