Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019) review

In 1996, Nintendo released the first two installments of a franchise that would end up becoming one of its most beloved IP’s, Pokémon. It all began with Pokémon Red and Green in Japan, which would later see an international release in 1998 as Pokémon Red and Blue. Developed by Game Freak Inc., the series was inspired by creator Satoshi Tajiri’s love of insect collecting when he was a kid. And upon their release, these two RPG’s about a kid who embarks on an epic journey that sees them capturing the titular wild creatures and having them compete in battles against other Pokémon trainers quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Thanks to its main installments and various spin-offs, the video games have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling video game series of all-time behind the Super Mario franchise. Pokémon also happens to be the highest-grossing media franchise of all-time with a revenue of over $90 billion in sales. Alongside the games, it’s also spawned the best-selling trading card game of all-time and a hit anime series that has been running for over 1,000 episodes. But when it comes to the Pokémon franchise’s first official foray into live-action films, its source material isn’t the anime or even the original games. Instead, this film is based off a 2016 spin-off titled Detective Pikachu, where players solved mysteries with a rare talking Pikachu. The film adaptation is directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) and sees Ryan Reynolds star in the titular role, resulting in an entertaining film that surprisingly manages to break the long-running curse of quality that has always befallen films based on video games.

In the bustling metropolis that is Ryme City, the relationship between humans and Pokémon has evolved significantly to the point where traditional Pokémon battles are outlawed. It is there that Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a once-aspiring Pokémon trainer who transitioned into an insurance job after his mother’s death, is informed of his estranged father Harry’s reported death in a car crash whilst involved with a case as a Ryme City police detective. But when Tim arrives at his father’s apartment, he ends up coming across a peculiar sight in the form of a Pikachu that can talk. This Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) is revealed to be Harry’s partner Pokémon and was stricken with a case of amnesia following Harry’s ‘disappearance’. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s quickly made clear that Tim is the only one who can hear him whereas others can only hear his traditional Pokémon cry (provided, as always, by Pikachu’s voice actress from the anime, Ikue Ōtani). Thus, as Pikachu surmises the possibility that Harry may still be alive, he and Tim embark on a journey, aided by aspiring reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) and Ryme City founder Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy), to figure out what happened to Tim’s father. In the process, the two uncover a sinister conspiracy that threatens to undermine everything that Ryme City has managed to accomplish in the evolution of human/Pokémon relationships.

One of the biggest selling points of Detective Pikachu is getting to see the first official instance of Pokémon being presented in a live-action context, and overall, the film does a nice job when it comes to bringing the various Pokémon that it features to life. Granted, not every single live-action design works as well as others (e.g. while a lot of people have been pointing out Mr. Mime’s live-action design as unsettling, a certain transforming Pokémon is arguably creepier in its presentation), but for the most part, they’re effectively handled. And as you might have guessed, this film is full of nods to the franchise’s extensive lore, with references that cover everything from the games to the anime. However, this surprisingly doesn’t result in the film being a case where it’s geared solely towards fans of the franchise, even though it’s still clear that Pokémon fans will get a lot more out of this compared to those who aren’t. While it doesn’t focus on what the series is mainly known for (i.e. Pokémon battles), the plot is based around a solid emotional hook courtesy of Tim and Pikachu’s quest to learn about what happened to the former’s father, and the film maintains a solid pace and lighthearted atmosphere throughout. This makes up for the fact that the overarching mystery plot that the two gradually uncover is arguably the weakest aspect of the film. While not outright terrible, it’s very predictable when it comes to its twists.

As crazy as it may seem, finding a voice for Pikachu in this film proved to be quite a big deal for fans of the franchise. When the Detective Pikachu game was being prepped for a U.S. release, many fans petitioned to have the character voiced by Danny DeVito, who ultimately declined to audition for the role due to him being unfamiliar with the franchise. Thus, when Ryan Reynolds was cast for the film adaptation, some found this to be an odd choice by comparison. However, based on my admittedly limited experience with the game, where Pikachu is voiced by Kaiji Tang, I found that Tang’s take on the character felt reminiscent of voice actor Nolan North, who notably portrayed Deadpool in the character’s titular 2013 video game. As such, I’d argue that the idea of casting the man behind live-action Deadpool in the role isn’t as preposterous as it may seem to others, and sure enough, Reynolds kills it as Detective Pikachu. His comedic timing is just as on-point as it’s been in the Deadpool films, proving that he isn’t just limited to the Merc with a Mouth’s extremely raunchy R-rated style of humor. He also has excellent camaraderie with Justice Smith, who does a very nice job when it comes to handling the bulk of the plot’s emotional content as main protagonist Tim Goodman. In other words, these two are very much the heart of the film, even if they admittedly overshadow everyone else in the process. Granted, the rest of the cast is still solid in their respective roles, including Kathryn Newton as Tim’s reporter ally Lucy, who seeks to do more than just dull fluff pieces, and Bill Nighy as Ryme City founder Howard Clifford, but the film ultimately focuses more on its lead duo.     

