Pikachu in Pictures Chapter 14: THAT’S How You Say “Cilan?”

Chag sameach and Happy Easter, everyone! With the winds of Sinnoh at our back, it’s time to jump into the Unova Region of Pokémon Black & White. A lot’s different; there’s no more Brock (yay!) or Wobbuffet (kinda boo?), with an almost entirely new Pokémon stable. But it’s also a bit the same. Here are the episodes I did for Season 14.

Episodes reviewed:

1401: “In the Shadow of Zekrom!” (September 23, 2010). Ash and Pikachu travel to the Unova region for new adventures—with Jessie, James, and Meowth looking to establish a Team Rocket foothold in the area. But on their first day, Pikachu gets shocked by the Unovan guardian Zekrom, loses its electrical powers, and subsequently costs Ash a battle against snotty beginner Trip.
1406: “Dreams by the Yard Full!” (October 21, 2010). Ash wins a best of three match against Gym Leader chef brothers Chili, Cress, and Cilan, the latter an amateur Pokémon Connoisseur intrigued by Pikachu. After helping fight Team Rocket, he leaves his post, journeys with Ash, and convinces Ash’s haughty guide Iris to join as well.
1426: “Scare at the Litwick Mansion!” (April 7, 2011). Ash, Iris, and Cilan hide out from the rain in a haunted mansion Team Rocket has taken as a base. But while the crooks have a scheme to scare them using the house’s seemingly friendly Litwick, the Ghost Pokémon have far more unsavory things in store for all the intruders.
1430: “A UFO for Elgyem!” (May 5, 2011). After the gang sees a UFO, Cilan sends them on an investigation into mysterious Area 28. They meet a kindly old scientist studying dark matter and building spaceships, and the possibly extraterrestrial Elgyem he adopted.
1438: “Movie Time! Zorua in “The Legend of the Pokémon Knight”!” (June 30, 2011). A local filmmaker finds himself in trouble when his star Zorua starts refusing to play any role but the noble princess. Our heroes and their Pokémon fill out the cast list instead: Ash is the hero, Iris the wizard, and Cilan’s defense of ad-libbing comes in handy when Team Rocket shows up to steal Zorua on-camera.

Every new Pokémon Generation is a reboot, but few felt that way more than Pokémon Black & White, the 2010 games that opened up the Fifth Generation. They were set, for the first time in a mainline installment, outside Japan (specifically, a gonzo take on New York City and my stomping grounds of New Jersey). They were a clean break; the Unova region carried no old Pokémon, only 156 new ones, many of whom filled niches left by the likes of Voltorb, Luvdisc, and Chansey. It was a controversial move, but changes like this were everywhere. The plot was overtly political, softly questioning the ethics of Pokémon Training under the shadow of Legendaries who embodied heady philosophical ideas. Technical Machines could be used infinitely. Hidden Abilities started popping up. There were even light cinematic camera changes and a season mechanic. Black & White were about the clash of opposites, and you couldn’t find some aspect of the franchise being confronted because of it.

Image: Bulbapedia. The end of the Japanese version of the Season 14’s opening. It front loads the new Pokémon for a more cinematic intro than normal.

Pokémon the Series: Black & White dutifully follows several of these conventions. Outside of Pikachu and Meowth, who you pretty much couldn’t cut, only new Pokémon grace the vast majority of the show. The anime’s first all-CGI, no-humans intro focuses on them by having Pikachu meet each new Monster one by one in a surreal landscape. Several got to join the party, as for the first time Ash caught enough new Pokémon to regularly rotate them in and out. It removed some of the serialization Diamond & Pearl were celebrated for—though, admittedly, part of that came from real world events beyond its control, when the episodes introducing Team Plasma were canceled in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. And Team Rocket shedded much of their humorous persona. Thankfully, they at least kept it in the zany Litwick haunted house story, which plays like a modern take on Kanto ghost episodes.

