Review Pocket Monsters: The Origin

[Masato]

Pokemon Origins was pretty enjoyable. I liked the Cubone story the best. It was nice seeing Cubone's back story and it reuniting with its mother one last time at the end. It was actually really nice that they dedicated a whole episode to it. I also liked the special's portrayal of the Rocket grunts. The hints of Mr. Fuji and Dr. Fuji being the same people were also really nice. I also liked the ending when Red decided to go off to find Mew. It was so ironic that Mew was just outside the window when Red ran off. In addition the animation was decent, and the music was pretty good.

One of my main complaints was them implementing some of the game mechanics too literally. Examples include being able to use all 6 Pokemon against a gym leader only using two Pokemon and showing Pokemon's HP on screen. Should I mention the OHKOs? Things like these makes me appreciate anime battle mechanics further.

Like one other person said, I also felt that the locations portrayed in Origins were not as lively as the locations portrayed in the anime.

The dub for the first episode was pretty decent. The voice acting and script were decent, and they seemed to keep all of the JP BMG.

Overall, it was enjoyable, but I still like the main anime series better overall.

 

[ZoroarkPKMN]

Just watched it! I loved it so much! Especially the revamped music, and ESPECIALLY the feel that it was on an actual GameBoy, with it saving it saying "File 1: Red"
That actually leads me to believe that maybe they'll do this with all the games. (e.g. "File 2: Ethan", "File 3: Brendan")

 

[Team Gaara]

Just watched it! I loved it so much! Especially the revamped music, and ESPECIALLY the feel that it was on an actual GameBoy, with it saving it saying "File 1: Red"
That actually leads me to believe that maybe they'll do this with all the games. (e.g. "File 2: Ethan", "File 3: Brendan")

The File 2 and 3, as well as 4, are actually the other parts of this Origins special.

 

[Moe]

I have almost nothing to say about the dub, they've managed to choose voices that make it clear that this is a distinct timeline from the main anime - and they've all done a good job. Found it odd that they replaced the Pokemon cries from one lot of unintelligible shouting to another.

The font they used to emulate the menus seemed wrong.

Otherwise, it's just as good to watch as it was in Japanese - so there's nothing much I can add over what I said earlier, apart from having to wait a few days for the next episode.

"So you're going to choose Squirtle because your name is Blue? No! I'm choosing Squirtle because Water beats fire"

There you go, pretty much exactly that line was used. I don't think it took away from the scene at all and is the only part of the series where the names used matter.

 

[Morgil]

Damn, i finally got home from such a long-ass day at work, but boy was the wait worth it. It still sucks it wasn't up yet this morning and i couldn't watch it before i had to leave, but oh well. The thing was just friggin' amazing. Glancing at the summary on the wiki, i was wondering how they were gonna fit so much game progress in such a short amount of time, but the pacing actually was really decent. The voice acting was also really damn impressive. It actually felt more like the kind of serious anime i'd see on Adult Swim or something, as opposed to the more cartoony feel of the regular tv show.

It's a shame it'll only be available to stream for a limited time. Hopefully it'll get a dvd release or something, but in the meantime, i'm gonna try and see if the FireFox plugin i use for ripping videos from youtube will work on the pokemon site. If not, i'm sure someone else will upload a high quality version to the download sites.

 

[Kit Chan]

I thought Blue and Professor Oak didn't sound great and when those girls were talking about Brock in the museum I wished they had Eric Stuart as Brock cos it would've been hilarious after all the times girls rejected him in the other anime.

 

[Meowstic]

"So you're going to choose Squirtle because your name is Blue? No! I'm choosing Squirtle because Water beats fire"

This is a sad result of changing Green's name to Blue. Couldn't it be Green for the sake of this special?

 

[Team Gaara]

"So you're going to choose Squirtle because your name is Blue? No! I'm choosing Squirtle because Water beats fire"

This is a sad result of changing Green's name to Blue. Couldn't it be Green for the sake of this special?

I don't see what's so bad about the line change. It worked fine and gave off the same impression~

 

[Kit Chan]

I thought it was a bit weird in Oak's lab though when Oak was like, Blue are you gonna choose Squirtle? and Blue's like, Nah I'll pick Squirtle!

 

[Yamadora]

Alright, for once I was watching Pokémon legally from internet. I would do this more often if they'd release the newest episodes like this.

The dub was great. Every actor was fitting and did great job. I didn't even really mind that they dub Pokémon voices, since they tried keep it pretty same as in original: growls, roars, squeaking, etc. This is how all Pokémon, in original and dub, should be voiced. Pokémon repeating their names is kinda silly, since I see them more as animals. Doing their voices this way is one of the biggest reasons why I like Origins. Big plus for making them mainly sound pretty much same as in Japanese.
Only Onix's voice was little bit "eh" at first, but it wasn't bad.

