Review PE03: The Visionary

[Alola]

The real travesty of the episode was the fact that the Geosenge Town houses all unauthentically remained upright during all of that.

 

[Sakuraa]

Yay, finally one of my games gets the spotlight. Team X baby I did laugh at Calem having his hand glued to his hat to cover his face, meanwhile we were allowed to see Serena (who, if she is the rival, should have no hat and a ponytail).

 

[Welkamo]

I didn't hate this episode (then again, I have a Kalos bias lol). The battle was really short, and the episode felt a bit rushed, but damn, that shot with Lysandre screaming "LET US LIVE FOREVER!" before either dying or being stuck with eternal life while trapped in his hideout. I don't know why, but that's going to be in my head. Probably, like, dramatic/situational irony or something. That's my cup of tea.

Also SERENA!!!!

 

[Twilight-Kun]

The reason why I think that the Y climax makes more sense is that Lysandre intends to wipe out Pokemon and most people in both versions, and the ultimate weapon certainly doesn't seem to give anyone eternal life even in X. So it's just meaningless drivel outside of the AZ story, but that happened long ago and probably involved both Xerneas and Yveltal.

Lysandre doesn't want the world to get uglier in X, so he wants to freeze it in time by making things never change, hence his desire to preserve things as they are via immortality

In Y, he wants to destroy it to preserve its beauty and prevent it from getting uglier

 

[Esserise]

Lysandre doesn't want the world to get uglier in X, so he wants to freeze it in time by making things never change, hence his desire to preserve things as they are via immortality

In Y, he wants to destroy it to preserve its beauty and prevent it from getting uglier

He wants the same thing in both versions. In both games, he talks about using the weapon to erase everyone who's not a part of Team Flare.

"Pokémon Trainers. I come to you by the Holo Caster to make an important announcement. Listen well. Team Flare will revive the ultimate weapon, eliminate everyone who isn't in our group, and return the world to a beautiful, natural state. Unproductive fools are consuming our future... If nothing changes, the world will become ugly and conflicts will raze the land from end to end. I repeat. We will use the ultimate weapon and wipe the slate clean. I'm sorry, those of you who are not members of Team Flare, but this is adieu to you all."

"When there is only one of something, it can't be shared. When something can't be shared, it will be fought over. And when something is fought over, some must survive without it. The only way to create a world where people live in beauty, a world without conflict or theft, is to reduce the number of living things."

His version-exclusive waxing about how to preserve beauty when speaking to Diantha at the café is all just figurative. His actual plan is always genocide.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Seriously what is the animators or studio's issue with showing the player characters faces (Unless your name is Red)? Its grown so irritating. We were able to see Serena clearly, but they refuse to show Calem's face.

 

[Almonds]

There seemed to be a lot of skipped information

... which I figured was probably because they already covered it in Generations episode 16. I went back and watched that episode and Evolutions again, and it made a lot more sense.

However, the battle sequence was so boring. Lysandre mega evolving his Gyarados without it putting up a good enough fight? I get that it was Xerneas using Moon Blast but what kind of battle was that

Also, that ending scene was a callback to AZ firing the ultimate weapon. But it felt so cringe.

 

[NealIRC]

Well, I'm just glad I got to take a nice screenshot of Professor's lab.

 

[PaperSplash]

There seemed to be a lot of skipped information

... which I figured was probably because they already covered it in Generations episode 16. I went back and watched that episode and Evolutions again, and it made a lot more sense.

However, the battle sequence was so boring. Lysandre mega evolving his Gyarados without it putting up a good enough fight? I get that it was Xerneas using Moon Blast but what kind of battle was that

Also, that ending scene was a callback to AZ firing the ultimate weapon. But it felt so cringe.

You know, that makes me think: if you made a bunch of tweaks to this episode and the Generations one, mashed them together and actually fleshed out the big battle, you could end up with a fairly decent 20-minute adaptation.

Unfortunately, OLM and The Pokémon Company seem to be allergic to full-length episodes outside of the main series continuity nowadays, as the last ones were part of Origins back in 2013 if I remember correctly.

 

[Silktree]

Lysandre doesn't want the world to get uglier in X, so he wants to freeze it in time by making things never change, hence his desire to preserve things as they are via immortality

In Y, he wants to destroy it to preserve its beauty and prevent it from getting uglier

The Bulbapedia quotes are barely different between the two versions. In particular, this one is unchanged:

When there is only one of something, it can't be shared. When something can't be shared, it will be fought over. And when something is fought over, some must survive without it. The only way to create a world where people live in beauty, a world without conflict or theft, is to reduce the number of living things.

Pokémon... Shall no longer exist. Pokémon are wonderful beings. Humans have worked with Pokémon, and we have helped each other flourish. But precisely because of that, they will inevitably become tools for war and theft!

