Is collecting the show a mess or just impossible?

[Twisting River]

So since I'm getting back into Pokemon I'm remembering one of my favorite parts about it when I was a kid, the TV show. I went around to a different sites yesterday to see where the show was at. I was a little (okay, actually I was very) blown away to see the show is at like one thousand episodes and almost 20 movies long currently. Wow! I was looking to see about collecting the show (or anime, as I guess it's called properly) but the releases are all over the place. I get that the show is divided into different seasons and regions based off of where Ash is but has there ever been a cohesive and clear DVD set that follows the episodes in order? Even if they're divided by seasons/regions that's fine. I'm just having a hard time trying to figure it out. There's multiple releases of the same thing (as in region or season), some of them are divided into sets and some of them are whole box set releases. Has the show not really been released in a standard Point A to Point Z format yet or is everything just kind of scattered all over the place? Thanks for any clarity with this! I'm so lost and my head hurts.

Signed,
~Very Confused Andy

 

[Itcheeee]

I know there are way too many releases of mixed episodes, Kanto saga and re-releasing them. I know for a fact the dub has full complete (except banned episodes) boxed sets of everything up until Advanced, which only got the single DVD releases for some of the seasons, I know Battler Fronteir has boxed sets. Diamond Peal resumes having complete boxed sets, and Black White again does not have sets, I'm not even positive it was fully released on DVD or not. And only time will tell what they do with XYZ.
It's really a mess. :/ I was trying to collect the series myself, and ended up just keeping my Kanto series since it was a set and not 30 DVD's individually cased.

 

[Z25]

It's certainly hard to collect the whole series as there are a lot of episodes and I don't believe the whole series is on DVD.

There is the Pokemon TV app though which seems to be uploading episodes from all seasons all over the place. There's still a lot of physical releases, but as brought up above, the episodes are very mixed making it a challenge to collect specific ones or all episodes.

 

[Twisting River]

Ah, crud, I was hoping something that made more sense had come out by now but I guess not. It seems like anime (I always call it "cartoons", it's the American in me) is always hard to collect. I was interested in Naruto too even though I never saw that show before really but it sounded pretty cool from what I've heard/read. Then when I looked it up there's like a jillion releases for that too! Somebody needs to make these things simpler to collect!

Is there any talk of making Pokemon easier to collect as far as the show goes? As in, has the Pokemon Company ever announced anything? I might send them an email to see where they are with that. I really want to start getting the series without having to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for all these little sets here and there...

 

[Z25]

Ah, crud, I was hoping something that made more sense had come out by now but I guess not. It seems like anime (I always call it "cartoons", it's the American in me) is always hard to collect. I was interested in Naruto too even though I never saw that show before really but it sounded pretty cool from what I've heard/read. Then when I looked it up there's like a jillion releases for that too! Somebody needs to make these things simpler to collect!

Is there any talk of making Pokemon easier to collect as far as the show goes? As in, has the Pokemon Company ever announced anything? I might send them an email to see where they are with that. I really want to start getting the series without having to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for all these little sets here and there...

As far as I know no, not physically at least. They have been uploading to various places digitally such as Hulu over the past few years though.

 

[Twisting River]

It seems this is becoming a trend with shows, to not have a physical release. I used to collect the Simpsons on DVD until they stopped putting their releases on DVD and went digital only. This will probably become the norm I guess, I would like to own these shows in a physical form in case something ever happened to the streaming or download service but I guess that's not possible.

 

[Twisting River]

Okay so I made a little bit of sense out of this gigantic mess. Viz media I guess has the rights to release the show and since 2014 they've been releasing the show in big box set, the latest one just came out this month that collects the "master quest" chapter (no idea what that is, sounds like Zelda to me!). So I guess Viz media is doing what I've been looking for, they're just way behind from what I can see. Hopefully they keep it up and do releases all the way up until what's current. I sent them an email yesterday so I'm hoping for a response.

 

[Palamon]

They'll probably collect the whole rest of the series on dvd eventually. Just be patient about it. Since they're up to Master Quest, I'm sure the Hoenn saga will be on DVD box sets by next year. Patience is key.

