Closed Orchid's Pokeani blog

[Okido]

Crown Tundra Arc will surely be at least 3 episodes. One about the introduction, Regice and Tsurugi, another one about the snowstorm and another one with Mew's encounter (which wasn't spoiled but the arc would be meaningless without it). Not counting the prologue with Oak's lab and Moltres (which could be 1 or 2 episodes).

I doubt Gary's research about Moltres will be that important, he could literally have any reason. However, one that directly ties into the Crown Tundra is...Galarian Moltres. He could mention that he met it off-screen and tie everything together.

All very good points. It's just hard to envision how everything will end up fitting together when it's all cut up this way lol.

That would make a lot of sense if that ends up being it! Though I honestly seem to forget the Galarian birds exist sometimes so I guess that's why it didn't occur to me. Still, I stand by my theory.

(edit: oh look there's two pages now)

 

[Okido]

What the-- Hey wait a minute, this post is... LATE! Shame on you, @Orchid! SHAME!!!

No but seriously, this post was supposed to go up yesterday and that certainly didn't happen. I got the shot two days ago and it really destroyed me the day after, so I couldn't even think about opening my laptop, let alone writing all this. I'm doing a bit better now though so it's back to your somewhat-regularly-scheduled programming!

Crazy to think I've done three of these already... I guess it's not all that shocking when I say it that way, but geez, that's three whole months of this stuff. Time flies when you're having fun, maybe?

I wrote some parts of this back on the 29th, but I am going to try to keep this one a bit shorter than usual, just because 1. I still don't quite feel all there from being so sick yesterday, and 2. there's a lot I have to go over and if I ramble on and on and on this post will probably never end.

Let us review the past,

Spoiler: old predictions

April 9th - JN061: Leave Everything to Us! Prasle Minun Handymen!!

Predictions: Do I have to? *cough* Erm... funny CoTD filler misunderstandings that get resolved by our heroes due to something something friendship?

Results: Hmm. Yeah.
Final Thoughts: Hey, remember how this episode took like, an eternity to come out? We learned about this one all the way back in February and it felt like it took years for it to air due to being postponed. Was it worth it?
...not really, no. It wasn't bad... but it felt like it was 2 hours long, yet at the same time nothing really happened. Plusle and Minun don't deserve this kind of treatment. ;_; TRio was especially good here though, so I guess that was fun at least.
(I also just remembered that rumor that was floating around before this episode aired that Gou was going to get Plusle and Chloe was going to get Minun. Can you even imagine.)

April 16th - JN062: Damp Jimereon

Predictions: You tell me. It's kind of too early to tell, but I think Drizzile will be similar to Raboot in a lot of ways. Maybe more sulky than rebellious, though.

Results: I guess this ended up mostly true? I don't think updating this once we got more info would have changed much, we barely got to know anything about this episode before it aired.
Final Thoughts: Jeez, man. I went into this episode not expecting much at all, but I walked out of it thinking it was probably one of my new favorite episodes from JN. Why does that keep happening in this particular series.
I run on the assumption that everyone reading these has already seen the episodes I'm talking about, so I'll spare you the recap on it, but Gou's conversation with Drizzile towards the end really got to me. I also try to never get too serious around here on this blog, so forgive me for the following, this will be the only time I do this - but like... basically everything that he described was exactly the same thing that I dealt with myself when I was a kid, due to being neurodivergent. Seeing a main character, on a show that was always there for me, explain how just how hard being in that situation is - and not getting over it or being okay with it by the end? It's... kinda touching, really. Stuff like this is something I haven't really seen from Pokemon before, and if I was watching this when I was younger I would have really appreciated seeing a character on the screen going through the same thing I was. Hell, I appreciated it now! I know a lot of others probably feel the same. I mean, I know what you're thinking, it's a damn cartoon lol. And you're right, it is! And I'm aware that it might sound silly if you don't understand it, and obviously I'm just one person so I don't speak for everyone in the world... but it's a difficult and isolating way to feel, and seeing it addressed in something like this (yes, even unintentionally!) can make you feel like oh hey, I'm not actually alone after all. Stuff like this matters, especially to a younger audience.
So yeah I guess I liked this one.

