Pokemon TV on Pokemon.com

[Linkachu]

Recently I've been discovering the joy that is Pokemon.com's Pokemon TV. For those who've never looked into it, it's a section on the website where you can watch a selection of dubbed Pokemon Anime episodes from each saga. While they don't host every episode at all times, the service continuously cycles through each saga adding 5 new episodes and removing 5 older episodes every Friday. I assume it works the same outside of North America but don't quote me on that.

Since you can't yet buy every season of every dubbed saga in DVD boxsets the service is great for me. The quality of the videos isn't the best but I can't complain when they're both legal and free to watch. My Hoenn DVD collection only covers season 1 and now I've been able to rewatch season 2 with my younger sisters, neither of which who've seen those episodes before. I was also able to show them how Ash caught Cyndaquil and when Charizard first left. The latter is still bloody heartwretching.

I'm hoping to keep up with the Hoenn episodes from here on out until they hit the Battle Frontier. If anything, it's a nice walk down memory lane.

So... do any of you also use Pokemon TV, or have you used it in the past?

 

[PokeGirlPraure]

Not really - I've always watched old episodes on Pokemon Episodes, ever since they stopped airing Hoenn saga in Lithuania. I may have used it a few times, but I remember I got angry at it for some reason...

 

[Linkachu]

Not really - I've always watched old episodes on Pokemon Episodes, ever since they stopped airing Hoenn saga in Lithuania. I may have used it a few times, but I remember I got angry at it for some reason...

Nice. I didn't know about that one.

That said, I purposely seek out legal alternatives these days whenever they're available (hence why I've chosen to use Pokemon TV over other websites). Not only do I like supporting the businesses that I care about, it makes me feel better doing so.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Not only do I like supporting the businesses that I care about, it makes me feel better doing so.

They might also get the hint that providing the content themselves means they can profit on the advertising served with it, rather than the random billion other video upload sites online.

But then, that would involve some sensibility coming into the equation here.

Anyways, I can confirm that this is available outside of the Americas (which, at least, IS some sensibility coming into play) - however, compatibility is rubbish, since it requires Flash (thus, no playing it on your tablet or phone unless you put up/have a device that can go with Flash on Android), and the quality is pretty poor so as to make it look like ass in full screen on even a relatively small monitor like mine.

The latest episodes are produced in glorious 1080p HD quality, so it's kinda rubbish, really, that they don't make the opportunity to share those here. Especially since we can't actually get the latest episodes in HD over here as there aren't any HD kids channels.

But, still, these are minor gripes given that it's a free service. I'd prefer an effort to put the entire run onto Netflix, though. I think we can give up hope of a decent global printing of DVDs or Blu-Rays, but there's no real excuse for a lack of Netflix.

 

[precita]

I wish all episodes could be officially online streamed. The series now has a total of 750 episodes, which means many people have either:

a) Missed a large chunk of the series, especially little kids who weren't even born when the early seasons aired. Hell, kids of today were too young and haven't even seen Hoenn, let alone Kanto or Johto.

or

b) Seen many episodes only once that they barely remember the episode.


Also its funny because after all these years, you notice your opinion changes on old episodes or characters when you rewatch them. Several old episodes I hated when they originally aired...I actually ended up liking quite a bit now that I rewatch them.

Also its nice seeing some of Ash's old friends again. At this point of the anime we know Misty, May and Brock probably won't ever appear again, so its nice to relive some of their old moments.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Like Praure, I mostly used Pokemonepisodes to watch different episodes. Although for some reason they don't have one of my favorite episodes of all time (the link is broken)--part two of Paul beating Ash's face in a full battle.

But I digress.

I do love services like this because it lets me pick and choose which episodes to watch. The era of me having to watch every single episode of Pokemon died somewhere around the end of Hoenn. At any rate, I wouldn't ever be able to catch the episodes as they air on TV anymore anyway. As Katie said, the fact that it's legal is even sweeter. I really don't like doing illegal stuff to watch the shows I like and generally avoid it. Not to mention this laptop would probably die of I torrented anything. And as Alex said, Netflix would hands down be the best option. The idea of watching Pokemon on my 3DS/phone is pretty awesome ♥

 

[precita]

I actually started rewatching the entire series back in 2011 and I am up to mid-Sinnoh again. While the show has had some dire episodes it's surpriseing to see the anime remains consistently enjoyable throughout every saga.

Admittedly most of Johto is still pretty bad at least until Master Quest, and AG's biggest flaw was the Team Magma/Aqua fiasco, especially the finale, but ignoring its problems
I can still sit through every arc.

It's a shame though when you rewatch the earlier seasons you remember when Brock used to be a good character before they absolutely killed him in DP. I had forgotten I once liked Brock before the DP series ruined his character. A similar thing happens with Misty in Johto, she doesn't even feel like "Misty" anymore, but like a random one dimensional character who just held a Togepi in her arms.

It seemed to me the writers handle all the newer characters better, a lot more than the older ones. If there's one thing that has improved its the main character handling and their Pokemon over the years.

 

[Secad MS]

I've only watched a few sporadic episodes in my lifetime, thanks to many factors such as school and never catching it at the right time. I've seen many on the 'On Demand' bonus on my cable subscription, but it gets continually changed in order to get the cheapest price.

 

[theluckystar]

I only started to use it recently when episode one of season one was up. I wanted to re-watch for old times sake. I also plan on watching the other seasons as well after i'm done with season one. I love that this service is available to us Pokemon fans! So helpful!