Pikachu in Pictures Chapter 12: French Zenigata by way of Columbo as played by David Tennant

Pikachu in Pictures” is probably gonna be twenty-four weeks long, so this puts us at the halfway point! God, it feels so long already.

Episodes reviewed:

1138: “Ghoul Daze!” (August 21, 2008). Ash, Dawn, and Brock are taking part in a summer camp, and today’s mission involves teams exploring woods filled with Ghost-Type Pokémon. Several students get accosted by a rogue Dusknoir, who’s trying to stop them from being led to their deaths by a ghost girl.
1213: “Noodles! Roamin’ Off!” (March 5, 2009). Too many failed plans and a chance meeting with an old Team Rocket colleague turned ramen restaurateur causes Team Rocket to split up. Meowth gets into the ramen business, Jessie commits to Coordinating, and James goes after a deadly Shiny Metagross to prove they aren’t failures.
1217: “Stopped in the Name of Love!” (April 2, 2009). Right after getting to Sandalstraw Town, Piplup keeps almost evolving before stopping. But while Dawn’s excited to see it become a Prinplup, and everyone’s confused as to why the change isn’t happening, it turns out Piplup hates the idea and has been harming itself to stop the evolution.
1219: “To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!” (April 23, 2009). The gang is still in Sandalstraw Town for the Pokémon Ping Pong Tournament, and Dawn’s Ambipom is in rare form. She manages the semifinals on its first competition, and after looking back to her time with both Ash and Dawn, she decides to follow the top ping pong player O to learn the sport.
1225: “Frozen on Their Tracks!” (June 4, 2009). A train to Lake Acuity carrying the gang, Team Rocket, and the eccentric passenger Looker hits a snag when the train stops for a false warning. While Team Rocket’s scheme causes Pikachu, Piplup, Brock’s Happiny, and the train’s Ampharos to get lost in the woods, Looker discovers a scheme behind the seemingly innocuous error.

Perhaps the most notable episode of this week was “To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!” It’s one of the most hated episodes of not just Pokémon the Series: Diamond & Pearl, but the whole franchise. After all, it’s the one where Ambipom—the Pokémon who adored Ash, followed him to Sinnoh, then joined Dawn’s team to live the Contest life—leaves to become a world famous ping pong player. The idea is, on its head, insane. This form of writing Pokémon off the show is very silly and rooted in that weak Kanto storytelling tradition. And instead of leaving for love or to learn more about herself or protect something, it’s to follow a random sport that’s new to the show and would never be mentioned again, the kind of thing Ambipom was known for finding and abandoning with little provocation.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Ambipom, the one Hoenn-era character to make it to Sinnoh, gets her extremely weird sendoff.

Here’s the thing, though: I actually liked the episode. With the Pokémon barred from using moves, the animation gets a small bump as they and their human partners play normal ping pong. It has a fun pace. The justification for removing Ambipom (who as far as I can tell was well liked by the fans and wasn’t narratively limiting like Charizard) is dumb, though at least it’s hinted at a couple episodes earlier, and I don’t have enough investment to be offended. It’s the worst episode of this week, sure, but we’re still in Sinnoh and things are still better than they’ve been for a long time. This isn’t the first “series worst” episode I’ve seen for this project and found far better than its reputation; it’s just the point where I can’t ignore it. Pokémon fans grade on higher curves than I, apparently.

I suppose I’m faced with this thought because ultimately, there’s really not much I feel I can say about this week. Diamond & Pearl remains eminently satisfying in Season 12, “Galactic Battle.” The collection of episodes—unlike last time, which had Chimchar’s story as a throughline, we’re just seeing an unconnected assortment—were strong, just as they’ve been the past two weeks. All of them focus on something at least somewhat different. “Stopped in the Name of Love!” is a riff on the kinds of “Pokémon doesn’t want to grow up” stories the Kanto era had a lot; its main difference is that Piplup’s aversion to evolution came from the writers finding Prinplup and Empoleon too ugly for Dawn. Both it and “To Thine” are modern takes on original series episodes, but they’re a bit more narratively ambitious.

Image: BBC. Dawn and Piplup freaking out in “Stopped in the Name of Love!,” one of the show’s better song-based pun titles.