-

April 23rd - JN063: Challenge! The Pokémon Marine Obstacle Course!!

Predictions: Also still too early to tell. Chloe's Eevee is there with a Vaporeon in the brief little snippet of it that we saw, so maybe something about that. This whole concept of a Water-type race seems kinda similar to that episode with Piplup and Croagunk...

Results: Again, updating this one probably wouldn't have changed it. It did indeed end up being about Eevee and Vaporeon, what fun. Regarding the latter part, it surprisingly was different enough from the ice race that I didn't feel much similarity between the two.
Final Thoughts: It was alright.
I honestly don't remember if I've brought this up here before (and I know this might get my anime license revoked) but I'll admit it: I'm not really a fan of Chloe! I enjoyed her character quite a bit more when she was mostly the straightman to jokes and was indifferent to most things, because it was a change of pace from what I was used to seeing in past series. Buuuut ever since she got her cute little mascot Eevee, that has basically disappeared, and IMO a lot of the uniqueness she had has been lost. This episode may have been home to some important character development, but... it didn't really change my mind on that. She got damsel-in-distress'd here yet again and it just made me wish she was allowed to do something a little bit cooler or more important for once. Maybe that won't happen until a bit later in the series, but as of right now... meh.
Obvious personal bias aside though, it was okay. I like Eevee so it's always fun to see it doing stuff. I think this probably marks the start of it meeting every single one of its evolutions in some capacity? Which could be interesting, but I just hope it doesn't get repetitive after like the third or fourth or fifth time.
...Dracovish was the best part of this episode.

-

April 30th - JN064: The Detested Absol!

Predictions: I got nothing on this one other than someone is definitely going to catch this thing. Whom exactly? Eh... I would like the concept of Ash with an Absol but also I'm not holdin' my breath for it or anything. Gou, you enjoy your Absol, buddy.

Results: I am shocked. SHOCKED! ...well, not that shocked.
Final Thoughts: This one wasn't anything special, but I have no idea why everyone's losing their minds about it like it's the worst thing ever.
Seeing our protagonists actually doing some research-adjacent stuff again (y'know... like the research assistants they are) was pretty welcome. I didn't really have any problem with Absol's capture either. I do agree though that Ash could have been totally absent and nothing would have changed, and the animation in some spots was noticeably kind of... weird and stiff? But other than that, it was perfectly enjoyable.
Also, what a totally random CotD to bring back. Not that I'm complaining, Hoji is cool - but... huh.

the present,

Spoiler: may predictions

May 7th - JN065: Dragon Battle! Satoshi VS Iris!!
There it is! Pretty sure we all thought for a while that this episode was a myth, between how long they were putting it off and all the false alarms, but no, it's real. And is it ever because now they won't stop showing stuff from it. I feel like we've seen like every other frame from this episode and it's not even out yet.
Predictions: I'm thinking Ash is winning this one, only because they keep hyping up "whoever wins this one is goin' to the Hyper Class!!" in all the promotional stuff and idk why not. Can't say how the rest of the battle will go other than it'll probably end with Dragonite VS Dragonite. Iris and Gou will probably make friends but I can't say I don't see some of Iris's trademark teasing going on here and there. Axew is Haxorus now, the Axew in the preview isn't hers. There's blatantly Haxorus merch everywhere you look right now so there's probably no way that hers hasn't evolved. But when has anything in this saga made sense anyway.

May 14th - JN066: White Flower Flabebe
Lolwhatwhy. Of all of Gou's Pokemon, I don't think one of the Flabebe was one that I expected to get a focus episode? Oh well, ain't complaining I guess. Good that more of Gou's mons seem to be getting stuff to do rather than just being a background set piece for all eternity, they've really gotten better about that lately than they were early on. (Forgive me for not putting the accents on Flabebe's name but honestly why does it have them in the first place.)
Predictions: We've seen a teeny bit of this but have no other info. I'm gonna say Flabebe loses its flower, they go to get it a new one, it meets a Florges, and evolves into a Floette due to some circumstance.