I’m genuinely impressed by everything that Pokémon: Detective Pikachu has managed to accomplish. Most specifically, despite being a part of what is easily the unluckiest film genre of all-time as a film based on a video game, it currently stands as the first ever live-action film of the genre to receive generally positive reviews from critics. It manages to pull off this seemingly impossible feat by avoiding many of the usual shortcomings that often plague other films based on video games. For one thing, it maintains a generally accurate representation of the Pokémon franchise even though it’s based more on a spin-off whose gameplay differed vastly from the series’ primary installments. And while its main plot is a bit predictable, the film makes up for this with some solid emotional depth that primarily stems from its main characters, Tim and Detective Pikachu, who are played excellently by Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds, respectively. Because of this, Detective Pikachu is a pleasantly light-hearted family flick that manages to appeal to more than just the franchise’s sizable fanbase, and thanks to this film’s success, it’s clear that this is only the beginning when it comes to seeing Pokémon on the big screen. A few months back, plans were set into motion for two more live-action Pokémon films; one based around the character Mewtwo (who, of course, plays a pivotal role in this film’s plot) and another that’s set to be a direct adaptation of the original Red and Blue games. And if they’re anything like Detective Pikachu, a promising new film franchise is on the horizon.

Rating: 4/5

Pokemon Film Trilogy Retrospective

We've had quite an interesting release this past week in the form of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. It serves as the first live-action film adaptation of the hugely popular video game series Pokémon, which continues to be one of the most dominant media franchises of today’s pop cultural zeitgeist even after nearly two and a half decades since its initial inception. Its various video game releases have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, a feat that’s only rivaled by their parent company Nintendo’s flagship franchise, Super Mario. And while most Pokémon games stem from the RPG genre, there have also been various spin-offs that include puzzle games, an on-rails shooter themed around photography, and the highly popular mobile-based augmented reality game Pokémon Go. But, of course, the Pokémon series has also been successfully expanded into other forms of media. Not long after the initial release of the series’ first installments, Pokémon Red and Green (later Red, Blue and Yellow in the U.S.), a trading card game was developed and has since gone on to become the top-selling trading card game of all-time. But for today’s post, we’re delving into what is arguably the Pokémon franchise’s most notable product outside of the video games, its anime adaptation. The Pokémon anime series debuted in 1997 and is STILL going strong today after more than 1,000 (!) episodes.

Now, this isn’t the first time that I’ve discussed the Pokémon anime on this site. Way back in 2014, I did a review of the show’s first season, Indigo League, primarily due to it being recently added to Netflix’s streaming library. In that review, I noted that while it’s incredibly cheesy and often repetitive with its narrative, I still had positive nostalgic feelings towards it even though I admittedly wasn’t exactly an avid viewer of it back when it originally aired. I also did a pair of posts that went over some of the hilariously strange and awkward moments that have occurred in various episodes of the show’s first two seasons (e.g. that one episode that literally sent hundreds of Japanese kids to the hospital due to its use of intense strobe lighting). But today, we’re not doing another one of those ‘strange moments’ posts. Instead, we’ll be looking at some of the anime’s feature film adaptations. As of this post’s publication, there have been 21 Pokémon animated feature films that have been released, with several of them even seeing a theatrical release here in the U.S. For obvious reasons, I won’t be delving into every single one of these films in today’s retrospective. For one thing, that’s just way too many films to cover in just a single post and I can’t watch them all in time to have this come out a reasonable time that's in line with the release of Detective Pikachu. Part of this also stems from the fact that, as I noted in those earlier posts, my experience with the Pokémon franchise mainly stems from its first two ‘eras’, Kanto and Johto, as the games from those eras were the ones that I grew up with. Thus, today I’ll just be looking at the series’ first three films as they were the only ones prior to Detective Pikachu that were given proper theatrical releases here in the U.S. whereas others had much more limited releases. And so, without further ado, it’s time to “be the very best like no one ever was” and return to a simpler time in the franchise’s history as we look at the first three Pokémon feature films.