The two episodes are also notable for being part of a short arc at one town, with every episode having a major thing (Piplup getting the Everstone to keep it from Evolving, a Contest, and Ambipom leaving) and featuring Ash’s B-side Sinnoh rival Barry. This kind of greater serialization has become a constant, and even “Ghoul Daze!” got on it. It’s set in the middle of a summer camp arc that sounds boring on its own, but the episode is good and manages to be self-contained. Like the tag tournament from last week, the show seems to have gotten more adept at telling short multi-episode stories. And, of course, it’s threading together longer things, so Looker—Pokémon Platinum’s insta-popular French-coded Inspector Zenigata by way of Columbo as played by David Tennant—can get introduced as a seemingly innocuous character of the day who’s secretly looking for Team Galactic. “Frozen on their Tracks!” was also quite good, by the way. I like how the show handled being a one-off episode and a plot episode. That kind of “half serialized, half episodic” TV plotting was big back then, and it’s successful here.

That and “Noodles! Roamin’ Off!” were probably the highlights this week. Both of them are very character-focused, but while “Frozen” did that to raise questions about Looker (but not one asking “why doesn’t he have a mock French accent?”), the ramen episode was all about Team Rocket. They’ve had plenty of stories where they break up and come right back; literally the third to last episode of Ash’s entire time as lead is one of them. But this one’s good for how it pushes all three members on their own. Meowth learns that he’s good at something, Jessie wants the excuse to follow her dreams, and lacking either talent or direction James does everything he can to justify the one thing that matters to him. Having it all revolve around a successful ramen chain and a hunt for a Shiny Metagross is just the tasty little fish cake on the broth.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Team Rocket in the midst of a typically unaired “post-blasting off” depression.

Overall, this was a very strong week. “Noodles!” and “Frozen” were both delightful, “Ghoul Daze” handled itself well as a fun, independent story even while being part of a short arc, and “Stopped” and “To Thine” each had their moments. They show how good Sinnoh has been about exploring its ideas in many avenues and kinds of episodes. But truthfully, getting into writing about them was hard.

Movie reviewed: Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (July 18, 2009)

In Michina Town, Ash and Pikachu face an unstoppable threat in Arceus, creator of the Pokémon universe and the ancient city’s slighted patron saint. It was betrayed and harmed by the town’s leader Damos eons ago, and after recuperating—a process that started the battles between Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina—returns to destroy the town. While the three deities team up to hold off Arceus in the present, the gang is sent back thousands of years to infiltrate Michina’s old shrine, stop Damos, and uncover why he stole Arceus’s all-powerful Jewel of Life.

I’ve been arguing since this project started that the most interesting thing the Pokémon anime can do is to explore different kinds of relationships between people and Pokémon. That’s especially true of the movies, which need villains who bring out the worst in their human and animal counterparts. Mewtwo was a product of human cruelty who lashed out against everyone, Entei was a warped product of a child’s needs and fears, Jirachi was perceived and hunted as a wish-giving genie, and Darkrai was a monster hunted by locals. So, with our twelfth movie, we finally come to the appetizing pitch of a Pokémon as a violent god raging against the subjects that exploited and assaulted it.

High time this was done. The idea that Legendary (rare, tough, can only get one per game) and Mythical (so rare that you could only get them via an event) Pokémon are deities had been explored by fans from the very beginning. We used to call them “Poké Gods.” But this idea fell into text during the Diamond & Pearl games, which explicitly posited Dialga and Palkia as long lost deities. And while almost any Legendary could fit that role, it’s perfect that it goes to Arceus, the stated creator of the universe and leader of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina’s little “Creation Trio.” The sheer amount of lore behind Arceus, and an unexpectedly off-kilter performance, gives it an overwhelming might another ‘Mon might not have had. It also leads to interesting stakes: our heroes can’t defeat Arceus in a battle and just try to calm it down, the villain plots a deicide so grand and vile it could actually do the job, and the MacGuffin is made from the god’s own body parts.

Image: Fancaps. The doom-bringing Arceus is appropriately scary. You can’t get the totality of the Judgment attack in one image, but the website often hates and mangles GIFs.

The rest of Arceus and the Jewel of Life’s fun, too. The setup—Ash, Dawn, Brock, and Damos’s descendent Sheena go back in time to an ancient civilization, find where Damos hid the Jewel of Life, and stop his murder attempt—is cool. It’s a bit of a mystery, a bit of a heist, and the movie’s good at throwing out twists that aren’t necessarily shocking but are interesting. As much fun as Arceus is, the movie’s strongest is in these moments where everyone’s working against the clock to stop the betrayal before it starts. I think the single best is the cross-cut sequence where Sheena is talking to Damos’s advisor Marcus while Damos himself talks with the rest of the gang in a prison cell. It becomes abundantly clear the historical attack came from Marcus hypnotizing Damos and using him as a patsy, but it gets creepier with each question he asks of Sheena, like whether the failed assassination she learned about involved a stock of silver water he intends to bury Arceus alive in.

