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Review Pocket Monsters: The Origin

Winterdaze

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Pokemon: The Origin is an anime special that aired on October 2, 2013. The plot is close to that of Pokémon Red and Green Versions, the very first games of the franchise, featuring Red as the protagonist and Green as Red's rival.

The story is split into four episodes: Red, Karakara, Sakaki and Lizardon.
 
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Mega Lizardon X! hgfdkjgfjkn Amazing!

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Really loved the special... but did we really need Mega Charizard X to debut in this? Every single thing was pure Generation I apart from Mr. Fuji handing Red the box with what I guess was Lizardonite. No Pokemon outside the original 151, no mentions of anything from Generation II+... then we got the sudden sharp turn into Generation VI?

Also, I have the feeling Pokemon X will be selling a lot faster than Y. It's getting all the coolest stuff.
 
It was pretty alright.

The first episode was kind of meh. There's only so many times you can see a Trainer pick out his first pokemon, y'know? Green helped keep this episode from being a complete drag, though I have to say that his theme song being used in animation just didn't work. Felt way too Game Boy-y to me.

The second episode was definitely the best one out of the four. It was true to the games and managed to not water down any of the death stuff, something I can't imagine the current TV series ever doing. The depiction of actual pokemon death, Red volunteering to go into Pokemon Tower, Green trying to go ahead but ending up letting the ghost scare him off, Red getting the Silph Scope and identifying the ghost as Karakara's mother, the tearful reunions...it was all very, very well done.

I liked the battle in the super cramped office building in the third episode, but that's really it. I couldn't really find myself caring about Sakaki's battle in the second half.

The fourth episode was cool before it went into full-on Generation VI hype mode. Actually getting to see the Four Heavenly Emperors' battle was nice, and the Hall of Fame gave Red's journey a sense of closure that I feel like we'll never get with Satoshi. I also thought that the episode more or less revealing that Mr. Fuji and Dr. Fuji are the same person was nice.

Other stuff...I thought the animation in the fourth episode looked the best but I guess that's not too surprising seeing as how OLM has the most experience drawing these characters. The other three looked fine, but the fourth episode did a lot of cool things with the camera and just seemed to take more risks when it came to the way things were staged. It's kind of hard for me to explain.

The pokemon cries were weird and I didn't really care for them at all. Myuutwo's was nice, I guess, and I thought Pikachu's was cute, but the rest were just sort of *there*. The way the current series does things definitely leaves more of an impression.

The background music was super nostalgic, but like I hinted at before there are some tracks that don't quite work in animation. Thinking back I'd say my favorite piece of "new" music in this special was the Rocket-Dan theme. There was more good than bad here and if a CD set ever comes out then I'll definitely pick it up.

I could probably go on and on for several pages so I'll just stop right here. It was a pretty fun way to spend two hours.
 
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You know, the way the special suddenly introduced Mega Lizardon X it felt like Nintendo muscled in and forced the writers to advertise Pokemon X&Y with this. But it was completely out of place, as for some people it'll overshadow the rest of this extremely well made special and it's not like we're in the middle of a huge amount of advertising for the games anyway.

Also... did Mega Lizardon X use Swift? I don't think it has that attack.
 
Yeah, IIRC that's what it was ordered to use.

Why was Wataru listed on the website / end credits when he only said like two lines in the entire thing?
 
You know, the way the special suddenly introduced Mega Lizardon X it felt like Nintendo muscled in and forced the writers to advertise Pokemon X&Y with this. But it was completely out of place, as for some people it'll overshadow the rest of this extremely well made special and it's not like we're in the middle of a huge amount of advertising for the games anyway.
The whole entire special was advertisement for an older audience, that's the point. Drawing in older people for when XY is released.
 
Red ended up completing his Pokedex, but the Pokemon we saw were:

Hitokage-->Lizard-->Lizardon
Caterpie-->Trancell
Koratta
Onisuzume
Onidrill
Arbok
Pikachu
Nidoran♂
Persian
Koduck
Utsubot
Menokurage
Dōdorio
Gangar
Sawamular (from the Fighting Dojo)
Koiking (bought from the salesman)
Lucky
Laplace (given in Silph Co.)
Thunders
Kabutops
Kabigon
Freezer
Thunder
Fire
Mewtwo

Red defeated Champion Green and was inducted into the Hall of Fame with Lizardon, Kabigon, Utsubot, Thunders, Persian and Sawamular

Green's Pokemon were Kamex (evolved from Zenigame, of course), Pidgeot, Foodin and Nassy. Not sure of the other two.
 
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Red defeated Green with Lapras, Charizard, Scyther, Dodrio, Persian and Jolteon.

Green had Pidgeot, Alakazam, Exeggutor, Blastoise, Rhydon, and...drawing a blank on number five but going by the games it was probably Arcanine.
 
I loved the part when Red threw the Poke Ball at the trainers Nidoran♀ only for it to be blocked, not knowing you can't capture other people's Pokemon... come on, who else did that first time? I know I did.
 
You know, the way the special suddenly introduced Mega Lizardon X it felt like Nintendo muscled in and forced the writers to advertise Pokemon X&Y with this. But it was completely out of place, as for some people it'll overshadow the rest of this extremely well made special and it's not like we're in the middle of a huge amount of advertising for the games anyway.

Suddenly introduced? The very first trailer showed Charizard and Red with what looked suspiciously like a Mega Stone. You don't actually think that this special was created without the intention of tying into the games, do you? It's no coincidence this came out now rather than the actual 20th anniversary.
 
I wish they showed us how those TM's are utilized ... I always wondered.
 
Leave it to the producers to put in Generation 6 promotion in Generation 1's story :lol:

Though it sounds like it went well :)
 
Honestly who uses a Persian or Dodrio to defeat the elite four though!?

Still better than ash thinking he can win a league using snivy and oshawott.

Yeah I guess so, but I really wish they didn't establish Red beat Blue's Blastoise using Charizard something that was already done in the anime.

Has anyone ever tried to do that in the game it's freaking impossible!
 
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