Can't wait to see the rest of episodes, and how they'll handle some Pokémon voices like Charizard's or Mewtwo's. Charizard have pretty much same voice as in regular anime, so...

 

[Kit Chan]

I want Mewtwo to have his SSBM grunts

 

[xrick]

I took a peek at the dub version... Honestly, I really prefer the japanese version on this one...

Also, a couple things just crossed my mind...
Red starts as a noob while Green seems more knowledgable... Doesn't it remind you of something?
Of all Gym Leaders (and Elite4, if I'm not mistaken), Sabrina is the only one presented without a Pokémon... You may know why, right?

Lastly, I really wish TPC were to think of making a full-series of this. So much potential...
But! Maybe they could pick a few ideas from the manga Pokémon Special so as to spice things up.
And! Bring in Blue/Leaf once and for all! The heroines of the other generations already appeared in the regular anime, why not her as well?

Also... Why did they dub the Pokémon voices? They were only sounding like animals this time, I don't there was a need to do that...

 

[G50]

I liked part one of the dub, I enjoyed the voices for everyone including the Pokemon. I like how the background music that was used in the Japanese version was also used in the dub. I think Blue's shirt could have been changed to blue to match his name, though I don't mind the non-change. I like the lines that were used when Red and Blue were choosing their starters, Blue didn't choose Squirtle because of his name and felt it wasn't a good reason to, instead due to Red choosing Charmander as his starter.

I really enjoyed the teaching moments between Brock and Red both after Red lost to Blue, and during the Gym Battle.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Just seen Episode 1 of the dub ... it was good fun to watch, good music, good voice acting, pretty animation. Got to say though, Pokémon does love to encourage silly lines. I had to laugh at Brock's Ice Cream Koan

 

[Meowstic]

I'm hearing Studiopolis handled the dubbing of these episodes. Why would TPCi hand it off to another company and not do this in-house too?

 

[NeoMiniTails]

I'm hearing Studiopolis handled the dubbing of these episodes. Why would TPCi hand it off to another company and not do this in-house too?

It's probably because a different studio made this special so they don't have the same rights.... as they do over the regular anime, I am assuming. I'm glad they used another company for the special. The voices sound much more natural than the regular anime voices. There's no doubt that Red is done by a boy rather than a woman whereas there are moments with some of the characters where its a bit easy to tell a female is doing the male voice.

 

[Winged Psychic]

Just chiming in to say that I loved the dub voices! Blue and the female gym trainer are specifically two of my favorites, they portrayed their characters very well.

 

[FANG-TAN]

I want Mewtwo to have his SSBM grunts

...You mean his Japanese anime voice?

It's probably because a different studio made this special so they don't have the same rights.... as they do over the regular anime, I am assuming.

OLM was involved with production too. The Origin was a collaboration between OLM, Production I.G., and Xebec. The latter two have helped with the regular anime before (though not as much as here). Not to mention, all official Pokemon-related products are internationally owned/licensed by TPCi, so it makes no sense for them to hand it to another company due to "lack of rights" when they own it. If this wasn't done in-house, they probably have another reason for leaving it to another company to handle the dubbing.

Also, I don't get why it matters if Red is voiced by a female or a male, especially since the former sex (more often than not) is viewed to suit the role of a young boy better due to common general pitch... unless it actually is a young boy doing the voice (Aaron Dismuke, voice of Alphonse in the English dub of Fullmetal Alchemist, when he was 12).

 

[NeoMiniTails]

...You mean his Japanese anime voice?

It's probably because a different studio made this special so they don't have the same rights.... as they do over the regular anime, I am assuming.

OLM was involved with production too. The Origin was a collaboration between OLM, Production I.G., and Xebec. The latter two have helped with the regular anime before (though not as much as here). Not to mention, all official Pokemon-related products are internationally owned/licensed by TPCi, so it makes no sense for them to hand it to another company due to "lack of rights" when they own it. If this wasn't done in-house, they probably have another reason for leaving it to another company to handle the dubbing.

Also, I don't get why it matters if Red is voiced by a female or a male, especially since the former sex (more often than not) is viewed to suit the role of a young boy better due to common general pitch... unless it actually is a young boy doing the voice (Aaron Dismuke, voice of Alphonse in the English dub of Fullmetal Alchemist, when he was 12).

Maybe TCPi wanted to use the VAs without having to pay extra for using people not contracted with them.... I don't know.

I don't usually find an issue with girls doing the voice of boys but I found companies like Funimation, sometimes TCPi, would do this and make it very hard to tell if its girl by or boy by the tone...

 

[SwifTer]

Just what was that statue creature in Brock's gym? It looked like a cross between a pig and a cat, with wings.

Could have been anything in my opinion. It could have just been a random mythical creature thats not a Pokemon in the Pokemon universe.

Talking about Brocks gym though, I really enjoyed that battle - a lot more then the ones in the main anime of Pokemon.