(Disclaimer: The three films in this retrospective saw a domestic release the year after their initial releases in Japan, where the Pokémon franchise originated from. In other words, while they’ll all be labeled with their initial Japanese release dates, just bear in mind that the versions of these films that us American audiences are familiar with came out one year later.)

Before we begin, though, I wanted to do a quick little callback to my earlier Pokémon posts by going over one iconic moment from the anime’s first season that I surprisingly missed when I did that first ‘Strange Moments’ post. And I won’t lie, I’m kind of kicking myself for forgetting it because it’s such a hilariously absurd moment. Thus, without further ado…

THE ANIME PULLS OFF A MAJOR BIT OF TROLLING – THE ULTIMATE TEST

In episode 56, The Ultimate Test, series protagonist Ash Ketchum takes a Pokémon League entry exam when it provides him a potential opportunity to be accepted into the Pokémon League without having to earn all 8 of Kanto’s Gym Leader Badges (or 10, if you’re Gary Oak). The notorious duo of Team Rocket members Jessie and James also partake in the exam as well, managing to avoid suspicion via disguises that, as I’ve noted in those ‘Strange Moments’ posts, aren’t very good and yet keep managing to fool Ash and his friends for some reason. During one part of the exam, they’re faced with the simple challenge that every fan of this show is tasked with during a commercial break, Who’s that Pokémon? The instructor presents the first Pokémon silhouette, which comes in the shape of a circle. Ash, Jessie, and James present their options…

Given that, at the time, there are only a few Pokémon with a completely circular shape, Ash guesses that it’s a Voltorb.

James, meanwhile, completely forgets that this test was about Pokémon and says that it’s a Poke Ball “without a doubt”.

Finally, Jessie goes with Voltorb’s evolved form, Electrode, as her answer.

They’re all wrong, however, because the answer is… Jigglypuff seen from above!

Honestly, there’s not much else that I can say about this scene. It’s just so damn silly and yet still incredibly hilarious because of how ludicrous that bait-and-switch is. Heck, they even reuse this gag in the episode’s actual ‘Who’s that Pokémon’ segment, though sadly this was only in the Japanese dub. Here in the U.S., a Vulpix was used instead.

And now… our Feature Presentation!!!

POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE – MEWTWO STRIKES BACK (1998)

Backed by the worldwide success of both the video games and the anime, Pokémon made its feature film debut in 1998 with The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back. It goes without saying that this film was a big deal back when it was released; here in the U.S., it still stands as the highest-grossing anime film of all-time and it sold over 10 million copies once it hit the home video market. Critical reception, however, wasn’t very positive, and from the looks of it, a lot of this was due to the film’s domestic dub courtesy of the anime’s U.S. distributor, 4Kids. The domestic cut of the film didn’t include a 10-minute prologue that goes into the backstory of the main villain, Mewtwo, a clone of the ancient Pokémon Mew. This backstory, which sees Mewtwo befriend a cloned human girl named Amber before being forced to witness her death, makes the character more of a misunderstood villain than an outright malicious one as his characterization stems around him trying to understand his purpose in life. Thus, because this was taken out of the domestic cut, he’s presented as more of a straight-forward antagonist, and while there is still the underlying theme of him rebelling against those who treat him as nothing more than an experiment, his motives aren’t as clear in the U.S. dub. There are also a few noticeable continuity errors here and there (e.g. several instances of incorrectly identified Pokémon) and a more overt American soundtrack. The latter aspect of the film is most infamously represented during the big fight between Pokémon and their Mewtwo-created clones, which is set to a pop song instead of an orchestra like in the Japanese version. And yet, despite all this and the rather notorious sequence where the Pokémon revive a petrified Ash via their tears (an event that, technically, was hinted at earlier in the film even if it was only just as a passing reference by a minor character), I still find this to be a generally harmless popcorn flick.

