Was Pokemon Origins good or bad?

[HiroHunter]

After all this time I would like to ask was Pokemon Origins good or bad?

 

[Rath]

Bad. The whole thing was basically one big commercial for Mega Charizard X.

Now, the main anime is a commercial too, but for all of Ash's Pokemon instead of just one.

 

[Camille]

I say good, but it still had some glaring flaws, such as too much emphasis on Red's Charizard, lack of mechanics introduced after Generation I (despite featuring Mega Evolution and Shadow Punch being used), and too short battles (if they were shown at all).

 

[NeoMiniTails]

I personally thought it was great. I showed it to five of my nephews and my baby brother (age range of 5 to 13 years old), and they loved it too.

For me, the nostalgia of the first game being in anime form was particularly wonderful. I always wanted to see my adventure on game boy color animated. Despite how short the film was, everyone felt very well developed.

I preferred the Japanese version over the dubbed, but both were pretty well acted.

It was nice to see the video game/manga characterization of Brock, where he's highly regarded and super mature.

Mega Charizard was a nice treat to the end that made it unforgettable. It was honestly much better made than the Mega Mewtwo movie that came out before the XY series started.

 

[SammyW27]

It's hardly perfect, but I still really like it.

Some say should've been longer, but I say it needed better pacing.

 

[Gengarzilla]

It started off alright with the first two episodes, but it was Red's rematch with Giovanni that ruined my intital enjoyment in one swoop. I really didn't like how he was openly favouring Charizard over the rest of his team by that point, and the battle gave me the impression that it was the only one he'd been seriously training (besides maybe Hitmonlee, though I've put a lot of that down to him potentially being trained by Kiyo in the Fighting Dojo).

As for the last episode... Ugh, Charizard's first Mega Evolution has been neglected ever since that jet black piece of pretty eye candy hit the scene. It's no secret that I have always preferred Mega Charizard Y by a long shot.

 

[HiroHunter]

For me I hate Origins because it feels like they're using Gen 1 and I guess because of how many times they used Gen 1 as a crutch made me hate it, I hate Origins Red because of how it feels like he won a lot of his battles with luck and not skill.

 

[Gligarman]

Any problems I may have had were nullified when Charmander got bit in the face and Mega Charizard beat up Mewtwo.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Promising at the start, disappointing end.

 

[Nicolas721]

It depends on your expectations. If you like cool battles and having memories from the games, it's nice, but if you like tangible development and memorable characters, it's not really good. I think it's worth watching though, as the events are potrayed in a completely different way to the Kanto arc in the anime.

 

[EscLucy]

It depends on your expectations. If you like cool battles and having memories from the games, it's nice, but if you like tangible development and memorable characters, it's not really good. I think it's worth watching though, as the events are potrayed in a completely different way to the Kanto arc in the anime.

It had no development whatsover. I get it was meant to move quickly but it was predictable and too fast. It was like the games and that annoyed me! The anime is meant to separate! The battles were fast paced and well done but that was the only positive.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

The dub of it was pretty good overall.

Bob Buchholz I normally find to be something of a spotty voice director, he can bring out the best with stuff like World of Final Fantasy or any of his Netflix dubs he’s doing and then there are his weak ones like that Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded movie dub on one of the remix games where everyone sounded off or some of his Final Fantasy dubs (a lot of people say Type-0) but here I’d say this is one of his good ones.

Highlights of the dub are easily Lucien Dodge as Blue, Bryce Papenbrook as Red and Jamieson Price as Giovanni.

And that last episode which had Iwane doing some of the animation was just... ohhhhhh, a match made in heaven.

 

[HiroHunter]

Pokemon Origins is a lot of telling but little showing we and because of that I don't see any growth in Red or Charizard and it didn't help that I didn't care about any or Red's battles not even the one with Mewtwo. The battles in Origins from what I seen it only attack, attack, attack and no real skill or any tactics of any kind even BW had them at times.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm not sure if I can call it good or bad exactly. The main purpose behind Origins was mainly to provide a bit of nostalgia fanservice with a more faithful retelling of the R/B storyline and to introduce Mega Charizard X. In that regard, it basically accomplished that. It wasn't trying to present Red as someone who had grown so much. We only saw the beginning of his journey, the middle of it with some highlights, his final confrontation with Team Rocket, winning the Pokemon League and defeating Mewtwo with Mega Charizard X. He captured a lot of Pokemon and became a stronger trainer, but they weren't interested in showing much development for Red beyond how he better understood Pokemon.

