Pokemon Generations Review:

The Pokemon Generations reviews were deleted from the site a while back, and I ended up recovering them. But instead of reposting like 18 posts at once, I decided to just lump all of them into a single post. It's not like these are super-extensive episodes anyway.
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Pokemon Generations, Episode 1: The Adventure

Well, this came a bit later than I expected it to. So, in 2016, around the lead-up to Pokemon Sun & Moon, Nintendo released a series of eighteen shorts -- three shorts per generation -- to show off important scenes from the games. The anime exists, but the anime is a very, very loose adaptation of the games, and the manga (as much as I love, love, LOVE it) doesn't quite have enough exposure. So Pokemon Generations was made. It's short, with each episode lasting around 5 minutes or so, which is different than its spiritual predecessor, Pokemon: The Origin, which is a four-episode mini-season showing four pivotal moments of Red's adventures through the plot of Red/Blue/Green. 

Oh, and Generations is released in English and other languages first before Japanese, which is a bit of an important distinction. It's still very much anime from an animation and art-style standpoint, but it's a bit of a strange thing -- I'm not quite sure whether the animation was made by the Japanese studios, dubbed in English, before the Japanese had a chance to dub it, or something else entirely, but it's a bit of a weird deviation from the formula. Also this series is pretty much an incomprehensible anthology of disconnected stories for anyone that's not a Pokemon fan. It's not like the anime or Origins, where there's at least some semblance of plot that interconnects the longer episodes. It's... strange that way.

Most of the Generations episode have a bit showing the plot derived from the games that they are adapting, but for the Kanto games, it's a bit different. With the majority of the iconic plot points of Kanto already adapted in Pokemon Origins, they went for something different. This particular Kanto episode stars franchise mascot Pikachu (who sat out nearly the entirety of Origins), and I am absolutely in love with how this episode opens. We start off with the old-style, Game-Boy Colour intro to Pokemon Red, with the absolutely crappy 18-bit music and graphics of the player character fighting a Pikachu (where his cry is still jumble of pixels instead of voice-acted) in Viridian Forest and capturing it... and then suddenly we get an absolutely awesome art shift as the camera focuses on the Pokeball, and the pixelated surroundings of Viridian Forest and Bulbasaur get turned into pretty anime. 

Pikachu is sent out, and is awesomely slim and behaving like a mouse, making chu-chu sounds, something he hasn't been since 1996. Then he fights a Caterpie, and holy shit, this is where I had a huge, huge smile. The music blares into life, and it's a remix of the old Red/Blue battle music which we heard a couple of seconds ago, complete with orchestra, backup music and a very awesome animation of Thundershocks and String Shots. It's a very blatant statement: look at how far we've come. We're so much better now, in graphics, in music, yet it's still familiar and brings you home.

The rest of the episode just takes us through a fast-paced trek through the next five generations: Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos, as both the locale and the music change to match the generation. (That glorious trumpet score from the Hoenn scene!) Twenty years' worth of games and adventures. And, yes, it's Pikachu experiencing it all, but still, as the titular mascot of the franchise I think he deserves it.

Can I just say Pikachu using Thundershock to attack the Woopers and getting surprised that it didn't work because, y'know, Wooper is Water/Ground, is absolutely hilarious? Mostly because Wooper is the first Water/Ground type in Pokemon, and that was my exact reaction when I tried using an electric attack on Wooper back when I played Pokemon Crystal. In Generation I my gut reaction to seeing a blue water thing is to thunderbolt it, and hey.

Some particularly awesome action scenes is the acrobatic melee with Vigoroth during the Hoenn segment, and making Probopass look absolutely awesome during the Sinnoh segment -- the mini-nose drones have never looked as badass as this outside of the manga, and seeing big, silly, fandom-punchbag Probopass animated so well as the main body slams down while the mini-noses shoot laser beams... the battle against Volcarona is also very impressive, with Pikachu iron-tailing a block from the ground to block the Heat Wave from Volcarona, with some excellent scorching animation on the block, and I'm now sad that the actual Kalos games didn't have a mine cart ride where you're chased by Noiverns.

