My thoughts so far:Voice Acting-
Liko and Ann have the best dub VAs (I like Reynoso's Liko more than any other lead protagonist voice TPCi has had in the last 17 years- I always found Veronica Taylor to be a better Ash than Kayzie Rogers plus Sarah Natochenny + not nostalgia as I listened to the latter longer either-- found it overrated, and while Bryce Papenbrook was the best dub Red of the three to me, I still found it odd casting, while Michele Knotz was the opposite + Billy Bob Thompson is the worst of the both worlds- but Liko actually sounds like a shy reticent girl for once, even if Alejandra needs work on making it younger sounding in contemplative or serious scenes; Ann sounds like a cheerful young girl, as well, I like her VA too) and Lucius and Roy have the worst dub VA performances (Roy sounds like a girl kicking up dirt from her throat & it's scratchy, but Anjali is still better than Sarah was as Ash in late BF-early DP I guess, while Steven J. Blum sounds like a stereotypically seductive gruff voiced dude rather than the kind, warm grandfatherly narrators Rodger Parsons & Mike Pollock were).
Everything & everyone else is middling: the Charmander's VA sucked (sorry Billy) & Espeon too (sorry Erica), but the other Pokemon sounded pretty good for once (Sprigatito has the best dub VA, sounds like a cat). I like that Crisipin is back, but his Friede is overly deep sounding like Zelgadis, and it needs to go a bit higher. Still, nice that Lisa brought back a 4Kids veteran script writer from 1999-2000, but will TPCi get over their grudge and spite so far for Taylor, Stuart, Lillis after S11, etc. at last now that Ash is gone? They need to be given another chance to return, IMO, in this Series to make amends and to do the right thing here.
Script Writing-
JCC needed to be replaced as script writer back in Season 9 with what he was putting out for years, honestly, that he got that long to do so is a testament to how foolish TPCi is in many ways (not on him, they kept him that long) imo. That said, I'm sorry for him that he has cancer, and I do hope he recovers, but while I liked his Gary the most of the dub VAs and Pryce too (Hebert sucked in Masters), none of his other human work was very good to me much there VA wise personally.
That said, this is the best the dub's writing has been post-4Kids tbh, the "Is she psychic?" in HZ100 is the first time a dub line made me laugh since DP002's "Don't you mean Hoenn conquered us?" in S10 in 2007 under early TPCi as PUSA (TRio's writing in the dub went downhill in S11 IMO, as TPCi originally kept some of the 4Kids era wit/snark there in the TAJ Seasons for them before devolving into utter garbage later to me).
I will say the "ya know" at the end of sentences needs to stop though, as it was always annoying, and is a TPCi verbal tic to this day.
Music-
Goldfarb's stuff is long since stale, enough said: that even 4Kids had the sense to not re-score as much as TPCi has in music in Pokémon, will always be a sad thing to me. He struggles the most in serious scenes or dramatic ones, that said, he's only okay at comedic ones and even then sounds overly goofy. Dub music in 2023 is outdated, and not on Ed, but on TPCi for doing so that said to make royalties for more cash (because, you know, a multi-billionaire dollar company can't get enough money and needs it that badly, lol). It sucks, but it is what it is, I guess.
Speculation post-sneak peek:
OP/Intro-
There hasn't been a single amazing quality opening for the English dub after Unbeatable, to me, and the last passable one was Battle Cry-Stand Up, but it still lagged behind the ones prior. Will TPCi stop doing short & unfun OPs only 30 seconds long with Horizons, at last? I doubt it.
Censorship will likely be back in the HZ dub, later on, as well.
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