Pokemon Master Journeys Part 2 Review – Middling Adventures

If you recall, when I reviewed Pokemon Master Journeys Part 1 I was…pretty harsh on it. Not the least of which was that it felt that it took leaps and bounds in some ways…and it completely backpedaled in others. So when Part 2 came out (and I found out that this part had 15 episodes compared to the previous 12 episodes per part) I was really hoping that Pokemon Master Journeys Part 2 would really bounce back. Sadly…not so much.

As noted, Pokemon Master Journeys Part 2 has 15 episodes, which is a break from before, and thus means we get more Pokemon adventures! Which usually…I’d be all for. I really do love Pokemon when it’s done right. Just look at my Pokemon Legends Arceus review for proof of that. But once again, this was more about the inconsistent adventures of Ash, Goh and Chloe than anything else.

Once again, I’ll start off with the positive. For example, the last two episodes were great! This was the long-teased reunion with Dawn. But instead of playing it “straight” if you will, it took a fun turn by having Chloe go off on her own mini-vacation (thanks to her absent-minded father…) and run into Dawn who taught her the difference between going on a journey and letting the journey just happen to you. Furthermore, we got a really cool mini-arc featuring Darkrai (one of my all-time favorite Pokemon) and Cresselia and how they have a bond that goes beyond what many Pokemon have. Dawn is going to be hanging around more based on spoilers I’ve heard, so I can’t wait to see how she and Ash reconnect.

Speaking of which, another highlight was the fun battle between Ash and the new Unova champion Iris. Seeing her “evolved form” was fun, as was her new “connection” with Dragon-Type Pokemon. This led to a very fun battle starring Ash’s Dragonite and my only complaint was that they didn’t hang out more.

Sadly, the rest of the episodes made me feel like Drizzile…

Yep, it’s sad, but that’s how I felt. Mainly because while Part 1 of Pokemon Master Journeys could honestly be said to have a bunch of mini-arcs (like with Sirfetch’d evolving), this one…didn’t outside of the ending episodes and technically one other set that I’ll get to later. In fact, the episodes were so all over the place (and repetitive in others) that it made everything harder to enjoy.

For example, episodes 1, 3, and 4 of the season were very much filler episodes. One involving a “Pokemon Service Business”, another being about Eevee’s non-evolution status (which was already covered before), and then yet another tale about a Pokemon (in this case Absol) being misunderstood and Ash/Goh having to help it. Add to that, after the Iris episode (which was episode 5), we had two episodes basically focused on Team Rocket trying to “calm down” Morpeko (with terrible results as you would expect). Pikachu getting arrested by a “determined detective” was dumb on all fronts.  An episode about Goh and Chloe being “worried parents” about their Pokemon, and more.

While these episodes (most of them anyway) aren’t bad on their own, many of them were ones we’d seen before in certain ways and had incredibly predictable, and sometimes dumb outcomes. Including the Absol episode where it was revealed that Absol had been protecting a certain part of Hoenn for a long time…and yet…it decides to abandon its duty because Goh just so happened to catch it “on accident”…again. That’s two Pokemon that got caught like that and made similar choices for the record.

And as for the Drizzile episode, that one played out much like Raboot’s evolution where it had a totally different personality than before, and thus Goh wasn’t sure what to make of it and had to “adapt” to meet its Pokemon’s needs. If this hadn’t happened with Raboot this would’ve been fine. But instead, it came off as something we had once again seen before.

In another episode, the team gets lost and “Mixed up” in a tunnel system made by Durant with Team Rocket. And naturally, each of the groups had to work together to get out. One of these pairings was Meowth and Chloe, where Meowth had the “revelation” that he liked how nice Chloe was and thus wanted her to catch him…it was dumb. Mainly because we have seen Meowth fall for other trainers and then always end up back with Team Rocket. And we KNEW he wasn’t going to be with Chloe, so what was the point?

My other really big problem with this season was the inconsistency of the characters at times. Once again, Ash went from at times knowing certain Pokemon (like Darkrai) to then reacting with, “Is that a…? when we KNOW he’s seen/owned some of those Pokemon below. But the worst one, once again, was Goh.

One of the ‘mini-arcs’ was that of Goh being told about “Project Mew”. A group of “chasers” is trying to learn more about Mew because it might be the key to learning all about Pokemon. In their minds at least. Anyway, finding and catching Mew is his whole journey. Then, when he learns about it from Gary, he literally says the following:

“I’m not a team player” as well as, “doing missions that someone else gives me isn’t my thing”.

Except…and hear me out here…THAT IS LITERALLY HIS JOB!!!! Yes, when we first met him in Pokemon Journeys, he wasn’t a team player and didn’t like doing things for other people. But in literally every episode since, he’s learned about what it means to be a team player, and he takes missions from Professor Cerise on the regular! So how are you not a “team player” nor someone who “takes other people’s missions” when you’ve been traveling all over the Pokemon world for presumably months now (based on the weather in the episodes) and haven’t had a problem with it before? Very maddening.

As was the continued effort to give Goh all the chances to catch Pokemon without battling them. Including a Durant that “ran away” right as the team was in the episode mentioned before, Absol, Pidgeotto, and more. And then, when doing an episode with Phalanx, he decides randomly to NOT capture it…and the Pokemon decides to go with him anyway! Why didn’t he want to capture it? I don’t know!

There were other inconsistencies as well. Including the first Gary episode where Ash’s old Infernape wants to battle Moltres, and does just that…then all of a sudden stops doing so mid-battle and we don’t learn why. Or in a “Project Mew” episode where a Regiice (another Pokemon Ash has seen before yet somehow didn’t recognize) randomly shows up, and despite a certain new trainer having it pinned…decides to NOT capture it despite wanting to get it for data for Project Mew. So…why bring it in at all?

Finally, and arguably most importantly, Ash and Goh are revealed to be both 10 years old, multiple times. How is that possible? No, really, how is that possible? Especially when Dawn notes to Chloe that she’s traveled all over the Pokemon world to do contests AFTER her journey with Ash and Brock? Does time not work the same way there????

To be clear, there were some things to like about Pokemon Master Journeys Part 2, but the bad outweighs the good and there was a definite filler-feel to many of these episodes instead of truly diving into what makes the Pokemon world so great like previous parts and series did.