Each generation sequence shows off one of their legendaries, too, which heralds the scene change, which I thought was pretty cool. Complete Forme Zygarde even does double duty for Generation VI and VII... and I'm sad that Zygarde never gets the epic reveal like he does in this little episode (or the anime, to be fair, which does Zygarde a lot of justice). 

There's no talking, beyond Pikachu and the other Pokemon making sounds -- animal-esque sounds, mind you, which keeps it a lot truer to the game -- and just shows off a couple of short battles and wonderfully-animated locales. It's a great little montage of how far we've come, of the adventures that all the Pokemon fans have... and, well, is a portent of things to come for the rest of this series, because you really need to be a fan to follow this. 

Pokemon Roll Call: Gengar, Nidorino, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Caterpie, Zapdos, Wooper, Lugia, Vigoroth, Latias, Latios, Probopass, Regigigas, Zen Mode Darmanitan, Litleo, Volcarona, Landorus, Noivern, Zygarde

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The locales that Red and Pikachu visit are all landmarks from the first six generations:
• Viridian Forest from the first generation. True to form, both Pikachu and Caterpie can be encountered there.
• Ecruteak City from the second generation, with the Tin and Burned Tower being prominently displayed.
• Weather Institute from the third generation, with the log bridges in that section of Hoenn being an important part of the terrain there.
• Snowpoint Temple from the fourth generation, with Regigigas waking up. While the other legendaries in this short are out of their normal habitats, Snowpoint Temple is indeed where you encounter Regigigas in the fourth generation.
• Relic Castle in the fifth generation, with Pikachu encountering the boss of that particular dungeon, a Volcarona. Pikachu also experiences the very, very annoying sand sinkholes that drop him into a lower level, and the Zen Mode Darmanitans in the desert outside of the Relic Castle is also visible.
• Terminus Cave in the sixth generation, and while in XY all you can encounter there is the 50% Zygarde, it is an area associated with Zygarde. The mining equipment, while not ridable, is a part of the area around Terminus Cave, and while wild Noiverns can't be encountered in-game, its pre-evolution Noibat do inhabit Terminus Cave.
• Red uses a Bulbasaur here, and catches a Pikachu, making him a different version of Red compared to the Red from Origin, who picks Charmander.
• I think that's a Litleo padding down the stairs in the background in the Relic Castle scene?

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 2: The Chase

Like I said yesterday, adapting the Kanto games is going to be hard because all the big, iconic parts of the game -- Viridian Forest, Pokemon Tower, Silph Company, the Elite Four/Blue battle, Mewtwo -- are all already covered in Pokemon Origin. There are other things to cover, maybe, like Mt. Moon or the Safari Zone, but those aren't super-duper interesting for an anthology. So Generations decided to tell a behind-the-scenes story. 

Enter Looker, Nintendo's favourite bumbling International Police agent. He's been portrayed to various degrees of competence throughout the games, manga and anime since his debut, but his whole existence is a very important part of Pokemon lore -- it shows that all the various regions are interconnected, it shows that despite so many environmental terrorists fucking up the world, there's at least an International Police Force that's supposed to be taking care of things. Of course, the teenage protagonists that us, the players, control, tend to end up beating the Giovannis and Cyruses of the world and saving it from the rampaging Groudons and Reshirams, but it's still a very cool part of world-building, even if the Police force is a bit of a joke.

Well, not anymore. This episode opens with a very cool montage of the investigation on the identity of the Team Rocket boss, with the International Police making raids on Celadon City and Silph Co, basically mopping up and cleaning up after Red's battles with them, before leading to the climax -- a bunch of policemen in riot gear, armed to the teeth with Pokemon partners, assaulting Viridian Gym. Of course Looker doesn't manage to arrest Giovanni, since he needs to be around during the Johto games. It doesn't answer one of the biggest question in the games: why is the Team Rocket Boss allowed to be a gym leader, and be missing from his post? But Looker notes that it's a case of hiding under plain sight, using the 'not around to take challenges' thing as an excuse, before popping back briefly to fight and lose to Blue and later Red, before disappearing once more.  

