Pokémon Origins.TV Tokyo. Nintendo. Pokémon. The Pokémon Company
First off I have to come out that I have been a long time fan of the series and while watching the Pokémon Origins special there was a certain amount of nostalgia, so I'm a little biased. I don't think it's a bad thing though. The special deals with the first generation of Pokemon games and that has the greatest appeal to those who played them with they first came out. Let's get to issue at hand and review the four part special.
The special covers the entire plot of the first generation games, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. The special does cover the whole plot but focuses on most of the actual story and on a few choice major events. The story follows Red, the protagonist of the games, on his quest to become a Pokémon trainer and complete the Pokédex. The first part of the special deals with the start of his journey, picking his first Pokémon, battling his rival Green and his first Gym Leader. The second part focuses on the battle against Team Rocket in Lavender Tower and dealing with the ghost haunting the tower. Part three deals with Red's continuing fights against Team Rocket and his Gym Battle against Giovanni the leader of the Team. The Final part of special deals with Red battling the Elite Four, battling his rival for the championship and a battle against Mewtwo. Overall the writing staff picked some great parts of the games to focus on while still managing to cover the rest of the games along the way. The writers covered some Compelling, action packed, and emotional moments in the story.
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One of the things that long time fans will find most appealing is how Red is portrayed. Red is the viewer, he is the game player when they first started out. Red doesn't know anything about type advantages, weakening Pokémon to catch them, or that trying to catch trainers other trainer's Pokémon is a no-no. That made Red exactly like how everyone was once when they first started the games, it reflected the mood and attitude perfectly. The level of nostalgia in the first part was very high, I caught myself smiling as it reminded me of early days with the game series. I'm sure other long time fan would get similar emotions.
The second part dealt with a story line that involved Cubone and the ghost of it's dead mother. In the game it was a tragic story but in the special it was absolutely heart breaking. The writers delved into the story and really flushed it out. Going back to show the mother Marowak protecting her baby but failing to save herself. Then they went on to show how the Cubone isolated itself because of those events but found comfort in Old Man Fuji who rescued it. These part went to give true depth and human emotions to this non-human character. Most people would not have gone into the effect of the mother's death on the baby Cubone but they did and the reaction was a realistic one. It gave a compelling and fulfilling conclusion when they dealt with the ghost finally passing on. Red's passion to protect the people of the town and the Pokémon was great and really drove the story.
The third part had some truly incredible battles, besides being awesome they looked spectacular and realistic. Any viewer could easily get pulled into the battle sequences, I myself found my heart racing during those scenes. Still, the greatest strength of this part was the core message. Many people see that series as people having creatures fighting each other but the series is about becoming partners with them. Red and Giovanni's battles has those two view points face off. During the battle we can see the battles are truly about people syncing with their Pokémon and putting every thing into every one of the battles with their Pokémon. That is the core of Pokémon, you make friends with Pokémon and with other people. That living things aren't tools but those you befriend.
The final part besides having more battles has the resolution between the rivalry. It is satisfying to see Green get beaten after being a jerk through the whole thing. Besides that we get a final battle with Red's Charizard versus Mewtwo. The final battle actually breaks out with something from the games that about to be released. The final battle shows the lesson that you depend on others and that others depend on you, and when you're with others your are at your strongest.
Overall the special had several nostalgic treats for fans. The show closely follows the game and even goes frame by frame with something, for example the opening for the game and special match perfectly. One great treat was the blink and miss semi-invisible hand behind Red in Lavender Town, gamers will remember the comment of the invisible hand during their visit to that town. The special stayed true to the looks and landmarks from the game and even locations were showed in the same order. It wouldn't be hard to believe that the special was made by those who had played the games. The battles indoors also had a more realistic outcome, explosion and walls getting ripped apart. They showed what HP bars in a unique way as battle boards in the gyms, this gave it the game feel without making the bars stand out as out of place graphics.
The voices were very well done. All the voices fit the characters and didn't seem out of place. Red's voice actor was great, the voice carried hope and optimism associated with the along with the fierce determination. I particularly liked the voice of the Team Rocket boss Giovanni, it was dark and had a sense of power being it while still keeping a keen intelligence into the mix. They used the music from out of the games, it was thrill to hear the rival music when Green showed up or hearing the battle music played with the battles begun.
The things most will likely complain about are the addition of a mega evolution as that feature wasn't in the first generation games but the newest ones about to come out in the US.The story lines were mostly the same with a few tweaks to fit the whole story into the time they had. Some might complain that the best story lines weren't added but just glossed over, remember they could only do so much with the time they were given. These aren't just minor things to complain about.
I will admit that my biased being the nostalgia factor but remember that this special's target demographic is mostly to long time fans. Some might not like that in something that is to bring back memories of the past they brought in something from the future with the mega evolutions. Let us just take a minute and remember that Pokemon started out in 1996, that's seventeen years. A lot of the fan base that were there at the start are adults with jobs and families of their own now. This special gave a lot of them a chance to look back fondly at their childhood and gave a hope that there are still thinks to look forwards in the future in this long series. I think that is just wonderful. I myself was drawn back to the days when I was playing with my first Pokémon and starting off my own journey. The true wonderful thing about this special was that it could do that, it could give the viewers the same joy they felt when the series started out. Even if you didn't start playing or watching Pokémon when the first generation game out, I think, that this special will let you glimpse it. For all of that I am giving this special a five out of five. Nostalgia and all, I loved watching this and I think fans of generation one and onwards will love watching it.
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