Pokemon Origins (October 2013)

[Boomer]

Why is Brock so fucking cool in this.

Because he's Brock. It's going to be weird in the dub without hearing Eric Stuart or a poor imitation of him. 

[Jin.]

This... This is the single most best thing ever.

P-Pokémon.. I think I love you again..

[-Mark-]

Just finished watching the whole thing, without subtitles. Still managed to follow it more or less perfectly and understand about 80% or so of what was being said (Pokemon hardly has deep or complex dialogue, let's face it).

 

Not really sure why people are calling them 'episodes' when the whole thing aired as a single TV special in Japan yesterday. :S Where each 'episode' broke off was just where the ads were in Japan. Granted, the dub is splitting it up, but still.

 

Anyway, it was nice enough. Way too abridged, but then I guess they had to to fit it into an hour and a half runtime. I do think people are really exaggerating at how 'violent' and 'dark' it was though.

 

I was surprised at the cast, actually. I knew Tomokazu Sugita was voicing Takeshi (Brock), but was really surprised to hear Takeuchi Junko (Naruto) as Red. XD Rikiya Koyama as Sakaki (Giovanni) was nice, too. 

 

Did anyone else think that Red was actually pretty useless? Right from the Brock fight my brother and I were basically making jokes about how Red was given all of his badges out of pity and that he only beat the Elite Four and Green because they'd all been weakened from Green battling/ defeating them and hadn't had time to heal. But seriously, the kid barely manages to win six-on-two battles with the numbers in his favour. D:

Edited October 3, 2013 by -Mark-

[KrazyBean]

Its.... Its glorious!! ;w;

 

I would do ANYTHING to have the Pokemon anime be like this.

[WarioBone]

But seriously, the kid barely manages to win six-on-two battles with the numbers in his favour. D:

 

Did you ever play Red or Blue?

 

Because if you picked Charmander, you basically threw everything in your party at Brock and still got your ass completely handed to you 9 times out of 10.  They emulated the experience very well.  Everyone sucks when they start.  Even Red.

 

Now he is, by canon, the strongest Trainer in the world.

[Soniman]

I would do ANYTHING to have the Pokemon anime be like this.

 

To be fair, the animation budges has increased by a lot and it's near movie quality almost

 

 

True, Origins is a helluva lot more detailed but the anime still is a decent contender for animation quality.

[WarioBone]

True, Origins is a helluva lot more detailed but the anime still is a decent contender for animation quality.

 

Origins could be stick figures on graph paper, and the writing and characterization would still put it on top.

 

Plus, you know, it's not just a contest of who has the cutest, weakest, under-doggiest Pokemon, and the battles have more depth than Dawn repeatedly telling Piplup to "dodge it".

Edited October 3, 2013 by Bold n' Brash Wario

[Soniman]

Origins could be stick figures on graph paper, and the writing and characterization would still put it on top.

 

Plus, you know, it's not just a contest of who has the cutest, weakest, under-doggiest Pokemon, and the battles have more depth than Dawn repeatedly telling Piplup to "dodge it".

 

I....wasn't implying that the anime was better than Origins, just talking strictly the animation :/

 

And the battles weren't the always like as there was plenty of genuine cases of legitimate strategy rather that the lowest common denominator style fight sequences, but either way I should really just stop trying to explain the redeeming factors of the anime because I just feel like some whiny fanboy that's raining on everyone's parade.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Soniman

[TrueBlue]

Really enjoyed what I saw, also liked the way they integrated the Mega Evolution into the narrative. Now I just wanna see Red use his most recently captured Pokemon to capture the last one on the Dex...

[Tara]

So I got around to watching it.  It's pretty awesome to say the least.  The bite scene is not nearly so unsettling in context.

 

My main complaint is that it translates the games into animation a little too literally.  I mean, it seems a little too convenient to me that the Pokédex automatically fills out information on a Pokémon immediately after capture.  But I can look past it.  Another complaint I have is the representation of NPC's.  Pretty much all of them serve to do little but stroke Red's ego and emphasize just how great of a trainer he is.  It would have been nice if instead of having every single character tells us "Wow, Red is so awesome!" that they... you know... just showed him doing awesome things.  As a final nitpick, some of the scene transitions are really awkward.  This is especially so in the Lavender Town segment, whereby we're met with a happy ending while trainers lament the loss of their fallen Pokémon.  I mean, I know that paying respects is important, but... it's kind of awkward hearing happy music over "OH KITTY WHY'D YOU HAVE TO DIE?!"

 

And I suppose they're retconning the whole "wears his deceased mother's skull" thing with Cubone?  I mean, I wasn't expecting them to show a gory scene of Cubone digging out its dead mother's corpse and wearing a bloody skull over its face, but they completely ignored that aspect from its original Pokédex entry altogether.

 

All that aside, though, I love that it shows Red as a developing trainer that actively gets stronger.  In fact, the most interesting thing about Red is that he wasn't even interested in battling at first.  In addition, I love that he and Green are shown to be somewhat friendly rivals and are more than willing to work together if it's for the greater good.  Green is otherwise forgettable in my opinion.  But it's forgivable, I suppose.

 

On a closing note, MY GOD LISTEN TO THAT MUSIC.  SERIOUSLY AMAZING, AND I LIKE THAT IT'S NOT ALL ORCHESTRAL AS THERE IS A LOT OF ROCK AND ELECTRO INFLUENCES, BUT THEY STILL FIT AMAZINGLY WELL DEAR GOD SOMEONE PLEASE ISOLATE ALL THESE TRACKS SO WE CAN MMMMMM IT'S SO GOOD.

 

Er, um... yeah, really cool special with an incredible soundtrack, but there are some glaring flaws that sort of bother me.  Not enough to completely ruin it, but still.

