Audience:	G
	Genre:	Comedy/Adventure
	Usual Running Time:	30 min. per episode
	Average Cost:	Available on TV and video
	Contains:	A tiny bit of fighting (pokemon battles)
	Rating:	B

Based on the best-selling Game Boy Classic and fast-becoming a popular craze in Japan and the U.S. The Pokemon Anime (about cute creatures with combative powers.) is aimed at very young audiences, but it provides a quality anime that is enjoyable for ages young and old.

Our young hero, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in the Japanese Version) just turned 10 years old, so now he can finally follow his dream of becoming the world's greatest Pokemon Master. But things start out very rough for Ash, he manages to be late on the first day of training and misses out on the first 3 Pokemon available to beginners. Instead, he gets an electric mouse named Pikachu, who's less than willing to cooperate with Ash. He now starts an epic quest of finding and catching all 150 Pokemon that are known to exist. Along the way, he meets Misty, who wants to become a great water Pokemon Master, and the skirt-chasing Brock, who wants to become a Pokemon breeder. Along their journey, they meet many people and Pokemon, and learn what iot truly takes to become a Pokemon Master, all while foiling the dastardly deeds of Team Rocket. (Pokemon kidnappers.)

You probably have to be dead or out of it as aznwolfe mentions, if you never heard of Pokemon. Other than the insane marketing craze around the world, that harkens back to the days of 80's cartoons.(You can't live through one day without seeing Pikachu's face.) It's so insanely popular that i'm about to say that Pokemon is evil, if the show wasn't so damn good. And it is. Pokemon is one anime that deserves it's popularity. As cute as the show is (it never gets teeth rottingly cute like Digimon.) , it manages to appeal to everyone, kids, adults and anime otaku, without insulting the intellegence of the audience. One reason is because of the characters, whom you always manage to root for(even the villains!)and are never uninteresting. The Pokemon themselves steal the show as well. Especially Pikachu, who is way more independent than other anime creatures(such as Ryo-ohki) he isn't just there like other anime, and he becomes quite an important character in the show. Plus, the never forgettable Lassie-style bond between him and Ash. The human characters are a highlight as well, the main hero, Ash suffers plenty of defeats(especially at the hands of his rival, Gary, who's so popular he has cheerleaders hanging around him.), but it's his never give up attitude that keeps him at the top. Brock keeps the role as a skirt-chaser who comes onto every pretty woman she meets. Most of the humor came from the so-called villains, Team Rocket.(Jesse, James, and Meowth) Who are hilarious, especially after each defeat. This tends to become quite repetitive, but it's so funny we never grow tired of them. Oddly, Meowth seems to be the only Pokemon endowed with the gift of gab, in which he always makes snide remarks. Also, the humor has plenty of Japanese references, but it's nothing that will fly past younger viewers. Each episode is very well written as well.

The animation is good, the character design is kept fairly simple, but are very well done.(much better than the flat unimpressive Digimon) and the Pokemon battles are very well animated and done in the true anime style(it also manages to have some humorous results.) The animation isn't the best, but everything is very colorful. The music score is great as well, probably the best heard in a syndicated U.S. show. (Most of it is taken from the game.) Also, each episode has a Poke-rap, which mentions all 150 Pokemon. It's so good it kept me searching for a soundtrack(not that 2BA Master junk.) The dubbing is very high quality and spot on. It matched each character extremely well and can actually be preferable to the subtitled version.(Although there isn't one available yet.) Even the original Japanese Pokemon voices were retained. The American actors play their parts well and it's obvious that they care about them.

Pokemon harkens back to the days of Robotech and Voltron, where such shows kept us riveted to the screen, with no idea of it's true origin. Pokemon is one of the best shows currently on TV for children, and any other audience as well. While it isn't at the quality of say, Neon Genesis Evangelion, it's a good show, and every episode isn't worth missing. You gotta catch it all.

Image not created by me. Viz/Nintendo/4Kids. Review by Rashad Moore. July 99.