Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes

***Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes***, known as ***Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!*** (ポケットモンスター ベストウイッシュ!, *Poketto Monsutaa Besuto Uisshu*) in Japan and ***Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes*** (포켓몬스터 베스트 위시, *Poket Monseuteo Beseuteu Wisi*) in South Korea, int. ***BW***, is the fourth series of the Pokémon anime and is based on the events of the Generation V core series Pokémon games. It follows *Pocket Monsters: Diamond and Pearl* and was succeeded by *Pocket Monsters: XY*. It aired from September 23, 2010, to March 27, 2014, in Japan and the United States and from May 16, 2011, to March 28, 2014, in South Korea. The series covers the main protagonist, Ash Ketchum, and his Pikachu adventures in the new region of Unova. As always, the past female companion of Ash, Dawn, has left the series and is replaced by a girl named Iris, who has an Axew. Ash also has a male friend in this series named Cilan, who is also a Gym Leader. Team Rocket is still in the series, and new antagonists appear in the form of the crime syndicate Team Plasma. Team Plasma is after the Legendary Trio Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem similar to how other villainous teams went after the Legendary Pokémon in their respective regions. Ash also has a new set of clothing based on Pokémon Black and White Version's male player character's design.

Additionally, a new art style was introduced in this series. To match Ken Sugimori's most recent character art, all characters are now drawn with the new eye style previously introduced in *Pocket Monsters: Diamond and Pearl*. This style includes rounder eyes with larger irises and visible pupils. Ash's new design now clearly depicts his brown eyes. Jessie and James have also been redesigned similarly, while also being given a straighter hairstyle. Additionally, the Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny in Unova are designed differently than those of the regions visited by Ash before, a trend that would continue in later series.

With the beginning of this series, many attacks also have had their visual appearances changed. Fire moves and Stone Edge are now rendered in CGI, while physical Steel moves make the corresponding body part steel-colored rather than white (although this was reverted in *Pokémon the Series: XY*). Template:M has also been changed considerably, to match how it looks in the games. Starting from this series, the camera pans faster and more often than in previous series. Its zooms have also become faster.

The series also saw the return of *Who's That Pokémon?* in BW061 after an absence of 444 episodes.

Episodes in *Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes* are numbered with Template:Bp **BW** on Bulbapedia. For a complete episode listing, see the list of *Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes* episodes.

## Seasons

*Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes* has been divided into multiple arcs, similar to the "chapters" of the original series.
This generation is split into four story arcs:

* Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!
* Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2
* Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N
* Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Epilogue Tale

## Movies

* *Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! the Movie - Victini and the Black Hero: Zekrom /Victini and the White Hero: Reshiram*
* *Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! the Movie - Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice - Keldeo*
* *Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! the Movie - The Extremespeed Genesect and the Legend Awakened*

## Characters

### Main

* Ash
* Iris
* Cilan

### Rivals

* Trip
* Bianca
* Cheren
* Georgia
* Burgundy
* Stephan
* Hugh
* Virgil

### Antagonists

* Team Rocket
	+ Jessie
	+ James
	+ Giovanni
	+ Matori
	+ Pierce
	+ Doctor Zager
* Team Plasma
	+ N
	+ Ghetsis
	+ Colress
	+ Aldith
	+ Barret

### Key Pokémon

* Ash's Pikachu
* Ash's Dewott
* Ash's Serperior
* Ash's Darmanitan
* Ash's Krookodile
* Ash's Braviary
* Ash's Zekrom
* Iris' Fraxure
* Iris' Excadrill
* Iris' Emolga
* Iris' Druddigon
* Iris' Hyrdeigon
* Cilan's Pansage
* Cilan's Leavanny
* Cilan's Tepig
* Team Rocket's Meowth
* Jessie's Woobat
* Jessie's Frillish
* James' Yamask
* James' Amoonguss
* Jessie's Wobbuffet
* N's Reshiram

### Recurring Characters

* Gym Leaders - The Gym Leaders of Unova will appear in some episodes, most likely battling Ash.
* Elite Four
* Professor Juniper - She is first seen in the first two episodes of Best Wishes.
* Professor Oak - He will most likely be shown sometimes in the series, mostly video chatting with Ash about his journey.
* Delia Ketchum - the mother of Ash Ketchum, will most likely will appear talking to Ash on the video chat, making sure that he is doing well and that has everything he needs for his quest.
* Don George
* Cynthia
* Dawn
* Alder
* Benga
* Freddy O'Martian
* Subway Boss Ingo
* Subway Boss Emmet
* Looker
* Montgomery
* Jervis
* Anthea and Concordia
* Porter
* Alexa

## Gags

### Retired/Returning Running Gags

* With Brock no longer traveling with Ash, his crush and flirtatious tone over attractive girls has passed, with Cilan replacing him. Unlike Brock, Cilan does not flirt with girls. In Brock's special episode, he still flirts with girls.
* Ash's Pikachu doesn't destroy Iris' bike since she does not have one, as she prefers to swing on vines.
* Team Rocket shifts from their foolish and comical personalities to their smarter and more mature personalities in this series, but revert to comic relief before it concludes
	+ Because of this, their Boss Fantasies gags are dropped.

### New Running Gags

* Bianca always accidentally knocks Ash and Pikachu into a body of water due to her clumsiness.
* Stephan gets upset when people mispronounce his name, similar to how Butch's name was mispronounced by most of the characters in the series.
* Cameron is shown to display great ineptitude as a trainer. Examples include his introduction, where he believed he only needed 7 badges to enter the Unova League, and also thought a full battle was 5-on-5 rather than 6-on-6.