[Indigo Rush]

Saw the first 2 subbed episodes... that Cubone scene gave me feels.

[Sami]

Thoughts:

 

Episode 1 - The battles were cool as shit. Squirtle blocking scratch with its shell and Rattata running around Onix's body particularly stood out to me as neat little touches that make the battles feel more fluid and engaging than the ones in the shitty anime (I'll admit Paul vs. Ash was good, before Soniman gets on my ass ).

 

Episode 2 - "Jesus fuck that's a lot of rushing. ... I don't get to see him fight Lt. Surge?", "Talking... talking... c'mon, where's the action?" "... They're still talking, how long has it been?" "Come the fuck on the episode's halfway through and they're still talking." Cubone scene seemed like typical anime trope stuff. I'm not really seeing how everyone got "feels", but eh. Wasn't attached to Cubone or his mom, so I don't see why I'm supposed to cry.

 

Episode 3 better pick up the slack.

 

Also it's still way better than the anime. Ash is a stupid butt and I like how Red actually, you know, learns. It's nice when the main character is capable of basic human functions.

[Kuzu]

I really did like how they emphasized just how screwed most trainers are against Brock, I felt my childhood coming back with that fucking Onix.

 

 

And he's voiced by Sugita san, so that's a plus

[Kevin]

Just got finished watching the rest of the episodes.

 

That was absolutely amazing! I loved the character development in Red and him and Green being friendly rivals towards each other and willing to work together when it was needed rather than the rival being a complete dick.

 

Episode 2 with the Cubone...so many feels with that one and some great character development at that! The animation in this special is some of the best I've ever seen for Pokemon, much more detailed and everything!

 

I also loved how they showed Red going all the way to Mewtwo and even capturing him. Although I really wish they had shown him battling and capturing Mew as well.

 

No fight with Lt. Surge though? I know they had to pick up the pace quickly with this special, but it would have been nice if they had shown a little bit of it rather than skip it all together.

 

That music though...dear god that music is just amazing! I really hope an official soundtrack is released. I'd get it in an heartbeat!

Edited October 4, 2013 by Kevin

[Eternal EX]

Is it safe to say that they made Charizard look way too badass? 

 

Charizard Fire Blasting Blastoise for the win. And Charizard Mega Evolving to take down Mewtwo.

[Kevin]

A trailer for the dub has been released:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgc81i06qwY

 

The dub will premiere on November 15th.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Kevin

[Tails spin]

So I watched ep 4. I'm sorry but Mega Charizard X ruined the nostalgia if that was what Game freak was going for. Yeah I know they did it for advertising but if that was the case then I would have like to then see some Johto pokemon present as well.

[Boomer]

So I watched ep 4. I'm sorry but Mega Charizard X ruined the nostalgia if that was what Game freak was going for. Yeah I know they did it for advertising but if that was the case then I would have like to then see some Johto pokemon present as well.

I felt it would have been better received if Mega Charizard X had been revealed at the same time as Y. Then it wouldn't have come as a complete surprise in Pokemon Origins. It's still kind of ill fitting though.

[Tails spin]

I felt it would have been better received if Mega Charizard X had been revealed at the same time as Y. Then it wouldn't have come as a complete surprise in Pokemon Origins. It's still kind of ill fitting though.

 

Even if X and Y Charizard were revealed together, I mean they have been tooting this as for fans of Pokémon Red and Blue. And bar that moment the special was following the Red and Blue events to the T. Then they shoehorn Mega Charizard X, yes if you look back at it having Fuji give the poke flute and those orbs were already a small red flag that they did something different but its still felt shoehorn.

[Boomer]

Even if X and Y Charizard were revealed together, I mean they have been tooting this as for fans of Pokémon Red and Blue. And bar that moment the special was following the Red and Blue events to the T. Then they shoehorn Mega Charizard X, yes if you look back at it having Fuji give the poke flute and those orbs were already a small red flag that they did something different but its still felt shoehorn.

I do agree that the Mega Evolution kinda felt shoehorned in. I'm not a fan of it myself either (heck I'm not even a fan of Mega Charizard X.) 

[-Mark-]

Did you ever play Red or Blue?

 

Because if you picked Charmander, you basically threw everything in your party at Brock and still got your ass completely handed to you 9 times out of 10.  They emulated the experience very well.  Everyone sucks when they start.  Even Red.

 

Now he is, by canon, the strongest Trainer in the world.

 

I did play Gen 1, thank you very much. But I picked Squirtle, so I totally wiped the floor with Brock.

 

And it's fair enough early on, but for him to have such a numbers advantage against Giovanni and still just about scrape through a six-on-two battle was a bit comical.

[-Robin-]

Pokemon's gonna get more OVAs like these in 2014 to celebrate TV Tokyo's anniversary.

So I guess you can expect a Mega Charizard X vs. Mega Johto Pokemon in the possible Gold and Silver OVA.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Joshua

[Komodin]

Pokemon's gonna get more OVAs like these in 2014 to celebrate TV Tokyo's anniversary.

So I guess you can expect a Mega Charizard X vs. Mega Johto Pokemon in the possible Gold and Silver OVA.

 

Hmm, the prospects of a possible Mega Charizard X vs. Mega Entei/Suicune/Raikou battle intrigues me. Let's see where they'll go with something like this.

[-Mark-]

I couldn't resist. 

 

Edited October 4, 2013 by -Mark-

[Mogtaki]

Okay so was episode 2 terribly subbed for others at all? The subbing for that episode was a complete joke, whoever did it made it half Spanish and couldn't understand that there was more than just 'their' for there, they're and their.

 

Man, it really spoiled the episode for me, but it was still a nice story going on there with the Cubone.