Anime Reviews and Top 10s #1

Non-anime Review

For start, I want to say that I completely forgot about my anime opening top 20 I'll be doing until recently. Now, I'm thinking of my process for doing it. I may have to wait until I have more time, but I'll still do it.

For now, I want to do my top three favorite Pokemon ____. I'll do a few on here for two reasons: 1) there are so few main storyline Pokemon games and 2) why not? The games are my childhood. I still play them to this day.

Top three Pokemon Champion themes.
1) Champion Lance theme (Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver): The original Gold and Silver games rendition of this theme is good, but with the 8-bit soundtrack of the time, it doesn't do the theme justice. It was made much better in GenIV Pokemon.

The new technology of GenIV's time, the theme was made much better, but it's most recent rendition was crap. The chords are too weird and the parts that should be loud were softer than every other part.

This edition of the theme was basically perfect compared to every other edition. It fit Lance and the battle with him perfectly. It was immediately my favorite theme when I first played Pokemon SoulSilver.

2) Champion Cynthia (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum)
This makes number 2 because the theme is just really good and suits her well, but I don't have as many good memories tied to fighting her. (She was so hard, and after going through probably the toughest Elite Four in the franchise, she's harder to beat, and there are no good spots to train around this Pokemon League. It took me forever to beat this league.)

3) Champion Blue (Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen) How could I not have the original Champion of the franchise on this list? Being the original Champion makes him one of the better ones because then, they had more ideas.

Top Three Champions
1) Champion Cynthia
Even though she was one of the toughest, I thoroughly enjoyed fighting Cynthia. The joy of beating her was great.

2) Champion Lance
The only reason he's second is because he's so easy to beat. He has only dragon-type Pokemon, making him susceptible to Ice and Dragon types, which you can find in the Ice cave after the seventh gym, which you also need for the eighth gym. Basically, you have plenty of ice types before you face him.

3) Kukui (Pokemon Sun/Moon)
I just beat this game, and boy did I love it. I know that Kukui isn't technically the champion, but facing him after a long, enjoyable journey and becoming the official first Champion of the Alola Region made it all the better. He isn't the Champion, but he's the reason you become the Champion in the end.

Top three Pokemon games
1) Pokemon Moon
At first, I was skeptical that it wouldn't be great, like Pokemon X and Y, which were good, but not great. But with it's whole new set-up, it was a lot more than what I expected. It was no longer gyms, but Island trials and Kahunas to fight. It engrossed you into this new culture that was entirely different from its predecessors.

2) Pokemon Diamond
This one was one of the first I played all the way through. I started playing Pokemon when I was five with Pokemon Yellow, Red, and Blue. Red ended up being the only one to last until today because I gave Yellow to one of my cousins, and tried taking the sticker off of Blue's cartridge, which messed it up, so I only had Red, which I still have. I never ended up beating it, but I was only five at the time and I hardly knew what I was doing. Somehow, I ended up getting to Celadon city every time (the fifth gym), and I always got through Dark Cave without the move "Flash".

But enough about that, this was the first game I beat, and the story was great. I utterly loved it that when I beat it, I wanted to start it over again.

3) Pokemon SoulSilver
This was the second one I beat, and my brother and I got this game for one main reason. One of my early Pokemon games was Pokemon Gold version, but after one game save, the whole game became corrupt and we could never save on that game again. The farthest I got in that game was through the second gym, and I made it to the area of the third gym, and this was in one go without saving. Quite impressive, right?

But going through SoulSilver and finally beating a later version of a game I played about 6 years earlier was great.

Top Three Antagonist organizations
1) Team Galactic
For start, I just need to say this. For those of you who've played this, isn't it obvious why this group is first? I mean, come on. These guys are the only ones that had any actually, quite threatening plan. Literally, use the legendaries to warp time and space itself in order to rule the galaxy.

2) Team Skull
Okay, I'm putting this group on for two reasons: 1) Their plan (not the main reason) and 2) the satire. Team Skull never seemed threatening, and in fact, I actually laughed at them. They were a Neo Team Rocket that NPCs laughed at. In the game, even the grunts made fun of themselves. Nintendo and Gamefreak themselves made satirical comments about the organization they created, and indirectly, every other antagonistic organization they made in the game. Because all of the grunts look the same, depending on gender, one grunt said, and don't quote me on this being exact, "How could he tell we were the same people? We all look the same." That just one example of personal satire in the game.

Also, the plan was decent, but not great. Basically it was exactly like Team Rocket.

3) Team Plasma
None of the others were really that good, but these guys were at least decent. I really don't have too much to say about them.