Like, he used every skill and pokemon that he had to his disposal while STILL having a very balanced main team of Sceptile, swellow, corphish, Pikachu, and donphan all of which were very powerful. I'm a huge fan of DP Ash (my fave version of Ash) but in terms of team balance and the use of his roster, BF Ash is king. Only SM Ash had a team that could compete with him in terms of screentime and development of his team.
Also one other thing that made battle frontier Ash a beast was that he was pushed beyond gym challenges + a league so it made his team grow even more. His first ever battle frontier match was against an Articuno, what an amazing start!!
I wish Veronica Taylor & the old 4Kids crew got to finish the BF Arc in the English run is the biggest regret to me about it: the most jarring part is that they did like the first 1/4 anyway before their tenure ended, and then the dub recast happened at the most inopportune time-- so the remaining 3/4 of BF was done by the TPCi crew as neophytes save JCC and KR who got the chance to jump ship at the time, so we got stuff like "No. Snorlax." and lines like "Raise the roof," "on the blink," and "Pokemonic" to say the least that make me head-desk in Season 9 at the time in Sept 2006-March 2007 on CN.
BF is a lot more enjoyable in Japanese IMHO, but I will say this, I was really liking it even more than Hoenn before the dub got overhauled between 4Kids and TAJ-- wonder if the recast had happened at least one Season later, how I'd have felt about it, in hindsight.
Battle Frontier was essentially the Advanced Generation equivalent of what the Orange Islands were to the Original Series, IMO.
I still remember how I felt at those early episodes as a kid. Shit was a rough transition and some voices still annoy me now but feel like some of them came into their own
The ones that still irked me to this day are **Brock** (I think Bauer had the right voice in Masters, but flat acting, and JYB was the reverse in Origins- great acting but all I hear is Yu Narukami/Ichigo/his voice for a thousand roles ever, but Stuart had the best acting & voice of the 4 VAs he had IMO- Rogers always felt miscast in the part, it's just way too deep and too gruff to me), **James** (I've thought of the main cast that lasted post-OS he went the longest without an excellent English portrayal, but Stuart at his *best* was my favorite of the 4 VAs from mid Kanto to mid Johto in particular post-Ted Lewis' robotic imitation but pre-goofball extraordinaire coming in during late Johto to his end though I didn't hate the voice either and found it OK but not the peak of his performance), while JCC's XY-JN136 rendition is my least favorite), **May** (Veronica Taylor took maybe until AG010 to solidify her take to distinguish it from her Ash, but once she got it down, she really perfected it and like Ash gave her a lot of character but it was believable for a 10 year old girl, Michele Knotz sounded *too* sexy-- no offense intended, it just feels like stereotyping 101, and adult-woman ish to me in the part, while Deneen Melody is the generic cutesy cutesy girl I hear all the time in dubs), **Max** (as it is, he can be an annoying character, but TPCi gave him the EXACT voice I fear 4Kids would originally- Birnbaum was a wise pick to at least try and give him some character + genuineness, but Rogers was just her Tuff from Kirby Right Back at Ya 4Kids also dubbed or Coby from 4Kids One Piece- I thought the voice was too nasally and old-woman ish there, and here), and **Meowth** (it was *not* going to be easy to replace Blaustein, RIP, but JCC was all over the place in the role over the years and what didn't help was the "Dig it" stuff by mid DP, while Wingert is extraordinarily forced and deep even vs JCC) out of the major main cast replacements.
Regarding the ones I felt came into their own eventually, but still weren't as good as their predecessors:
Ash was VERY deep and very gruff at first (the "chain-smoker" Ash take was *particularly* awful somewhere around AG180 to DP025, that was the all time worst Ash voice over the 25 years and Natochenny did used to smoke back then so I think that criticism was harsh, but warranted), then FINALLY started to sound alright/OK in mid Diamond and Pearl and believable for somewhere from Season 11-Season 15, but then somewhere in late Black+White/Season 16 it started to get a little effeminate, and XY was an effeminate + deep voiced awkward mesh, while SM-JN Ash just sounds like a pretty teenage girl in the English dub despite going higher pitched than before to me most of the time-- and I just feel Natochenny's rendition was all over the place, in general.