## Trivia

* BW is an abbreviation that is applicable to **B**est **W**ishes.
* The Japanese title of the series contains a pun as イッシュ is how "Isshu" is spelled in Japanese katakana characters. "Wish" is spelled as ウイッシュ *uisshu* which contains 「イッシュ」*Isshu*.
* The first opening of this series is all CGI-animated with only Pikachu and the Generation V Pokémon and no humans.
* The Pokémon appearing in the anime and in the Unova region are different from the previous anime, just like in the video games.
	+ There are no previous Pokémon from Generations I-IV appearing in the wild or used by trainers in the Unova region. However, many of the Pokémon from the previous seasons appear starting from BWS2 to the Epilogue arc.
	+ The only previous Pokémon from Generations I-IV appearing in the anime are the three Generation I Pokémon, Pikachu (belonging to Ash), Meowth (belonging to Jessie and James of Team Rocket) and Persian (belonging to Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket). Roxie's Koffing was the first pre-Generation V Pokémon to appear in this series other than the main characters. Furthermore, out of every pre-existing Pokémon, only Meowth and Pikachu were series regulars up until Dawn made an lengthy guest appearance during BWS2.
* When Team Rocket is in Unova, their role is different in this series from the previous series.
	+ Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, wears a new gray outfit.
	+ Jessie and James of Team Rocket have changed clothes due to a promotion, wearing black uniforms instead of their old white uniforms. However, they later revert to their original uniforms later in the series.
	+ Along with their promotion, Jessie, James, and Meowth transformed from the most comical characters in the show into the most serious. They became extremely competent compared to previous series, and were not shown in a comical manner at all. After the events of the Team Rocket vs Team Plasma 2-parter, they were demoted and went back to their white uniforms. Along with this, they became less serious and occasionally appeared in a comical fashion, but they remained largely the same and did not "blast off" or return to their roles as comic relief until towards the end of the series.
	+ Team Rocket does not appear in every episode, unlike the first 3 series.
	+ Jessie, James, and Meowth are now in Unova under Giovanni's orders, rather than following Ash with the intent of stealing Pikachu.
	+ The reason Jessie and James left all their Pokémon at Team Rocket headquarters is because they are not native to Unova and may look less suspicious. Meowth is considered a member rather than a Pokémon, so he was sent with Jessie and James. Wobbuffet does not appear at all in this series until the last episode, where he rejoins the group.
* As with other series, Ash's previous friends (Misty, May, Brock and Tracey) do not appear in this series, although Dawn has been referenced in the opening theme and first episode. However, Dawn returns for several episodes in Best Wishes Season 2 where she reunites with Ash and competes with him in the Junior Cup tournament.
* The characters living in Unova are different from those in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, coinciding with a soft reboot of the anime.
	+ In the Unova region, Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny wear new outfits and have new hairstyles.
	+ In Unova, Nurse Joy doesn't use Chansey - she uses Audino instead.
	+ Both of these changes would occur again in future regions as well.
* Ash meets Iris and Cilan in a similar fashion to when he first met Misty and Brock but Iris never had a bike like Misty, May and Dawn had.
* In the narration for the first episode of Best Wishes, Ash is said to be still ten, which is ironic since Pokémon has been airing for thirteen years.
* This series would be considered a soft reboot of the *Pokémon: Original Series*, as it uses many dynamics from the first series.
	+ Ash turns his hat around when catching a Pokémon like he did in the original series.
	+ Ash tries to catch every Pokémon when he first arrives in the Unova region.
	+ Ash captures the three starters, the region's first bird, and a worm bug type Pokémon. This is the same as his first 6 Pokémon, just caught in a different order.
	+ Ash's level of experience as a trainer regresses significantly in this series, with him acting more as a rookie trainer while also not being as inexperienced as he was in Kanto.
	+ The series reuses music from the original series.
* The protagonists have different goals than those from *Advanced Generation* and *Diamond and Pearl*.
	+ Ash is the only competitive Pokémon trainer. Instead of a female competitive Pokémon trainer, there is Iris, who has a goal that does not revolve around competitions.
	+ Ash is again the only one in his group to participate in League Battles.
	+ Iris and Cilan don't enter a Pokémon Contest. This may be because the Pokémon Contests are replaced with Pokémon Musicals.
* Besides Ash usually catches a lot of Pokémon but so far he only usually keeps 5 from each region, not counting ones that can be called upon. Currently only his Johto and Unova journey, does Ash capture and keep 6 Pokémon from the region. He even catches more than 6 Pokémon on his Unova journey which was the first time he has ever done that since the Original Series.
* Dawn and Brock both got their own side episodes that only aired in Japan and the US. Forrest owns a Rhyperior and has taken over the role as the Pewter City Gym Leader and Dawn's Cyndaquil evolved and she traveled to Hoenn along with her current party to partake in Pokémon Contests.
* The art style of this series is different from the Original Series, Advanced Generation and Diamond and Pearl.
	+ Ash now has brown eyes.
	+ When Pokémon come out of a Poké Ball, they appear as a silver ball with blue sparkles instead of white light.
	+ When Pokémon are seen on the Pokédex, they appear as rotating images instead of still pictures.
	+ Pokémon now evolve with a blue light around it instead of a white light.
	+ The attacks that Pokémon use, like Hyper Beam, are CGI-animated, instead of traditionally animated.
	+ The "To Be Continued" logo at the end of every episode is a different font instead of yellow with an arrow pointing it
* The Gym Leaders of Unova all make an appearance at least once in the series, even those from Black 2 and White 2:
	+ From Black and White, there's Cilan, Chili, Cress, Lenora, Burgh, Elesa (Black and White Version), Clay, Skyla, Brycen, Drayden, and Iris.
	+ From Black 2 and White 2, there's Cheren, Roxie, and Marlon.
* This is the first series that Ash Ketchum didn't receive a Pokédex from Professor Oak