May 21st - JN067: Suspect Pikachu!?
Lolnoseriouslywhy. I get it, I get it, we couldn't have that many important episodes in a row without some filler to pad it out. I have no complaints about filler if it means good things are coming. I like filler. But... another Pikachu one? Because... we all know how good Journeys has been at handling Pikachu episodes so far...? Is there ANY reason at all this couldn't have been about, like, Gengar, because it always gets into trouble anyway?? ...[long, drawn out sigh]
Predictions: Um. We don't know anything about this other than the title right now but I'm just gonna count all my Torchics before they hatch because I feel like I can tell where this is heading. Pikachu is framed for doing something bad and naughty or potentially some sort of crime such as theft. Pikachu is innocent, Ash and friends prove that it's innocent. Morpeko is the culprit. The end.

May 28th - JN068: Go's Rival!? The Road to Mew!!
THERE IT IS. I have been waiting for this one for approximately a decade, nobody touch me. I talked about this a while back already, but judging from promotional stuff right now, this has been implied to be the Infernape VS Moltres episode. Currently it's kind of up in the air whether or not this will be multiple parts, because the title is pretty unrelated to that and it seems like it's going to be kind of jam-packed with stuff otherwise if it's not? I dunno I'll try my best here from what we know right now.
Predictions: If this really is the Infernape/Moltres ep, I feel like someone's gotta try to catch Moltres at the end of that raid battle. I doubt anyone will successfully catch it, but uh it'd be kind of weird if they all just beat up a random bird for no end goal? Gary is here, Gou is a loser. I still stand by it that he's looking for Moltres because of its relation to the Indigo League Conference, and no one can pry that theory away from me (right up until I'm inevitably proven 100% wrong and it's just because Galarian Moltres exists). Oh also Gou freaks out seeing how many Pokemon Ash has in reserve because hehe funny.

Obviously if this episode turns out to be something else and all this is happening in a later one, I'll edit it accordingly. Stuff is weird and unclear right now. You understand.

and the future.

Spoiler: future predictions

I think it's safe to look towards the Project Mew post I made again, since that seems like it's going to be what we're dealing with for a couple of weeks of June. At least... I think so? Does anyone really know anymore???

After that's done, I can see us getting a new opening. Pretty much everything from it should be covered by the time it's over, plus we're getting pretty close to the point where the OP usually changes anyway (5-6 months-ish?) so no reason why it shouldn't happen.

I don't know if it'll ever change by this point, but I would really appreciate a new ending song sooner or later too. I don't know how much more Pokemon Shiritori I can take anymore after hearing it SIXTY-FOUR TIMES.

Before I close this out, I need to address something. Remember that admittedly super dumb post I made when I was way too excited about New Pokemon Snap back in February? I actually played the game, and guess what, I was wrong! Sort of. Veeery mild spoilers under here:

Spoiler: NPS spoilers

What was I right about? It really was Todd! I know that haircut anywhere, I guess. And my god, it is so weird to see him again. What a crazy fate this random S1 character has gotten, man.
What was I wrong about? It wasn't the result of time travel! ...Look, it made sense at the time, I swear. =P
Okay, I was basically just speculating the most out-there thing I could think of, because it would have looked amazing if I was actually right... but no, it really does just take place an unspecified(?) number of years in the future. Which is super weird, considering that's usually a big no-no! That was the whole reason I thought of a workaround in the first place. I know it might be considered an alternate continuity or whatever, but the events of the first game are actually directly mentioned a bunch of times. So... I guess this means that in theory, you could potentially think of New Snap as taking place in the actual future of the anime. Pretty neat!

edit: Originally, this part said that I was not going to update my returning characters chart to state Gary's episode as JN068 just yet. The info we've gotten has been kind of unclear and the title doesn't mention him, so I figured not doing it might save me some grief if that changes... but after seeing that Bulbapedia itself lists it as such, I figured it's probably safe enough. It should be all up to date in a couple of minutes.

That should be everything now. Bye-bye.

 

[Okido]

Hey,

After giving it thought for a few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that this blog unfortunately needs to be put on hold until further notice.

