#its not that its bad but it will never be the diamond pearl adventures manga w hareta that was the only thing i read in elementary school

[ajdrawshq]

Just remembered pokespe exists. Inconsolable

[punz4lyfe]

Wasted Plotential: Pokemon Journeys Beginning

While Pokemon Journeys has certainly proved to be quite unique when compared to other series in the Pokemon Anime, one thing that has particularly bugged me for a quite a while was the beginning. Now don’t get me wrong, the beginning isn’t “bad” in any way, it’s just that when looking at it, I just feel there could’ve been a bit more done to it. So for this post, I’ll be going over the first two episodes of Pokemon Journeys and what I would do to change them to make them stand out more. I would do a little more than that, but considering more important events happen in those episodes (such as the introduction of Galar and Goh’s capturing of Scorbunny), I think I’ll just leave it at the first two to keep things a little more simple. So without further ado, here we go.

Episode #1: Enter Pikachu!

There’s not really much to change in the first episode. Pikachu’s backstory is fine as it is, as well as Goh and Chloe’s side of the plot as it properly introduces their characters and distinct personalities. Ash, however, is on another story.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but Ash is really treated like a joke throughout the first episode. Sure, this is way before the canon plot of the series even begun where he has shown to be much more capable and competent once he gets older, but seriously, first episode and you’re gonna write him off as a joke even when he just won his first regional league in the present? C’mon.

Anyways, just like in the episode proper, Ash wakes up too late to properly Professor Oak’s Summer Camp. He tries to leave the house in his pajamas, but this time, he is stopped by Delia, not wanting her son to humiliate himself in public. While he argues a bit at first, he soon relents and sulks back up to his room. To pass time, Ash sadly scrolls through a small booklet filled with pictures of Pokemon. Delia notices her son’s miserable state, so she walks back down to the first floor and the scene ends with her picking up a phone, dialing in Professor Oak’s number.

When the episode focuses back on Ash, he is still upset in his room for having to miss Oak’s Summer Camp. That is, until his mother comes back from downstairs to tell him some good news: Professor Oak will be having another Summer Camp session within the next few weeks and she had already signed her son up for it via a message she left on Oak’s phone from her previous phone call. The news excites Ash and Delia quickly reminds him to wake up early next time and never try to walk through Pallet Town in his pajamas. Ash eagerly ensures her that he would never be caught running around in his pajamas in public (which we, as the audience, knows that’s a blatant lie) and he grabs a random bandana from his drawers and proclaims it as a good luck charm to help him make it to the next session on-time, with the bandana being the same one he will give to Serena. With his vigor restored, Ash’s backstory part of this episode ends with him looking through the Pokemon booklet again, wondering to himself the many Pokemon he could come across at camp, such as Poliwag or Rapidash, a reference to the times he saw those Pokemon in flashbacks from the Diamond & Pearl and XYZ series.

With these minor changes, the episode’s narrative is hardly changed, Ash is treated with a bit more respect, and the some continuity of other flashback shown in previous series is established.

Episode #2: Legend? Go! Friends? Go!

Here’s when the changes really pick up.

At the beginning of the episode when it shows Ash’s many accomplishments from his past adventures, alongside that shot, we also get a little flashback montage of some of Ash’s most proudest battles, with those battles being against the likes of Lt. Surge, Drake, Gary, Noland, Spenser, Brandon, Paul, Trip, Sawyer, Alain, Gladion, and Kukui, usually showcasing his more iconic mons, such as Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, Oshawott, Greninja, Hawlucha, Rowlet, Lycanroc, and Torracat. I mean, if the manga wasn’t afraid to showcase Ash’s old mons, I don’t see why the anime itself would be.

When Ash makes it to Oak’s Lab, instead of with only having Pikachu in his party, Ash goes to the ranch to withdraw 5 Pokemon. It honestly doesn’t make sense for Ash to only have Pikachu alone in his party when he’s not going on any big and particular adventure at the moment. Since he’s most likely been at Kanto for a hot minute and since we all know that Ash treasures all of his Pokemon, it would honestly make a lot of sense for Ash to rotate 5 random Pokemon every day from Oak’s ranch when he’s not traveling in order to keep every his mons in tip-top shape and show that he still loves being by their side. Otherwise, it kinda just makes Pikachu’s little tantrum later down Journeys look even more OOC and inconsiderate as it already is. Anyways, since he will attending a Kanto-related celebration, the 5 mons Ash brings with him are Bulbasaur, Charizard, Kingler, Muk, and Tauros, promising Bulbasaur he will return him to Oak’s Lab as soon as he can in order to ensure Bulbasaur’s peacekeeping duties. He also has Bulbasaur out of his Pokeball for the time being, giving Ash’s iconic and first-ever grass-type some more screen time.

Ash, Delia, Mimey, and Oak make it to the lab and that’s when Ash comes across Cerise’s Yamper. Instead of pulling an incredibly OOC moment by invading a clearly defensive Pokemon’s space, Ash simply just keeps his distance while gently beckoning the unfamiliar mon to come to him for a pet. Yamper is, of course, distrustful, but after some reassurance from Pikachu and Bulbasaur, Yamper soon approaches Ash and happily allows the trainer to pet him while making friends with his two outside mons as well. Yamper soon suddenly jumps back up to its feet to run past Ash and return to Chloe’s side, setting up for an awkward introduction instead of Chloe being an inconsiderate jerk by leaving a person her Pokemon clearly has attacked left stranded alone without even calling for help or checking on him. Ash asks her if Yamper’s her Pokemon and she just says ���no”. Ash then tries to introduce himself, Pikachu, and Bulbasaur, but Chloe, not wanting much to do with the sudden stranger, simply walks right past them to return home, with the only thing she says being a subtle, but polite “excuse me”.

Ash soon regroups with Oak and the rest of the episode plays on the same way up until the encounter with Lugia. When Ash tries to make his way to the Legendaries location, he has Charizard fly him to its location. The rough winds occurring as a byproduct of Lugia’s presence kinda messes up Charizard’s flight path, justifying Ash’s late arrival compared to other trainers. Upon arriving to Lugia’s location, Ash decides to watch from the side, marveled at both the Johto Legendary and the many powerful Pokemon used by the other trainers. When Lugia begins to take off, Ash gets back on Charizard to follow it, which Lugia, being a friendly mon, sees that Ash and his Pokemon mean no harm and happily flies alongside them. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is when Ash meets Goh.

