Pokemon Master Journeys Part 1 Review – Peaks and Valleys

It seems like it’s been an eternity since Pokemon Journeys “ended” on Netflix. While Pokemon Master Journeys was announced soon enough after, you honestly have to wonder why they didn’t just keep the whole thing one title like they do in Japan. Oh well, it must be a marketing thing. Now that we’re in the”second phase” of the show, you would hope that the creative team would have their act together and know what to do and what not to, right? Well…not as such.

I’ll start off with the positives, ok? Because like before, there were 12 episodes released of part 1, and there were some good spots in that bunch. Including the “evolution” of a certain character…

It’s…Chloe!!!!

Yep, throughout Pokemon Journeys, I noted that Chloe’s character had little to no growth. Still, thankfully, within just a few episodes, Pokemon Master Journeys gives her a lot, and a big part of it is her first truly caught Pokemon via Eevee. The two make a fun team, and Eevee gives her the courage and desire to seek out her own adventures alongside Goh and Ash in the Pokemon world. It adds a fun dynamic to the show instead of making her feel like a side note from before. She honestly has three episodes of the set dedicated to her, and that was pretty impressive.

Another big positive was a few “mini-arcs,” if you will, that happened this season. One was obviously Chloe and her growth. But the other was Ash, and his Farfetch’d. They had three episodes dedicated to them as they focused on the Pokemon’s desire to be stronger. The final episode featured Ash and Farfetch’d connecting in such a way that it evolves into a Sirfetch’d. A really cool moment.

A somewhat more hilarious moment was the fossil episode, where both Ash and Goh get a Galar fossil Pokemon…and reveal how the Pokemon get a bit…jigsawed, if you will. It was good to see the two get a Fossil Pokemon because Goh has been getting all the Poke-Luck (which I’ll discuss soon…).

Regarding Goh, his big moment was learning how to handle his Sobble, teaching it a special battle technique that was honestly really clever and very Ash-like in creativeness. Goh isn’t on Ash’s level, obviously, but it’s good that he’s learning to bond with his Pokemon beyond just catching and feeding them.

Sadly…that’s honestly where the good stuff mostly stops. Mainly, because there were good elements scattered throughout most of the episodes, including a beautifully rendered episode featuring Tanglewood Forest in Galar and the special Ponyta and Rapidash there. However, even within that episode…there were some key flaws…mainly with the storytelling.

One of the biggest problems with Pokemon Master Journeys and Pokemon Journeys before it is that it sometimes “skirts the rules” of Pokemon as a whole in order to deliver an “easily digestible” product. Mainly in how Goh tries to catch EVERYTHING…and is successful 99% of the time. This continues in Master Journeys to frustrating effect.

Case in point, at one point, Ash and Goh accidentally anger a Boldore, which is a Rock-Type Pokemon. Goh uses his Cinderace (a Fire-Type) and uses Quick Atack (a Normal-Type move) on it. Despite all logic saying otherwise, Boldore was damaged enough by this attack to get caught with a single Pokeball throw.

Anyone who plays the Pokemon game KNOWS that Normal-Type moves do the LEAST amount of damage to Rock-Type Pokemon. But the anime…doesn’t care.

Oh, and that Tanglewood episode? While it was beautiful, it didn’t make sense how the Ponyta connected with Chloe, who was REGIONS away. Then they tried to play it like “it was a dream” and then revealed it wasn’t so…what was the point of the fake twist?

There was even an episode where they honestly didn’t answer the main question of the plot! In “How Are Ya Gonna Keep’Em Off The Farm,” the trio is sent to a farmer in need who has a Diglett and Dugtrio problem. They’re causing having in the fields, and the three have to discover why…and yet…they don’t. They claim it was Team Rocket, and yet, Team Rocket says they didn’t get there until AFTER the three showed up…so…how does that work?

They also did another “half-story” episode which featured both a reference to Katamari Damacy (kid you not) and an episode featuring shell-Pokemon…moving slowly…ok…

But the biggest flaw in this episode featured this Pokemon…

Suicune is one of the most beloved Pokemon in the entire roster, so showing up in Pokemon Master Journeys is not a bad thing. What WAS a bad thing was how they turned this Legendary Dog into a pushover… which could be captured by a SINGLE Pokeball being thrown. Really?

I went REALLY deep into this in the latest episode of the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, but to sum up my argument quickly, Suicune was caught by Goh with no effort on his part. After getting heavily damaged by Pokemon we all KNOW it could beat easily (as seen in Pokemon’s Johto saga) and again, was caught by ONE Pokeball being thrown at it. That’s an insult to both Suicune and the intelligence of Pokemon fans.

Do recall, that Goh fought a Zapdos, actually damaged it, and the legendary Pokemon DESTROYED the Pokeball instead of being captured. So why didn’t Suicune do that?

Furthermore, in another frustrating episode, a Grookey that was owned by Team Rocket destroyed its own Pokemon to get captured by Goh. So apparently, Pokemon have the ability to destroy Pokeballs…and yet Suicune didn’t think to do that when it didn’t want to get owned by Goh? It was very confusing, very frustrating…and frankly…Ash should’ve been the one to catch Suicune due to its story with it in both the TV show and the movies.

I don’t like harping on this show because when it works, it does work beautifully, but as these episodes, in particular, showed, when the quality isn’t put into every single episode? It really…really…shows.