This isn't to say I'm shutting it down for good; it could in theory come back at some future date. I'm just suffering from some severe burnout, and when writing each post here takes so much time and effort, I don't really have the stamina to stay on schedule consistently right now. This blog was intended to just be for my own amusement, so when it's beginning to feel more stressful to think about than fun, I think it'd be better for everyone if I just step away for a little while.

I will still be keeping this chart up to date as best I can, and if something particularly important happens I may drop by to take note of it - but the monthly recap posts will be no more, at least for the foreseeable future. I might rework this blog into something a bit different, or make a new one altogether, but as it stands, this is how it will be.

Just for the sake of closure, I'll very briefly address last month's predictions:

Spoiler

May 7th - JN065: Dragon Battle! Satoshi VS Iris!!

Predictions: I'm thinking Ash is winning this one, only because they keep hyping up "whoever wins this one is goin' to the Hyper Class!!" in all the promotional stuff and idk why not. Can't say how the rest of the battle will go other than it'll probably end with Dragonite VS Dragonite. Iris and Gou will probably make friends but I can't say I don't see some of Iris's trademark teasing going on here and there. Axew is Haxorus now, the Axew in the preview isn't hers. There's blatantly Haxorus merch everywhere you look right now so there's probably no way that hers hasn't evolved. But when has anything in this saga made sense anyway.

Results: Hooray for Ash!
I dunno why I thought Dragonite VS Dragonite would be the last matchup... when Haxorus was obviously going to be her second Pokemon. Good old Orchid-brand brain malfunction. >_>
Iris and Gou didn't even get a full conversation IIRC, oh well. Ash was not safe from being called names though.

May 14th - JN066: White Flower Flabebe

Predictions: We've seen a teeny bit of this but have no other info. I'm gonna say Flabebe loses its flower, they go to get it a new one, it meets a Florges, and evolves into a Floette due to some circumstance.

Results: Good enough I guess. We saw Gou's first real release here too, which I can honestly say I wasn't expecting in the least.

May 21st - JN067: Suspect Pikachu!?

Predictions: Um. We don't know anything about this other than the title right now but I'm just gonna count all my Torchics before they hatch because I feel like I can tell where this is heading. Pikachu is framed for doing something bad and naughty or potentially some sort of crime such as theft. Pikachu is innocent, Ash and friends prove that it's innocent. Morpeko is the culprit. The end.

Results: I can go home now, there's no way I'm ever beating this one when all we knew was just the title. Where's my ribbon??

May 28th - JN068: Go's Rival!? The Road to Mew!!

Predictions: If this really is the Infernape/Moltres ep, I feel like someone's gotta try to catch Moltres at the end of that raid battle. I doubt anyone will successfully catch it, but uh it'd be kind of weird if they all just beat up a random bird for no end goal? Gary is here, Gou is a loser. I still stand by it that he's looking for Moltres because of its relation to the Indigo League Conference, and no one can pry that theory away from me (right up until I'm inevitably proven 100% wrong and it's just because Galarian Moltres exists). Oh also Gou freaks out seeing how many Pokemon Ash has in reserve because hehe funny.

Results: No one tried to catch Moltres, Gary was not here because of some wild symbolic metaphor, aaand Gou kind of barely even reacted to Ash's reserves. If I got a ribbon for accuracy on 067 it's definitely being taken away now.
Project Mew's Trial Missions could be interesting and all, but I do still think I could've been onto something there... and yes I AM just saying that because I was so adamant about it before this aired. *cough cough* It's cool though, seeing all that hard work he put in into researching its whereabouts and battling it with Blastoise was more than enough for me.
...I did get one thing right:

Gary is here, Gou is a loser.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience and support.

—Orchid

 

[Okido]

Just very briefly checking in to drop a few big things that have happened, don't mind me.

I added Dawn's return to the chart. Not sure if she'll be appearing in both halves of the two-parter or not, so I stuck with a simple confirmation for now rather than a specific episode.
I love Dawn, but I had absolutely no doubt about her appearing in this series at some point, so it wasn't too much of a shocker for me... it was more surprising that she showed up the one time I wasn't expecting her. (I was sure it'd be Cynthia instead...)

