PixlBit

 

Since Pokemon Red and Blue was released an anime premiered that loosely based itself on the games, with a strong emphasis on loosely. It was a cartoony anime that took its own liberties for characters and story development but fans still love it and it’s still ongoing to this day. There have been also the movies, TV specials, and spin-offs taking place in the same canon as the anime. Sometime after the release of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y a new anime was released under the name Pokemon Origins, an adaptation based on the original first generation as a tribute to the franchise and its fans.

The story is closely adapted from the original games with taking a few liberties to make it a drama and it works very well. With just a few changes in scenes, such as Blue the rivial trying to be the hero at PokemonTower, everything in the story is intact, with just a few differences between the Japanese and English dubs. In addition they have fleshed out the characters and gave their motivations a deeper meaning as well as creating a rememberable cast with what little they had to work with. Red, the main character of the mini-series, is more than just trainer with a passion for Pokemon: he’s actually the personification of the player. He actually performs acts that players have done their first time around in the original/remakes of Generation I from trying to catch an NPC’s Pokemon to buying that Magikarp for 500 yen. For an adaptation it does so much more in the story department for the fans.

 

The art design is based on the presentation of the remakes Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green. The animation is fairly fluid and the colors are bright and subtle in the contents of a Pokemon world. While in the original anime all the battles look cartoonish the battles in Origins has every attack and reaction feels solid, as every move used has power behind and has a reaction to match it. The music is a collection of remixes made subtle for a Pokemon drama and feels natural as they play in the background. A much more subtle difference between the two shows is the Pokemon voice acting: instead of their cries sounding like they names they actually sound like creatures. The presentation for the mini-series has a much higher step up from the main series.

As soon as I saw the Mega Stones and Mega Charizard X appearing in Origins I wanted to call cheap advertising Deus Ex Machina but then I looks at from a different angle when I watched episode 4 again: this wasn’t just advertising X/Y but instead a method of showing Red’s attachment to his starter through the climax of the mini-series. As Red is a personified player it’s actually something that many Pokemon players must have felt on their very first Pokemon playthrough. As trainers we have picked a starter that appealed to us (or in my case got the best Pikachu ever) and did everything with that Pokemon. We traveled over a country or two, fought battles, caught Pokemon, and after we’ve completed as much as we could we still traveled and shared our strength and experience with others, thanks to the games’ portability. Since the Mega Stones only work when the bond between the Pokemon and its trainer is strong having it in the Mewtwo battle shows just how much our player character counterpart feels for his very first Pokemon, as we may have when we got into the series.

To sum up Pokemon Origins it’s more than just an adaptation of the first games of one of the best portable RPGs released: it’s an adaptation of an adventure that all Pokemon gamers played since Generation I or the Generation III remakes. Even if the everyday viewer doesn’t look at it from a deeper perspective it’s actually on of the best anime adaptations of a video game. The only issue with this mini-series is how rushed the in-between expedition scenes feel when transiting between episodes (or in case of episode 3 between plot points). While it is nice touch that the old dialogue box is used it would be nice to have a bit more animation as seen with the scenes of the Magikarp transaction and the Blackbelt losing one of his Fighting-type Pokemon. Aside from that it’s a short but sweet anime to watch even when playing your choice of Pokemon game. Now let’s hope the search for Mew leads this canon to Johto.