Review PE01: The Champion

[Twilight-Kun]

"Oh boy, what awesome music are they gonna have to show how scary and powerful Eternatus is?"

Goldfarb: XYLOPHONES!

 

[Juliko]

I thought this was cool! The animation was pretty good, and I love the deeper look we got into Leon's character, even if I wish there could have been just a bit more dialogue. I do admit, I'm not a fan of Leon's more muscular, realistic design. It just makes him look like he walked off an episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. That said, everything else is good, though!

 

[snowmint]

I heard the voices were a pre lay job too. Such an interesting production.

 

[PaperSplash]

I heard the voices were a pre lay job too. Such an interesting production.

So the English version is the original in this case and the Japanese version is the dub?

 

[R1ke]

Solid episode that humanises Leon as a character. It shows that even Champions aren't invincible despite their status. I can imagine how shaken Leon would be after such an event - that sense of regret and thinking of all the things he should've done instead. This is the first time he's failed, at least to this extent, in the public eye. For someone who's identity is built around being an 'unbeatable' champion, something like this can seriously mess you up.

I really like how they explored with Leon is just the pressure of being the champion. Every day he has to live up to his ideal image of someone who's perfect. His livelihood depends on it and if he strays from it, he believes people might lose faith in him. But once you're at the top, the only place you can go is down. It's almost like a ticking time bomb, sooner or later some challenger will beat him and he'll lose this status. The question is whether he's ready to accept it. By the end, he does and is happy when you finally beat him since that removes this burden from his shoulders.

I think it's similar to many celebrities nowadays, who are often worshipped by the masses and have their own cult followings. People have a warped idea of their lives and circumstances, which leaves many feeling isolated/empty on the inside. Even in Galar, I feel like they've exaggerated aspects of his character (like being bad at directions, his outfit and being unbeatable) to play a persona by the media. He's obviously not like this behind the scenes, as we can see. It's funny because you'd barely think about this in the games, which is the type of stuff I wanna see explored in this series.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

It's no wonder Goldfarb's music is used here, as credits shows, other than animation it's a western production directed by TPCI itself. Even the writer is a westerner.

 

[ii kanji]

What completely and irreversibly broke my suspension of disbelief is that the set up looks and feels so much like Central London but then everyone has American accents…

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

What completely and irreversibly broke my suspension of disbelief is that the set up looks and feels so much like Central London but then everyone has American accents…

Personally, I don't really pay that much attention to accents. Mostly because I have a hard time recognizing them usually.

 

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

You can tell that this new series of shorts is going to be great, the animation is nothing short of marvelous, with great perspectives and nice use of 3D, like for example in the Corviknight statue of the beginning. The characters look nice as well although I admit that the definition of Leon and Charizard muscles was perhaps too much, do they even need attacks having those? But I guess that doesn't hurt anyone.

It was good to see how all these events affected Leon, it's impossible not to feel overwhelmed with everything that has happened to him, the helplessness he experienced in the fight against Eternatus and knowing that you're going to a battle that you know you already lost. It was nice to see how Charizard supported him in all this, let's not forget that his Pokémon went through all this as well. I don't know if it's just me but maybe the intention was to make Charizard look angry when he came out of the Poké Ball, I say this by his expression in the first few seconds and the way Leon backs off a bit, if that was the case it was a nice contrast to the cute moment that came later.

And lastly, the Polteageist drinking soda near the end of the short was adorable, I already loved Polteageist but that little moment made me love it even more, I really need a gif.

 

[BigDocFan]

A behind the scenes video is now out on Youtube

 

[PaperSplash]

A behind the scenes video is now out on Youtube

Whoa. You definitely don't see Pokémon doing something like this every day.

I always find it really cool seeing those little storyboard doodles before they fully come to life.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

It took me til just NOW to realize that Gloria was riding on the Corviknight Taxi at the beginning of the episode

 

[PaperSplash]

It took me til just NOW to realize that Gloria was riding on the Corviknight Taxi at the beginning of the episode

Holy crap, I think you're right!