To be clear, I’m not saying that this is a ‘great’ film. Like the show itself, this film is incredibly cheesy, and as I’ve pointed out, a lot of this was due to 4Kids’ overall handling of the American dub (e.g. at one point, Ash randomly references the Minnesota Vikings football team). There’s also a generally mishandled attempt at having a message that condemns fighting. Sure, it’s a noble cause, but it also happens to occur in a film that stems from a franchise that is literally known for fighting. And if that wasn’t enough, this message is then directly thrown out the window at the end of the film when Mewtwo wipes the main characters’ memories. At the same time, however, Mewtwo is a genuinely iconic antagonist. Despite the lack of his backstory in the domestic cut (which was included as a bonus feature in its initial DVD release but, strangely, not in subsequent releases), the film does succeed in conveying the same mystique that the character had in the games, where he could only be encountered after defeating the Elite Four. Because of this, Pokémon: The First Movie is still an enjoyable watch… though, admittedly, this applies more towards those who are fans of the franchise. If you aren’t a fan of Pokémon, then you’re not going to get a lot out of this film because to be perfectly blunt, it’s not very friendly to newcomers. Still, for those who grew up with this franchise, this film continues to serve as a pleasantly nostalgic trip down memory lane to a simpler time in Pokémon’s history.

Rating: 3/5

POKEMON: THE MOVIE 2000 – THE POWER OF ONE (1999)

While the second Pokémon film wasn’t as big of a hit at the box-office when compared to its predecessor (even with a summer release date), it seems as if fans of the franchise tend to view this installment just as positively as they do the first film if not arguably more so. For one thing, this film’s 4Kids dub wasn’t as overt as the first film’s domestic dub was when it came to changes that drastically alter the story. As such, this film’s plot, in which Ash finds himself having to fulfill a prophecy to save the world from being destroyed by a clash between the legendary Pokémon bird trio of Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos, does feel a lot more consistent from a narrative perspective. Sure, it’s still a generally straight-forward ‘hero’s journey’ story, but it does manage to do what most sequels tend to do by thoroughly raising the stakes of Ash’s quest. However, if there’s one advantage that the first film has over this one, it’s that it had the benefit of Mewtwo as its villain. By comparison, this film has a generic Pokémon collector (who isn’t even given a name in the film itself outside of the credits, where he’s listed as ‘Lawrence III’) who simply seeks to capture the legendary Pokémon birds so that he can collect another Legendary Pokémon, Lugia (AKA the cover mascot for Pokémon Silver and its DS remake, SoulSilver). Overall, though, Pokémon 2000 is generally on par with the first film in terms of its quality. It can very well be argued that this film is ‘better’ than its predecessor, but at the same time, Mewtwo Strikes Back is also arguably the more memorable of the two. Whatever one you prefer, however, it’s another delightfully nostalgic adventure for those who grew up with it.

Rating: 3/5

POKEMON 3: THE MOVIE – ENTEI: SPELL OF THE UNOWN (2000)

By the time that Pokémon 3 rolled into theaters, the series was already into the Gold and Silver era of the franchise, where the action shifted to the Johto region and introduced 100 new Pokémon to complement the original 151 from Red and Blue. However, just like Pokémon 2000, this one wasn’t as big of a hit at the box-office compared to the first film… or even Pokémon 2000, for that matter. As such, this ended up being the last Pokémon film up until this year’s Detective Pikachu to A.) get a wide release in the U.S. and B.) be distributed by Warner Bros. By all accounts, this was around the time when the initial hype for Pokémon had finally started to die down, and yet, many have touted this as one of the franchise’s best films… and to be perfectly blunt, they’re right. For one thing, this film features some of the best animation to come from a Pokémon film as it more than utilizes the potential of its dream-based narrative to its fullest effect. Said plot sees Ash and company trying to rescue his mother Delia after she’s kidnapped by the legendary Pokémon Entei, who currently serves as the guardian of a young girl named Molly. The duo of Molly and Entei provide the film with a fascinating set of antagonists because just like Mewtwo, Molly isn’t exactly an ‘evil villain’. Instead, she’s just a scared little girl struggling to cope with the disappearance of both her mother and father. As such, Entei ends up personifying her father (which is bolstered by the fact that both Entei and her father are played by the same voice actor, Dan Green) and she has him kidnap Ash’s mom so that she can be her ‘mother’, resulting in a story that’s full of surprisingly effective psychological turmoil.    