Ash finds him holding onto Lugia’s tail for dear life, so he helps him onto Charizard’s back. Goh, seeing Ash, becomes a bit stargazed upon seeing a trainer about his age with such a powerful Pokemon as Charizard. Before any former introductions can be, Ash suddenly hears Charizard roar for him and he turns around to see Lugia looking right at him and Goh before slightly turning its backside towards them. While Goh is confused, Ash quickly gets the message that it wants to take them for a ride, so he takes Goh’s hand and leaps onto Lugia’s back with Pikachu while Bulbasaur stays behind on Charizard in order to keep an eye out for their trainer in case something goes wrong. At first, Goh is scared out of his mind until Ash ensures him that Lugia means no harm. The montage of Lugia soaring around with Ash and Goh plays the same for the most part, with a little comedic moment added in when Lugia takes its passengers underwater, causing Bulbasaur to panic before Charizard calms him down, knowing that Lugia is just having fun. Ash and Goh then introduce themselves to each other and once they are left at the flower field, Goh panics due to having no idea how to get home until Ash calmly ensures him that they could just ride Charizard.

The two return to the lab and as soon Charizard touches the ground, Goh collapses out of exhaustion and relief, given the fact that he’s never flown on a Lugia or Charizard before. Yamper greets both Ash and Pikachu in a friendly manner and then we go into Cerise recruiting Ash and Goh. He’s impressed at Goh’s footage and states to himself that he is indeed of some enthusiastic research assistants, which is when Oak steps to inform Cerise that Ash himself has already traveled through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola (which surprises both Goh and Chloe), so he could definitely be of some good use thanks to his previous adventures in those regions. Not only that, Delia also steps in to state how much of a strong trainer Ash is before whispering to Cerise’s ear that he’s Alola’s Champion. I would make a version where she says it out load for Goh and Chloe to hear, but for now, I think I’ll just leave it as a surprise in case the canon anime does that as well. With more than enough reason, Cerise recruits Ash and then, to Goh’s shock, does the same for him, noting that being an assistant could be beneficial to the beginning of his trainer career. The two boys are then introduced to their dorm room (with Ash humbly allowing Goh the top bunk instead of fighting over it like a 6-year old), Delia leaves Mimey with Ash to help take care of him, Ash gives his other 5 mons’ Pokeballs to Oak to return to the ranch since he now has a new adventure (and thus an actual reason to start from scratch with Pikachu again), and Delia and Oak then make their exit. While Delia still reminds Ash to eat healthy and brush his teeth (because that’s what moms do), she doesn’t ask Goh to watch over her son in my version, considering it would be stupid to say that since Ash is leagues above Goh and that’s why she left Mimey at the lab in the first place. Instead, it’s the other way around, with Oak asking Ash to watch over Goh, pointing out that he’s new which Ash promises, much to Goh’s embarrassment. And then the rest of the episode plays out the same way as it did originally. (seriously, what was this episode’s love for embarrassing Ash 24-7 like he’s Dan freaking Hibiki?)

Closing

It honestly really bugs me on how much Ash, the main character of the anime series, is treated like an utter joke throughout the first two episodes of Journeys. If it wasn’t for his past achievements being shown at the beginning of the second episode, one unfamiliar with his character could easily mistake him as just as much as a beginning as Goh and Chloe due to his constant immature behavior that leads him making mistakes that he should be more than smart to not do (invading Yamper’s space, arguing over a simple bunk, etc.), and sadly, this is kinda an overall issue for Journeys as a whole, but that’s another story. Ash just conquered the Alola League, he should be portrayed as a mature, yet fun-loving mentor, not someone who could easily pose as Goh’s younger brother behavior-wise or a kid Chloe has to babysit.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 127: Are You My Dad?

“This might be serious.”

Those of y’all that check out my episode rankings at the end of every post know that my favorite “normal” episode of Steven Universe (so not Steven and the Stevens or Hit the Diamond, which are in their own category of perfect character studies) isn’t Lion 3 or Alone Together or Jailbreak or The Answer or Mr. Greg or Mindful Education. And, spoiler alert, it won’t be Jungle Moon or A Single Pale Rose or Reunited or Change Your Mind. It’s Mirror Gem. 

So it’s not a shocker that I’m drawn to another episode that’s the beginning of a two-parter closing out the first half of a fifty-odd episode chunk, which starts out goofy but grows increasingly ominous and ends in a confrontation with a new blue Gem. In terms of tone, Are You My Dad? is an incredible exercise in tension, albeit one that benefits from two prior episodes’ cliffhangers in a way Mirror Gem manages without (but to be fair, Mirror Gem arrives when we still don’t know there are other Gems, which gives its mystery a major advantage).

The silly beginning here is strengthened by the return of all three original Crystal Gems, who haven’t been in a room together since Rocknaldo. They’re increasingly out of focus as we get into more Steven-centric storytelling, and I’ve heard this lobbed as a criticism of latter-day Steven Universe; while I agree that these characters are terrific and am always down to see more of them, I can appreciate that their big moment is Act II (Seasons 2/3), and Steven’s is Act III (Seasons 4/5). If Act I is about creating Steven’s universe, and Act II is about developing Steven’s family, it’s because Act III, which the other two have been building towards this whole time, is about Steven.

Episodes like Storm in the Room and Lion 4 fundamentally don’t work with the Crystal Gems around, and our last two episodes place Steven among Beach City citizens to prime us for a finale about Beach City paying for Steven’s past. So I get why we haven’t seen the trio as a whole for a while. But I sure am glad to see them again.

Amethyst’s offer of beans and suggestion to barter them for donuts is great, but come on, nothing beats Garnet and Pearl’s sand castle. I love glimpses into the Crystal Gems’ leisure time independent of Steven (he’s around, but clearly wasn’t involved with the construction): because the Gems are so often characterized in relation to Steven and/or in big personal ways, it’s a pleasant change of pace to just see them reading the paper in Watermelon Steven or assembling furniture in Shirt Club. Doug Out and The Good Lars are celebrations of the mundane tainted by the supernatural in their last moments, so it’s perfect to ease us into this new story with more slice-of-life lazing.

Still, this beach day is a backdrop for Steven wondering where his mail is (in the first of many callbacks, we get his Mr. Postman song from all the way back in Cheeseburger Backpack). On its own this might not be a big deal, but we know that Onion and Sadie were being stalked by new Gems and that Lars didn’t show up at the potluck (which, for now, we can lump in with other disappearances), so even though Steven doesn’t know anything sinister is afoot, Jamie’s absence sets off warning bells for us. 