And in that way, it’s also a call back to the original series, and not just in being more procedural. Ash’s companions are two Gym Leaders, one a snarky Type expert and the other a hyper-competent chef. He sees a Legendary in the first episode. There are a ton of weirder, smaller examples Bulbapedia has conveniently cataloged. Two of this week’s episodes have plots straight from the original series, and a third is a dead ringer for Johto’s excellent “Air Time!” And Ash is… a bit less competent, considering that he led Pikachu, who was just seen KO’ing a Latios, into defeat against a first-time Trainer. That would be Trip, who’s like if Paul’s abuse and philosophy were assumed into anime heaven and only the boring casual wear remained. But it is hilarious that he mocks Ash by calling Kanto “the boonies.”

This relationship to the Kanto era is the most interesting part of Black & White so far, and the episodes I selected—a collection less of plot than tone—show how much the series has and hasn’t grown. The art looks a ton more polished than it was in Sinnoh, and cosmically more than Season 1, though so far the animation hasn’t quite risen with it. Those kinds of oddball filler episodes are here, just a bit more polished and a bit less insane (insofar as an episode where the heroes storm Area 51 and meet an alien is “less insane” than the time that happened with a Clefairy. But yes, “A UFO for Elgyem!” is quite good). It’s kind of what I would’ve expected the show to look like over a decade later had I not known about how much it’s diverged. There are ways in which Unova is disappointing, and the extent of its familiarity is part of that, but it’s nice to watch something that is distinct enough and still accessible.

Image: Bulbapedia. The Unova gang. Iris and Cilan were often hated for their gimmicks. Fortunately, I enjoyed them. I can’t not appreciate a fellow obnoxious fop at least a bit.

The team dynamics are similar to the original show, too: Ash argues about everything with know-it-all wild child Iris while Cilan, who’s name is bizarrely pronounced “Cy-lan” (like the Battlestar Galactica villains) and not “cill-lan” (like cilantro, the herb he’s named after), keeps them together. Iris is fun in the way Misty was fun, but I’ve so far mostly just seen her gimmick of talking down to Ash despite being years his junior. Cilan’s much newer, even if the cookery master ex-Gym Leader is also an obvious replacement for Brock. A pompous sommelier who loves and rates everything—he combines the universal enthusiasm of Rapunzel from Tangled with the airs of a college Republican and Hanna-Barbara sclerae—he contributes more to the dynamics already than Brock did for much of his tenure. This is, largely, because I chose three episodes with some focus on Cilan, as I’ve long found him utterly inscrutable. I do have an Iris episode in a couple weeks, but we are stuck missing things like her fear of Ice-types, her rivalry with a Dragon-type killer, and her getting the character journey Misty never got.

You can see plenty of callbacks like this throughout the cast. Iris’s Axew has dreams of being powerful, like several of Ash’s main stars, while he stays outside his Poké Ball like Pikachu. Ash’s proud Oshawott is kind of a Piplup redux. His Tepig has a cliff notes version of the backstory Charmander and Chimchar both had. And he has a Snivy, giving him all three Starters for the first time eight years, unlike how the Hoenn and Sinnoh shows split them up among the cast. These are archetypes and dynamics the show has done a lot. It plays with them, and it’s fortunate that I’m finding this setup so enjoyable. Those are certainly more fun than Pikachu being stricken by a sudden season premiere malady that only lasts long enough to make Ash recruit someone new into the Twerp Army.

With that time-tested if not imaginative structure back in full, it’s up to the show to come up with interesting twists. And while I’ve definitely hit a higher grade of episodes than normal (the three fillers were well liked, at least by Unova standards, but let’s put a pin in that caveat), they still work. A creepy haunted house, some alien shenanigans, and a movie set are all good setpieces for Pokémon, particularly Black & White’s new Pocket Monster crop. Zorua is more fun in the show than it was in the movie, while Elgyem and Litwick are a perfect mixture of cute, creepy, and cartoony. The Unova games’ roster was somewhat contentious—turns out that’s gonna happen with the largest set of Pokémon added in a Generation, many of which were meant to replace older ones—but those three at least are great.

Image: Bulbapedia. Also cool? Leavanny, the insect nanny dandy.

