Pikachu in Pictures Chapter 16: So Long, Unova, and Thanks for All the Two-Parters

Oh, man, we’re really done with the Generation V anime! How exciting! In fact, we’ve actually hit the two-thirds mark of “Pikachu in Pictures,” and boy howdy do I feel it… Do I feel it…

… *sighs* Well, let’s get started.

Episodes reviewed:

1548: “Meloetta and the Undersea Temple!” (September 27, 2012). Giovanni executes Operation Tempest, attacking Meloetta while it and the gang are relaxing at Cynthia’s villa. Meloetta is captured and its Relic Song used to expose the Reveal Glass, an item that can transform and control the Forces of Nature.
1549: “Unova’s Survival Crisis!” (October 4, 2012). While our heroes fight off the transformed Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus, Giovanni falls under the sway of the Reveal Glass. Jessie, James, and Meowth save him before he sends the Forces of Nature to destroy all of Unova under a tidal wave of natural disasters.
1604: “Drayden vs. Iris: Past, Present, and Future!” (November 8, 2012). Iris returns to Opelucid City to answer a challenge from Drayden, the Gym Leader and headmaster of the city’s academy. After revealing the hardships she experienced during her enrollment, she fights Drayden with renewed vigor and wisdom.
1623: “Ash and N: A Clash of Ideals!” (April 4, 2013). During an excavation for a stone that possibly contains Reshiram, Ash falls into a sunken ruin with the mysterious Pokémon whisperer N. While N and Ash debate their perspectives on Pokémon / human relationships, Iris, Cilan, the elder Professor Juniper, and Looker are attacked by the villainous Team Plasma.
1632: The Pirates of Decolore! (June 6, 2013). Ash and co. are traveling to the Kanto region via a cruise through the Decolore Island chain, and the ship’s food supply gets stolen by a gang of Pokémon. As the twerps track them down (with Team Rocket close behind), they uncover why these pirates have been stealing from people.

Hm… you know, there wasn’t an easily defined theme this week, perhaps beyond “here’s what else is up with Unova.” This was a chapter that let me experience stuff I’d otherwise missed: a filler arc, a story for Iris, the belated appearance of Team Plasma, and a Team Rocket-centered arc that gave some extra context for last week. Beyond that, there’s nothing to connect these five various episodes of “Rival Destinies” and “Adventures in Unova and Beyond.” It’s really unsatisfying as a writer to go through episode after episode with no theme other than “let’s do what I did mostly in that order.” But I don’t really know how else to do this.

So let’s just jump in, do the opposite of last time, and start with the bad: the Meloetta two-parter, which ended far more pat than I expected. Much like the big subway two-parter from last week, it’s a big moment for Team Rocket as Giovanni meets (and subsequently crushes) Ash, captures not one but four Legendaries, and has to be saved from himself by Jessie, James, and Meowth. But it’s much less fun or exciting than the earlier one. There’s too much exposition, not enough happening in the first part, and the giant fight isn’t that interesting to watch. The appeal of Ash finally fighting Giovanni is barely exploited, as is the Team Rocket Trio’s weird relationship with their boss. Even ignoring the loss of the funny Team Rocket, they just aren’t getting character work in the perfect venue for it. I was expecting this to be a high point of my time in Unova, and it was honestly a bit disappointing.

Image: The Pokémon Company. N, Ash, and Pikachu before falling into the underground ruin. Don’t let this image fool you; the guest star comes with far more grandeur than most of Black & White‘s game characters.

It was also weird seeing N, though that’s kind of inevitable given how I only saw one episode of a whole arc with him. N’s the most interesting character in Pokémon Black & White, a boy who can commune with Pokémon and fights for a world in which they live free of human encroachment. His game counterpart is proof positive of the point I’ve been making since week one: the most interesting antagonists in this series are the ones who explore the ways people and Pokémon live together. One episode was never gonna do him justice, even though it make me wish I could’ve gotten a bit more time with him. We only see a bit of his more radical perspective, and it doesn’t seem like Ash actually takes it in or thinks about it. That’s part of the problem with Ash; it’s basically impossible for him to change from outside influences. The rest of the episode has interesting beats, from a returning Looker to the finally appearing Team Plasma to the appearance of the “wacky” Cedric Juniper, but the stuff with N is both the least compelling and the most. If that makes sense.