Project Mew is going well, I suppose. It got its second (first?) episode dedicated to it fairly quickly, and Gou got accepted in, good for him. Gary is now officially a recurring character again - cue the longest sigh of relief in the world - and will presumably be showing up every now and then from here on out. I'm really looking forward to seeing where all this goes in the future.

My favorite Gen 8 mon Falinks is showing up soon! We're in the middle of a break week right now, but the next episode features it alongside Eiscue.
I'm just going to throw out a wild guess, I think one of those two could potentially be caught by Ash here... though I have no idea which one it'd be. I love Falinks to death, but I really couldn't care either way about Eiscue, if I'm being honest, so not knowing how this will end up is just a little bit nerve-wracking.

okay, bye again.

 

[Okido]

Journeys has been doing something... odd with their character design lately. But to preface this, I've studied character design for a good couple of years now... so I promise I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining. ;_;

As anyone caught up with the anime would surely know by now, there have been a lot of returning characters in JN lately! It's kind of all I seem to talk about here, after all. From Lance, to Korrina, to Iris, to just yesterday reintroducing both Volkner and Cynthia in one fell swoop - it's honestly kind of shocking just how many there have been in only 77 episodes.

Of note in particular are Dawn and Gary... the only two with the honor of having appeared more than just once! However, that's not the topic today, since that isn't the only thing of note about them. I am, of course, talking about their eye color!

The color of both Dawn's and Gary's eyes have been changed in JN, when compared to their earlier appearances.
I'm not the first to mention this - around the time of their episodes' airing, there was a little bit of discussion surrounding it in the A&M board, but it seems to have died down nearly completely by now. I've thought about this for a while, and I want to touch on this topic a little further. You know me... this is juuust trivial enough to make me get obsessed with it.

Dawn is a somewhat minor case, but still noticeable if you're looking closely. Her eyes have been changed from a vibrant blue, to a more dulled slate-blue color. Here are two screenshots of her in bright, neutral lighting:

(edit 9/9: replaced a broken image link)

Color-dropping these two images gives us this handy side-by-side comparison:

(DP)

(JN)
(I checked just to be thorough; it remained exactly the same between her DP and BW appearances.)
As you can see, it's been desaturated quite a bit! It's not just a facet of the art style, either, as her hair is still the exact same color - so this seems to be a deliberate change.

A common hypothesis I've seen to explain this was an attempt to make her look closer to her game counterpart. Many have pointed out by now that JN has been very keen about drawing parallels to the games - and Game Dawn has much more grayish eyes than Anime Dawn ever had.

(Artwork from Diamond & Pearl, Masters EX, and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl.)
This would make a lot of sense! With BD/SP just a few months away from release, changing her appearance to mirror that seems like an obvious choice. Her outfit is still the same, and it's not too far from her original blue, so it's a nice nod to how she looks in the remakes.

On the other hand, since his last physical appearance in the anime, Gary has had yet another complete design overhaul. And in the process, had his eye color changed to a... I'm going to call it "dark gray-olive". (Bulbapedia still lists it as a dark viridian, but I'll get to that...)

On the surface, this makes sense too. His last speaking role in the series was when the art style was still much different. Lots of characters had their eyes colored solid black this way for a long time. In theory, his eye color could have been anything!

But that's just it... it wasn't.

If you watch the earlier sagas of the anime enough, I'm sure you've noticed by now that even when characters had their eyes colored black, their "true" eye color could still be seen in certain close-up shots. A perfect example of this is Ash. His eyes looked exactly the same back then, but in these aforementioned shots, they've always been very clearly brown - ever since the very first episode!

When the art style made the shift to wider, fully-colored irises starting in BW, what color were Ash's eyes given? That's right; brown! Even if it wasn't immediately recognizable, that's what it has always been - and it's stayed that way ever since.

Another example of this is Ritchie - his eyes were (almost) the same as Ash's, but were blue at certain angles. When Chronicles came around, and the anime had made the switch to digital coloring, this stayed the same! It was much more frequently visible as well due to the style changing slightly. Y'know... consistency!

