Pokémon the Series: Black & White
- Best Wishes! redirects here. For the similarly named first opening of the Best Wishes series, see Best Wishes! (song).
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 began airing in Japan on September 23, 2010 and began airing in the United States on February 12, 2011.
As with both the Advanced Generation and Diamond & 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. Instead, Ash now travels through Unova with a girl by the name of Iris. 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 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. Additionally, the Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny in Unova are designed differently than those of the regions visited by Ash before.
It is currently unknown how many seasons the series will be divided into for audiences outside of Japan.
Dub seasons
When the Best Wishes series came to be dubbed into English and other languages, it is divided into seasons:
- Pokémon: Black & White (BW001 - present)
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.
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.
- Much like the original series, Ash's female companion debuts in the first episode of the series, but she is not introduced in full until the second, and Ash meets his male traveling companion in the fifth episode, when he leaves behind his Gym Leader duties to travel with Ash. Both of Ash's traveling companions are also Gym Leaders once again.
- The first few episodes of this series share similar elements to the first few episodes of the original series, while there are many allusions to the original series present.
- 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 Template:Type2 among them first, following up with the Template:Type2 in all regions but Hoenn, and finally catching the Template:Type2 among the group in Kanto and Johto only.
- This is the only series in which Ash owns over seven Pokemon at a time, catching eight for a total of nine Pokémon in this series.
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 | |
External links
- TV Tokyo (Japanese)
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This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime. |