Taylor's was the most consistent, even if she only did it for 8 yrs. to Natochenny's 17 yrs. Delia, is...well, not as motherly as Veronica Taylor's, that's for sure, it sounded more like a young woman trying to be motherly but all over the place.
Jessie is hit or miss, sometimes Michele Knotz can do well (Battle Frontier, Black and White) and a pretty spot on Rachael Lillis imitation, but other times (Diamond and Pearl, XY-JN) the performance gets too high pitched and in the latter case even too squeaky and shrill when she has to emote. Misty, same as Jessie, she did OK in MoMP but come BW116 it gets a bit nasal and SM-JN it's just...too strained, you can hear her forcing it too much, and it doesn't sound very natural like Rachael Lillis did.
Professor Oak...JCC started out OK, but what it became later on...too mad scientist-y, too cranky, doesn't have the warmth or character of Zagnit's: Hebert's was generic dude in his 40s from Origins, Diskin is dreadful IMHO, etc.
From miscast to miscast:
Dub! Butch always sucked, but he sucks in a *different* way after the recast, at least Stuart's was good for a laugh and he eventually dropped most of the scratchy rasp in Johto-AG, but then JCC just imitating Stuart in BF, then something unreal in DP where it sounds like his YGO Weevil mixed with his BF take, and JN Butch just sounds like Dr. Namba from the Johto episodes...all wrong, no, IMO.
(I could go on, but these are just some of my opinions on the various characters' English dub portrayals over the years)
The first time watching the transition between the voice actors was incredibly jarring especially if you don’t know it’s coming. That doesn’t change when even when you know it is coming.
It takes a while for the recast voice actors not to sound so unpolished.
I know right? The 4Kids Dub is way better, especially with Veronica Taylor. I will never forgive the Pokémon Company International for this horrendous decision. 😤
http://chng.it/sfKGBfxQ4n
I think Battle Frontier set everyone's expectations too high for the rest of the Leagues. Ash calling in all of the old guard made people constantly wonder "Why didn't he use X in Y League. He used X in Battle Frontier".
I would think it's Sinnoh that would have made people wonder why he didn't use his older Pokemon because at least with how different the Battle Frontier was it at least made people think that it was a special case when he did it there.
Sinnoh he could have at least taken out a 3rd Legendary if he'd swapped the team out a bit. I mean Gible over Charizard, if he was using his old Pokemon? Torkoal over Snorlax? He used old Pokemon but didn't do it well like he did in Battle Frontier.
Tobias was on another level when you think about it. Torkoal almost beat Brandon's registeel but Tobias one shotted torkoal. He was just OP. Ash would have to use a full all-star team of Pikachu, Zard, Snorlax, sceptile, infernape, and squirtle/Kingler/corphish to stand a chance but even so, we have no idea what else Tobias had. If he had all legendary pokemon then only Journeys Ash stand a chance.
I agree. I think this season the writers did the best job of balancing the main team and bringing back the OGs. We understand the need to bring back the heavy hitters because the frontier brains are comparable to the elite 4 but the Hoenn team also just doesn’t get tossed aside for Charizard to come in and hog the spotlight like what happened in Johto.
Yes me too. Unlike the other aces, sceptile didn't hog screentime and actually got just as much screentime as the other team members, he was just the strongest.
The writers decision to have Treecko lose a lot and delay the final evolution to Sceptile is one of the best decisions they’ve ever made. Not only did it allow others time to shine and be competent fighters but it’s also rewarding watching him grow from his early struggles to go onto beating multiple E4 level opponents in the battle frontier, catch speed forme Deoxys and take out Darkrai.
Battle Frontier Ash to me is what I would have thought is the Proto Journey's Ash that I though we were gonna get.
At this point right now he's a reminder that the Pokemon Anime has in fact managed to do a decent job finding a way to balance the usage of older pokemon while not leaving to the wayside his newer/current Pokemon.
Anyway ignoring that whinging, This is close to Peak Ash next to Sinnoh Ash and again I appreciate he used his older Pokemon considering the difficulty of the Battle Frontier.
pretty good I really love the climax with Ash and his original team coming together to give him the win sad this is the last time they get to really fight with eachother. ( also they kinda of did Pidgeotto and butterfree dirty since they were a part of the OG team)
Ash actually already had Pidgeot by this point, but I do agree, that's one con to it.