Entei is also an equally solid antagonist. Despite just being an apparition created by the other prominently featured Pokémon of the film, the alphabet shaped Unown, Entei proves to be quite an imposing threat to Ash and company while also maintaining complete loyalty to Molly throughout as her new father figure. Not only does this result in an awesome battle between Entei and Ash’s Charizard, but it also strengthens the film’s emotional depth, especially near the end when Entei sacrifices himself to save Molly and the others from the Unown. It also helps to make up for the fact that the Unown are admittedly a rather underdeveloped bunch of antagonists. Sure, the film does a nice job of establishing their mysterious nature, but they don’t really do much plot-wise aside from transporting Molly’s father into another dimension, creating Entei, and transforming Molly’s home into a crystal palace. Ironically, though, this is arguably a perfect cinematic representation of their status in the games, where they’ve frequently been regarded as some of the weakest of the franchise’s 812 current* (as of this post’s publication due to 3 of those being the starter Pokémon from the upcoming Sword and Shield games) species of Pokémon. Ultimately, though, Pokémon 3 truly is a solid animated film as it’s one of the best-paced of the franchise and one of the best-written. Now admittedly, just like the previous two films, it’s still generally geared towards fans of the franchise. However, if I were to pick just one of the many Pokémon animated films to recommend to those who aren’t that big a fan of the franchise, I would choose this one (even if I’ve had more experience with The First Movie and 2000) as it’s arguably one of the most accessible installments for Pokémon newcomers.

Rating: 4.5/5

And that concludes this little retrospective on the original ‘trilogy’ of Pokémon films that were released in theaters. On a side note, this was originally meant to be a much larger retrospective that covered a few more Pokémon films. Specifically, that would also include the two Pokémon films that were given limited releases by Miramax, Pokémon 4Ever and Pokémon Heroes, and the series’ two most recent films set within an alternate continuity, Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You and Pokémon The Movie: The Power of Us. However, due to various reasons that included the fact that Pokémon Heroes isn’t easily available to watch online, I ultimately decided to cut back on the number of films in this retrospective. Even with that said, though, I might consider looking at some more Pokémon films in the future. Until then, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own personal memories of these films, and you can expect a review of the highly anticipated Pokémon: Detective Pikachu sometime in the next few days.

Pokemon: Indigo League (1997-99): Season Review

It might be embarrassing for me to admit it, but when the first season of the Pokémon anime was made available to stream on Netflix, I started to binge-watch the show. That’s because when I was younger, I was a big fan of the Pokémon franchise. I owned a lot of the video games, including some of the main handheld games like ‘Pokémon: Yellow’ and ‘Pokémon: Silver’ as well as a few of the spin-off games for home consoles like ‘Pokémon: Stadium’ and ‘Pokémon Snap’. But you see, this has been a franchise that I started to grow out of as I got older and one of the main reasons why I did was because the franchise continuously expanded with new worlds and new Pokémon species that were introduced with almost every new main game in the series; in other words, the series was basically starting to be a bit overcomplicated. Right now, there are about 719 kinds of Pokémon in this franchise split across six separate regions of the world of Pokémon… and I’m sorry but once you go past the Johto era of the series, that’s where it loses me. In that sense, I guess you can call me an ‘old-timer’ when it comes to the series because my favorite Pokémon games were the ones before the Hoenn era and being that I was born in 1995 that means that I was there when the series first made its debut here in the U.S (just a year later in 1996). So yes, I prefer the original Pokémon to their newer brethren. Now for the record, I still like playing the video games from time to time, but I guess at this point I’m more of a casual fan of the series. But even with that said, today I’ll be looking at the first season of the Pokémon anime, more commonly known as ‘Pokémon: Indigo League’.

(Note: This first season consists of 82 episodes, starting with ‘I Choose You, Pikachu’ and ending with ‘Friends to the End’. There are additional episodes of the following season that are currently streaming on Netflix, but for now I’ll stick to the first 82 episodes.)

In a world that is full of creatures known as Pokémon, 10-year old Ash Ketchum dreams of becoming the world’s greatest Pokémon Trainer. However, on the day that he is set to leave home (and for the record yes, most Pokémon trainers are supposed to leave home at that age… that’s how it works in this franchise) to go out on his Pokémon journey across the Kanto region, he ends up oversleeping and as a result, all of the regular Starter Pokémon that the local Professor, Professor Oak, provides to new trainers have already been taken. So instead, Ash ends up with a Pikachu as his first Pokémon. At first, the two have a difficult time getting along but soon they become inseparable as they travel across Kanto battling trainers, dealing with the criminal Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth, and coming across new Pokémon as Ash yearns to acquire eight badges from the local Pokémon Gyms in order for him to enter the Pokémon League Tournament. Along the way, Ash and Pikachu befriend two of the region’s Gym Trainers who end up joining him on his journey; Brock, the Gym Leader in Pewter City who looks to become the world’s best Pokémon breeder, and Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader who joins Ash on his journey after an incident in which Ash and Pikachu accidentally destroyed her bike when they borrowed it.

