Pokémon the Series: Black and White


 * For the Overseas dub of Season 14 see Pokémon: Black & White.

Pokémon: Best Wishes! (ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュ！, Poketto Monsutā Besuto Uisshu!) is the 4th and newest series of the Pokémon anime. Pokémon: Best Wishes! in Japan, premiered in September 2010. TV Tokyo announced that the season will cover the main protagonist Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu's adventures in the new region Unova. As always, the past female companion of Ash, Dawn, has left the series, and is being replaced by a girl named Iris. Iris is revealed to have a Axew, who oddly, lives in her hair. For an unexpected change, Brock seems to have left the series permanently, and is replaced by a new boy named Cilan, who is also a Gym Leader. Team Rocket are still in the series, and new antagonists will appear in the form of crime syndicate Team Plasma. Team Plasma is after the Legendary Duo Reshiram and Zekrom, similar to how other villainous teams went after the Legendary Pokémon in their respective regions. Ash will also have a new set of clothing based on Pokémon Black and White's male player character's design.

This series is called Pokémon: Best Wishes! in Japan. In short Pokémon BW (it also can be coined as Pokémon Black and White). Like every region, this region also has its own main legendary Pokémon duo Reshiram and Zekrom and an additional legendary Pokémon Victini is also introduced. Ash Ketchum starts off his journey (complete with new outfit) to this new region along with his faithful companion Pikachu, leaving behind Brock and Dawn on their respective quests, and also the other Pokémon which he caught in the Sinnoh region at Professor Oak's Lab. This time Ash is going to compete in the Unova League by gaining the eight badges of that region capturing and befriending new Pokémon along the way. It is still unknown how many seasons this 4th series will have. Iris and Cilan will be revealed respectively. It is still unknown regarding what their personal goals are as of now, though they will surely be revealed when Ash meets them in the series in due course. More information regarding the series will unravel as the series progresses.

Pokémon Black and White

 * Ash Ketchum
 * Iris
 * Cilan

Rivals

 * Trip- Ash's first Unova rival. Began with a Snivy
 * Bianca- Ash's rival.
 * Georgia- Iris' rival.
 * Burgundy- Cilan's rival.
 * Stephan- Ash's rival.

Antagonists

 * Team Rocket, consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth - Although not really after Ash's Pikachu they get serious and are now rarely seen by the gang.
 * Team Plasma - the local troublemakers of Unova out to get the legendary Yin and Yang duo Reshiram and Zekrom.

Key Pokémon

 * Ash's Pikachu
 * Ash's Tranquill
 * Ash's Oshawott
 * Ash's Tepig
 * Ash's Snivy
 * Ash's Scraggy
 * Ash's Swadloon
 * Ash's Palpitoad
 * Ash's Boldore
 * Ash's Krokorok
 * Trip's Servine
 * Trip's Frillish
 * Trip's Tranquill
 * Trip's Lampent
 * Trip's Gurdurr
 * Trip's Vanillite
 * Iris' Axew
 * Iris' Excadrill
 * Iris' Emolga
 * Cilan's Pansage
 * Cilan's Crustle
 * Cilan's Stunfisk
 * Team Rocket's Meowth
 * Jessie's Woobat
 * James' Yamask
 * Nurse Joy's Audino

Minor Characters

 * Gym Leaders - The gym leaders of Unova will appear in some episodes, most likely battling Ash.
 * Professor Juniper- Professor Juniper is be shown in the first two episodes of Best Wishes.
 * Professor Oak- Professor Oak will most likely be shown sometimes in the series, mostly video chatting with Ash about his journey.
 * Delia Ketchum - the mother of Ash Ketchum, will most likely will appear talking to Ash on the video chat, making sure he has everything he needs for his quest.

Retired Running Gags

 * Brock's crush over girls will be gone, with Cilan replacing him. However, Cilan does not flirt with any girls like Brock does. And in Brock's special episode, he still kept flirting with girls.
 * Ash's Pikachu will not destroy Iris' bike since she does not have one. This is because Iris prefers to use tree vines instead.
 * Team Rocket may not blast off anymore, so far they managed to safely escape without a zap but they might only blast off occasionaly.
 * Team Rocket has abandoned their foolish and dramatic personalities and starts to become serious and ambitious in the anime.
 * Because of this, behaviour the Boss Fantasies are no longer there.

New Running Gags

 * Bianca occasionally accidentally knocks Ash and Cilan into a body of water due to her clumsiness.
 * Stephan gets upset when people mispronounce his name, similar to how Butch was called by other names.