The scenes that follow build dread with masterful efficiency. First we get an uncharacteristically worried Sour Cream, which stands out even more than normal because we just saw him behaving as usual in The Good Lars. His concern is tempered by fun visuals: our MISSING poster is a repurposed WANTED poster, and we get a neat flashback aesthetic as Onion’s haunts are seen as if through an old-school View-Master (calling back to Onion Gang, Arcade Mania, and Onion Friend). While the audience knows new Gems are to blame, Steven is able to write this off as another weird Onion thing, and is more disappointed than concerned when he hears the Big Donut is closed.

Even now, Steven thinks things are probably fine, assuming Lars and Sadie are blowing off work to watch scary movies (calling back to Horror Club and The New Lars). It’s here where we’re introduced to the most clever element of this first act: Barb Miller. She’s connected to Sadie, so she can reveal that her daughter never came home after the potluck, but is also connected to Jamie, who she sent out that morning with Steven’s package. And she’s overprotective enough that she doesn’t make rationalizations like Sour Cream and Steven did for Onion (although she does reference Island Adventure, finally acknowledging how weird it is that three kids went missing for days and nobody seemed to care). In one fell stroke, Steven realizes that this is an alarming pattern, and starts looking for answers at last.

But he still hasn’t caught up to us. Sure, he knows his friends are missing, but he hasn’t seen the looming shadows from the end of Doug Out and The Good Lars, so when he comes across Aquamarine he has no reason to suspect her of kidnapping. A lesser show might build suspense making its characters too thick to put obvious hints together, but Steven Universe makes it clear that none of these threads are obvious to Steven. A more cynical version of the character might deduce earlier that this new Gem is bad news, but despite everything he’s been through in Season 4 he’s still empathetic to his core. After all, the pivotal event of this season was his own dad’s disappearance, so he’s primed to help a kid in a similar situation.

But finally, after knowing more than Steven from the beginning of the episode, Aquamarine asks the titular question and brings us back into the unknown with him. “Are you my dad?” is a brilliantly weird question: of course it’s odd for anyone to ask this of Steven when the answer is so self-evident, but it’s even odder for a Gem to do so. As Steven later tells Connie when she suggests the stranger might be a hybrid, this is a full Gem, and Gems don’t have dads.

Steven’s council of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Connie shows that his instinct isn’t to go it alone, lending weight to his solo sacrifice at the end of this two-parter. But for now, it offers a moment of respite by reveling in the artistic differences of these characters; on the one hand, it makes little sense for Steven to not just draw Aquamarine himself, considering he’s the one who saw her and we know he likes drawing from Shirt Club and Open Book and Barn Mates, but on the other hand, this scene is a delight. Connie draws a manga-influenced figure using an amateur ball and plane method, Amethyst goes abstract, Pearl undersells her dramatic flourish, and Garnet just draws herself; I actually think Pearl’s is closest, but we go with Connie’s and set off.

This is the second time since Lion 4 where we’ve explored the potential for other half-humans like Steven, and in my first viewing of Are You My Dad I saw it as foreshadowing for fellow hybrid. The trend never really continued, and while it seems like a red herring in retrospect, the close proximity of two stories about Steven maybe not being alone shows just how alone he really is. There’s nobody else like Steven, and while this makes him special, it adds to his burden as a bridge between worlds, a burden that’s partially thrust upon him and partially created by his own sense of outsized responsibility. 

Connie lightens the mood as they search by inventing exciting new scenarios to explain this new Gem, contrasting her further with Pearl. Connie’s art is cutesy while Pearl’s is dramatic, and where Connie sees hope for a new friend, Pearl is the only member of the team who advocates preparing for a fight. We don’t go very far down the “optimism is wrong and cynicism is right” road, because that isn’t at all what this show is about, but I love that youthful innocence from both Steven and Connie isn’t championed as an absolute positive in this story.

The light mood of two friends hoping for the best leads to Steven making a game of looking through Onion’s woods, and his facetious search of an empty log ends up getting him trapped. Again, this show isn’t here to build suspense by dumbing down the characters: Steven needs to be out of commission for Connie’s kidnapping to work the way it does, but getting stuck comes from realistic playing around rather than stupidity or ineptitude. And it continues the thread of others getting punished for Steven’s perceived mistakes, which of course adds to his guilt complex (and is furthered by Connie getting kidnapped because Steven shouted her name). These are small moments of getting us from Point A to Point B, but it’s so important that this crew pays attention to such details for the story and themes to flow smoothly.

Aquamarine’s questioning becomes even more confusing when she corrects Connie, saying she’s not looking for “your dad” but “my dad.” Connie’s condescending Tarzan speak is a bit out of character, but it at least makes sense that she wants to simplify her language for someone who doesn’t seem to understand the meanings of words. Aquamarine’s hidden nastiness emerges, with a wicked snicker at Connie’s “Me Connie” routine before she calls for Topaz.

While I prefer Mirror Gem to Are You My Dad? in most regards, the reveal of Topaz takes the cake in the horror department. She’s announced by thundering footsteps that clear birds from the surrounding trees, and emerges first as a shadow before we see our missing friends trapped inside her body. None of the captives’ mouths are free except Onion’s, and he's nonverbal, so their struggles are joined by muffled and incoherent screams while their captor lurks in silence. The soundtrack lurches into unnerving strings as Connie panics at the sight, substitutes more typical digital music as a moment as Topaz splits up, and returns to even tenser strings as Connie is viscerally absorbed into the giant Gem. As with the Ruby Squad’s giant fusion, it’s a brutally practical application of something the Crystal Gems have made beautiful, and Steven is as helpless as Connie to stop it.

A key element of Steven’s martyr complex is that his sense of ownership over everything bad that happens around him is unwarranted, and this sequence is a perfect example. Yes, he’s stuck in a log when Connie is taken, allowing him to blame himself for the kidnapping, but once he’s free he doesn’t stand a chance against Aquamarine’s magic wand. In the best-case scenario, where he and Connie manage to fuse and fight off Topaz, Stevonnie would still lose: as we see in I Am My Mom, even four Crystal Gems working together are beaten with ease by the wand’s ridiculous power. If anything, getting stuck in a log was the only reason Steven was able to regroup and fight back later in the first place. But in the moment, it seems like he made an avoidable mistake that cost Connie her freedom, which is certainly on his mind when he makes his sacrifice.

