Pikachu in Pictures Chapter 15: “[Intriguing Suspenseful Music Plays]”

If Wolfman Jew and the Pokémon cartoon are rivals, and why wouldn’t we be, then it’s time for us to find our destiny in Season 15, “Rival Destinies.” What is up with these season names? Anyway, I heard that this was a disliked era of the show, and I wanted to find out why. Let’s just say this week was… rather informative.

Episodes reviewed:

1447: “Crisis from the Underground Up!” (September 15, 2011). The gang has finally arrived in Nimbasa City—accompanied by their newest friend Meowth, who’s apparently ditched Team Rocket. But Meowth was setting them up to help Jessie and James pull off a phenomenal heist: to steal Pikachu, Axew, and the city’s entire Pokémon population by way of its giant underground subway system.
1448: “Battle for the Underground!” (September 15, 2011). With Team Rocket having disabled Nimbasa’s bridge and security systems on a specialized train, Ash, Iris, Cilan track them down with the help of subway conductors Ingo and Emmet. Meanwhile, a captive Pikachu and Axew work to release the team’s abducted Pokémon and capture the train.
1502: “Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!” (September 29, 2011). Ash’s strategy against ace electricity master Elesa—to rely on his Ground-type Palpitoad—goes belly up, and he scrambles to find any appropriate Pokémon. Inevitably, he falls to Pikachu, who had been hurt by his decision to rely on other partners.
1504: “Ash Versus the Champion!” (October 13, 2011). Ash and Trip are excited to try their hand against the legendary Unova Champion Alder, only to be shocked upon finding him a dumb, forgetful sexist pig. But after an unsatisfying battle and calming down a wild Gigalith, Alder imparts some helpful advice about living outside a quest for strength.
1537: “All for the Love of Meloetta!” (June 21, 2012). Unsure of how to pass the months between his final Gym battle and the Pokémon League, Ash run into Cynthia and, later, a Meloetta injured by Team Rocket. They tend to its wounds, Iris battles Cynthia to learn more about being a Dragon master, and the gang flies to Undella Town for an upcoming tournament.

Pokémon the Series: Black & White got a lot of drubbing from the fanbase. That in and of itself is not unusual, but the degree to which it did was. It was hard to find one thing an average fan actually liked. Was it Iris or Cilan? No; Iris was instantly declared too snarky and stuck-up, while Cilan’s gimmick of being a “connoisseur” of any plot point the gang stumbled upon wore out its welcome immediately. The lack of serialization wasn’t appreciated, but neither were the multi-part episodes or longer arcs. Trip, Ash’s rival, was loathed when he wasn’t forgotten.

The biggest point of contention, though, seemed to be Team Rocket. Previously, Jessie, James, and Meowth were the comic heights of the show, regularly deploying camp and zany dialogue clearly relished by every single localizer the show ever had. And their status as plot-ordained losers gave them a heart, one the anime often leaned on in series-best episodes. But for Black & White, they were rewritten entirely. The humor was largely (if not entirely) dropped, episodes about them stopped being written, and they were a bit more competent—instead of “blasting off again,” they would escape via jet packs or some high tech escape. Even Wobuffet was gone as part of the “only new Pokémon” branding. It was encapsulated by that needlessly scary new Team Rocket “R,” one that turned the charming Rutgers logo into something sharp and harsh.

Image: Bulbapedia. Team Rocket’s look for much of Unova, though not in any of the episodes I’ve watched for this project.

There’s a strong argument in favor of tweaking things at least a bit. The trio reached comic oversaturation by the end of Sinnoh; in the English dub, they often spoke in rhyme and extreme alliteration. They also had a tendency to direct stories, given that they showed up for around 670 episodes straight after their debut in Episode 2. Curbing these excesses would’ve done a lot, and to its credit Black & White was comfortable with not using them all the time (something the successive seasons held to even after the Trio became funny again). They were even absent from this week’s movie barring a voiceless cameo. I’m less convinced about the need to toughen them up, but it wouldn’t be bad if Ash’s most recurring foes gave him more pushback. But the lack of humor has left a void Cilan’s constant obsessions just can’t fill. And their brand of drama can’t be replicated by the younger protagonists.