So... why am I bringing this up? Why go on this tangent?? (If you're asking that question here, you're in the wrong place, buddy...)

Well, as infrequent as it was... Gary did have a "true" eye color the whole time, just like Ash or Ritchie did. His eyes were turquoise blue!

(Screenshots from EP031, AG192, and BW142, but I believe there's at least one other example I'm missing from OS somewhere [edit 8/22: FOUND IT! it was EP269.])
The reason why I mention all of these earlier examples is because they seem a lot less well-known than BW's fantasy segment, when they had already made the change to the art style. The point I'm making here is that they weren't just blue in BW... they had always been blue!

Yes, this wasn't shown nearly as often as the other two, and it varied a bit over time. But checking all of these in an RGB color wheel is some pretty solid proof that his eyes were always intended to be a teal-blue color, regardless of small shifts in hue:

(S1)

(AG)

(BW)
(or, y'know, dark viridian... i guess?)

So, with all that in mind... how did we get here?

(color-dropped from both the light and dark areas of his irises.)

This is, obviously, a much more drastic difference than Dawn's slight desaturation from blue to slate; this is in an entirely different part of the color wheel, skipping right over green and going straight into yellow. This change confused the life out of me when I first saw it... and I suppose it still is, since I'm sitting here writing this post. To my knowledge, even when major characters have had their designs changed drastically, none of them have ever completely altered the color of their eyes like this before. And this was a change to something that had been in effect since season 1!!

I guess the real question to ask is... why? What reason would there be to make such a change now, when they seemed pretty keen on keeping it the same, all the way up until BW?

The only real reason I could think of was the same as Dawn's - consistency with his game counterpart, Blue. Gary was redesigned to be wearing Blue's outfit from HeartGold & SoulSilver, the same one he's wearing in the more recent Masters EX. But here's the thing - Blue's eyes are anywhere from brown to hazel, and are much brighter too. They're still different enough that I can't really see too much similarity.

Even if this were the case... Gary is just as different from Blue as Ash is from Red! They're entirely different characters, with entirely different personalities and aspirations! They've always been very careful separating Ash and Red for this very reason. So... why try to make Gary and Blue more similar? Why encourage the confusion between these two that has already gone on for... forever???

I guess my hypothesis is this: they did want to make Gary look more like Blue... but not enough that the two could look the exact same. People are just more familiar with Blue nowadays; and giving him the exact same hazel-brown eye color would have been too far in that regard. They're still different people.

But, on the other hand, remaining consistent and keeping the turquoise blue he'd always had would have raised questions with newer or more casual viewers... because it was hardly ever shown!
People are most familiar with the solid-black look that was kept up from OS to DP. I've seen tons of fanart over the years depicting his eye color as green, gray, brown... like I said earlier, when eyes were drawn black, it could have been anything. Aside from that one-second fantasy cameo in the very last episode of BW, seven years ago - it was pretty hard to spot that it'd been blue all along. To suddenly reintroduce that fact could have been a bit jarring.

So, as a compromise, they changed it to... neither! It's dark gray-olive now, closer to black than either of these colors.

In truth... I don't hate this change or anything. It doesn't really matter in the long run. But I do wish it was just kept the same.

Enforcing a unique trait like that would have been the perfect way to differentiate Gary from all of his game and manga lookalikes. And that's important! I've said it once, I've said it a million times - they're not all the same!! Yes, his hair is still darker than Blue or Pokespe's Green... but neither of them would have had that very specific shade of teal. Keeping that intact really would have made it so much easier to tell just who you were looking at. I understand why they might have changed it, but in an attempt to avoid any confusion... all it really did was spark more.

Anyways... I've been writing this post for 6 hours for no dang reason and I'm seeing the sun come up now, so I guess I'll close it off here before I get more incoherent. In the end, I can't help but wonder if they're going to do the same thing for any other returning characters in the future. Will Paul's eyes be neon purple, or will these two remain the only cases of color contacts?? Only time will tell.

Oh yeah, and sorry that this post is five and a half miles long, too.