Aquamarine follows the Holly Blue Agate mold of brief but memorable villains, and while both are petty monsters, Holly Blue Agate’s Professor Umbridge has nothing on Aquamarine’s Eric Cartman. It’s one thing to let middle management power go to your head, but Aquamarine is cruel for the simple joy of being cruel, an attitude captured magnificently by Della Saba’s refined British accent. She taunts Topaz as readily as her enemies, and unlike the fiercely loyal Homeworld villains we’ve seen before, she sees her duty as a waste of time that she begrudgingly fulfills because she’s the best. Like Kevin, this is a troll who’s just mean to her core, but she unfortunately has a lot more power than your everyday toxic douche. 

As is standard for two-parters by now, we end with a cliffhanger, this time evoking Steven’s Dream (another first-parter that ends with a new blue Gem). A loved one has been taken, Steven blames himself because he put this person in harm’s way and couldn’t stop it, so now it’s time for a rescue mission. An unprecedented streak of consecutive serialized episodes already began with Doug Out, but now we get a proper two-parter, then a four-parter, then a six-parter, then another two-parter all in a row. It’s a special time in the series, highlighted by Earth plots and Homeworld plots colliding in ways that backdrop Steven’s role as a child of two worlds, and Are You My Dad excellently escalates the plot.

In closing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is the final episode from the amazing Raven Molisee. Other veterans like Joe Johnston and Kat Morris ended their roles as lead-credit writer/storyboarders to fulfill other roles for the show, but this is it for Molisee’s tenure as an active member of the Crewniverse. Her work speaks for itself: she helped introduce Lapis in Mirror Gem, Peridot in Warp Tour, Jasper in The Return, Yellow Diamond in Message Received, and now Aquamarine and Topaz in Are You My Dad?. She helped bring to life the comedy of Kindergarten Kid and The New Crystal Gems, the tragedy of Rose’s Scabbard and Monster Reunion, the horror of Frybo and Keeping It Together, the wonder of An Indirect Kiss, the catharsis of Earthlings, and so much more. We were lucky to have her, and I really hope she didn’t leave because she was abducted by aliens.

Future Vision!

Steven is down to watch a movie about an orphaned Gem whose parent figure left for Beach City and never came home. So were the fans, apparently.

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

The ages of Lars and Sadie were nebulous at first, but it’s more or less been established that they’re teens of sorts by now, which makes Barb’s declaration that Sadie’s an adult confusing in a way that I find surprisingly annoying. It’s really not a big deal, but it bothers me way more than your average nitpick.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It’s not unheard of for first-parters to make my greatest hits list: Mirror Gem is certainly one of them, and we’ve also got The Return and Steven’s Dream. But it’s hard to put an episode without a proper ending up with the best, and despite its wonderful tone, meeting Aquamarine lacks the conclusive impact of meeting Lapis, we don’t get a huge moment of Steven summoning his shield and protecting his team, and Aquamarine isn’t a Big Deal like Blue Diamond. I still love Are You My Dad a lot, but this is a hard list to crack and it does feel like half an episode when viewed alone.

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(It took some serious sleuthing, because the amazing Are You My Mother parody image is unsourced on Google Images and comes from a TeeSpring shirt that is no longer available, but I tracked down the artist as Zaccrim.)

[themattress]

I Grade: Charon

Spoiler alert: this is the franchise’s absolute lamest Big Bad type of villain.

Games: Team Galactic’s Charon debuted in Platinum, as he was not a character in the original Diamond/Pearl games. I’m of two minds when it comes to his presence in the story: on the one hand it’s nice for Team Galactic to have a head scientist to be a figurehead for the Red Chain project, he’s an amusingly egomaniacal character, and he’s pretty refreshing in that he’s an unabashed greedy jerk who exploits Pokemon for money ala Team Rocket, which helps to break up the monotony of self-righteous terrorist foes we’d been getting. But on the other hand, was he really necessary?  The two scenes he was added to in the main story worked just fine without him back in D/P, and the Stark Mountain quest in the postgame where he serves as the main antagonist doesn’t really accomplish anything either...we could have gotten closure for Mars and Jupiter and had an encounter with Heatran through other means, an entirely new character didn’t have to be created to provide those elements.

In the end, I can’t say Charon is terrible as a villain, but I can’t say he’s all that great either.

Score = 2.5

Anime: In the Diamond & Pearl anime series, Charon is definitely pointless. The Team Galactic subplot is entering its last stretch, and he just pops in out of nowhere and doesn’t do much of anything except be a smug, laid-back asshole who makes no secret that he’s only following Team Galactic for his own purposes. He is so unnecessary that he literally vanishes into thin air during the arc’s finale and we never see him again. He’s not ever seen getting arrested, he’s ever not seen escaping, it’s just poof! He’s gone. Literally the only thing this version of Charon has going for him is Mike Pollock’s perfect voice for him in the English dub.

Score = 1.5

Manga: Charon is a fleeting, shadowy presence as Team Galactic’s head scientist in the Diamond/Pearl Chapter, being in charge not only of the Red Chain project but also of the program that brainwashes the Team Galactic Grunts into an efficient, emotionless hive mind. As the Big Bad of the Platinum Chapter, we get to see his true ambitions as he seeks to gain control over all of Sinnoh’s Legendary Pokemon in order to use them to conquer the world. This has got to be the best depiction of Charon, being both comical and threatening in equal turns. Sometimes you laugh at him, other times you just want to punch him, especially when he thinks that Giratina has killed Dia and laughs about it in front of a grieving Pearl. In the end, he gets what he deserves, being the only of the Galactic commanders left unredeemed. 

Score = 3

TCG: Charon shows up the Rising Rivals expansion as part of the Rotom sub-set with the card “Charon’s Choice”, which shows him preparing to lock Rotom away after getting all he need from it to form his research document. In essence, Charon is a “filler villain”, stuck between two sets where Cyrus plays a major role, so it’s easy to forget he’s in the game.