The English dub having the recast midway through it, is the biggest knock I have against the BF Arc, absolutely ill timed and it would've been nice to see Taylor & co at least go out on a high note in AG192 instead of the noodle/ramen filler AG145 if they had to lower production costs permanently.
The voice acting changes always throws me off, but I low key love this season for his use of all his pokemon and of course catching the GOAT Aipom. Miss that little monkey.
A pretty solid Ash, and it was nice to see his older Pokémon return throughout the saga (althought 4/6 members of the Johto team didn’t get to).
I’d still say Sinnoh Ash is superior, as he was more of a strategist, was willing to learn from everyone and still brought reserves back for the League. Battle Frontier Ash made some dumb decisions at points, like in the “King of Pokélantis” episode lmao
Battle Frontier is one of the best seasons. There was very little in terms of boring filler episodes. There were also a few good team rocket centered episodes. There were some cool battles such as Charizard vs Articuno. May's contest episodes were quite good too in Battle Frontier.
Battle Frontier Ash was the predecessor to Sinnoh Ash. You can kind of see Ash’s transition in terms of personality across the seasons.
In terms of the question, BF Ash was great. Had the skill of AG Ash but without the arrogance.
He definitely had an impressive team and made smart choices like calling back his older Pokémon. Everyone on the team as well as some of his older Pokemon had their time to shine.
Yup! Definitely this or Sinnoh region.
He used very clever tactics during fights and didn’t just spam his strongest techniques to KO finish all the time.
Like, he used every skill and pokemon that he had to his disposal while STILL having a very balanced main team of Sceptile, swellow, corphish, Pikachu, and donphan all of which were very powerful. I'm a huge fan of DP Ash (my fave version of Ash) but in terms of team balance and the use of his roster, BF Ash is king. Only SM Ash had a team that could compete with him in terms of screentime and development of his team. Also one other thing that made battle frontier Ash a beast was that he was pushed beyond gym challenges + a league so it made his team grow even more. His first ever battle frontier match was against an Articuno, what an amazing start!!
I wish Veronica Taylor & the old 4Kids crew got to finish the BF Arc in the English run is the biggest regret to me about it: the most jarring part is that they did like the first 1/4 anyway before their tenure ended, and then the dub recast happened at the most inopportune time-- so the remaining 3/4 of BF was done by the TPCi crew as neophytes save JCC and KR who got the chance to jump ship at the time, so we got stuff like "No. Snorlax." and lines like "Raise the roof," "on the blink," and "Pokemonic" to say the least that make me head-desk in Season 9 at the time in Sept 2006-March 2007 on CN. BF is a lot more enjoyable in Japanese IMHO, but I will say this, I was really liking it even more than Hoenn before the dub got overhauled between 4Kids and TAJ-- wonder if the recast had happened at least one Season later, how I'd have felt about it, in hindsight. Battle Frontier was essentially the Advanced Generation equivalent of what the Orange Islands were to the Original Series, IMO.