To its credit, the subway two-parter showed the value of Black & White’s changes. Meowth was never gonna stay on Ash’s side (and why he needed to spend an arc pretending just to be admitted into a hospital is quite unclear), but stealing an entire metropolis’ worth of Pokémon for a subway heist is wonderfully daring. Splitting the human and Pokémon heroes added a good bump of tension. And I loved how much time the show dedicated to the minutiae of trains, and how that became plot relevant. “Battle for the Underground!” was wildly propulsive, even if the first episode was a bit more setup than it needed to be. Ideally, Team Rocket could be used for that sometimes. Have them be comic, have them be tragic, but there is a lot of value in having them try the occasional grand, thrilling scheme (and having them specifically be the ones to try it). Inventing the latter at the expense of the former is a roundabout and self-defeating way of solving a problem. It’s not like they were regularly doing this kind of thing anyway, just normal shenanigans the show merely presented as more dangerous.

We can debate the changes to Team Rocket, but there was also some undeniable crap this week, and “Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!” was chief among it. There’s the repeated use of my hated “Attract” (which the show has to remind us only works on female Pokémon when used by a male, and vice versa). There’s the hokey shtick of Ash having to run to a Pokémon Center midway through a match because he didn’t bother to grab anyone but cute little Palpitoad. And the emotional throughline where Pikachu feels hurt that Ash chose to pick partners he’s neglected means nothing when Pikachu has been his ringer for as long as this show’s been on the air. He literally won the last Gym battle! The worst part might be that there’s a great premise in here of Ash coming in with a perfect strategy that completely falls apart. That’s something any Pokémon player knows. Turning that into a broad comic bit is deflating, especially when it ends with Pikachu coming to the rescue like always.

Image: Bulbapedia. What are any of you cheering for? You didn’t do anything, Snivy, and Ash only stumbled into an utterly undeserved victory.

Alder’s no great shakes, either. In the games he’s one of the less compelling Champions of the Pokémon franchise, but he’s so much worse here. His comic beats are unfunny, and his aggressive flirting goes way further than even Brock at his worst. Is this supposed to be anything other than predatory? Just constantly, endlessly cornering women and trying to force dates out of them? Trip himself is no great shakes, but even his barely existent perspective is better than his idol. Alder also has a kernel of a good idea; it’s great having a final boss rail against endlessly, singularly building strength at the expense of all else. That’s such a pervasive, unhealthy attitude in Pokémon and anime, and it’s good having a powerful Trainer decry it. But it’s nothing thanks to the man saying it. Really, “Ash vs. the Champion!” isn’t as bad an episode as “Dazzling” from a narrative standpoint, not by a longshot, but this one’s so much more viscerally unpleasant whenever its guest star is on screen. Creep ain’t no Cynthia.

But speak of the devil: Cynthia’s back! As are Dawn and Piplup in a last-minute teaser. “All for the Love of Meloetta!” wasn’t the series’ most amazing half-hours—it wasn’t even this week’s most amazing half-hour, and this was a mid-tier week at best—but it was fun, it moved the plot, and it had a lot of stuff. Iris challenged Cynthia, since Unova has barely any Dragon-types and Garchomp is a Dragon-type par excellence! Ash learned that he’s got months before the Unova League, so in the meantime he can plan for a smaller upcoming tournament! The gang met the Mythical Meloetta, while Ash learned more about Pokémon medication! Generally, these episodes don’t really have a lot going on, but this was appreciably stuffed. I suspect it helps that the show can finally start including characters and Pokémon from outside the Black & White games, following along with changes Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 made.

Image: The Pokémon Company. It made me viscerally mad getting this image; that’s how repellent Alder is.