Score = 2

Other: In the Diamond & Pearl Adventure! manga, Charon takes the Big Bad position from Cyrus in the last three volumes. They got his basic character down in that he’s an arrogant, morally reprehensible cretin who will hurt people and Pokemon in order to make money, but not only did they get the look wrong by making him larger and stockier than how he’s supposed to be, but good lord is his role ridiculous: he comes out of nowhere after never being mentioned or seen before and yet several characters act like they know him, which is a textbook case of Remember the New Guy at work. Then we see that he’s captured Cyrus and Hareta’s deadbeat dad in order to get information on how to obtain Giratina for himself. And as time goes on, he keeps getting retconned into having involvement with almost everything that has gone wrong in the story. This transparent attempt to make him the source of all evil and a greater Big Bad than Cyrus is ridiculous and hamfisted, only making Charon lamer. 

Pokemon Generations featured Charon in episode 12, and not only is he also large and stocky as opposed to dwarfish and hunched over, but they didn’t even seem to get his character right, as he’s talking about doing things for the glory of Team Galactic. The whole point of Charon was that he didn’t actually care about Team Galactic and its goals, and was only on board to profit from it. And was his Stark Mountain scenario really worth an episode? 

Score = 2.5

TOTAL FRANCHISE SCORE = 2.5 out of 5

With the exception of Pokemon Adventures, there seems to be a pattern with Charon in this franchise, a certain word just keeps coming into my mind. And that word is “unnecessary”. Team Galactic already had a great boss and sub-commanders, a great theme and goal going for them, and a great evil plan to pull it off. This greedy old scientist being added doesn’t ruin any of that, but it doesn’t add to it that much either, and as a major villain, he’s pathetic. Still, there are several highly enjoyable factors to him, and when at his best, I’m glad he’s around.

BONUS: Which version is my personal favorite?

Not much more to say here than what I said already. Charon being changed from some jerk who only wants money and whose efforts on behalf of Team Galactic are put off-screen to a budding megalomaniac actually making use of Sinnoh’s copious amount of Legendaries and whose affect on Team Galactic is very visible really made him a much stronger antagonist.

[sky-fortress]

🖊 🖊 🖊

three pens three characters YEET

i’ll say right off the bat that i think they’re all angels,, questionable angels some of them but angels nonetheless 

phika – phika lives in the sinnoh region in jubilife city and works for the international police and yeah it really does suck for her sometimes (a lot) bc her job gives her a lot of stress and she also thinks that she’s been cursed by darkrai (she’s got a lot of issues) so that doesn’t help much??? but she always tries her best and she loves her pokemon and her friends and her parents so much and i love her!!! i love her very much and she’s actually been a huge part of my life since i was around eight

i created her when i was eight after reading the diamond and pearl adventure! manga bc i thought the mc hareta being raised by pokemon was really cool so that’s how she started out,, except she was like tossed over a gorge outside of twinleaf down and got psychic powers because she was saved by a bunch of meditite? idk eight year old me was wild – then she was cyrus’ daughter for a long while and ran away to join the international police bc why not??? 

she mellowed out after a while,,, she’s still in interpol and she’s not cyrus’ daughter anymore but god if she hasn’t changed so much in the past ten years – i can literally track my progress as an artist and a writer through her and i just??? i love her so much she’s a fictional character in my head but she means the world to me and she’s helped me to get through so much and sometimes i cry over her!! because that’s just how it is sometimes. 

úrsula – úrsula’s my gates to infinity hero and fat shock i love her too! gates is my favorite mystery dungeon game and she (and her partner axel) are a huge reason for that,, i loved gates and i loved the idea of having a group of pokemon with you that help you to save the world and support one another no matter what! gates is great end of discussion

more úrsula specific, she’s an oshawott/dewott (depends on a few factors) who used to live in venice before going to the pokemon world and she’s an incredible chef! she loves cooking in the cafe with swanna and making food for all of her friends,, she’s not great at expressing her gratitude through words because she feels like she doesn’t say enough so if she’s expressing gratitude or appreciation or love she’ll cook you something. she’ll find out what your favorite food is and make it for you. that’s how she rolls babey!! and her favorite flowers are sunflowers bc she thinks they’re really pretty so axel plants a bunch of them in paradise for her and she’s just like “fuck guess im going to marry you now” (they eventually do get married and its great)

she’s loyal and stubborn and she loves her friends with her whole heart and she makes me smile and i love her! i know i say that a lot but it’s true i love her very much. 

bella – bella’s a pokemon trainer from kalos and she’s incredible,,, she kicks all the ass and she takes all the names and she always wears a black trench coat bc it looks cool. bella’s cool. she doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit (at least she tries not to)

she’s done a total 180 since i initially created her after playing through X version for the first time – she used to be really nice to people and she was friends with the friend/rival group in-game and sycamore but after i played through X a second time i was like “these people are not as great as i remember” so she started turning into more of a bitch (for lack of a better word) which was actually kind of a good thing? bc she had so much more character when she didn’t get along with the group and sycamore than when she did? she was bitchy and independent and blunt and from there she had so much more room to grow than she did when she was just like “oh these are my friends!!” she beat calem into the ground every time they battled so she could prove that she was better and she hates sycamore (because i hate sycamore he’s useless) and she wears!! a!! trench coat!!! 13 year old me thought that was the coolest thing so that’s like,, the one consistency she’s had for the past five years

as she gets older she mellows out some – she’s still haughty and will still assert herself whenever she can and she still thinks she’s better than some people, but she’s less in-your-face about it now. she’s a cool veteran with a trench coat and a white scarf. she knows her shit. she’s also friends with and has a little bit of a crush on but she’d never ever ever admit that phika, and will spend time with her whenever phika’s visiting kalos for work. she scolds phika a lot for not taking care of herself well enough and gets upset with her when phika hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep (and tries to make it so she can get some sleep). she worries a lot and she’s bad at expressing it in a good way so it’s usually her just getting mad – at the end of the day though, she’s genuinely worried about losing phika. bella doesn’t make a lot of friends, so she’s very protective of the ones that she already has (which isn’t many). and of course i love her very much too!! i think she’s really cool and cute and deserving of love and appreciation

christ this was really long im so sorry but thank you so much for asking!! it really does mean a ton ❤❤

[tumblunni]

Hhhh bunni legs pain accomplishment day

I HAVE FINISHED THE SHOPPING OF HELL

Tfw u only get paid 4 days before christmas and have to rush everything aaaa

It was bad enough today so i'm so glad i got it done before it got even more busy!

Misc boring essentials i bought for myself: new phone charger cos broken, new trousers cos i spilt hair bleach on my only two pairs, new shoes cos my left shoe literally snapped in half down the middle like wtf even happened there, cheap pink hair dye from a discount store cos i wanna try different colours but in a thrifty way

Now for EXCITING CHRISTMAS PRESENT TIME!!!!

