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Anyway, onto the next part of the Anime recap, I'll do it a little differently this time

First of all, Dawn - AKA generic Misty replacement number 2. Dawn is from Twinleaf Town (unlike May, who was from Petalburg, not Littleroot) and knows straight away she wants to be a coordinator and not a trainer in the sense that Ash is, as her mother won a grand festival. The problem is, unlike May, who got into her stride quite quickly, Dawn sucks and has only won 2 ribbons out of the 5 contests she entered so far. (May had 3 at this point). After an unknown situation on the boat from Kanto to Sinnoh, Team Rocket made off with Pikachu (who escaped from them) but ran into Dawn. Pikachu was the first thing Dawn saw and tried to capture it (as it was tired) but TR soon emerged from the bushes to catch Pikachu, but they got owned, and Pikachu ended up destroying Dawn's bike, too.

Anyway, a brief synopsis of Dawn's Pokemon

*Piplup - Dawn's starter has got to be one of the best anime Pokemon ever personality-wise. It can be so passionate when it dissaproves of something and has the cutest voice. Piplup started off much the same way as Pikachu, not trusting Dawn's abilities. But now the two get along and it spends most of the time out of its Pokeball

*Buneary - I still haven't seen a lot of the early DP episodes, as I'm still watching Battle Frontier for the first time, but Buneary doesn't make many appearances and if not for Dawn's almost obsessive desire to catch one from the 2nd episode onwards, I don't know why she even bothered

*Pachirisu - A squirrel with ADD, it doesn't have Pikachu's electric pwnage but has still managed to get team rocket out of the way once in a while

*Buizel - Traded to Ash, see below

*Aipom/Ambipom - Traded from Ash, Ambipom went from being the cute, michevious Aipom who was either gay or female (the latter turned out to be the case) and wanted to be in contests rather than in Gym Battles, to this ugly giant Aipom with two tails and a really scratchy dubbed voice. I hate Ambipom.

*Swinub - Has not yet appeared in the English version, but likes to eat a lot.

Ash has once again decided not to bring any Pokemon, however Aipom stowed away on the boat as revealed at the end of last season. So he's going in with two Pokemon... which came in handy when Pikachu was kidnapped. Anyway, Ash's Pokemon have gone from being awesome (like Swellow and Sceptile and Donphan) to being babies again. Meanwhile, Ash also has a new rival, Paul. Who is the epitome of asshole. Anyway, Ash's new Pokemon are...

*Starly/Staravia - Same deal as Pidgeotto/Swellow. Not as awesome as Swellow, though. It evolved while saving a bunch of bird Pokemon that TR tried to capture

*Turtwig - Has that never-say-die sort of attitude that Corphish had, but isn't quite as annoying.

*Chimchar - Ash caught it after Paul released it. Had a morbid fear of Zangooses and managed to use Blaze (the fire-type starter ability) which impressed Paul enough to save and capture it. Was never able to use it again and when Paul realised beating down on Chimchar wasn't working, he released it and Ash offered it a place on his team.

*Buizel - Was the opposite of Aipom in that it was more interested in competitive battling than contests so Ash and Dawn made the trade. Easily Ash's most badass Pokemon at the moment

*Gligar/Gliscor - One of a gang of Gligar that invaded a city, the one Ash caught was really slow, couldn't fly properly and kept landing on his face when trying to escape with the rest of it's group. Became attatched to Ash when the rest of the Gligar were led out of the city, so Ash kept it. Meanwhile Paul had more ambitious goals and caught the Gliscor that was leading them, instead. In an episode not yet aired, Ash's Gligar evolved so it could save him (or something). In the opening credits, Ash's Gliscor is still smaller than Paul's

Brock: After leaving Ash at the end of Battle Frontier, he rejoined Ash in Sinnoh while Ash was still trying to find Pikachu. Brock's pretty much still the same as before, but unlike Hoenn, he actually has a proper rock Pokemon again. He left Ludicolo, Marshtomp and Forretress at the Pewter Gym

*Bonsly/Sudowoodo: The Bonsly Brock caught in the Battle Frontier evolved when Brock and Bonsly were kidnapped by TR. It's pretty awesome but only makes sparodic appearances

*Croagunk: Croagunk is teh awesomness. It's a pretty decent battler and has replaced Max as the character who attacks Brock when he gets horny

*Happiny: Finally exploring the 'breeder' side of Brock, he won a Happiny egg in a dress-up contest and has taken care of it since it's hatched. It doesn't battle but has really awesome strength (being able to lift up hundreds of pounds of cinder blocks at once in one episode)


As mentioned above, Ash's new rival Paul is a disgrace of a human being. He releases Pokemon depending on what moves he catches them with, and treats them like shit. For example, he got all of his others to attack Chimchar so it could use Blaze. Most of Paul's Pokemon are those really intimidating types. He's been seen with an Electabuzz, Honchkrow, Torterra, Ursaring, Magmar, Gliscor and Weavile, as well as countless Pokemon which he released soon after capture.

Team Rocket: As awesome as ever, though the number of Pokemon they have seems to dwindle as they go on. James gave Cacnea to Gardenia so it could learn Drain Punch, and Jessie released Dustox in a similar fashion to Ash and Butterfree. Before releasing Dustox however, Jessie won her first (and so far only) official Pokemon contest. Meowth, Wobbuffet, Seviper and Mime Jr still remain from previous seasons. New Pokemon include...

*James's Carnivine: The first Pokemon James caught (except maybe Growlie) became loving grass-type number three andJames's main battler after he retrieved its Pokeball from one of his summer homes. Cacnea took a back to Carnivine until they parted. I like Carnivine, but I still prefer Cacnea and Victreebell

*Jessie's Yanma/Yanmega: Captured after another trainer weakened it, Yanma originally went to Giovanni, but he deemed it too weak and sent it back. Jessie then kept it and it evolved that very episode.

Dawn's rivals include Zoey, a tomboyish chick who is a far better coordinator than Dawn, and beat Dawn in her first contest. And Kenny, a childhood friend.

May also made a return for 'The Wallace Cup'. A contest in which the ribbon could be used for any region. It was shown that May had already won three Johto ribbons in the time that Dawn won just one. Somehow, Dawn still won the Wallace cup. While May didn't have any new Pokemon, most of them have evolved, with Bulbasaur having evolved into Venusaur, Squirtle into Wartortle and Eevee into Glaceon.

I liked how they added more inter-generational evolutions in DP. All they added in RSE were Wynaut and Azurill, but now some of the awesomest Pokemon have even awesomer (although sometimes uncalled for) evolutions. Sneasel, Misdreavus, Murkrow and Electabuzz (not so much Magmar) all have super-cool evos now.