In just this short view, I’m alright with where Ash has found himself. Black & White is eminently fine. Its ambitions seem shorter, but it’s perfectly serviceable. I don’t intend for this to come across as elitist or snobbish, but it’s still the Pokémon anime. It’s meatloaf, not wagyu beef. Despite my critical persona I do like meatloaf (actually, I don’t, but there’s not a better analogous food), and the anime has so far been scratching that itch since the start of the year. This is continuing that, and honestly, things are bolstered so much just by losing Brock. I’m sure Cilan’s gimmick of being a self-styled expert in everything would be tough in too heavy a dose, but it worked for me enough, as did Iris’s general assertiveness. This was a fun week. If only “A UFO for Elgyem” didn’t feature a sexual predator…

Movie reviewed: Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram and Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom (July 16, 2011)

During the harvest festival for Eindoak Town, the relocated home of the People of the Vale, Ash accidentally curries the favor of the playful, luck-granting Victini. However, Victini is captured by Damon, a high ranking townsfolk who intends to sacrifice the Pokémon to restore their ancient home. And with Damon backed by Zekrom, and the world at stake from their actions, it’s up to Ash to find and summon Zekrom’s rival Reshiram.

…OR:

During the harvest festival for Eindoak Town, the relocated home of the People of the Vale, Ash accidentally curries the favor of the playful, luck-granting Victini. However, Victini is captured by Damon, a high ranking townsfolk who intends to sacrifice the Pokémon to restore their ancient home. And with Damon backed by Reshiram, and the world at stake from their actions, it’s up to Ash to find and summon Reshiram’s rival Zekrom.

Yes, it wasn’t just the show that was getting weird. For the first and blissfully only time, the fourteenth Pokémon movie copied the Pokémon games and sold two rival versions of the same adventure. White—Victini and Zekrom and Black—Victini and Zekrom were put into Japanese theaters (and American ones for a token release, the first since the fifth movie), and viewers could choose which one to see. Just like the mainline Pokémon entries, both have the exact same story, just with some altered details and exclusive Pokémon. For instance, in Black, the Golurk is Shiny, but in White, it’s the Hydreigon! In the games, there is a value to this; it makes you trade with your friends to catch ‘em all. Here, it’s more of light theming. Reshiram and Zekrom, a ying-yang inspired duo who respectively carry the nebulous concepts of objective truth and moral ideals, aren’t any different from each other. It’s arguably even less valuable in an age of cable or streaming, since there’s no weight to making the choice. The American release even cut the drama by only carrying White.

To be clear, I chose Black, the one with Reshiram as the hero (the movies and the games name the color after the antagonist dragon, not yours). I bought the game Black, after all. And I’m not gonna watch the same movie twice just to see how Damon has a Gothitelle in one version and a Reuniclus in the other. Not this week.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Damon in Black, the one I saw. His general aesthetic is pretty cool.

Removed from the pointlessness of such a stunt, Victini is a reasonably fun bit of movie. The best stuff all revolves around Damon and his largely unseen diaspora. His intentions are fairly noble by these movies’ standard of human villains—he’s not trying to grab power or antagonize others, just fulfill his mom’s dream—but that leads him to capturing, torturing, and trying to kill an innocent creature who his own people revere. It’s rather intense, the evil he enacts. There’s a desperation to Damon, and I think it’s smart to tie that kind of antagonist to Reshiram and Zekrom, scarily apolitical Pokémon who side with whoever fights for their beliefs the hardest. And he works well enough that he can either believe in a “truth” (that the Vale was always meant as their home, and damn the consequences) or an “ideal” (that they should take it, no matter who they have to harm to do that), and that Ash can hold the opposite position.

Of course, those details don’t get as explored as they should. They can’t, because this movie needs to be as recyclable as possible given the “releasing both of these at the same time” gimmick. The vast majority of the dialogue, plotting, and structure is exactly the same. The biggest changes come in things like background Pokémon or settings (Damon’s backstory involves either a desert or a snowscape, while some scenes take place in day in one movie and night in the other). Again, these are very light riffs on the same experience; both even start with the heroes at a fork in the road and choosing opposite paths. Were it made today, prospective viewers might expect the films to be two parts of a single story that could only be fully appreciated after watching both.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Damon in White. Reshiram and Zekrom are rather cool, and the movies do alright by them.