While last week gave me a perfectly fine show, this look at Seasons 14 and 15 honed in on how the Unova era got its reputation. Some of it was clearly deserved, and some of it was probably overblown (as are most things when it comes to this franchise). But it is clear that Black & White had a problem with the new ideas it was so happy to show off. Poor changes to a formula that could have used a change. Supporting characters who failed to find their role. And weird directions, like the reliance on Attract, that didn’t need to be taken. Kanto’s problem was the ugly forms its weirdness could take. Johto’s was a torrent of filler. For Hoenn, the failure to capitalize on its serialization; for Sinnoh its length. I suppose Unova’s problem is one of… the need for change. The franchise was clearly insistent the anime make as dramatic a turn as the games did. That’s fine; I think every era of this show should strive for change. But it struggled so badly with justifying everything it did, even when they weren’t that dramatic or upending. That’s not a good recipe at all.

Movie reviewed: Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice (July 14, 2012)

Keldeo, a junior trainee of the famed Swords of Justice, tries to prove itself by dueling the icy dragon Kyurem. Instead it winds up badly injured, its companions frozen in ice, and Keldeo is forced to run away with its opponent in hot pursuit. Ash finds the injured Pokémon, and the two evade Kyurem and its army of Cryogonal as they try to free the frozen knights.

Well, let’s get the good out of the way first. Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice takes an idea that’s been percolating throughout a few of these pictures and expands on it into a full-on chase movie. Ash and the gang have to escape a city under siege, just like in Destiny Deoxys. They’re aggressively pursued, just like in Jirachi Wish Maker and Giratina and the Sky Warrior. And Iris and Cilan sacrifice themselves to stave off Kyurem’s pursuit, just like Misty and Brock in Spell of the Unown. The emotional beats are far more pat than most of the ones in those movies, but this one does commit to being a propulsive adventure where danger is always nipping at our heroes’ heels. There’s a moment when Kyurem and its array of Cryogonal minions descend on the city that feels special. Like we’re about to see something really big.

Of course, that propulsion subsides, and it always stays at a cost to the general story. There’s no space for any kind of breathing room, and the movie doesn’t really bother giving much to the characters. Little Keldeo (played, regrettably, by accused serial rapist Vic Mignogna) is not unlike Ash, a competitive fighter who loves to punch above his weight class, but that potential throughline is never explored. Kyurem is very openly a plot device, if a fun one. The Swords of Justice are bores; the movie does a disservice to the exciting concept of quadrupedal Pokémon knights who duel evildoers with horns instead of swords. There’s also not really a particularly strong theme beyond bromides about facing your fears. Feels barebones, a feeling backed up by this being the shortest of the theatrical movies.

Image: The Pokémon Company. There’s just “something” missing about this movie.

Perhaps I’m being overly critical. Certainly The Super Mario Bros. Movie has many of these issues (not the actor one, thank god), and I had a helluva time with it. But that also had gorgeous art direction, better acting, certainly more energy than Kyurem has, and the novelty of being the first Mario movie in thirty years—not the fifteenth Pokémon movie in half that time. Ash, Iris, and Cilan feel largely incidental, and while Ash’s friends often get the shaft a bit in these flicks I can’t recall a time where he felt less necessary. I’m also perfectly fine admitting that the casting distracted me this week; I probably would’ve been more invested had the hero Pokémon not been played by someone who recently exposed himself on a livestream. But them’s the breaks. Pretending that this is all “objective” is stupid.

…Eh, let’s be generous and throw this one in the “higher end of the low tier” side. Fourth worst so far, we’ll say. It’s got an army of terrifying sentient snowflakes; that’s not something the three movies trailing it have. Kyurem’s abandoned mine is a fun lair (this week has a charming and surprising train motif). And it is refreshing to have stakes that are so comparably low. But it’s also largely bereft of anything really exciting. The most notable narrative feature is just an extension of an idea other movies hadn’t taken as far, and even it isn’t executed that well.

