{"id":464,"date":"2013-11-26T13:18:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T18:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=464"},"modified":"2013-11-26T13:18:44","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T18:18:44","slug":"take-a-trip-back-to-kanto-with-pokemon-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/take-a-trip-back-to-kanto-with-pokemon-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Take A Trip Back To Kanto With Pokemon Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a crazy week it has been in the world of television fandoms. The BBC aired its much-anticipated Doctor Who<\/i> fiftieth anniversary special, and on the same day the Bronies donned their pastel-colored shirts and costumes for the premiere of the fourth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic<\/i>. With all this excitement, I doubt people also knew that last week the English dub of Pok\u00e9mon Origins <\/i>was released on the official Pok\u00e9mon website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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If you didn\u2019t hear about it when the original Japanese version released last month, Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> is a four-episode spin-off of the original Pok\u00e9mon anime series. Instead of following the adventures of Ash Ketchum you watch the journey of Red, the main character from the original Pok\u00e9mon Game Boy games, Pok\u00e9mon Red <\/i>and Blue<\/i>. The four episodes of Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> highlight some of Red\u2019s adventures in Kanto, the same adventures you experienced in the original games.<\/p>\n

I marathoned the four twenty-minute episodes the day they were released and, like so many other cartoons and movies, the show had some ups and downs.<\/p>\n

Before I continue, I should mention there are some SPOILERS AHEAD,<\/b> although if you played Pok\u00e9mon Red<\/i> or Blue<\/i> I doubt the moments I highlight from the anime will be anything too new or shocking\u2026<\/p>\n

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I will say the one thing I loved most about Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> first and foremost: these four anime episodes were a serious trip down memory lane to anyone like myself who grew up playing Pok\u00e9mon<\/i> on their Game Boy for hours on end until the batteries died. The animators took great care to include plenty of homages to tons of moments in the game. For example, each episode starts and ends with a recreation of the menu screen from Pok\u00e9mon Red<\/i> and Blue<\/i>. A disembodied player selects \u201ccontinue\u201d at the start of each episode (except for Episode One, where the cursor naturally points to \u201cnew game\u201d), and each episode ends with this unidentified \u201cplayer\u201d saving his progress. The layouts of the many cities and building interiors of Kanto look exactly as they did in the games as well, and are subtle but pleasing pieces of detail for the nostalgic Pok\u00e9mon fan. The soundtrack, too, is a giant homage to old-school Pok\u00e9mon. Throughout the miniseries you\u2019ll easily find yourself humming to re-mastered versions of your favorite classic Pok\u00e9mon songs. And finally, in this version of Kanto you won\u2019t find Pok\u00e9mon saying their names; the pocket monsters all have distinct, animal-like calls that sound similar to the various calls you heard in the creatures\u2019 Pok\u00e9dex entries.<\/p>\n

Dialogue from the Game Boy games was perfectly recreated as well. Both times we see Red healing his Pok\u00e9mon at a Pok\u00e9mon Center, the nurse returns the Pok\u00e9 Balls to Red while assuring him that \u201cyour Pok\u00e9mon are fighting fit!\u201d Also the introduction you receive from Professor Oak welcoming you to the world of Pok\u00e9mon at the start of the first episode looks exactly like the introduction you get from him at the start of Red <\/i>and Blue<\/i>. His speech is verbatim to what you read in the dialogue boxes. The single spotlight shining down on Oak is also a nice touch. The only thing that disappointed me about the dialogue in Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> was that there were many famous lines from the game that they chose not to include. I was hoping for a little eight-year-old trainer to at one point run up to Red and randomly shout, \u201cI like shorts! They\u2019re comfy and easy to wear!\u201d But alas, that classic video game line was one of the many parts of the game the animators chose to cut.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Apart from some dialogue, a lot of notable parts of the original game\u2019s story were cut in Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i>. With only four twenty-minute episodes, the miniseries only focuses on a few key events from Red\u2019s journey. Episode One includes Red\u2019s first battle with rival Blue and his earning the Boulder Badge from Brock at the Pewter City Gym. The second episode takes place in Lavender Town where Red encounters the ghost of Marowak in Pok\u00e9mon Tower. In Episode Three Red saves Silph Co. from Team Rocket, then the episode skips ahead to his battle with Team Rocket boss Giovanni at the Viridian Gym. Finally, Episode Four prominently features Red\u2019s final battle against Blue for the title of Pok\u00e9mon League Champion and then Red\u2019s journey into Cerulean Cave where he confronts Mewtwo. While they are briefly shown in montages, we missed full battles with six of the Gym Leaders and even the battles against the Elite Four. This is especially disappointing when the battles are the best part of Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i>: compared to the main anime, the battle scenes are very well-animated and are also coupled with great commentaries by the battling trainers as they think about what moves to make next. To tell Red\u2019s story in a way that feels more complete, Origins<\/i> could have benefitted from one or two more episodes.<\/p>\n

But for what little we got, some of the characters were incredibly dynamic. I was on the brink of tears watching the flashback to the death of baby Cubone\u2019s mother in Episode Two. And while it seemed a bit out of place for the notorious crime boss, Giovanni had a powerful change of heart during his battle with Red in Episode Three that actually made me feel an emotional connection to the Pok\u00e9mon world\u2019s most infamous villain.<\/p>\n

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I will say that the biggest disappointment for me watching Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> came within two minutes of Episode Four\u2019s conclusion. Without giving away what and how it happens, I\u2019ll say that I grew incredibly frustrated when the writers shoehorned what was essentially a commercial for Pok\u00e9mon X<\/i> and Y <\/i>into Red\u2019s battle with Mewtwo. For a miniseries that was ninety-nine percent a tribute to the early days of Pok\u00e9mon, the shameless promotion of the new games felt incredibly out-of-place.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> could have been a lot longer than it was; heck, it could have been its own full anime series. I would have much rather joined Red on my Saturday mornings growing up than Ash Ketchum. The short length of the series, combined with what can only be described as a sell-out ending, tarnished this anime from being a perfect revisit to Kanto for older Pok\u00e9mon fans. But despite the flaws, Pok\u00e9mon Origins<\/i> has plenty of moments that will make you cry tears of nostalgic joy that definitely makes it worth a watch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Minus World is written by Steven Brasley. You can keep up with his thoughts on gaming via\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a crazy week it has been in the world of television fandoms. The BBC aired its much-anticipated Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special, and on the same day the Bronies donned their pastel-colored shirts and costumes for the premiere of the fourth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. With all this excitement, I [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}