POKEMON: ADVENTURES IN THE ORANGE ISLANDS - THE "COMPLETE" COLLECTION

After finishing the Indigo League on DVD, I moved onto the Orange Islands arc, which encompasses the latter part of season 2 and early season 3, in one DVD set. It was originally released back in 2002-03 in three separate volumes, and then as a single 3-disc set in 2009, and once again as this set in 2015. Why mention these other releases? I'll touch on that in a bit.

In general, good video and audio, and hardly any extras. All of the episodes have been stripped of their Pikachu's Jukebox segment, though you can find all of those music videos in the Indigo set. Disc 1 has a POKEMON 4EVER American trailer held over from the original release. Disc one begins with a single intro theme, plays all of the individual episodes, and finishes with the ending theme. The other two discs present each episode with their own opening and ending themes.

Now, after watching this, I was looking though some info about the various "banned" episodes, when I came to the realization -- Two of the episodes were missing from this set! "Complete Collection" my ass. "Stage Fight" and "The Mandarin Island Miss Match" are both missing. And, they both coincidentally contain the Pokemon Jynx (as did an episode removed from the Indigo League, "Holiday Hi-Hynx"). This of course IS the reason they're missing, as Jynx was allegedly considered by some as a racial stereotype (you be the judge). If you want these episodes, they're on the original releases, and supposedly the 2009 set as well.

If you can overlook the absence of the two episodes, it's a pretty good set, for about $20 at Target or other retailers. But personally, I think it's really sad they're not included.

Here's a complete list of the episodes in this set:

84. A Scare In The Air
85. Pokeball Peril
86. The Lost Lapras
87. Fit To Be Tide
88. Pikachu Re-Volts
89. The Crystal Onix
90. In The Pink
91. Shell Shock
93. Bye Bye Psyduck
94. The Joy Of Pokemon
95. Navel Maneuvers
96. Snack Attack!
97. A Shipful Of Shivers
98. Meowth Rules!
99. Tracey Gets Bugged
100. A Way Off, Day Off
102. Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon?
103. Get Along, Little Pokemon
104. The Mystery Menace
105. Misty Meets Her Match!
106. Bound For Trouble
107. Charizard Chills
108. Pokemon Water War
109. Pokemon Food Fight
110. Pokemon Double Trouble
111. The Wacky Watcher
112. The Stun Spore Detour
113. Hello Pummelo
114. Enter The Dragonite
115. Viva Las Lapras
116. The Underground Round Up
117. A Tents Situation
118. The Rivalry Revival

POKEMON - INDIGO LEAGUE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION on DVD

This release has been out for a couple years, but I figured it was worth talking about, since I just binge-watched a bunch of it, not having seen most of these episodes for years. Viz Media originally issued three individual sets of 3 discs, and then this 9-disc set collecting them all on 10/28/15.

Way back in the day, Viz Media was doing as many companies releasing kids shows to home video would do, just offering a few episode per volume. It wasn't until DVD really took off that you started getting complete seasons and such in single sets. POKEMON unfortunately was one of these; Each VHS/DVD volume usually offered a mere three episodes. Fortunately, after all these years, we get the Indigo League episodes in one big set.

I was a huge POKEMON fan back then, and more of a casual fan now. I still watch the new episodes of the anime as often as possible, I play Pokemon Go, and I also saw the newest movie in a theatre in July when I was in Japan. And I unashamedly admit I had (er, still have) the biggest crush on Misty. But, more about the DVDs...

It should be noted that while it covers the Indigo League, this is technically all of season 1 and then some of 2; The Orange Islands arc comprised the rest of season 2 (available separately). They boast "The Complete Collection" -- this is not exactly true. While it does include virtually the whole run of episodes, it's missing a few of them:

Ep. 18: "Beauty and the Beach". Originally skipped due to questionable content (James in a bikini with inflatable breasts), it was later dubbed/edited and slipped into the Orange Islands arc, only airing once (to my knowledge). Sadly it does NOT appear in the Orange Islands DVD set either.