First off SO MANY pc and xbox 360 games from Every Charity Shop In Cardiff, St Mellons, Rumney and Llanrumney. My sis has been trying to find some games to play but was like 'dont worry about it i can just wait til the charity shop gets something good'. So i thought i'd get some stocking stuffers via all the charity shops on my side of town. By our powers combined we will blitz the entire vale of glamorgan's discount gaming scene!!! I found SO MANY good stuff for £1/£2/£3 like holy shit i love when charity shops dont know the proper price for shit XD

speaking of which i also found a WEBCAM for £2! If its that cheap it probanly isnt great but itd still be fun to play around with! :D and the same store also had an old vintage G1 My Little Pony coffee mug in excellent condition. Oh god the nostalgia! My support worker gave me a lift to llanrumney so i had to awkwardly explain why i had an armful of weird 80s mugs and big teary eyes!

Speaking of vintage, i found this new vintage toys and games shop in cardiff called Galactic Attic! The name hooked me in and then they actually DID have pokemon inside! As well as all sorts of stuff ranging from 40s to 90s, wow! There was even a lil pile of old 90s gaming magazines in the corner, covered up by a bunch of boxes. I'm glad i noticed them! I got the announcemt issues for pokemon diamond pearl and platinum in a weird old pokemon fan magazine that i loved as a kid. Im kinda sad that nowadays we just have one official magazine fpr each console and not the wild madness of amateaur journalists failing horribly to get news from japan. Shame they didnt have Beckett Pokemon cos that one was infamous fot drawing its own terrible interpretations of pokemon sprites to avoid copyright. And speaking of terrible, they even had bootleg pokemon!! I talked to the cashier and he was like "you know those are fake right" and i was like "yeah its so nostalgic thats why i want em" and he was like "lol yeah they actually sell pretty well so i'm not mad my supplier ripped me off". It was a pretty good and awesomely terrible fake at the same time? There was this exact replica of some japanese display stand for the product and then the actual pokeball toys looked perfect BUT the mini pokemon inside were.. Really not. I am so damn happy with the surprise inside my one, surprise inside has never been more accurate! I can't take a picture now cos my phone is charging but REGICHEETO. Just..just imagine that, and whatever you're imagining it is probably worse. I love it so fuckin much. Also less hilariously there were some bootleg mini pika plushies with actually (as far as i can tell) their own unique design? They have cute lil winter scarves and an art style that reminds me of the Magical Pokemon Adventure manga. A really cute and good bootleg that i would have loved to see as a real product! The only way you can even tell its a bootleg is because there's no marking on the tail. I dunno, maybe if i still have some brown fabric in the cupboard i could fix it? Or maybe its unique tail makes it even more special! I mean there's Cosplay Pikachu with its double tail marking so maybe this is her cousin Accessory Pikachu with no markings? He just likes wearing scarfs and hats and stuff. OMG HE'S THE POKEMON GO EVENT PIKACHU!!!!!!

Along the miscness of finding a few things for myself, i also found: cute lil pokemon pencilcase, kingdom hearts blind bag, cheap copy of Fruits Basket volume 1 cos the new remake is coming out soon and i wanna Get Hype! The KH blind bag was really weird cos i didnt know they now have an entirely different set as well as the keychains i bought before. Its kind of a shame the art style doesnt match cos vexen is only in the keychains, alas! But i do really love these ones! Theyre apparantly made by funko pop but dont have the art style AT ALL, they just look like really accurate versions of the characters in mini form. Its kinda like the 'distance animation' style in steven universe? (Incidentally they also do SU ones but they missed the opportunitu to actually use the distance style, lol) I got a Sora in his kh2 outfit and i'm decently happy with that, its not one i really wanted but its not a bad one either. But i think now i've tried the fun of surprise once i'll just buy the actual ones i want off ebay later. They have roxas in his organization outfit! With a happy smile!!!

Oh oh and then EVEN MORE XBOX GAMES OF THE WILD THRIFT STORE VOID! i managed to find the whole fable series, two assassins creeds, saints row, gta, some misc shooter games and racers that she wanted but i dont know much about, mass effect 2 and ff13. I think maybe one or two others cos i cant fully remember right now. Theyre all in separate bags strewn across the room and my shoulders feel like death so i'll sort through them later.

Aaaand i wrote up like 14 paragraphs more but tumblr didnt save my draft fpr some fuckin reason and now im way too tired to do it again

Briefer summary:

* had a huge horrible panic attack getting stuck in a skyscraper shopping centre clothes place full of screaming and every perfume smell and WHY DO I HAVE TO NAVIGATE THIS HELL MAZE TO FIND THE ESCALATOR and seriously i was my most primal animalistic self and i went full fight or flight on this bitch

* had a lovely time visiting Cool Shop Grandma and rambled the story of how i met her and how we became friends but hhh too tired to rewrite. But anyway today i gave her a christmas pikachu plush as thanks for everything and cos her shop is moving on to its next location soon. She got really teary and gave me a big hug! She's gonna be at a comic con in march so i hope i'm able to go to that and see her again.

* went on a wild goose chase looking for harry potter merchandise and eventually found a gold plated replica of the movie prop version of the time turner and HELL YES my sis will love it!

* rambled about several market stalls that were cool but i can make a separate post about that in the morning when i find their contact details to advertise them

* got a plushie delibird and decided to take selfies with it everywhere to try and fight my social anxiety somehow. We went to a neat lil restaurant and had cheesy fries and a coke float!

* asked for a refund on an item for the first time ever and im proud of myself

* went off on a mystery bus trip to buy a preowned 3ds and pokemon games from a lady in an online preowned stuff facebook group and it didnt go horribly and i am glad! She was really nice and i witnessed A Good And Smart Parenting Moment and man it healed my heart and i wish i'd been raised that way. Again i'll probably ramble about the details later when im less tired, it really touched my heart seriously! And now i have MANY GIFTS FOR SIS!

* in total i was out present shopping from 9am to 8pm and i clicked my shoulder out of its socket for a split second from.all the heavy bags. Now im in a lot of aches and i need a sleeps

The End

[teensyquartz]

Unpopular opinion: I always hated the term “filler episode.” Not because it’s a fake term, as it does exist and has its meaning. Rather, because a lot of people simply do not understand the term these days and simply throws it around by describing it as “an episode that isn’t all about ‘the plot’ I love the most, and thus isn’t interesting to me and is also bad.” 