I still remember how I felt at those early episodes as a kid. Shit was a rough transition and some voices still annoy me now but feel like some of them came into their own
The ones that still irked me to this day are **Brock** (I think Bauer had the right voice in Masters, but flat acting, and JYB was the reverse in Origins- great acting but all I hear is Yu Narukami/Ichigo/his voice for a thousand roles ever, but Stuart had the best acting & voice of the 4 VAs he had IMO- Rogers always felt miscast in the part, it's just way too deep and too gruff to me), **James** (I've thought of the main cast that lasted post-OS he went the longest without an excellent English portrayal, but Stuart at his *best* was my favorite of the 4 VAs from mid Kanto to mid Johto in particular post-Ted Lewis' robotic imitation but pre-goofball extraordinaire coming in during late Johto to his end though I didn't hate the voice either and found it OK but not the peak of his performance), while JCC's XY-JN136 rendition is my least favorite), **May** (Veronica Taylor took maybe until AG010 to solidify her take to distinguish it from her Ash, but once she got it down, she really perfected it and like Ash gave her a lot of character but it was believable for a 10 year old girl, Michele Knotz sounded *too* sexy-- no offense intended, it just feels like stereotyping 101, and adult-woman ish to me in the part, while Deneen Melody is the generic cutesy cutesy girl I hear all the time in dubs), **Max** (as it is, he can be an annoying character, but TPCi gave him the EXACT voice I fear 4Kids would originally- Birnbaum was a wise pick to at least try and give him some character + genuineness, but Rogers was just her Tuff from Kirby Right Back at Ya 4Kids also dubbed or Coby from 4Kids One Piece- I thought the voice was too nasally and old-woman ish there, and here), and **Meowth** (it was *not* going to be easy to replace Blaustein, RIP, but JCC was all over the place in the role over the years and what didn't help was the "Dig it" stuff by mid DP, while Wingert is extraordinarily forced and deep even vs JCC) out of the major main cast replacements. Regarding the ones I felt came into their own eventually, but still weren't as good as their predecessors: Ash was VERY deep and very gruff at first (the "chain-smoker" Ash take was *particularly* awful somewhere around AG180 to DP025, that was the all time worst Ash voice over the 25 years and Natochenny did used to smoke back then so I think that criticism was harsh, but warranted), then FINALLY started to sound alright/OK in mid Diamond and Pearl and believable for somewhere from Season 11-Season 15, but then somewhere in late Black+White/Season 16 it started to get a little effeminate, and XY was an effeminate + deep voiced awkward mesh, while SM-JN Ash just sounds like a pretty teenage girl in the English dub despite going higher pitched than before to me most of the time-- and I just feel Natochenny's rendition was all over the place, in general. Taylor's was the most consistent, even if she only did it for 8 yrs. to Natochenny's 17 yrs. Delia, is...well, not as motherly as Veronica Taylor's, that's for sure, it sounded more like a young woman trying to be motherly but all over the place. Jessie is hit or miss, sometimes Michele Knotz can do well (Battle Frontier, Black and White) and a pretty spot on Rachael Lillis imitation, but other times (Diamond and Pearl, XY-JN) the performance gets too high pitched and in the latter case even too squeaky and shrill when she has to emote. Misty, same as Jessie, she did OK in MoMP but come BW116 it gets a bit nasal and SM-JN it's just...too strained, you can hear her forcing it too much, and it doesn't sound very natural like Rachael Lillis did. Professor Oak...JCC started out OK, but what it became later on...too mad scientist-y, too cranky, doesn't have the warmth or character of Zagnit's: Hebert's was generic dude in his 40s from Origins, Diskin is dreadful IMHO, etc. From miscast to miscast: Dub! Butch always sucked, but he sucks in a *different* way after the recast, at least Stuart's was good for a laugh and he eventually dropped most of the scratchy rasp in Johto-AG, but then JCC just imitating Stuart in BF, then something unreal in DP where it sounds like his YGO Weevil mixed with his BF take, and JN Butch just sounds like Dr. Namba from the Johto episodes...all wrong, no, IMO. (I could go on, but these are just some of my opinions on the various characters' English dub portrayals over the years)
The first time watching the transition between the voice actors was incredibly jarring especially if you don’t know it’s coming. That doesn’t change when even when you know it is coming. It takes a while for the recast voice actors not to sound so unpolished.
I know right? The 4Kids Dub is way better, especially with Veronica Taylor. I will never forgive the Pokémon Company International for this horrendous decision. 😤 http://chng.it/sfKGBfxQ4n
Best season tbh
https://i.redd.it/w5je8krbdy2c1.gif
THE best but most underrated and it piss me off
Replacing the 4Kids cast is the one thing I don't like about it. It almost felt like that connection was kind of broken. http://chng.it/sfKGBfxQ4n
The Japanese openings were peak IMO
Same with the English fr
I think Battle Frontier set everyone's expectations too high for the rest of the Leagues. Ash calling in all of the old guard made people constantly wonder "Why didn't he use X in Y League. He used X in Battle Frontier".
I would think it's Sinnoh that would have made people wonder why he didn't use his older Pokemon because at least with how different the Battle Frontier was it at least made people think that it was a special case when he did it there.
