Pokémon: Advanced is the sixth season of the Pokémon anime series and the first season of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation (ポケットモンスター アドバンスジェネレーション, Poketto Monsutā Adobansu Jenerēshon). It originally aired in Japan from November 21, 2002, to August 28, 2003, on TV Tokyo, and in the United States from November 1, 2003, to September 4, 2004, on Kids' WB/The WB.
The season follows Ash Ketchum as he travels across the Hoenn region to challenge its Pokémon League while joined by Brock, May, an aspiring Pokémon Coordinator, and Max, her younger brother.
The episodes were directed by Masamitsu Hidaka and produced by the animation studio OLM.
Music
The Japanese opening song is "Advance Adventure" (アドバンスアドベンチャー, Adobansu Adobenchā) by GARDEN for 40 episodes. The ending songs are "Because the Sky is There" (そこに空があるから, Soko ni Sora ga Aru Kara) by Toshiko Ezaki for 18 episodes, and "Polka O Dolka" (ポルカ・ドルカ, Poruka O Doruka) by Inuko Inuyama (Meowth) and Nolsol Chorus Group for 22 episodes, and the English opening song is "I Wanna Be a Hero" by David Rolfe. A shortened version of the English opening song was used for the end credits.
Critical reception
Themanime.org gave a positive review saying that "the anime does stuff from the video games in this season" and that "May isn't just a replacement of Misty." Movie Reviews Simbasible gave a negative review saying that "the new characters are actually more annoying instead of likeable" and that "it ended up being a bore but with some very good episodes." Alfah, writing for Pokeblog gave a positive review, giving the season a 8/10 and saying that "It's an awesome start to the Advanced Generation series, showing growth of two protagonists, Ash and May. Other than Max's bratty attitude, this is an awesome season: a definite must-watch."
In the United States, Viz Video and Ventura Distribution released the series on 8 VHS and DVD volumes from 2004–2005. The entire series was released on DVD, while the VHS versions only featured the first three episodes from each release.
Viz Media later released two 3-disc boxed DVD sets in 2005 and 2006, containing 6-7 episodes per disc.
Viz Media and Warner Home Video released Pokémon: Advanced – The Complete Collection on DVD in the United States on May 16, 2017.