Let’s use good old TV Tropes for the proper coinage of the term:

“Filler episodes are entries in a generally continuous serial that are unrelated to the main plot, don't significantly alter the relations between the characters, and generally serve only to take up space.”

Are there filler episodes of Steven Universe? Yes. You can take out episodes like Shirt Club and Onion Trade and nothing would change concerning our main characters or the gem lore plot. But even with those, if you enjoy the human episodes of the show, then you wouldn’t need to call these filler. 

Nonetheless, I feel as if people, in the midst of having the drive to criticize the show down to its very core, have forgotten the difference between filler and breather. Shirt Club, again adding nothing to Steven’s character, is in between two fairly significant episodes:  Rose’s Scabbard and Story for Steven. One is emotionally heavy and one many call their favorite, and the second focuses on the meeting of Steven’s parents, something important for the characters. 

Breather episodes, when done right, are used to contrast against heavier episodes—whether heavier in in character or emotion. Steven Universe often prefers to use breather episodes before big moments; this is especially so because nowadays, when there is a flashback episode introduced, we often expect something big to happen shortly after. 

Going back to the term filler, anime is the big target for the term “filler” episodes, especially if the anime is based on a manga and deters from the plot of the manga. Western animation, by comparison, does not consist of filler episodes, due to the fact that there is very little times that they deter from the “plot”. There are certainly moments that can be described as filler, such as “Avatar the Last Airbender”’s the Great Divide and the Painted Lady.

I suppose what is important to ask is: what is the main plot of Steven Universe? 

Multiple sources prefer to call the show “a coming-of-age story of a young boy named Steven Universe, who lives in the fictional town of Beach City with the "Crystal Gems" – Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst, three magical humanoid aliens. Steven, who is half-Gem, goes on adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind.”

People seem to focus more on the “gems protect the world from their own kind” aspect of the summary. And it’s not wrong to; that is partly the plot. Partly. However, the story itself is described as “coming-of-age” story. These stories focus on the growth of the protagonist from youth, and working on their character over time and seeing how much they’ve changed. Steven’s life is a big part of the story, and how he changes along with his environment. All the people he interacts with is significant to his story, no matter who they are. These people he meets, talks with, and befriends (or does not) shapes the story of Steven Universe, as well as his character. Since he is half-human, the human side of himself is just as significant, as mentioned in Gem Harvest. 

Steven:  And you have that cool hat! And you know how to peel potatoes! And you need a plane to fly! I love the Gems, but I'm a human too! I never had a chance to know that part of my family!But now I do. Andy, I want to be your family!

Steven needs his human counterparts just as much as his gem family. He needs days to act silly and humanistic in order to remain sane against all the gem stuff he has faced over the years. Future Boy Zoltron comes after Mindful Education because Steven had just gone through a huge, emotional turmoil that left him breaking down in the midst of a fusion. Future Boy Zoltron allowed him to take some time away from that rough day and just act like a fourteen year old kid. Steven needs breaks from the gem side of his life in order to enjoy being a kid. 

I won’t argue with those who believe the pacing of the show is off. It isn’t a totally wrong criticism. I just personally am not as bothered by it. I enjoy being able to enjoy something light-hearted after heavier episodes, and as long as the episode itself is good, I don’t really have the need to complain about pacing. And for the most part, I can enjoy most episodes (most being that boy, do I have complaints for plenty, hah!).

People’s complaints are mainly on season four’s episodes. Let’s take a look at the episodes after the most recent Stevenbomb. 

The New Crystal Gems fills the blank as to what Connie, Peridot, and Lapis were doing while the Crystal Gems were gone. This also had a big moment for Connie at the end. This can be described as the filler, but the filling in of the blanks of side characters can be described as important. It can also be a breather after a stream of space-themed episodes with the Zoo and the Diamonds. 

Storm in the Room focuses on Steven meeting the cloud version of his mother and trying to enjoy being with her, despite the feeling that something is off. Steven’s fight with her (or himself) is the emotional climax of the episode. Nothing is revealed, but Steven facing his mother and yelling at her about all she has done and how it effects him shows just how much Steven’s views of his own mother have changed. And for him, it’s rough, but at the very least he has his own family. 

Rocknaldo can very much be described as filler, though considering the emotional strength of the previous episode, one may prefer to it as a breather. At most, the most important part of the episode, personally, was Steven finally taking a stand over someone bullying him. This has become a new characteristic of Steven, who has grown tired of being dismissed over time. Most Ronaldo episodes are not significant minus the foreshadowing hidden within Ronaldo’s words (is this intentional? It’s hard to tell...) (I actually really didn’t like this one, as Ronaldo is my least favorite character and he is at his worst here. The only saving graces of this one is Steven doing as mentioned above, and Amethyst being the star in terms of comedy)

Tiger Philantropist focuses on two main characters and their relationship. It also highlights Amethyst’s changes and the aftermath of her arc, her dying enthusiasm a sign that she has changed for the better. It does not change their relationship much, but rather sets in stone just how much these two have gone through, both as characters as well as their relationship, over time. 

Room for Ruby is about the one Ruby falling onto Earth, thus bringing back the importance of the Ruby characters. Since there is no doubt they will be back, and the fact they stole a ship, will likely be a big part of the gem plot later on. It also greatly takes time to look at Lapis’s character, who has been fairly neglected except for Alone at Sea until now. 

I love Steven Universe despite its flaws. I have problems with its writing at times, I do have particular episodes that can be grouped together by having the same problem that needs to be fixed, and some characters (Lapis, for example) do feel neglected and one can only hope they will do something more with them. I have criticism of the show; I think everyone does. I do not dismiss its flaws, but I don’t really go too deep into them unless asked. For the complaint of “filler” episodes, I am aware that not everyone enjoys the human episodes. Heck, I have a friend who told me they tried to get into it, but they simply lost patience with the pace. I didn’t even argue, I understood (though they tried to get me into Homestuck and said it would take a while to get into it so bruhhh!). And I am someone who cannot get into the Dragon Ball series because there are so many episodes and I don’t have the patience for it. I’ve got the basics from my friend, and honestly, I don’t want to watch Goku fight Fridge for twenty episodes. So I totally get it. 