It is interesting to see a more faithful adaptation of the video games and despite the pacing issues, I think that all of the episodes are engaging, but I also think it has more style than substance. A lot of people say it could have been better if they had thirteen episodes to cover all of Red's journey and that is possible, but it wouldn't have been a guarantee. It still could have had the same issues or different ones even with a larger amount of episodes. Besides that, I also think that saying it could have been better with more episodes isn't the best defense. We only have these four episodes, so that's what we have to judge it on. I think it's worth checking out if you do like R/B or just to see a different kind of Pokemon series from the main one. It is much better than Generations, if only because it does have more of a point than most of those shorts did, but I also don't think it's so much better than the main anime series like a lot of people mentioned around the time it first came out.

 

[Antiyonder]

It is interesting to see a more faithful adaptation of the video games and despite the pacing issues, I think that all of the episodes are engaging, but I also think it has more style than substance. A lot of people say it could have been better if they had thirteen episodes to cover all of Red's journey and that is possible, but it wouldn't have been a guarantee. It still could have had the same issues or different ones even with a larger amount of episodes. Besides that, I also think that saying it could have been better with more episodes isn't the best defense. We only have these four episodes, so that's what we have to judge it on. I think it's worth checking out if you do like R/B or just to see a different kind of Pokemon series from the main one. It is much better than Generations, if only because it does have more of a point than most of those shorts did, but I also don't think it's so much better than the main anime series like a lot of people mentioned around the time it first came out.

Funny thing the more that I've talked about this and read this thread is that it's not all that different from the main anime. When all is said and done I find the main show to be somewhere to be a guilty pleasure with moments, episodes and seasons having some genuine quality or redeeming value.

Same can be said of Origins with say Red actually going from a rookie to champion and not being held back by status quo or too much if any, plus actually explaining how Gym Leaders operate for trainers who don't hail from Pallet (i.e. having Pokémon of varying levels rather than just in say the 18-21, 45-50 or 50-55 range).

But yeah even if extending the episode count might not have saved the quality, it arguably would have added more weight to both the final Giovanni fight and the Pokémon League if we saw Misty through Blaine, plus all Team Rocket moments. Especially adding some more hints of Giovanni once being a more idealistic, innocent trainer.

 

[SammyW27]

I hate Origins Red because of how it feels like he won a lot of his battles with luck and not skill.

You realize that's how Ash wins part of the time, right?
Hell, sometimes it's not even luck. Just pure plot armor because the show NEEDS him to win no matter how bullshitty...

 

[HiroHunter]

You realize that's how Ash wins part of the time, right?
Hell, sometimes it's not even luck. Just pure plot armor because the show NEEDS him to win no matter how bullshitty...

That's true Ash did win some of his battles with luck, but he did win more battles with skill and I didn't see that with Origins red.

 

[Antiyonder]

You realize that's how Ash wins part of the time, right?
Hell, sometimes it's not even luck. Just pure plot armor because the show NEEDS him to win no matter how bullshitty...

I'd say at least using Metapod's String Shot to slow Onix down enough for Charmander to land the fainting blow (you know, since trainers without a criminal record don't kill their opponent, hopefully) gives him more credibility in the skill department rather than coming up with a scheme to say super heat Charmander and getting the Badge simply because he backed out of cheating.

 

[sc190191]

I knew I had answered this question before, and it took me a little while to find it, but here is a thread on it from a few years ago, with some more opinions, just to show what people were saying about it back then. I haven't seen it since then, so I can't say my opinion changed, but I thought it might be nice to link some of the old opinions, since it was possibly a little closer to when people watched it and some of those people may not be as active here any more.

 

[kantoskies]

It was interesting seeing how it artistically differed from the main series, and it gave nice focus to some Gen I stuff the main series never tried to adapt, but it was still kind of meh.

I personally find the straightforward adaptations of game stuff like this, Generations, and the BW2 shorts to be kind of boring since we already know exactly what's gonna happen. I mean yeah sure the Kanto games never had legit cutscenes like the newer games do so it was cool seeing some of that stuff fleshed out (since again the Kanto main series saga didn't delve into all of this) but it was still pretty bland. The main series can be pretty formulaic but at least it tries to do its own thing (with varying degrees of success. but you can still give them an A for effort).

I wouldn't say it was outright bad but it wasn't particularly good either.