Review PE07: The Show

[PaperSplash]

Is it possible to watch this in Japanese?

Yes, it is possible. But I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say any more than that.

 

[KrspaceT]

Wasn't sure what I'd get when I heard it was based on the Kimono Sisters, but hot dang this one was a pretty good one .

As talking about the effects was already done a lot, I do want to comment on my general take away. Evolutions seems to honestly suffer when it handles more....'done before' stuff.

Like that's part of why the Kalos episode was so bad: Lysandre's been done twice in the anime and Generations and both were pretty good and liked takes. We'd pretty recently seen the Eternatus fight. Etc etc.

...It's weird as I don't think Kalos lacks for stuff to do. Adapting say, the Korrina Tower of Mastery stuff would probably have worked, same with Galar. The choices got Generations off to a rough start IMO. I wonder if they had fresher takes it would have a better reputation....

 

[Zweilous]

A very good one, the way the myth was portrayed by the performance was beautiful and it was great to see the Burned Tower lore expanded for Lugia. Easily one of my favorites to come out of this mini series.

 

[FelipePR]

I couldn't help but have a bittersweet feeling towards the end of the episode. On the one hand, as some have said, this episode is marvelous and, potentially, one of the most memorable in the franchise. On the other hand, it's also frustrating.

This short movie has an immersive worldbuilding, Ecruteak City is wonderfully featured and the characterization of the theater show is simply fantastic. The storytelling, and I mean the way the story is told, is superb, merely the best artistic interaction between Pokémon and trainers ever represented, with a lot of very magical and loving touches. The animation itself is equally aweispiring, possibly the best in the series.

Nevertheless, while everything else is awesome, the show's plot is just plain, poor and tattered. The correlation between the guardian and the city is not at all convincing, nor is Lugia's inability to deal with fire. And worse, after the disaster, the Pokémon simply left the town with the mention that it will only return when summoned by someone with a pure heart. However, in the narrative, no reprehensible behavior of humans remains explicit for the Pokémon to assume such attitude.

The story only makes sense when analyzed in light of what is briefly said in Episode 6 of Generations. Otherwise, this is just obtuse. Similarly, the correlation between Lugia and the City is much less organic and effective than that of the legendary beasts and Ho-oh itself.

In the end, it is piety that such glorious storytelling should be marred by a rather coarse plot.

 

[SammyW27]

I wasn't sure what to think of this one since it wasn't about any major Gen 2 event and starred the Kimono Girls of all people. But it was pretty entertaining.

Gorgeous animation plus slice of life moments make this one surprisingly enjoyable. I liked it a LOT more than I thought I would

 

[Alola]

I don't have much to say aside from echoing common sentiments that I've read! The Kimono Girls were gorgeous - I loved how they presented the story of Lugia with their Pokémon, dances, acting, narration, and overall special effects; it felt like a realistic performance I would pay to go see. I know we chide Evolutions for animating game elements, and some of those concerns are wholly warranted in my opinion, but this was something I felt really benefitted from an anime adaptation. No longer are the Kimono Girls delegated to simply spinning in circles on a singular tile as 2D sprites... I also enjoyed the moments with Totodile (bless its heart and thank goodness for its Trainers reflexes) and Gengar (way to portray such a rather dark Pokémon in a positive light); they way Morty offered the tissue was priceless, haha. And lastly, as a SoulSilver owner, it felt good seeing Lugia get the spotlight; we already have to go out of our way to confront the thing (which is another issue in and of itself) compared to HeartGold players who have the tower just right there to climb; seeing it get focus and buy-in to Johto's mythos was very satisfying as it feels detached from Ho-Oh and the Legendary Dogs otherwise in my opinion.

 

[vivian20]

I liked that it gave Lugia more connection to Jotho lore . It always felt out of place there, while Ho-oh had a story with the towers and the legendary beasts. Now lugia is the one that ended the fire. Some believe that it took too long to do it, but maybe Lugia didnt know rain dance until that time. Its on lv 45 when we find it in soul silver, and it learns rain dance at lv 29. Its not difficult to imagine that Lugia is now several levels above the lv it was 150 years ago.

 

[Ricbolog]

The english version credits Aleks Le as the stagehand, but I can't recall him talking at all. Or is he the one saying "five minutes"?

 

[PaperSplash]

The english version credits Aleks Le as the stagehand, but I can't recall him talking at all. Or is he the one saying "five minutes"?

Yes, the "five minutes" guy. The closed captions confirm it.

 

[Ricbolog]

Yes, the "five minutes" guy. The closed captions confirm it.

Thanks. I literally forgot about subtitles. BTW, if you're still interested in the Evolutions cast for the italian dub, you can check this page to see if more voices get added.

 

[PaperSplash]

Like other users have said, I'm glad this short gave Lugia the spotlight since it always felt like an afterthought previously when it came the Johto mythos. And I also agree it was cool being shown a lot of the audience reactions and how the special effects are created for the show. Personally, I was really impressed with how seamlessly the sisters' Eeveelutions were incorporated into it too.

The voice acting was also above average for Evolutions. Though was it just me or did Sayo and Miki sound rather similar?

And hey, Kadabra really is unbanned! I was worried TPC wouldn't take advantage of Uri Geller finally giving his blessing and I'm glad to be proven wrong.

 

[KrspaceT]

One thing this short did strike me is a contrast to the Kalos and Galar oneshots.

This is probably the one other oneshot that really has a direct counterpart in Generations in the form of The Reawakening. It covers the story of the burned tower, a lot like the Kalos episode covered a lot of the same notes as 'The Beauty Eternal' and how the main anime had showed Eternatus and Leon fairly recently.

However this one went a lot more differently than the Kalos and Galar episodes had with the same topic, and thus is more liked by us than the other two.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Behind the scenes:

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

The correlation between the guardian and the city is not at all convincing, nor is Lugia's inability to deal with fire. And worse, after the disaster, the Pokémon simply left town with the mention that it will only return when summoned by someone with a pure heart. However, in the narrative, no reprehensible behavior of humans remains explicit for the Pokémon to assume such attitude.

In conclusion, this short contradicts Crystal rather than supplementing it. We don't know what Lugia was doing at the time (just that it left the tower when all was said and done), but the only way to explain the fire raging for so long is that Lugia was either unavailable to help or hadn't mastered Water-type moves yet.

You can read this play as not what actually happened but the official version, what they told in Ecruteak City.

 

[Teek]

This was such a perfect episode. I always liked Kimono Sister from HeartGold/SoulSilver. The theatrical presentation of various events in this episode was just brilliant!