Conclusion: As a rule, I come up with the titles after I do the actual watching, because it’s important for them to reflect my experiences or conclusions. Obviously. But I couldn’t pass up this one after rewatching the Cobra Kai episode “Ouroboros,” which makes that phrase its second or so caption. For a company that often translates foreign languages as “[speaking Spanish]” or “[speaking Japanese],” describing a piece of music explicitly as “intriguing suspenseful” is such a delightfully silly decision on Netflix’s part—and perfect for any song that accompanies Terry Silver, the greatest and more complex antagonist in the history of fiction. It’s stuck in my head; I gotta use it. Let’s find a way to reverse engineer this phrase as relevant and… hm, you know, let’s think about that word “intrigue.” Intreg-way.

Because I was intrigued by Black & White, a lot. It was the hated one, and I was excited to dive into that. Part of what made Week 12 boring was that I just wanted to get to the Unova fireworks factory. And the changes to Team Rocket piqued my interest the most, but in a way that was also tinged with concern and suspicion. I’d read so many complaints about the changes made to them over the years, but I’d also heard some praise. There are fans who want Jessie, James, and Meowth to be more “badass,” cooler, a more threatening kind of repeat villain. I’ve never understood that kind of demand, since it’s incompatible with the positive kids fare adequacy that is this anime. And losing the heart the three provided isn’t worth that. Even if the trio’s time on the show was cut down (and it wasn’t cut down that much; they still appeared far more than several of Ash’s lesser-used teammates), refusing to do character work with them is a massive waste. So I was fascinated, but also nervous over losing my favorite characters.

Image: BBC. It’s also fun how the plot lets Pikachu take charge of the Pokémon while Ash and co. have to chase Team Rocket down on their own.

The suspense paid off. “Battle for the Underground” was a really, really fun half-hour of television, and I suspect Team Rocket being more competent is what clinched it. We’ve seen good villains who aren’t Jessie, James, and Meowth, but none of them would be suited to a scheme this insane. Like, no way does J attempt a city-wide Pokémon abduction on a train with dozens of decoy balloon trains. That’s a plot only these three could believably do, and making that plot so suspenseful is an accomplishment. Yes, it was still the exception by far, and yes one good half-hour doesn’t equal all the fourth wall breaking and crossdressing and oddly poignant drama Team Rocket was best at, but there’s something worth using here.

So while it is tragic that Black & White could clearly not walk and chew gum at the same time—and especially so that the brunt of that fell on the most famous Pokémon villains of all—I did get something positive out of it. I came into Chapter 15 having long heard the intriguing suspenseful siren call of a Team Rocket devoid of personality, and what sated my curiosity was more positive than I expected. The Nimbasa City two-parter (as in, a two-parter in Nimbasa City, as Ash spent many episodes in and approaching it) was fun. I loved seeing those lovable idiots almost pull off such an imaginative caper. So yes, separated from everything else, ignoring that I’m missing three years of this, doing new things with them wasn’t bad. We just need to, you know, let that coexist with all of the beautiful campy, tragic, “clearly written for the parents watching with their kids” energy Jessie, James, and Meowth are known for. Maybe they can leave an episode on their own terms once in a while instead of being blasted off, as a treat. If only television could juggle multiple ideas at once.

And there it is: I managed to sort of justify the title. Hooray!