Admittedly, part of the N plot is a bit weird because of how it happened. Team Plasma was intended for early on in Black & White, then their debut was canceled for being far too evocative of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which happened right before their debut was scheduled to air. After multiple years, they were finally brought in as the last main plot-important arc. It does seem like they give the show a jolt it needed by the end in a way I assumed the Meloetta arc would, especially since Team Rocket gets to bounce off them. It’s kind of evocative of Johto, which put a lot of its biggest stuff right at the end. I sympathize with the writers for being in an unenviable position; they couldn’t do what they planned to do nor alter their other plans. But it’s a bit odd seeing it in practice. Especially for the villain team that gets the most time in their games, and one that’s so connected to the franchise’s premise.

Other things were stronger, like the episode with Drayden. So far I’ve only seen glimpses of Iris’s backstory—a child of a secret village of dragon tamers sent on a journey with a baby Axew and an unruly Excadrill—and getting more of it was good. I think I once referred to the character as something like a version of Misty who actually got to have a character arc, and it does fit. There are interesting aspects to her character that I’m only getting to see now. Stuff like her cloistered background, trouble fitting in with the world, and her discomfort with things our previous protagonists have taken for granted are all satisfying. It shows a deuteragonist who could be strong by this series’ standard, though I missed out on any more Iris-centric episodes to confirm or deny this.

Image: The Pokémon Company. I really enjoyed the pirates episode. I’ve been thinking of watching more of this show in the future, and the Decolore Islands episodes sound more fun than most of the Unova ones.

Finally, the pirates episode, which was fun but more interesting because of when it appeared. It was a one-off in the Decolore Islands arc, a thin filler arc that let Ash slowly return to the outside world of Pokémon via a fancy ship. Team Rocket got to be fun again, with dialogue that’s a toned down version of what they had in Sinnoh. Episodes were more simple. The only major recurring characters were the boat’s captain and a journalist meant to promote the upcoming Pokémon X & Y. Fans didn’t like that it was, ultimately, an uneventful filler arc without anything substantial (Ash doesn’t catch anything; the biggest change is that Charizard rejoins his party and eventually moves back to Pallet Town permanently). But I enjoyed it. It was pleasant, and not deflating, and that was enough for me.

This was a blasé week and, like last time, very informative about this era of the anime because of it. It wasn’t interesting enough to let me do this review in a more satisfying structure than “let’s talk about each episode!,” and that sucks. But I also can’t control that. It’s not a “whimper” for Black & White, but it’s overall a less exciting ending. Certainly far less so than what Sinnoh got. At least the Decolore arc seems a nice and breezy way to end this, even if people hate it. Honestly, that’s some of the stuff I’d be interested in seeing more of.

Movie reviewed: Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened (July 13, 2013)

A traveling Mewtwo discovers fellow outcasts in a group of Genesect, Pokémon from the Paleozoic Era who Team Plasma revived and rebuilt as cyborgs. They’re looking for a home that hasn’t existed for 300 million years, but they rebuff Mewtwo’s attempts to help and attack a Pokémon preserve in New Tork City. Ash and his friends are there, and while Mewtwo fights the Genesect leader the others try to stop the preserve from being turned into a prehistoric nest.

Some Pokémon projects are controversial for design choices. Some are controversial for being problematic. And some, like Genesect and the Legend Awakened, are controversial for plumb stupid reasons. Basically, here’s how it went: the upcoming Pokémon X & Y were going to introduce “Mega Evolutions,” souped-up forms for older Pokémon like Charizard and Tyranitar. Mewtwo got two, and The Pokémon Company wanted to show off one in a movie before they officially revealed what its new, giant-foreheaded form was. How perfect would that be? Outside of one probably crappy TV special, Mewtwo hadn’t been seen since Mewtwo Strikes Back, so having it show up with a new power and on Ash’s side would be great. However, while Game Freak and The Pokémon Company own Mewtwo, the Pokémon, the estate of Takeshi Shudō owns Mewtwo, the anime character from Mewtwo Strikes Back. And they couldn’t get the rights. So with a form in need of showing (and there being some value in having Mewtwo fight Genesect, its counterpart for the Black & White era), they simply made a second one.

Image: Bulbapedia. Mewtwo’s dramatic new look. It’s a really cool direction; it accentuates the fan favorite’s creepiness even further.

Fans were… not happy with this. Historically, Mewtwo was always understood as a one of a kind fluke of science, a thing the Cinnabar Mansion and / or Team Rocket made right before their lab was struck from the earth. It’s thematically more interesting that way, even if there’s not really a reason why another power-hungry group couldn’t make another one. But the more intense people in the fanbase just did not care for the idea of there being a second Mewtwo, especially not one voice by a girl (this isn’t me imagining sexism on the part of the fans; Mewtwo having a female voice actor was a gigantic point of contrition that still exists today). You fundamentally can’t engage with Legend Awakened without that. Much in the way the Black & White anime has been pigeonholed, the community has defined this movie by this and this alone.