It's very awesome to see these Pokemon be used in a police operation, with a Machamp breaking down a wall, an Arcanine melting through a different wall, Magnemite being used to unlock the doors... it's a pretty awesome, the animation is crisp and the Pokemon look badass, and Looker finds the gym deserted with only signs of battle. It's a nice little 'epilogue' scene that actually fits in well with Pokemon Origins as well as the original games, showing just what happens in the background.

Oh, and the voices. I really like Giovanni's voice (Richard Epcar, notably voicing Joseph Joestar from the English dub of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), a starkly different take compared to the version from the anime. Looker's voice is also lacking the annoying inflections of his game counterpart, and while Looker does feel a bit flat as a character at least he's not annoying, which is something.

Pokemon Roll Call: Machamp, Arcanine, Magnemite, Growlithe

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• Giovanni uses his longcoat/fedora combo look that he has from Generation IV onwards.
• Looker is a character that was first introduced in Generation IV's Platinum game, kicking off a little mini metaplot across all the subsequent games where Looker will show up as a representative of the International Police, investigating something. In the Kanto and Johto games, however, Looker and the International Police is absent, though a member of the 'Global Police' appeared in the original Red/Blue game, specifically abroad the S.S. Anne.
• The Celadon City Game Corner in Red/Blue is the first Team Rocket base you encounter in the game, with a secret poster leading to an underground base. Silph Company, the location of the final confrontation with Team Rocket, while not shown, is mentioned briefly by an agent. And 
• Giovanni, of course, is the gym leader of the Viridian Gym, which in the game is inaccessible due to its leader being missing until you fuck up Giovanni's plans and return to find him waiting. This episode mentions that Giovanni gave away two badges (to Red and Blue) during his brief return before disappearing again. 
• Growlithe and Arcanine are Pokemon associated with the police force in the anime. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 3: The Challenger

This episode has really, really pretty animation, doesn't it? It's short, but it even eclipses Pokemon Origin in how crisp and well-shaded both human and Pokemon are. Shame we didn't really get to see a lot of the battles, just brief montages and a single blow or two. Here the plot's simple, and basically acts as a prequel of sorts to Pokemon Origin's third episode. We get to see the Elite Four in shadow, and this cocky upstart Blue shows up. He's as huge as an arrogant douche as he is in the games, but like the games, at least he has the power to back it up. And from the confrontation to the prideful Lolerei and the angry Bruno, Blue shows off his power absolutely well. We get a very cool teleporting/psychic action scene with Alakazam, and the scene of Blue's Pidgeot slamming Machamp so hard that it knocks even its trainer, Bruno, into the wall, is well-displayed.

Agatha and Blue have a very excellent conversation. Outside of the Adventures manga, Agatha never received any sort of characterization despite her interesting backstory in the original games. An old friend of Professor Oak's, and conceivably being his rival, Agatha notes how Blue's focusing on fighting and being the champion instead of completing the pokedex like what Oak wants, causing Blue to get super pissed-off. And this shows an underlying current in the games' version of Blue, a stark difference from his anime or manga counterparts, where those Blues have a good relationship with their grandfathers. Here, we see the game's version of Blue, and in this short conversation shows just how much he loathes being constantly compared to his grandfather, a plot point that the fandom kind of accepted as canon considering how Oak forgot his grandson's name in the beginning (okay, that's only so that you could name him) and how dismissive Oak is to his grandson after you, the player, defeats him. Yes, it's a way to show off how much the mentor and the professor acknowledges you, the character, but man, as much of a douchehole Blue is, he doesn't deserve that. 

Also, the scene of Agatha unleashing Gengar, opening the Pokeball on her cane to have a shadow seep out and expand on the battlefield, before Gengar itself rises out of the shadows... that's just motherfucking awesome right there.