Ep. 35: "The Legend of Dratini". Never dubbed, and skipped due to gun content.

Ep. 38: "Electric Soldier Porygon". Never dubbed, this was the infamous "seizure" episode, and since its first airing in Japan has been banned even in that country.

Special 01: "Holiday Hi-Jynx". A Christmas special that ran as a regular episode in the US, it has since been "banned" due to the inclusion of the Pokemon Jynx, perceived by some as a racial stereotype.

Two other episodes and another special also are out-of-order, but this is how they originally aired in the US. Otherwise, this set contains "all 78 episodes".

Misty and Pikachu. Because... Misty.

Video is fair, nothing fantastic, looks about as good as you'd expect from 78 episodes of a 90s cartoon crammed onto 9 discs. Sound is good too, you can slightly tell the difference in quality between episodes but still sounds good. There are no subtitles.

There are no true extras to speak of, but the first six or so discs contain the full-length PokeRap at the end of each one, an essential inclusion (the VHS/DVDs of old included this as well). All of the season 2 episodes have their respective Pikachu's Jukebox (mini music videos) included at the end of each.

Packaging is fair; For the box set there three standard DVD cases with 3 discs each, in a flimsy artbox. The art for the packaging and disc menus are the standard and somewhat boring "clipart" images we've come to know over the years of the Pokemon and their trainers. Take the box cover for example, very plain, overused images of Misty and Brock, even though better stock images exist (not to mention, unlike all the other characters, their colors are flat and unshaded). Additionally, one disc uses the wrong season's Ash on the main menu.

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty good release. It's expected that three of the four missing episodes were gone, but the absence of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" is very unfortunate. You can get it at Amazon and other retailers for a really good price.

Currently, Viz has continued releasing classic seasons to DVD, with MASTER QUEST (season 5) due out 10/11/16.

SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL Available Now on BD/DVD

On August 16, Viz Media released their first Blu-ray/DVD combo set of SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL, the anime retelling of the series that's far more closely based on the original manga. When it first aired in Japan, I watched a few episodes, but held out for the eventual North American release, and it's finally here.

The standalone BD cover art.

 I had preordered the Right Stuf exclusive version, which is the limited edition but with a bonus "suncatcher" trinket. The limited edition comes with a nice artbox, seven art cards of the Sailor Guardians and Tuxedo Mask, and a booklet with art and episode information.

The first season, coined The Dark Kingdom Arc, consists of 14 episodes. I really enjoyed watching them. As a big fan of the original anime, and Sailor Moon in general, I found this to be quite different but still very good. The story in general is more tight, and gone is any sort of filler they padded out the original series with (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). Although in some ways more story is given, such as the backstories of the villains, something that was changed and pretty much eliminated in the original series. It's more serious in tone as well, leaving little room for any jokes or wackiness present in the original. Once the story arc is resolved, the end of episode 14 moves into the Black Moon plot, ending on a hell of a cliffhanger. Hopefully it won't take too long for the second season to be released here. Also I must say, the score was pretty good, a few so-so moments, but there's a handful of tracks that were pretty beautiful, although used kind of excessively.

Packaging and contents of the limited edition.

Like the classic series, Viz did a great job with the dub, all of the characters sound great and their voices match them (a couple even sound a bit similar to their original DIC dub actresses). Video and audio sound great. Subtitles for both languages are locked and you have to make your selections from the menu. There aren't many extras, but they include a "Behind The Scenes - Introduction To Sailor Moon Crystal" featurette, starring five of the voice actors and runs about 14 minutes, a US CRYSTAL trailer, clean opening and closing themes, a Viz trailer reel (including classic SAILOR MOON and SAILOR MOON R), and art galleries on both discs.

I look forward to the inevitable release of season 2, as well as the upcoming Viz release of SAILOR MOON S. You can buy CRYSTAL at The Right Stuf from the links below.

Limited Edition BD/DVD with Suncatcher
Limited Edition BD/DVD
BD/DVD
DVD