Ash, Brock, May, and Max are back in the Pokemon Advanced Complete Collection. Packed with 40 episodes, this DVD set includes the first outings of Ash and co. in the Hoenn region and the generation three Pokemon.

Pokemon is an 1997 shounen anime series, it is produced by OLM Inc, and licensed by Viz Media. It is currently available on DVD in English.

Editor’s Note: Review copy of Pokemon Advanced: Complete Collection was provided by Viz Media, check out our new review policy.

The debut of siblings May & Max, and departure of Misty.

In the early 2000s Pokemon continued to grow with its games, manga, and anime entries becoming a world wide phenomenon. And with that popularity of course came the need for more creature designs for people to collect, raise, and go nuts over. Generation III has gone on to produce some fairly popular Pokemon such as Blaziken, mudkip, and others.

So long Misty, we hardly knew ya.

THE GOOD: With a new Pokemon anime and region comes another 150 batch of Pokemon to collect, level up, evolve, and then some. While not necessarily a good replacement for Misty, May & Max do have some moments of their own, and at the very least there’s still Brock & Team Rocket.

The Generation III Pokemon make their debut.

THE BAD: May & Max aren’t the best side characters, there’s been better replacements for Brock & Misty, at least in my opinion anyways.

Make the departure for the Hoenn region in Pokemon Advanced!

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Pokemon Advanced is the first entry into the Hoenn region and marks the debut of the third generation of Pokemon. Misty is unfortunately gone, and while May & Max are ok, they just can’t replace her, to add insult to injury the further seasons provide much better companions for Ash. Otaku Dome gives Pokemon Advanced: Complete Collection a 79 out of 100.