Folks, let’s be honest… this show is kind of stupid. I mean, even when I was a kid, I think I remember that even back then I thought that the show was a bit too goofy at times. Looking at it now, it’s kind of even goofier than I remembered. This show can be very corny at times, with a lot of bad Pokémon-related puns being said in almost every episode. Heck, some of these puns were even used in some of the episode titles (e.g. ‘Lights, Camera, Quack-tion’… get it?). Plus, this show is full of odd moments, whether it’s due to an animation error or just an act of pure stupidity committed by one of the characters (I’ll be covering these moments in more detail in the second part of this review). But probably the biggest problem with the show is that it is very, very repetitive. I mean pretty much every episode has the same general plot-points; Ash and friends come across a new Pokémon, which is usually accompanied by its Trainer, and they befriend this new ‘Trainer of the Week’ as they learn more about the ‘Pokémon of the Week’. Then, Team Rocket comes in attempting to kidnap Pikachu (after reciting their motto of course which they do… every… single… time!), or sometimes the ‘Pokémon of the Week’. Ash and his friends then defeat them, and they blast off into the sunset and the episode ends with the group continuing on their journey ‘having learned a new lesson about the world Pokémon’; rinse, wash, repeat. Really, I’m just amazed at how long they were able to stretch out this series, which now stands at more than 800 episodes, and yet have pretty much every episode play out the exact same way. It’s so repetitive that I don’t even feel like the characters mature at all during the show, and that’s not including the fact that they’re seemingly staying the same age a la ‘The Simpsons’.

While the main characters themselves are likable enough that you do want to follow them on their journey, they’re not the most ‘developed’ characters in the world and quite frankly each member of the main trio has their own unique major flaw. Ash may be an optimistic kid who doesn’t want to quit, but most of the time he does come off as a bit too headstrong and at times a little arrogant, acting before he thinks things through. Misty can be very sweet, but is easily prone to getting angry, especially at Ash. Brock probably is the most mature of the three, but he’s also notably always trying to hit on nearly every girl they come across; usually one of the many Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys that inhabit every town… though I will say that this is actually one of my favorite parts of the whole series because I just find it funny how Brock is always trying just a bit too hard to try and score with a girl. As for the Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth… boy, where do we begin with those three? I mean, they’ve been in nearly every episode since Episode 2, ‘Pokémon Emergency’, and yet continuously fail in their many, many attempts to capture Pikachu. They’ve even used some shock-proof equipment which you think they would use all the time… but no, there have been some instances where they use this kind of equipment but then they don’t use it the following episode(s) and even then sometimes this equipment ends up backfiring on them. I mean after all this time you’d think they would’ve learned from their mistakes (or quite possibly have given up after failing so many times) but NOPE!!!

So despite all that I’ve just said, why then do I still like this show even though I feel that it’s incredibly repetitive. Well, even with that in mind I still found the show to be pretty entertaining. For one thing, the show actually has a bit of an advantage over the video games because the Pokémon battles are more engaging in the anime than they are in the actual games themselves, especially when considering what the video games themselves were like at the time the show first aired. Because you see, in the old days, the battles in the video games were much more static as it was really just the two Pokémon staying in a single position facing each other and just attacking their opponents from that position without moving whatsoever… which let’s be honest kind of gets boring after a while. That’s not the case with the battles in the anime; the Pokémon move around much more which I do find to be much more exciting as they really do a better job of pulling you into the action on-screen. Plus, nowadays I really get a kick out of all of the cornier/stupid elements of the show, whether it’s Brock’s repeated attempts at trying to woo girls or Team Rocket’s inability to give up their sort of hopeless mission of capturing Pikachu. I mean, this show is just silly and it at least seems like the creators of the show aren’t trying to take things so seriously. So overall, ‘Pokémon’ is just a fun little show that may not be the smartest cartoon out there but it is still fairly enjoyable to watch and nowadays its first season can definitely serve as a key piece of nostalgia for anyone who grew up with the series like I did.

Rating: If mostly for Entertainment Value: 3.5/5

Check back Tomorrow for Part 2 in which I look at some of the strangest moments in the anime.