Was the return worth the investment? Of course not! This was a dumb gimmick, nor do I see a more substantial or elaborate attempt doing well either—it would be dumb for Pokémon of all properties to try some experiment that would force you to see two movies to get the narrative satisfaction of one. But, while this is a lesser entry in the canon, I did actually enjoy it. I find the sketches of the People of the Vale interesting as a part of the Pokémon world. I liked Victini and its gimmick of powering people up, even if it certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the better-written Mythical Pokémon. And the general space and scenery is very pretty. Consider it on the level of Movie 5: not great, not bad, but agreeable. They’re still, even this far in, finding unique iterations on the formula.

Conclusion: I have to mention this seemingly every week, but it feels especially apropos now to point out that this is a limited cross-section of Black & White. Other than Ash’s truly embarrassing battle against Trip and his better battle with Cilan, there were no important battles. Those were the only plot-relevant ones, too. As I mentioned, Iris didn’t get a dedicated episode, and perhaps she should have. In general, the new companions and Pokémon haven’t gotten as much as what May, Max, and Dawn got. The character dynamics are clear—as they had better be seeing as how iterative they are from the original run’s—but not as many of the details.

More importantly, what I missed out on (other than, again, Ash’s terrible first episode battle) was what made fans hate so much of Black & White, beyond them finding Iris and Cilan poor substitutes. Team Rocket became more singularly villainous, competent, and less lighthearted or character driven, but I didn’t see that; I saw them trying to kidnap an actor fox and almost get sent to hell by adorable evil candles. The worse-regarded story arcs? The more disliked character dynamics? Those were taken out so I could first get a nice taste of the tone. Probably. I’m not sure why I organized this week like this other than wanting to know what Cilan’s actual deal is, but I do think it worked. I started with some generally nice, inoffensive episodes, and that’s very helpful in a week that was rather busy outside of Pokémon Land.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Here’s Trip; he’s utterly inessential, just like the sports jacket inexplicably over his hoodie. Weeks ago, I showed a friend his design, and his only comment was “I’m already bored.”

But I can’t just coast on those, or that episode with the Gothitelle that sounded really fun either. I do have to jump into the problematic, contested parts of Black & White. And oh, how I’m gonna! We’ve got a two-parter about Team Rocket that supposedly removes all of their zany charm, a depiction of one of Pokémon’s most underwhelming Champions that sounds dreadful, and a Gym battle that ranked high on many of the “worst Pokémon episodes” lists I could find. I mean, sure, I’ve also got the episode where Cynthia blissfully comes back, but other than that this is a supergroup of hated half-hours. I deliberately tried to avoid just having “good” or “bad” lists for much of this project, but hey; them’s the breaks. Let’s hope I get a better experience than the fans did.

Errant thoughts:

