First of all, you're all probably well aware of what havoc the Pokemon cartoon caused in Japan last December, when a particular scene caused hundreds of children to flock to hospitals complaining of dizziness/nausea (if you want to see what the offensive scene looks like for yourself, click on the link to the right and download at your own risk!).

　　That said, we noticed several things that looked like small edits and cuts to the show for the US version, namely during Pikachu's electricity attack. The cuts consisted of making the battle into a series of still shots, something that just does not gel with the rest of the series. Why they made the cut is obvious - they want to avoid a serious health outbreak/protest in the US. But the cut is unnecessary, since the scene that caused the outbreak was flashing red and blue light.

　　The effect is that Pikachu's electricity battles don't look nearly as impressive as they could/should.

　　The dubbing of the show is actually pretty good, although I think it falls flat in a couple spots. It does capture the flavor of the Japanese one, including voices that match up in tone and texture. Of course, only fans who have seen the Japanese show will notice.

　　The opening theme is great - very addictive. I am currently humming it while typing. "I wanna be... the very best... like no one ever was...." It's got that traditional "we'll have adventures while we're learning" theme to it that so many kids shows do these days (ugh), but I didn't find it annoying.

　　So, will you like it? I'm betting that if you're into the game, you're going to like the show... a lot. It's geared towards teenage viewers and younger, so if you're out of that group, you may not like some of the humor (Macarena humor in the episode I screened... but hey, it was funny - I laughed). It'll no doubt be in a bad timeslot in a lot of places (it's on at 7am where I am - time to set the VCR), but hopefully as Pokemon fever catches on it'll switch to an after-school slot.

　　Pioneer Home Video will be distributing the videocassette versions, and maybe if we're lucky we'll get a Pokemon movie thrown in later on.

　　So download the QuickTime version of the Pokemon opening theme, and wait for Sept. 7 to roll around so that you can start following the adventures of Ash and Co. in Pokemon.