This episode fixed that, and yet the ultimate weapon was just as destructive as in the games.

 

[Almonds]

I just realized that the ultimate weapon is shaped like Eternal Floette's flower. I always thought that it was some elaborate shape that had something to do with Lysandre. I guess I gotta thank the perspective of this episode in this part.

 

[PikachuSmasher]

This was a nice episode, the Lysandre backstory and the animation really did good to Kalos, but the best part was the episode comment section. Many comments are just something like “SERENAS BACK, AMOURSHIPPING SOON?????”, that really got me laughing.

But the episode is a 7/10 for me

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Seriously what is the animators or studio's issue with showing the player characters faces (Unless your name is Red)? Its grown so irritating. We were able to see Serena clearly, but they refuse to show Calem's face.

The plsyer character is us, so they probably don't want to show the face of a character who can basically be anyone. Serena, while being a potential player character in the games, serves the role of a rival in this short.

Also, that ending scene was a callback to AZ firing the ultimate weapon. But it felt so cringe.

It's actually a reference to Lysandre firing the weapon in Pokémon X

 

[SammyW27]

Let's just hope Lysandre drew the short straw and the rest of Evolutions is better. (Especially for our girl Zinnia. DON'T screw that up after she's gone without being animated before, OLM...)

 

[Alola]

On a more serious note, I have to echo that this was the weakest episode yet of three...and that's saying something, given how all three have largely just animated and adapted material. I think the most disappointing thing was Xerneas Vs. Mega Gyarados, given what we just saw with Lunala and Necrozma. Serena and Shauna not trying to reason with Lysandre also felt a bit wasted too, since I enjoyed those interactions from the game. Then, the animation notably had more stock footage than its predecessors... I think what would have helped was if there was some kind of reflection or comment on Sycamore's part regarding the fall of his friend - maybe explore the guilt he felt for not having doing his part to prevent Lysandre's plans, and why he felt the need to seek out Calem/Serena in Couriway Town for a personal apology. That would have been a nice juxtaposition to go with Lysandre's tantrum or descent, as well as flesh out Sycamore from just being a pretty face.

I don't know. Originally I was pretty hyped about this series, but if the remaining episodes are just going to be four to five minutes of animating video game scenes, with emphasis on the animation, then that's going to be disappointing. Nothing's really "evolved" from say, Generations take on the same events. So far, at least.

 

[PaperSplash]

Professor Sycamore's voice actor in the Japanese version wasn't listed for unknown reasons. However, several Japanese fans believe the voice actor to be Go Inoue, known for voicing Spain in Hetalia: Axis Powers and Sky High in Tiger and Bunny. If this is true, then this would be one of the very rare occasions a Japanese voice actor isn't credited at all in a Pokémon production (as opposed to simply being credited for another character, for instance).

 

[JinksChow]

It's interesting how, at least on the Official Pokemon YouTube Channel, that the Kalos episode is outperforming the Alola episode of Pokemon Evolutions, even when the latter had a two-week headstart.

On the Japanese side of things, the viewcount is as you expected, in that Galar (1.1 million) > Alola (746k) > Kalos (430k). At this close to release, the newer episodes would almost always have less views than the older episodes.

However, on the international side of things as of now, "The Visionary" has 2.4 million views, compared to "The Eclipse" which has 1.8 million views. (While "The Champion" has 3.4 million views) Perhaps the international audience is more nostalgic for Gen VI?

 

[PaperSplash]

It's interesting how, at least on the Official Pokemon YouTube Channel, that the Kalos episode is outperforming the Alola episode of Pokemon Evolutions, even when the latter had a two-week headstart.

On the Japanese side of things, the viewcount is as you expected, in that Galar (1.1 million) > Alola (746k) > Kalos (430k). At this close to release, the newer episodes would almost always have less views than the older episodes.

However, on the international side of things as of now, "The Visionary" has 2.4 million views, compared to "The Eclipse" which has 1.8 million views. (While "The Champion" has 3.4 million views) Perhaps the international audience is more nostalgic for Gen VI?

I think it's the opposite. Gen VII's story, and Lillie in particular, seems to be more divisive in the west.

 

[BigDocFan]

Behind the scenes videos continue

 

[PaperSplash]

Professor Sycamore's voice actor in the Japanese version wasn't listed for unknown reasons. However, several Japanese fans believe the voice actor to be Go Inoue, known for voicing Spain in Hetalia: Axis Powers and Sky High in Tiger and Bunny. If this is true, then this would be one of the very rare occasions a Japanese voice actor isn't credited at all in a Pokémon production (as opposed to simply being credited for another character, for instance).

Update! Sycamore's Japanese voice actor is now credited and it was indeed Go Inoue.