Okay, so Reshiram and Zekrom. I feel like a lot of fans tend to be confused by the Tao Trio, specifically because “truth” and “ideals” are a lot more mercurial than, say, land vs sea vs air or sun vs moon vs the absence of light. They’re based on yin and yang, but it’s hard to see what that means in practice. I’m gonna use this place to discuss it. After all, it’s not like I have anything important, like a religious ceremony to plan or anything…
- Reshiram embodies truth, but specifically the idea of an objective truth around which the world exists. If we follow it, we’re following a natural order in place since the dawn of time. That’s why it connects to yang, which typically carries higher virtues, and a more graceful fire as its energy source. And you need energy, because that’s what fulfills political ambitions. It also matches Reshiram being the avatar in the older brother in the ancient conflict, since he’d be a bit more established.
  - Notably, both dragons have variations on the same Ability: they can ignore the Abilities of others.
- Zekrom is ideals, specifically in how those with strongest convictions can remake a world in need of just that. It’s more radical, represented by being tied to the younger brother in the conflict and having its energy, electricity, be wild and erratic. Historically yin has been associated with entirely negative virtues and femininity. To shake things up and be less aggressively misogynistic, Zekrom was made more positive, while slightly classical Reshiram incorporated more traditionally feminine features instead.
  - Their stats are also tied to this: Reshiram excels at Special Attack, which Pokémon often treats as rarefied and worldly, while Zekrom excels at the more direct physical Attack.
- Kyurem is, by being wuji (less a strict absence of yin or yang than a primordial, endless mode of nothingness they counter), Ice-type (absolute zero, a state devoid of heat and movement), and the husk of the monster that became the other two, is the death of philosophy and change. It is a shell; it doesn’t even have enough life to be a Ghost-type. That’s a limited idea of wuji from my even more limited understanding of Taoism and Confucianism, but I suppose the endlessness is represented in its ability to consume its counterparts and take their form.
- Given how America-centric the games are, I also suspect that alongside the Taoist inspiration and various references to other religious and historical concepts, the two are also a very idealistic (and charmingly clumsy) take on America’s two party system.
- Too long; didn’t read: the rivalry is philosophical, not elemental, and about perspective.
I think the film worked for me partially because of when I watched it. It’s Pesach, and it’s important to think about abuse, refugees, and displaced people across the world (even if too many participants only turn their eyes and care to other Jews, but I’m not here to provide lefty religious sanctimony). Victini weirdly fits in with that.
I was very skeptical, since TV CGI and I don’t have a good relationship, but I like the new 3D opening. It’s rather pretty seeing Pikachu explore this world of silhouetted new creatures, each of whom gets revealed one at a time. And while the low rent power ballad duet opening isn’t great, it’s by far the best English intro we’ve had since the start of Season… 6. Dear god, those have been bad.
The soundtrack was really strong this week. Black & White have a lot of strong pieces that I think sometimes get ignored by the games’ general contentiousness, and their arrangements here were very good.
I’m a big fan of the new Team Rocket motto. I’m mixed about their slow descent into seriousness, but this one is a good bit. Enjoy the Black & White theming, and that it’s okay for English poetry to not rhyme.
I like that the Pokédex now shows the Pokemon from multiple perspectives.
Zorua gets its TV debut this week. I find it fascinating how reserved the show was about using it and Zoroark, despite the franchise clearly wanting them to be a repeat of Lucario. Both are barely in the anime (and most of Zoroark’s time ends up in Sun & Moon, as one of Gladion’s teammates).
There’s a part during “In the Shadow of Zekrom!” where Trip explains that Ash has to be a dumb yokel for not knowing this super-cool move. I found it hilarious that they were shilling Leaf Tornado, a middle of the road move from Black & White notable solely because it was Snivy’s signature attack.
- “Shadow” also has the debut of the Oshawhott who would, after being passed over by Trip, become Ash’s main Water-type of the region. As I mentioned earlier, he’s very Piplup-y, all proud and neurotic and clingy. I suppose it would be smart of the show to try to replicate that success.
“Movie Time!” Zorua in ‘The Legend of the Pokémon Knight’” also features the anime debut of the Wonder Launcher, a mechanic from a multiplayer mode Black & White had. Even I don’t remember that at all, and my brain is nothing but useless Pokémon facts.
James has a Yamask, now! It sounds like… Alex Hirsch.
It feels like every other one of these damn movies has Ash getting intervention from a Mythical Pokémon and winning an opening contest without realizing he’s juicing. What kinda lesson are you teaching the kids with that?

Next movie: Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice

Next episodes:

1447: “Crisis from the Underground Up!”
1448: “Battle for the Underground!”
1502: “Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!”
1504: “Ash Versus the Champion!”
1537: “All for the Love of Meloetta!”

Other movies watched:

Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest
God of Gamblers
A Green Thumb for Macaulay
The Last Shark (i.e. Great White)
Patlabor 2
The Phantom Creeps
Super Mario Bros.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Both Mario movies, incidentally, satisfied my pop cultural meatloaf hunger far better than the anime has.

Other television episodes watched:

Cobra Kai 501, “A Long, Long Way from Home”
Cobra Kai 502, “Molé”
Cobra Kai 503, “Playing with Fire”
Cobra Kai 504, “Downward Spiral”
Cobra Kai 505, “Extreme Measures”
Regular Show 207, “High Score”
Regular Show 532, “Catching the Wave”
Regular Show 710, “The Return of Party Horse”
Smallville 401, “Crusade.” I guess I must give some kind of respect to a show that uses a character’s presumptive death as a cliffhanger, then walks back that death as though nothing happened, and then gives an explanation for how he survived that’s dumber than if they said nothing at all.
Smallville 402, “Gone”
Smallville 405, “Run”
Star Trek 224, “The Ultimate Computer”
Star Trek 225, “Bread and Circuses”
Star Trek 302, “The Enterprise Incident”
Steven Universe 306, “Steven Floats”