You’ll notice I’ve not said anything about Legend thus far. And really, there’s not much to tell. It’s another lower tier one, and like the movie last week loses a lot from not having just a little more room for character work. The film feels kinda like Pokémon’s attempt at a superhero film—sensible, given it came out a year after Avengers. Mewtwo and the Genesect Army act somewhat like comic book heroes and villains; the former has its super form and “come to Arceus” moment, and the latter can transform into flying drones. While there are humans and Pokémon on the ground floor (complete with several scenes of us lowly normals trying to help even without powers, kinda like the first Spider-Man movie), the six just blast each other away with abandon. It’s even set in a fictionalized New York City, the Eden of superheroes. But it’s not nearly enough. To an extent I do think having the original Mewtwo would’ve helped, as we’re familiar with that version and it was last seen as a vigilante-esque guardian, but not that much. This is still a fairly mild movie that undersells its most interesting theme, the idea of the Genesect trying to find a home they don’t realize has been gone for eons.

Image: The Pokémon Company. The design and powers of Genesect are very good, and while the movie could’ve done even more with it, the Pokémon gets a very good showing.

But, but, Legend is really good in exactly one way, which is that it is really fun at doing action. Stuff blows up good, super speed is generally well depicted, and it’s entertaining having this dust-up in a humongous Pokémon preserve being taken over by cocoon. If you want to see Mewtwo fighting a prehistoric cyborg bug, this is your movie. In a way, it’s not bad as a prelude to the more action-heavy Pokémon X & Y anime, which set the battles into overdrive, bumped up the animation budget, and even had a superhero of its own. So it’s not, strictly speaking, good, but it’s far from the worst this series has thrown at me, or the kind of horror I was led to believe. It’s certainly not a crime against the integrity of a fictional character whose original movie sucked anyway. I would put it right above the Kyurem picture. But just above.

Conclusion: While I would’ve liked to have included a few specific episodes that didn’t get included, I am happy to move on from Black & White. It’s probably the least interesting era of the show to me so far. There were episodes I did enjoy quite a bit, but for the most part it seems best at being a prettier version of a show that already existed and was often a bit stronger. Most of the unique things are weak or underused. And Cilan was starting to grate a bit by the end of these fifteen episodes, so that’s not good.

Unova reminds me of Hoenn, to the benefit of neither. The Advance era was also very shaggy because of what it was doing and where in the show it was doing it. To be honest, most of that era wasn’t much better (and much was just as bad). The difference, beyond these episodes looking so much nicer, was that Hoenn was far newer in what it was trying to do. Its ambitions were ultimately more interesting than Unova’s, even if both ended up pretty mediocre most of the time. I don’t know which one would win if you just tallied how many really good episodes each one had, nor do I really care, but it is frustrating how often Pokémon shoots itself in the foot.

Image: The Pokémon Company. Other than the TV special Mewtwo Returns (which ended with his memory of the events being wiped), this is the first time Giovanni has interacted with Ash. We even get to see his Persian fight. But it has no impact.

That being said, I’m not writing Black & White off as a useless or boring addition the way many viewers seem to. Some of those episodes were fun, particularly the fillers that harkened back to a time where the franchise was kinda figuring itself out. Unova was mostly perfectly fine, what I got to experience. And ultimately, that’s what the Pokémon anime is. It’s disappointing that the show stumbled as much as it did after the relative heights of Sinnoh, but it’s also not surprising or some kind of great betrayal. Anyway, let’s hope Kalos has greener pastures. It damn well better, given how much it’s been hyped up for me.

Errant thoughts:

The most important thing this week: amid worsening health and his decision to undertake aggressive chemotherapy, James Carter Cathcart has announced his retirement from the Pokémon anime by the end of Season 25 (which ends the storyline for Ash and, by extension, his characters James and Meowth). He’s one of a select few English language actors who can boast to having been part of every era of the show, as well as being a script adapter since Season 5. So while I don’t think he’s quite as famous as other series veterans, just because his biggest roles were after the voice actor switch, it’s a huge departure. Our own best wishes to James from here at Source Gaming.
One of the reasons for the movie’s general lower quality here, at least, is due to the localized version not getting access to the soundtrack rights. This was a problem the first few movies had, and unfortunately it cropped up again for Legend and the four movies as well.
There’s a whole thing where Team Rocket has a giant rocket launcher-style thing that falls onto one of the strands of webbing, then it falls again, and Pikachu knocks it into a hallway before it hits one of the Genesect. I was surprised it didn’t come up again after that. Like, I kept expecting it to shoot and cause a fire in the preserve, instead of the fire that actually happens.
This week gave me my first and only look at Krookodile, the member of Ash’s team I was actually the most excited to meet. He comes across as the most interesting and fun of the Unova crew from a distance, but sadly we barely got any time with him.
One of the other side effects of bringing Team Plasma in so late is that they and N have to sort of be the versions they were in both Black & White 1 and Black & White 2. N has to be more intense, like in the first game, but he lacks the character arc of learning the truth about Team Plasma because he’s pitched as coming into the show afterwards.
Not to be too personal, but a few years ago I was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Ever since then I’ve been trying to understand more about the ways in which I’m neurodivergent, and it’s led me to having an increasingly strong belief that N is coded as autistic. I can’t fully express why in a stray observation (his difficulty interacting with people, his connection to math and music, the way the game gives him faster text speed than everyone), but it’s there. To be clear, I don’t think he’s stereotypical or offensive at all; it’s just interesting to me. I actually feel the same way about Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles.
And finally, here’s my list of favorite Unova Pokémon: Chandelure, Whimsicott, Darmanitan, Leavanny, Scolipede, Volcarona, Hydreigon, Beartic, Galvantula, Excadrill, Golurk, Jellicent, Mienshao, Sawsbuck, Stoutland, Purrloin, Bisharp, Zoroark, Archeops, Krookodile, Sigilyph, Woobat, Scrafty, Cinccino, Eelektross, Beheeyem, Cryogonal, Accelgor, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Victini, Keldeo (and the Swords of Justice and Forces of Nature as concepts, if not altogether), Genesect.
- Like a lot of Pokémon fans, I tend to place the Black & White crew a bit lower on my list of favorites. A lot of the newcomers aren’t great, there are some issues with the original games, and while Black 2 & White 2 are great, it is a bit sad that they had to walk back some of the flawed but interesting ideas. Also, there are a lot of single-typed Pokémon, and for whatever reason I lean more towards dual-typed ones. But you can look at my shortlist and see a lot of really cool Pokémon. Unova had the largest crop of new ‘Mons ever, and a bunch were misses, but more were hits.

Next movie: Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Next episodes:

1701: “Kalos, Where Dreams and Adventures Begin!”
1702: “Lumiose City Pursuit!”
1704: “A Shockingly Cheeky Friendship!”
1706: “Battling on Thin Ice!”
1719: “A Conspiracy to Conquer!”

Other movies watched:

All for the Winner
Cyborg Cop 2
DOOM (the things I do for Source Gaming… )
DOOM: Annihilation (the things I do for Source Gaming… )
Terminal Invasion
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Other television episodes watched:

Cheers 314, “The Heart is a Lonely Snipehunter.” Oh come on, Peacock is cutting Cheers and Frasier? Well, let’s see how much more of them I can rewatch…
Cheers 407, “2 Good 2 Be 4 Real”
Cheers 504, “Abnormal Psychology”
Cheers 505, “House of Horrors with Formal Dining and Used Brick”
Fishing with John 101, “Jim Jarmusch.” If I ever do another one of these weekly series again, I might call it “Fishing with Wolf.” It’d be about fishing mechanics. But to be honest, there’s little I’d like to do less than think of another one of these right now.
Poker Face 101, “Dead Man’s Hand”
Poker Face 102, “The Night Shift”
Regular Show 423, “Picking Up Margaret”
Regular Show 523, “Gold Watch”
Regular Show 702, “The Parkie Awards”
Regular Show 709, “Terror Tales of the Park V”
Regular Show 720, “Donut Factory Holiday”
Regular Show 823, “Christmas in Space”
Smallville 406, “Transference”
Smallville 407, “Jinx”
Smallville 408, “Spell.” This was a helluva mix of stupendously awful superhero TV. First, there was the decision to turn a magical god-alien cartoon trickster into a sleazy Eastern European caricature psychic teen who fixes high school football matches. Then there was the ultra-creepy episode with the world’s greatest TV pitch: “what if the worst actor in our show, our lead, had to be the best actor in our show, and vice versa?” And then there was the witch possession…
Star Trek 305, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”
Star Trek 307, “Day of the Dove”
Star Trek 308, “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”