Episodes

 * See Episode Guide for details

Trivia

 * The Best Wishes part of Pokémon: Best Wishes are abbreviations for Pokémon Black and White.
 * The first Japanese opening of this series is all CGI-animated with only Pikachu and the Generation V Pokémon and no humans. The first English-dub opening has only the scenes from the first Japanese opening.
 * The Pokémon appearing in the Anime and in the Unova region are different from the previous anime, just like in the video games.
 * The Pokémon in Unova and appearing in the anime are only Generation V Pokémon, just like the video games.
 * There are no previous Pokémon from Generations I-IV appearing in the wild and used by trainers in the Unova region.
 * The only previous Pokémon from Generations I-IV appearing in the Anime are the three Generation I Pokémon, Pikachu (belonging to Ash), Meowth (belonging to Jessie and James of Team Rocket) and Persian (belonging to Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket). They have appeared so far.
 * When Team Rocket is in Unova, its attitude is different in this series from the previous series.
 * Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, wears a new gray outfit.
 * Jessie and James of Team Rocket have changed clothes due to a promotion, they will be wearing a black uniforms instead of their old white uniforms. However they later revert back to their original uniforms later in the series while still retaining their serious attitude.
 * The reason Jessie and James left all their Pokémon at Team Rocket headquarters, is because they are not native to Unova and may look suspicious. Meowth is technically a member and a Pokémon, so it was sent with Jessie and James.
 * Because this is a reboot, Ash's previous friends (Misty, May, Max, Dawn, Brock, or Tracey) may not appear in this series, although Dawn has been referenced in the opening theme and first episode.
 * The characters living in Unova are different from them in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh.
 * In the Unova region, Nurse Joy wears a new outfit and has a new hairstyle
 * In the Unova region, Officer Jenny wears a new outfit and have a new haircut.
 * In Unova, Nurse Joy doesn't use Chansey, because Chansey is not in Unova region. She uses Audino.
 * This series is more fast paced than the previous series; there will be less filler episodes.
 * Ash meets Iris and Cilan in a similar fashion to when he first met Misty and Brock.
 * In the narration for the first episode of Best Wishes, Ash is said to be still ten, which is ironic since Pokémon has been airing for thirteen years.
 * This series would be considered a reboot of the Pokémon: Original Series, as it uses many dynamics from the first series.
 * Ash turns his hat around when catching a Pokémon like he did in the original series.
 * Ash tries to catch every Pokémon when he first arrives in the Unova region.
 * Ash captures the three starters, the regions first bird, and a worm bug type Pokémon. This is the same as his first 6 Pokémon, just caught in a different order.
 * The series reuses music from the original series.
 * This series has a different running gag from Advanced Generation and Diamond and Pearl.
 * Ash is the only Pokémon trainer. Instead of a female Pokémon trainer, there is Iris.
 * Ash is again the only one in his group to participate in a league battle.
 * Iris and Cilan don't seem likely to enter a Pokémon contest. This may be because the Pokemon contests are replaced with Pokemon musicals.
 * Ash capture a Sewaddle, which is the first time Ash captured a worm based Pokémon since Caterpie. This also marks Ash catching his sixth Pokémon in his journey at a new region, since his Johto journey though he kept some of his original Pokémon and didn't chose to make a fresh start yet.
 * Besides Ash usually catches a lot of Pokémon but so far he only usually keeps 5 from each region, not counting ones that can be called upon. Currently only his Johto and Unova journey, does Ash capture and keep 6 Pokémon from the region. He even catches more than 6 pokemon on his Unova journey which was the first time he has ever done that since the original series
 * Dawn and Brock both got their own special episodes. Forest owns a Rhyperior and has taken over the role as the Pewter City Gym Leader and Dawn's Cyndaquil evolved and she traveled to Hoenn along with her current party to partake in Pokemon Contests.
 * This series is different from the original series, Advanced Generation and Diamond and Pearl.
 * When Pokémon come out of a Poké Ball, they appear as a silver ball with blue sparkles instead of white light.
 * When Pokémon are seen on the Pokédex, they appear as rotating images instead of still pictures.
 * Sometimes Pokémon evolve with a blue light around it instead of a white light, like Ash's Pidove when it evolved.
 * The attacks the Pokémon use, like Hyper Beam, are CGI-animated, instead of normal animated.
 * The "To be continued" logo at the end of every episode is a different font instead of yellow with an arrow pointing it.
 * Unlike when Ash captured Krabby, when Ash caught his seventh Pokémon Sewaddle, the Poké Ball simply shrank with the button glowing red and remained inactive instead of automatically transferring to the professor. Also, Ash had to arrive at a Pokémon center and manually transfer one Pokémon he has on hand. An explanation for this may be that Ash had changed his strategy on rotating Pokemon. Ash no longer waits to catch a pokemon until he releases one. Instead Ash catches as many pokemon as he likes and brings them all with him. The overfilling pokeballs are disabled and Ash will call out any pokemon from his arsenal randomly.
 * However, Ash does not use his rotation strategy on his Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott as Pikachu has always been with Ash and that Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott are all Unova starters.
 * Following the release of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, the series will make a shift to Best Wishes! Series 2 starting on June 21st, 2012.
 * It's shown Dawn and other previous anime characters will return.
 * Ash's Pignite might evolve into Emboar.
 * Ash's Snivy might evolve into Servine then Serperior.
 * All the Pokemon from Generations I-IV will return.

Official Sites

 * Official Japanese site