Pokémon: Black & White
ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュ (Pokemon Best Wishes!)
- Action
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Fantasy
- Gag Humor
- Pets
- Super Power
- Episodes
- 84
- Duration
- 22 min per ep
- Aired
- Sep 23, 2010 to Jun 14, 2012
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Satoshi travels with his mother alongside Professor Ookido to the far-off Isshu region, where an unfamiliar roster of Pokémon awaits—exactly the kind of discovery he’s eager to turn into new captures. With Pikachu still by his side, he also meets new companions Iris and Dent as his journey begins in a land full of fresh sights and battles.
To keep moving toward his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master, Satoshi has to expand his team and take on Isshu’s skilled Gym Leaders. In a region where everything feels new, the road ahead proves more challenging than ever.
Otaku Consensus
Pokémon: Black & White earns its strongest marks when Kunihiko Yuyama’s direction and Atsuhiro Tomioka’s series structure keep the Isshu journey moving through frequent gym battles, recurring rivals, and tournament-style detours instead of long stretches of filler. The fan verdict is warmly positive but not unqualified: most praise the pacing and several battle payoffs, while the most repeated complaint is inconsistent gym-battle execution, with Elisa’s gym match often cited as the season’s glaring low point.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Black & White if you want Pokémon at its most road-trip and battle-schedule focused: quick comedic stops, frequent formal matches, and enough tournaments to keep the “next big fight” feeling close. It is a good pick for viewers who enjoy the early Pokémon formula but want a cleaner regional reset, or for fans of proxy-battle anime like Yu-Gi-Oh! who prefer creature teamwork over card-game rules. The appeal is not dense mythology or a darker tone; it is the steady rhythm of training, move upgrades, gym tests, and recurring faces popping back into the rotation. If X&Y is remembered for polish and spectacle, Black & White is the brisk, gag-heavy bridge that keeps the competitive engine running.
Key Characters
- SSatoshi(VA: Rica Matsumoto)
Satoshi is most interesting here as a battle-format protagonist, constantly pushed through gym and tournament structures that make his growth feel tied to practical match decisions rather than destiny talk.
- PPikachu(VA: Ikue Otani)
Pikachu remains the emotional continuity anchor in a season built around unfamiliar Pokémon, giving the Isshu reset a familiar comedic and battle-language center.
- IIris(VA: Aoi Yuki)
Iris brings a sharper companion energy to the group, and her connection to the season’s dragon emphasis gives the cast a distinct flavor from earlier travel parties.
- DDent(VA: Mamoru Miyano)
Dent is remembered for turning routine travel beats into theatrical reactions and light gag humor, making him a major reason fans describe this run as enjoyably silly.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The season’s structure is unusually battle-dense for long-running Pokémon television: reviewers specifically praised how little downtime there is between gym battles and other important matches.
- 2
Atsuhiro Tomioka handled series composition and also contributed scripts, which helps explain the emphasis on recurring characters, tournaments, and battle payoffs rather than isolated one-off stops alone.
- 3
The gym battles have a clear reputation curve among fans: Lenora’s match is praised for showing training and new moves paying off, Berg’s battle is frequently treated as a highlight, while Elisa’s gym battle is widely criticized.
- 4
OLM’s production keeps the franchise’s child-friendly slapstick identity intact, matching AniList’s high tags for Episodic, Kids, Slapstick, Creature Taming, and Proxy Battle rather than shifting into a more serialized shounen mode.
- 5
Shinji Miyazaki’s music and Masafumi Mima’s sound direction continue the TV anime’s emphasis on energetic battle cues and comedic timing, a major part of why the season’s gag humor and match pacing land as clearly as they do.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Black & White ran for 84 episodes from September 23, 2010 to June 14, 2012, making it a compact two-year block compared with some longer Pokémon anime eras.
- Fun fact 2
- The anime’s core franchise lineage is unusually visible in the credits: Satoshi Tajiri is credited as original creator, while Ken Sugimori is credited for original character design.
- Fun fact 3
- Rica Matsumoto is credited for theme song performance in this run, tying the music identity of the season directly to the performer most associated with Satoshi in Japanese Pokémon media.
- Fun fact 4
- The source-game context was highly visible at the time: IGN gave Pokémon Black and White a 9/10 and called it the strongest Nintendo DS Pokémon entry, even while criticizing parts of the new monster lineup.
- Fun fact 5
- Its database reception shows a split between visibility and enthusiasm: MyAnimeList lists a 6.48 score from 67,083 votes, while AniList records a 63/100 score and 310 favourites.
Studios
- OLM