 

[Twisting River]

Yeah I'm staying optimistic about it. I'm assuming it's profitable for them as they keep releasing sets. I'll probably start buying sets within the next month and hope that they continue releasing them. I don't see why they would stop releasing them as it's hard to imagine anything pokemon not selling well.

 

[jjc927]

DVD sets in general have been declining because of the streaming options available on the internet.

 

[ashndawn]

It's easy to get on YouTube :p

 

[Ryoutarou]

It's easy to get on YouTube :p

Yeah but some people want to do silly things like support official releases and not rely on poorly encoded uploads.

Also, Re: Naruto - Yeah, that show goes on forever. It's still going on, with a few more months of episodes confirmed and no end in sight despite only having one chapter of the source material manga left. Most anime are easy enough to collect because they run in 13-26 episode seasons but you do get those outliers that go on forever.

 

[Twisting River]

Yeah but some people want to do silly things like support official releases and not rely on poorly encoded uploads.

Also, Re: Naruto - Yeah, that show goes on forever. It's still going on, with a few more months of episodes confirmed and no end in sight despite only having one chapter of the source material manga left. Most anime are easy enough to collect because they run in 13-26 episode seasons but you do get those outliers that go on forever.

I definitely agree with supporting official releases. I understand streaming is becoming a big thing and physical media is going by the wayside now, I also understand if I wanted to I could torrent/download the series but I don't want to do that. I do want to support the company that makes something I enjoy. If years go by and it's obvious that no official release would ever be coming then, yeah, I might look into alternatives to get the show rather than giving up on seeing it altogether. Considering Viz media/the Pokemon Company is taking the risk/gamble (whatever you want to call it) of actually trying to release DVDs nowadays I want to help support that to help ensure that the practice doesn't die out entirely. It's probably a losing battle but as something of an artist/creator myself I feel better knowing I'm helping other artists/creators in at least a very small way.

Also with youtube specifically, the quality varies so much it's hard to watch a series on that. Between copyright claims getting videos taken down, quality varying widely, etc. it's just a mess to watch any sort of long running series on that.

Also about Naruto, yeah I noticed that show is like a Pokemon (as in, never ending). There's so many small DVD releases of the series and the total cost to collect just adds up insanely fast. I'm hoping in a few more years they'll start releasing huge chunks of the show on DVD (or Bluray if it gets to that point) to make it a little easier.

 

[Itcheeee]

Okay so I made a little bit of sense out of this gigantic mess. Viz media I guess has the rights to release the show and since 2014 they've been releasing the show in big box set, the latest one just came out this month that collects the "master quest" chapter (no idea what that is, sounds like Zelda to me!). So I guess Viz media is doing what I've been looking for, they're just way behind from what I can see. Hopefully they keep it up and do releases all the way up until what's current. I sent them an email yesterday so I'm hoping for a response.

I'm glad Viz is releasing them like that, Master Quest is one of the Johto seasons. :) They will probably get to Advanced soon, that series really needs a proper release. I'd love to know what they say if they respond, could mean good news for fans of the boxed sets :)

 

[Twisting River]

I'm glad Viz is releasing them like that, Master Quest is one of the Johto seasons. :) They will probably get to Advanced soon, that series really needs a proper release. I'd love to know what they say if they respond, could mean good news for fans of the boxed sets :)

If they do respond to me I'll update with what they told me. So far I haven't gotten anything but I doubt they do emails during the weekend. So I'll keep my fingers crossed.

And about youtube, I would really prefer to watch them off of a DVD or other official release, which is a usually much more consistent quality and organized. Of course that doesn't always apply but I do also want to support the publishers here, considering DVD releases of shows I like are something I'm really fond of and I want to see that continue.

 

[Sektor]

I think collecting it is just a pipe dream. It's far easier to just actually catch all the Pokémon than it is to collect the actual show ohohoho!

 

[Twisting River]

Well with Viz releasing boxed sets pretty regularly now I think they'll get to the point of one day having the entire series on DVD or Blu Ray. It seems like they release two-three sets a year. So I think patience is the only thing that's really going to work in terms of collecting everything. Which is fine, because patience is something I have a lot of!