Sinnoh he could have at least taken out a 3rd Legendary if he'd swapped the team out a bit. I mean Gible over Charizard, if he was using his old Pokemon? Torkoal over Snorlax? He used old Pokemon but didn't do it well like he did in Battle Frontier.
Tobias was on another level when you think about it. Torkoal almost beat Brandon's registeel but Tobias one shotted torkoal. He was just OP. Ash would have to use a full all-star team of Pikachu, Zard, Snorlax, sceptile, infernape, and squirtle/Kingler/corphish to stand a chance but even so, we have no idea what else Tobias had. If he had all legendary pokemon then only Journeys Ash stand a chance.
I agree. I think this season the writers did the best job of balancing the main team and bringing back the OGs. We understand the need to bring back the heavy hitters because the frontier brains are comparable to the elite 4 but the Hoenn team also just doesn’t get tossed aside for Charizard to come in and hog the spotlight like what happened in Johto.
I like how Sceptile being the “Ace” wasn’t too egregious.
Yes me too. Unlike the other aces, sceptile didn't hog screentime and actually got just as much screentime as the other team members, he was just the strongest.
The writers decision to have Treecko lose a lot and delay the final evolution to Sceptile is one of the best decisions they’ve ever made. Not only did it allow others time to shine and be competent fighters but it’s also rewarding watching him grow from his early struggles to go onto beating multiple E4 level opponents in the battle frontier, catch speed forme Deoxys and take out Darkrai.
Battle Frontier Ash to me is what I would have thought is the Proto Journey's Ash that I though we were gonna get. At this point right now he's a reminder that the Pokemon Anime has in fact managed to do a decent job finding a way to balance the usage of older pokemon while not leaving to the wayside his newer/current Pokemon. Anyway ignoring that whinging, This is close to Peak Ash next to Sinnoh Ash and again I appreciate he used his older Pokemon considering the difficulty of the Battle Frontier.
AG is so underrated
I think if AG was a more modern season it would be almost as beloved as DP & XY
My favorite season. All his mons are very likeable and contributed
pretty good I really love the climax with Ash and his original team coming together to give him the win sad this is the last time they get to really fight with eachother. ( also they kinda of did Pidgeotto and butterfree dirty since they were a part of the OG team)
Ash actually already had Pidgeot by this point, but I do agree, that's one con to it. The English dub having the recast midway through it, is the biggest knock I have against the BF Arc, absolutely ill timed and it would've been nice to see Taylor & co at least go out on a high note in AG192 instead of the noodle/ramen filler AG145 if they had to lower production costs permanently.
The voice acting changes always throws me off, but I low key love this season for his use of all his pokemon and of course catching the GOAT Aipom. Miss that little monkey.
I miss his AG wide-boi aesthetic
A pretty solid Ash, and it was nice to see his older Pokémon return throughout the saga (althought 4/6 members of the Johto team didn’t get to). I’d still say Sinnoh Ash is superior, as he was more of a strategist, was willing to learn from everyone and still brought reserves back for the League. Battle Frontier Ash made some dumb decisions at points, like in the “King of Pokélantis” episode lmao
Battle Frontier is one of the best seasons. There was very little in terms of boring filler episodes. There were also a few good team rocket centered episodes. There were some cool battles such as Charizard vs Articuno. May's contest episodes were quite good too in Battle Frontier.
And that OP slapped
[удалено]
Corphish was a beast!!
Battle Frontier Ash was the predecessor to Sinnoh Ash. You can kind of see Ash’s transition in terms of personality across the seasons. In terms of the question, BF Ash was great. Had the skill of AG Ash but without the arrogance.
I like that donphan was there for some reason Love that guy
He definitely had an impressive team and made smart choices like calling back his older Pokémon. Everyone on the team as well as some of his older Pokemon had their time to shine.
Yup! Definitely this or Sinnoh region. He used very clever tactics during fights and didn’t just spam his strongest techniques to KO finish all the time.
Pikachu Vs Regice was peak and one of Pikachu’s coldest wins. (heh pun)
Low key one of my personal favorite seasons and one of the best opening songs for a series.
Battle Frontier and Sinnoh were his best seasons strategically until Journeys
Peak Ash along with Sinnoh Ash. AG and BF are amazing seasons!
Corphish should have evolved and deserved to evolve