Errant thoughts:

It turns out I got some of the stuff about the early production of The Good Place incorrect a few weeks ago. It’s fairly unimportant, though I’d like to take the opportunity again to recommend it.
So the Gym episode sucked, but I did like that they gave Elesa a Tympole. The baby eel that grows up into a disgusting, giant lamprey isn’t “fitting” for a supermodel or whatever, but it is an honest and pure Electric-type. And it is a nice change up from having the Leader always use their main partner at the end.
- Side note, but the pitch of Ash having a foolproof plan that fails makes me think of a great interview Shigeru Miyamoto did with Variety during the Mario movie press tour, where he argues that game adaptations should try to depict the kinds of experiences we have as players (as always, Shiggy gives good copy). And speaking as someone who’s had a lot of theoretically “can’t lose” Gym Battles go sideways quickly, I did find that part very relatable.
A smaller change to Black & White’s tone has been its episode titles. There are barely any puns anymore, mostly very blunt exclamations. Some of the dub titles could get a little too much, especially in Sinnoh, but I do think it’s a loss. Having every title end at a yell is a bit much, and most of them just aren’t interesting or memorable. Was “Noodles! Roamin’ Off!” a bad title? Probably! Was it easy to forget? Not at all.
One thing I liked about “Battle for the Underground” was a bit where a captive Pikachu is trying to figure out which of the team’s Pokémon could break free of the room they’re sealed in, and Pikachu’s thoughts show a cute, crude, children’s drawing animation of what they’d do to try to break down the door.
Iris has a line in one of the subway episodes about how she should’ve caught Meowth while he was on their side, alluding to a plot point from earlier the “Meowth switches sides” arc. The implications that a Pokémon’s entire morality will change after capture is… so casually chilling.
It was nice seeing Ingo, the subway conductor who was most recently seen being sent back in time to the Hisui region.
I will say that as a Rutgers alumnus, I do resent the new Team Rocket logo. And great work, faculty unions!
While the main characters are largely uninteresting in the movie, I do want to give some attention to Cilan’s delightful Stunfisk and Crustle, and Ash’s Boldore to a lesser extent. It’s always fun when the anime gives a character a Pokémon that’s deeply ugly, unphotogenic, and charming because of it.
The movie has a moment where one character says “best wishes” to Ash and co. That’s the Japanese title of the show (see, “best wishes” and “black and white” can both be shortened to… oh, you do get it?). I kinda like the idea of the anime not naming each era strictly after the games it follows. It’s more interesting. And “Best Wishes” sounds so positive!
After giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to make a change in the schedule for the first time since this project started. Initially, the final episode of next week was going to be “The Dream Continues!,” the final episode of Black & White. But I feel it’s important to get at least one episode from the “Decolore Islands” filler arc (which “The Dream Continues” technically is, but it’s not the same. It’s Ash back at home), so I picked an inoffensive one-off as a replacement.

Next movie: Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened

Next episodes:

1548: “Meloetta and the Undersea Temple!”
1549: “Unova’s Survival Crisis!”
1604: “Drayden vs. Iris: Past, Present, and Future!”
1623: “Ash and N: A Clash of Ideals!”
1632: The Pirates of Decolore!

Other movies watched:

Cujo
House (1986)
Shaolin Temple

Other television episodes watched:

Cobra Kai 506, “Ouroboros”
Cobra Kai 507, “Bad Eggs”
Cobra Kai 508, “Taikai”
Cobra Kai 509, “Survivors”
Cobra Kai 510, “Head of the Snake”
The Good Place 109, “…Someone Like Me as a Member”
The Good Place 110, “Chidi’s Choice”
The Good Place 111, “What’s My Motivation”
The Good Place 112, “Mindy St. Claire.” Weird throughline this week of end of season uses of “My Way.”
The Good Place 113, “Michael’s Gambit”
Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days 01, “Second Unit, Move Out!”
Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days 02, “Longshot”
Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days 03, “The 450-Million-Year-Old Trap”
Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days 04, “The Tragedy of L”
The Owl House 301, “Thanks to Them”
The Owl House 302, “For the Future”
The Owl House 303, “Watching and Dreaming”
Regular Show 208, “Rage Against the TV”
Regular Show 228, “Karaoke Video”
The Simpsons 514, “Lisa vs Malibu Stacy”
The Simpsons 602, “Lisa’s Rival”
The Simpsons 705, “Lisa the Vegetarian”
The Simpsons 716, “Lisa the Iconoclast”