But if people are complaining about them now, it makes me wonder if they’ve noticed that that’s been a thing since season one. I didn’t even get interested until Lion 3: Direct to DVD. That’s about thirty episodes in (though I can go back and enjoy previous episode perfectly fine). And even then, that episode wasn’t gem plot heavy, but more character plot heavy. This show is all about character, and aside from the few criticisms I have, I believe they’re doing well in that department. Anyway, this has always been the core structure of the show, was from the very start and will continue being so. What people often call the fillers are not as insignificant to Steven as they are to the viewier. So, yeah, take that as you will, I suppose. 

Sorry for the long post, folks. I see this complaint a lot and I don’t know, I finally just lost it and couldn’t stop typing. Like I said, if you have this criticism, I am not arguing with you. I just think that the term filler is rather overused these days.  

[themattress]

Pokeani: The Evolution of the Faithfulness

Pokemon: Indigo League was a very faithful adaptation to the games...in spirit, anyway.

In details, there was a lot to be desired. For example: 

- Brock has a huge family the games never indicated he had. - Misty is co-Gym Leader with three older sisters. - Lt. Surge is a big bully and not a respectful soldier. - Sabrina is a villain who has a split personality. - Erika is a humble gardner and not a spoiled princess-type. - Koga is a stoic ninja and not a sadistic, cackling weirdo. - Cinnabar Gym is closed down and Blaine's mustache is fake. - Nobody knows that Giovanni is the boss of Team Rocket. - Bill is a fancy gentleman and not a humble nerd. - Gary doesn't have an older sister. - There is a stretch of new locations between Fuschia and Cinnabar. - Silph Co. doesn't seem to exist. - The Team Rocket plot from the games is not adapted in the slightest. - Giovanni finances the creation of Mewtwo. - Mewtwo was created on New Island, not on Cinnabar. - There is no Mr. Fuji, just Dr. Fuji, who dies. - Lavender Tower is just a haunted house, not a Pokemon burial site. - The Seafoam Islands are a populated resort site. - Professor Oak is not the sole designer of the Pokedex. - Only one member of the Elite Four, Bruno, appears.

And that’s not getting into other stuff like the designs of certain characters and places, the way Pokemon battling works and the (unlimited) attacks they can learn, and stuff that was just made up for the adaptation whole-sale.  Now, not all of these are bad.  Some, like nobody knowing Giovanni is Team Rocket’s leader, are improvements and are shared with the Pokemon Adventures manga. But that manga was more faithful in spirit and details than the show, which played very fast and loose with the details while still staying true to the general feeling of the games. Sadly, not even that was to last when Generation II began.

Not only was Pokemon the Series: Gold and Silver still unfaithful to the details of the games (characters having their personalities and backgrounds changed, places designed differently and a lot of new anime-exclusive locations created, the plot of the games barely adapted at all), but they lost the spirit of the games. When I play the Johto games, I get the feeling of a grand adventure through a region of vast forests, wide rivers and high mountains, I get drawn in to the region’s mythology and culture, and I get determined to defeat my absolute douche of a rival. None of this comes through in the anime - the glut of generic anime-exclusive locations (much more than Kanto had) robs the Johto region of its unique feeling, the sense of exciting adventure is killed by the banal filler episode formula, the mythology and culture are criminally underplayed and even changed outright, and Ash’s rivalry with Gary is far less prominent and tamer than it was in Kanto, with no sign of the douche Gen II rival at all.

Hoenn and Sinnoh were no better. The changed characters, changed locations, changed mythology, abundance of anime-exclusive locations, lack of adapting of the games’ plots, filler episode formula, and overall faithlessness to the spirit of the source material put a huge damper on these sagas. I don’t feel the same sense watching these regions as I do playing through them or reading through them in the case of Pokemon Adventures (and, in Sinnoh’s case, Diamond/Pearl Adventure!) - the “atmosphere”, as it were, is completely absent. 

As is a trend in most of these posts, Best Wishes (Pokemon the Series: Black and White) is what turned the tide. The Unova region was very faithfully rendered compared to the previous regions, and anime-exclusive locations were kept to the absolute minimum possible. The filler episode formula was abandoned, most of the characters were faithful to their game counterparts (with the only notable exceptions being Cilan, Cheren, Bianca and her father, Elesa, Charles, Skyla and Marlon), the regional mythology was mostly unaltered, and above all, the spirit of the games was actually maintained, as was the theme of how different people with different viewpoints, feelings, personalities, skills and ideas need not always be opposed and can still come together to do positive things in the world; that life isn’t black and white.

The only part where the BW series still falters is when it comes to adapting the plots of the games, as we only get a rushed mash-up of the B/W and B2/W2 Team Plasma plots over the span of a few episodes. It’s still quite good for what it is, but it falls short as an adaptation.

The XY series was pretty much exactly the same.  The Kalos region was done faithfully to the games, there was less formulaic filler and more filler that took advantage of the region itself, most characters were in-character to their games selves (with the only notable exceptions being Serena, Valerie, and Malva), everything about Mega Evolution fits into what was shown and said in the games, and the same spirit of the games, one of relaxation in a beautiful region full of friendship and romance with the main character being an unstoppable and adored badass, was maintained (even if I don’t like it.)  But not only was the plot of the games still scarcely adapted, but this also affected the portrayal of the region’s mythology. Xerneas? Yvetial? AZ? The Ultimate Weapon? Don’t expect to see any of that stuff here! 

Now we have Sun and Moon (Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon). The Alola region faithfully portrayed? Check. No filler episode formula? Check. Characters from the games portrayed correctly? Check (with the exceptions of Sophocles, Olivia, and to an extent Lillie, Gladion and Lusamine). The regional mythology retained? Check. The same fun and light-hearted (except when it’s not) spirit of the games and the same theme of working together and sharing strength being better than isolation? Check. And as for the plot of the games, it’s actually being adapted the best out of any anime show thusfar. While Ash is usually stationed at the Melemele Trainer School, he still gets chosen by Tapu Koko, takes on the Island Trials, and gains Z Crystals, and no doubt will be drawn into the Alola League once Professor Kukui finally creates it. The plotline with Nebby, Lillie and the Aether Foundation wasn’t started immediately, but after a lot of build-up a kind of loose, abridged adaptation of it is playing out.

In conclusion, Sun and Moon is the most faithful-to-the-games anime series to date. Sure, there are some glaring absences like Hau, Ilima and Guzma, but as the show continues into its second year and begins to reflect US/UM, we may see them yet. It’s definitely a show that’s keeping me watching and entertained, and I highly recommend it to all game fans.