Pokémon the Series: Black & White
- Best Wishes! redirects here. For the similarly named first opening of the Best Wishes series, see Best Wishes! (song).
- Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 redirects here. For the similarly named CD, see Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 (CD).
The Best Wishes series (Japanese: ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュ Pocket Monsters Best Wishes!) is the fourth series of the Pokémon anime, following after the Diamond & Pearl series, and based on the events of the Generation V games. It ran from September 23, 2010 to September 26, 2013 in Japan and from February 12, 2011 to December 7, 2013 in the United States.
As with both the Advanced Generation and Diamond and Pearl series before it, the Best Wishes series begins with only Ash Ketchum, headed off to a new region with his Pikachu. Much like before, his previous female companion, Dawn, has left the series, while, unlike the previous three series, with the exception of the Orange Archipelago saga, Brock does not join him in his journey in Unova. Instead, Ash now travels through Unova with a girl by the name of Iris and with one of the first Gym Leaders of Unova, Cilan.
As before, Ash receives a change of clothes. For the first time in the entire show, the Team Rocket trio also receive a change of clothes, but later change back to their original outfits. Additionally, the Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny in Unova are designed differently than those of the regions visited by Ash before. Best Wishes is also notable for Jessie, James and Meowth not being present in all episodes outside of clip shows and the first episode, a trend that continued into the XY series. For a majority of the series they play a significantly more antagonistic role than in any other series, displaying very little humor (although this was restored during the Decolore Islands arc).
The series also saw the return of Dare da? in BW061 after an absence of 444 episodes. The dub equivalent, Who's That Pokémon? had already returned as of BW001.
It is divided into three seasons for audiences outside of Japan.
Japanese seasons
The Best Wishes series has been divided into multiple arcs in the Japanese release, similar to the "chapters" of the original series.
Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! (BW001-BW084)
This arc covers Ash's arrival in Unova, his meeting Iris and Cilan, and collecting the Gym Badges of the region. Several times throughout the arc, Ash and his friends come into major conflicts with Team Rocket.
Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW085-BW108)
The World Tournament Junior Cup and Vertress Conference tournaments make up the main content of this arc. Cynthia and Dawn return for roles, and the group meets Meloetta. Giovanni returns to lead Team Rocket in "Operation Tempest," a mission to capture Meloetta and the Forces of Nature.
Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N (BW109-BW122)
Ash, Iris and Cilan learn of the White Ruins and decide to visit Cedric Juniper's expedition there. On their way, they meet N and become involved in Ghetsis's plot to have Team Plasma take control of the world using Colress's Pokémon control device.
Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure! (BW123-BW142)
On their way back to Kanto, Ash, Iris and Cilan go on a tour of the Decolore Islands. On their way, they meet Alexa, a Pokémon photographer from the Kalos region.
Dub seasons
When the Best Wishes series came to be dubbed into English and other languages, it is divided into three seasons:
- Pokémon: Black & White (BW001 - BW048)
- Pokémon Black & White: Rival Destinies (BW049 - BW097)
- Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova (BW098 - BW142)
Episodes in the Best Wishes series are numbered with the prefix BW on Bulbapedia. For a complete episode listing, see the list of Best Wishes series episodes.
Gallery
Best Wishes! logo
Best Wishes! Season 2 logo
The poster for Best Wishes! Season 2
Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N logo
The poster for Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N
Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure logo
The poster for Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure
Ash Ketchum and Pikachu
Jessie in her black uniform
James in his black uniform
Jessie in her white uniform
James in his white uniform
- Virgil official art.png
Trivia
- The Best Wishes series is the first series since the original series to have no in-game playable characters present in Ash's group.
- It is likely that the Best Wishes title is intentionally comprised of words beginning with B and W as an allusion to its counterpart games, Black and White.
- In the Japanese title, the katakana transcription of the English word "Wishes" (ウイッシュ) contains the Japanese name of the region the games and anime series take place in, Isshu (イッシュ).
- For several weeks, previews of the Best Wishes series's early episodes explicitly excluded Ash Ketchum, with the hosts of Pokémon Sunday commenting on his absence. Ash did not appear on a pre-release poster, as well. This was likely to hide his redesign for greater surprise.
- The first few episodes of this series share similar elements to the first few episodes of the original series, and the series features many allusions to the original series present.
- Both of Ash's traveling companions are based on Gym Leaders.
- Both of Ash's female traveling companions try to avoid returning to a specific Gym.
- Ash's female companion debuts in the first episode of the series, but she is not introduced in full until the second.
- Ash meets his male traveling companion in the fifth episode, when he leaves behind his Gym Leader duties to travel with Ash.
- The sixth episode of both series feature a Pokémon that evolves via the Moon Stone.
- This series also shares some similarities with the original series.
- Ash meets two new traveling companions.
- Ash's female companions are afraid of a certain type of Pokémon. In this case Misty being afraid of bug types and Iris being afraid of ice types.
- Both female companions had a baby Pokémon to carry around. Misty having a Togepi and Iris having an Axew.
- Both male and female companions are based on gym leaders.
- Ash and his companions traveled in islands. In the original series they traveled at the Orange Islands. While in the Best Wishes series they traveled to the Decolore Islands.
- Best Wishes is the first anime series that did not premiere on the same day its respective games were released since the original series.
- Ash catches the Unova starter Pokémon in reverse Pokédex order, obtaining Oshawott, then Tepig, and finally Snivy. All previous times he has caught multiple starter Pokémon he has caught the Grass-type among them first, following up with the Fire-type in all regions but Hoenn, and finally catching the Water-type among the group in Kanto and Johto only.
- This is the shortest completed series of the anime so far, with 142 episodes.
- This series also has the fewest dub seasons, with three.
- This is also the series with the fewest movies to date, with only three.
- This is the first series in which all episodes that were originally aired in Japan were dubbed. Previously, the original series had four banned episodes and the Advanced Generation series and Diamond & Pearl series dubs each skipped recap episodes. There were two unaired episodes in the Best Wishes series, but they were also unaired in Japan.
- With the beginning of this series, many attacks have had their visual appearances changed (for instance, Fire-type attacks and Stone Edge are now rendered in CGI, while physical Steel-type attacks make the corresponding body part steel-colored rather than white). Hyper Beam has also been changed considerably, to match how it looks in the games.
- What Lies Beyond Truth and Ideals!, the final episode of Season 2: Episode N aired in Japan during the same week that New Places... Familiar Faces!, the first episode of Episode N aired in the United States.
- This is the first series in which Butch and Cassidy don't appear at all.
- This is the only series in which Jessie's Wobbuffet is not part of the cast.
- This is the only series in which there are no boss fantasies.
- This is the only series that uses the same title card throughout the entire series.
- This is the first series not to have any of the dub seasons to produce with 52 episodes.
- This is first series in which none of Ash's Gym Battles are interrupted by Team Rocket.
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Cantonese | 寵物小精靈：超級願望 Chungmat Siujingling: Chiukap Yunmong |
| Mandarin | 神奇寶貝超級願望 Shénqíbǎobèi: Chāojí Yuànwàng | |
 Korean
|
포켓몬스터 베스트위시 Pocket Monsters Best Wishes | |
 Vietnamese
|
Pokémon Best Wishes | |
External links
- TV Tokyo (Japanese)
|
This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
