ARUN ARAVIND
New member
Okay, i know that the topic of this thread doesn't seem to make much sense. Some of you might be thinking "wut, what do these shows have in common that justifies an entire thread dedicated to comparing them?". Well here is what im thinking: Pok?mon was basically the TMNT of the late 90's-early 00's, or conversely, TMNT was basically the Pok?mon of the late 80's,-early 90's. They were both:
* Extremely popular fads among children of their time
* Based on eariler incarnations in other media (in TMNT's case, the original Mirage comics, in Pok?mons case, the original Nintendo games)
* Heavily merchandise-driven (in fact, they were both but one cog in a giant wheel of a franchise)
* They both belong to a sort of "lighthearted adventure/comedy for children" genre.
* Despite thier massive popularity among children, they were/are generally considered to be of pretty poor quailty among most adult animation fans.
So yup, there you have it. Of course, the first and foremost reason i wanted to make this thread if because this question is something i have been thinking about for some time now, and i am really curious to see what others have to say about it.
Naturally, with both these shows pretty much being the definition of childhood among certain generations, any evaluation of them is extremely likely to fall victim to the old "nostalgia glases". Anyone who grew up with TMNT is quite likely to proclaim that show supperior without flinching, and vice versa for anyone who grew up with Pok?mon. The most neutral judge between the shows would probably be someone who was already an adult by the time both shows premiered. However, i like to think that i perhapes belong to at least the second best age group when it comes to give these shows a fair comparasion, since i belong to the generation that grew up with both shows. Being born in 1986, TMNT belongs to the early part of my childhood and Pok?mon belongs to the last few years of it. So i guess you could say that i have a nostalgic bias towards both the shows, which should cancel each other out, right? :sweat:
Anyway, after watching a whole lot of episodes of these toons recently, i have come to the conclusion that neither one can be called a good show by any stretch. They are both bland and highly repetative, and features dialoge peppered with exposition and horribly lame puns. Nevertheless, here is what each respective show has got going for it in comparassion to the other:
TMNT has:
* Characters with a lot more personailty than the characters in Pok?mon does. Each major character in TMNT has his own distinct personailty, and it's usually a pretty likeable one. Many characters in Pok?mon however (inluding it's mian hero, Ash, which is a very bad sign) truly has, as the Nostalgia Critic pointed out, "the personailty of sandpaper". For instance, appart from when he glomps over ladies, anything said by Brock feels like it might as well have been said by whatever female concubine Ash has traveling with him at the moment.
* More catchy background music. Not that Pok?mon's music is bad though.
Pok?mon has
* Better continuity. Whereas TMNT is, much like most American 80's cartoons, absolutely littered with plot wholes, Pok?mon is actually pretty free of these.
* More consistant animation. As is common in anime, the characters in Pok?mon tend to at least stay in model regardless of how limited the animation is otherwise. TMNT on the other hand... oh lord. However, the bright color scheme in both shows makes them a delight to look at (even when they their content makes the brain want to gag
).
So that's my little mini-review. An all in all, i'd say that the better show is... Pok?mon. Not by much, but yeah. The main reason for this is that TMNT just has so many obvious mistakes in it. Story-wise with it's endless plotholes and deus-ex-machimas, and look-wise with it's of ever-so-often of-model characters, as well as coloring-and lip-synching mistakes. All in all, the blandness of TMNT seems to stem from the makers of the show simply not caring that much about it. Every other episode feels like something the producers threw together in about two hours the day before it aired. Pok?mon however seems more, well, "bland by design", if that makes any sense. It's like, yeah, it's not very exciting nor very funny, but at least the people behind it make sure that Ash and Co doesn't aquire some kind of "can transport people to other dimensions at will"-machine in one episode and then forgett about it in the next, you know?
* Extremely popular fads among children of their time
* Based on eariler incarnations in other media (in TMNT's case, the original Mirage comics, in Pok?mons case, the original Nintendo games)
* Heavily merchandise-driven (in fact, they were both but one cog in a giant wheel of a franchise)
* They both belong to a sort of "lighthearted adventure/comedy for children" genre.
* Despite thier massive popularity among children, they were/are generally considered to be of pretty poor quailty among most adult animation fans.
So yup, there you have it. Of course, the first and foremost reason i wanted to make this thread if because this question is something i have been thinking about for some time now, and i am really curious to see what others have to say about it.
Naturally, with both these shows pretty much being the definition of childhood among certain generations, any evaluation of them is extremely likely to fall victim to the old "nostalgia glases". Anyone who grew up with TMNT is quite likely to proclaim that show supperior without flinching, and vice versa for anyone who grew up with Pok?mon. The most neutral judge between the shows would probably be someone who was already an adult by the time both shows premiered. However, i like to think that i perhapes belong to at least the second best age group when it comes to give these shows a fair comparasion, since i belong to the generation that grew up with both shows. Being born in 1986, TMNT belongs to the early part of my childhood and Pok?mon belongs to the last few years of it. So i guess you could say that i have a nostalgic bias towards both the shows, which should cancel each other out, right? :sweat:
Anyway, after watching a whole lot of episodes of these toons recently, i have come to the conclusion that neither one can be called a good show by any stretch. They are both bland and highly repetative, and features dialoge peppered with exposition and horribly lame puns. Nevertheless, here is what each respective show has got going for it in comparassion to the other:
TMNT has:
* Characters with a lot more personailty than the characters in Pok?mon does. Each major character in TMNT has his own distinct personailty, and it's usually a pretty likeable one. Many characters in Pok?mon however (inluding it's mian hero, Ash, which is a very bad sign) truly has, as the Nostalgia Critic pointed out, "the personailty of sandpaper". For instance, appart from when he glomps over ladies, anything said by Brock feels like it might as well have been said by whatever female concubine Ash has traveling with him at the moment.
* More catchy background music. Not that Pok?mon's music is bad though.
Pok?mon has
* Better continuity. Whereas TMNT is, much like most American 80's cartoons, absolutely littered with plot wholes, Pok?mon is actually pretty free of these.
* More consistant animation. As is common in anime, the characters in Pok?mon tend to at least stay in model regardless of how limited the animation is otherwise. TMNT on the other hand... oh lord. However, the bright color scheme in both shows makes them a delight to look at (even when they their content makes the brain want to gag
). So that's my little mini-review. An all in all, i'd say that the better show is... Pok?mon. Not by much, but yeah. The main reason for this is that TMNT just has so many obvious mistakes in it. Story-wise with it's endless plotholes and deus-ex-machimas, and look-wise with it's of ever-so-often of-model characters, as well as coloring-and lip-synching mistakes. All in all, the blandness of TMNT seems to stem from the makers of the show simply not caring that much about it. Every other episode feels like something the producers threw together in about two hours the day before it aired. Pok?mon however seems more, well, "bland by design", if that makes any sense. It's like, yeah, it's not very exciting nor very funny, but at least the people behind it make sure that Ash and Co doesn't aquire some kind of "can transport people to other dimensions at will"-machine in one episode and then forgett about it in the next, you know?