It’s more of a mid-tier entry, though, largely because several of its characters don’t land… or rather, just Sheena and her fellow time-space anomaly investigator boyfriend Kevin, but they are pretty major characters. Marcus is perfectly fine as a usurper, though he’s certainly not up to par with these movies’ best. It’s cool having Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina finally step up as worldly protectors after trying to kill Ash for two movies, but they are plot devices. However, Damos is strong; like Sir Aaron (a character he evokes so much it has to be a deliberate homage), it’s fun uncovering his motivations underneath the myths history laid down. Arceus is also great whether it’s destroying Michina Town in vindication or suffering the slings of a man who wants to literally steal its body.

Image: Bulbapedia. Marcus, the “secret” villain. He’s not as exciting as a character, but his plots and mass enslavement of Pokémon do add to the world building.

Perhaps the film also doesn’t do enough to explore the differences between the older Michina society and the one I’ve spent sixty episodes exploring. Back then Pokémon were “magical creatures,” ones men like Marcus (and presumably Damos) controlled with horrible collars. His Bronzong and very fun Heatran are slaves, and the final act of the movie is filled with scenes of Pikachu and Piplup freeing their brethren, but the link between the two methods of ownership goes totally unexplored. There’s an implication that Ash impacted the course of history by bringing more progressive Pokémon Training to the past, which is neat-ish, but not enough.

Mid-tier entry or no, I enjoyed Jewel of Life, moreso as it went on than when it was about the vagaries of reality shifting. I thought it was decent incorporating promotional stuff like the adorable Spiky-Eared Pichu (who I got at the time, letting me do the HeartGold event where you go back in time) and the explanation of Arceus’ Plates. In the games they dryly let the Alpha Pokémon appropriate each Type, while in the movie they’re more grand embodiments of those Types that, when combined as the Jewel, become the kind of vegetation magic kings would kill for. It’s a great way to interpret them in a way the games can’t, and that’s one of the things I’m here for the most. The film’s also an alright if not amazing conclusion to the Sinnoh Trilogy’s experiment of having the movies lead into each other, though I’m happy letting that idea begin and end here. Thankfully, it ended on a high note. Now on to Zoroark.

Conclusion: We’re currently at the halfway mark of “Pikachu in Pictures.” There’s twenty-three movies in total, and I’ll also be doing Detective Pikachu. And while I do want to do some of the various Pikachu shorts, I’m not sure if I want to do a whole week of them. Maybe I could do Pikachu and Pichu for the live action movie. Either way, the point is that I’ve gone through most of this, and I’m faced with the worst of problems: I’m… kinda bored. Writing the episode review section was like pulling teeth.

Image: Bulbapedia. The train mystery episode that’s actually not really a train episode of any kind.

And the thing is that it’s not the fault of the episodes. In fact, I really enjoyed them! They were really good. When even the one everyone hates was entertaining enough, there’s not a lot to complain about. Maybe that’s part of the problem, that they’re good enough that I mainlined them all on Sunday and don’t have much more to do or things to say. Or maybe that Sinnoh having a generally higher quality and consistency isn’t as interesting, especially since the anime is probably never gonna be amazing. It’s like Picross or Qdoba or “What I Got” by Sublime: pleasing, enjoyable, and entirely adequate. And that is interesting in a journalistic sense up until a point. But Sinnoh’s been just too consistent at being its level of good to be the most interesting.

Man, I must sound like such a stereotype. A critic complaining that something is too good (which it isn’t; Pokémon the Series is still not great television art). Thankfully, at least, it was as fun to write about the movie as it was to watch it. But while I am looking forward to the end of the Team Galactic plot and Ash’s rivalry with Paul, I’m also definitely getting a bit of agita with how normal things are. But hey! If those episodes are good enough to bore me as a writer, they’ll be good enough to entertain me as a viewer. So I at least half-win no matter what.

Errant thoughts:

It’s rare in the post-4Kids era to get an edit in the dub this big or peculiar, but Jewel of Life’s English script rewrote Arceus’s signature move, Judgment, as “Justice” so as to remove an overt religious reference. Seeing as we’ve got a movie (which tends to get away with stuff most episodes can’t), a script straight from the company that translated the name of the move, a plot in which Arceus is depicted as an actual god, and an end credits song about “keeping the faith,” maybe they didn’t need to go that far.
- There is actually one interesting difference that as far as I can tell isn’t explored that much. In the English script, Damos is described by Sheena as a betrayer and culture villain in the present due to his betrayal of Arceus. The Japanese one, instead, implies that he’s apparently revered somewhat due to his betrayal of Arceus. The latter is a more interesting idea, though given how much of the plot is spent in the past I’m doubtful it got explored.
According to Tom Wayland (who alongside playing Arceus was also the dub’s ADR director for several years), The Pokémon Company tried to get Vincent D’Onofrio—yes, that Vincent D’Onofrio—to play Arceus as a very odd stunt cast. It fell through, Wayland took the role himself, but man would that have been wild. That being said, I rather enjoyed the performance we got. Arceus has this annoyed, casual, “gets goosebumps from the mortal plain” air that depictions of a terrifying god often lack.
Finally, after thirteen years, the narrator’s prediction that the total number of Pokémon exceeds a thousand has come true! Good job, Gholdengo and the rest of Scarlet & Violet‘s rather excellent pack!
Cynthia cameo! She’s fighting Palmer, Barry’s dad. Barry in this show is… adequate, and not unlike like “What I Got” by Sublime. He’s as good as he is in Diamond & Pearl: a friendly but endlessly agitated guy. He seems to help with the show’s pace, since he forces the characters into motion in the way Paul forces them to stand up for their ideology.
Season 12 is when the Pokémon anime finally moved into widescreen and high definition, following a move the rest of the TV world was fittingly doing. Like Cartoon Network, for instance, which spent five episodes (including “Stopped in the Name of Love” and “To Thine Own Pokémon Be True”) chopping the show into the same 4:3 format it had been using. Afterwards, they would regularly switch between showing episodes in 4:3 and 16:9 for weeks. Thankfully, the 16:9 original versions all seem to have been preserved, hence the screenshot of Ambipom I used.
By this point, Piplup has largely stopped staying inside its Poké Ball, cementing its role as a full-on mascot.
One of the episodes this week featured the Pokétch’s Coin toss functionality, one of the more charmingly useless apps on Diamond & Pearl’s magic Nintendo DS watch.
During one of the ping pong matches, Dawn’s paddle is broken at the handle so we can see how good Ambipom is. I get its reasoning narratively, but can’t you just call a time out and get a new one? With all the Alakazam and Shiftry in the competition, you’d think the registrars would be willing to provide for that.
“Pokémonic” is a dumb adjective, PUSA / TPCI, and it never sounds right when Meowth says it.
And as of Friday, Ash is done! The main character of the Pokémon anime has starred in his last episode—assuming, of course, that The Pokémon Company doesn’t bring him back as a stunt to goose the ratings. It’s a fairly incredible amount of time he spent as the lead, especially for a franchise that has so much cast turnover. Well, see you, kid; it’s nice to finally know what you meant by “Pokémon Master” all this time. And while we won’t be watching them for this project, good luck to Liko, Roy, and Captain Pikachu!

Next movie: Pokémon—Zoroark: Master of Illusions (July 10, 2010)

Next episodes:

1237: “Where No Togepi Has Gone Before!”
1246: “The Needs of the Three”
1247: “The Battle Finale of Legend!”
1320: “A Grand Fight for Winning”
1331: “Battling a Thaw in Relations!”

Other movies watched:

Terror of Mechagodzilla
Trigger

Other television episodes watched:

Cobra Kai 401, “Let’s Begin”
Cobra Kai 402, “First Learn Stand”
Cobra Kai 403, “The Learn Fly”
Cobra Kai 404, “Bicephaly”
Cobra Kai 405, “Match Point”
Cobra Kai 406, “Kicks Get Chicks”
The Owl House 213, “Any Sport in a Storm”
The Owl House 214, “Reaching Out”
The Owl House 215, “Them’s the Breaks, Kid”
The Owl House 216, “Hollow Mind”
Poorly Drawn Lines 110, “Forest of the Backyard”
Smallville 317, “Legacy”
Smallville 321, “Forsaken”
Smallville 322, “Covenant.” And once again we get to see some real, gonzo bad TV, not that ping pong mediocrity. Young Superman gets seduced by his naked teenage cousin (!), but then it turns out she’s not his cousin but a dead girl (!!) possessed by his dead alien father (!!!), who grabs him with a ghost tendril and pulls him into an overtly womblike cave where he ends up naked in the fetal position (!!!!), and then after all that there’s a Godfather-esque “taking out the enemies” montage set around a haircut. Smallville and Heroes are equally garbage shows, but Smallville at least has the decency to throw out a higher grade of garbage every once in a while.
Star Trek 204, “Mirror, Mirror”
Star Trek 206, “The Doomsday Machine”
Star Trek 210, “Journey to Babel”

Games played:

Picross S8 (don’t take what I said back there too hard, Picross. I still love you)
Pokémon Let’s Go, Eevee!
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Read all of “Pikachu in Pictures” here!