pokemon on list of worst cartoons

[zaldar]

No surprise to me and I have to say I agree.

Pokémon" had no story, only a Darwinist premise: Ash Ketchum, a young man and aspiring "Pokémon master," travels around with his pet Pikachu, advancing levels as he goes. Ash has a bunch of young friends, and they wander aimlessly, looking for adventure. As a genre, anime cartoons are held in high regard -- for character development, mature themes, complex plots and either smooth animation or really scenic backgrounds. "Pokémon" had none of these qualities. And wasn't not alone: The "Super Mario Bros." and "Pac-Man" cartoons also fell flat, which is what happens when you base a saga on a two-dimensional video game. Now just imagine "Grand Theft Auto: The Animated Series" -- that would be something.

quoted from here
http://tv.msn.com/tv/badcartoons-2?

I do worry that people who might like Lain, DBZ, or EVA and the majority of intelligent anime get turned off because they see this or DBZ. Until I got to college and was exposed to the above I though all anime was like this and laughed when ever it was brought up in conversation.

[PhilipReuben]

I would never have seen Lain or Eva (or Paranoia Agent, though I still haven't got round to watching that - I do love Satoshi Kon's movies though) if I hadn't ever seen Pokemon.

Things Pokemon has that American cartoons tend(ed) not to:

- The art style. Obviously the art in anime varies a lot, but Pokemon has a lot of the (stereo)typical characteristics - big eyes, pointy noises, big and pointy hair, and even subtler things like the low framerate and frequent use of stock footage. All of this seemed foreign and appealing.

- An ongoing story. Yeah, the ongoing story is frequently interrupted by filler episodes, but there's still a continuity to the series that means you generally couldn't rearrange the episodes and still have them make sense.

- Tie-in to a video game that was very Japanese in nature (being a turn-based RPG). It might sound strange, but it was the combination of the game and the anime (which played out like a guide to the game) that started getting me more interested in Japanese pop culture in general.

- An elusive Japanese version that was different to the dubbed version I was watching. Reading about the differences online was enlightening, and clued me into the idea that (a) Japanese TV isn't the same as American/British TV in the type of content it's allowed to show, and (b) certain other things I'd seen on TV were modified and dubbed versions of Japanese cartoons as well. (Of course, I realise in retrospect that the differences are really very slight, and that Pokemon in English is far closer to its source than most other 4Kids-style dubs.)

All of the above made me long for more Japanese animation. My interest progressed from there.

[mrgazpacho]

There's also a discussion over in Off-Topic: Pokemon and Transformers on List of Worst Cartoons Ever (http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/22165/)