The episode ends with Blue on his throne, waiting for Red's arrival, showing that as much as Blue is a prideful douche he's still always comparing himself to Red, and he wouldn't be satisfied before he's able to beat Red's (i.e. your) ass into the ground. Maybe to get recognition from his grandfather? Maybe just because of some kind of inferiority complex? It's this kind of looking-too-much-into-a-character that the fandom has engaged in for so many years, trying to dissect the limited interactions that we have with the characters in the game through a couple dozen lines, and to see Blue's inferiority complex actually adapted into official material (again, neither the anime's Gary Oak or the manga's Blue have any sort of resentment towards Oak or Red the way this Blue has) is a bit of a small victory for me.

Pokemon Roll Call: Alakazam, Lapras, Machamp, Pidgeot, Rhydon, Arbok, Gengar, Dragonite, Blastoise

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• All the characters appear in their designs that they have in FireRed/LeafGreen.
• Blue uses a Blastoise, which makes this conceivably being the same Blue from Pokemon Origin. Notably, since in episode 1 of Generations Red uses a Bulbasaur, it does mean that this Blue isn't paired to episode 1's Red. The members of Blue's team -- Pidgeot, Rhydon and Alakazam -- are the three Pokemon he will always have during rival and champion battles no matter your starter Pokemon's choice (his fifth and sixth Pokemon are chosen from a pool of three others -- Gyarados, Arcanine and Exeggutor, depending on your and therefore his starter).
• Lapras, Machamp, Gengar and Dragonite are all the final and highest-leveled Pokemon of the Elite Four members in Red/Blue/Yellow. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 4: The Lake of Rage

Well, this one tells a bit of a mini-story on itself, and builds up on the 'Giovanni leaves Team Rocket to wander the earth' mini-plot that's told in episode 2 of Pokemon Generations, the only semblance of an overreaching plot that ties at least the Kanto and Johto episodes together. Oh, right, we're in Johto now! We get to see a different player character than Red, which is the second generation's protagonist Ethan (or Gold, for manga readers). See, in the games, you meet up with Lance in the Lake of Rage, uncover a Team Rocket plot, and enter the base... but you split up. Well, this episode tells the story from Lance's point of view, with Ethan having only a brief, non-speaking, faceless cameo.

Lance has spent both his appearances in these truer-to-game anime series being beaten down by Red and Blue, but here we get to see why he's the Champion of the Kanto/Johto league come Generation II. From the beginning battle between Dragonite and Gyarados (which is awesome), to how he literally just manhandles and breaks through a gauntlet of Team Rocket goons with no effort (another awesome scene), to his very one-sided battle against Petrel, to his pretty excellent voice work, to him freeing the Electrodes... Dragonite is also a pretty awesome MVP, too. I've always found Dragonite a hilariously derpy-looking Pokemon, only to be surprised time and time again in games when Dragonite suddenly ends up being a badass and whupping my ass.

And Lance, the trainer most associated with Dragonite? Man, that scene when Lance tells Dragonite to destroy it all, and he starts tearing apart Team Rocket's machines... it really shows what a monster can do. Not to mention how effortlessly it tanks all the attacks of five Pokemon, breathes fire to them, and whacks a bunch off the railing with its tail... also the very stern expression it has when it follows Lance on that hilarious slide is funny too.

Lance is one of my favourite characters in the Pokemon franchise. And yes, a good part of it is simply due to his portrayal in the Yellow arc of the Pokemon Adventures manga, where Lance basically enacts Ra's Al Ghul's plan of "wipe out humanity for the good of nature", but, y'know, Lance has an army of fucking dragons at his command. But even in the games Lance is a huge badass, especially in the Johto games where he's not just a trainer to beat in the League, but actually shows up a couple of times during the story. And unlike most other champions (looking at you, Diantha), Lance actually goes around to beat up the bad guys terrorizing his region, and not just show up and deliver cryptic advice and encouragement. Hell, in the games, Lance's Dragonite actually hyper beams a Team Rocket grunt! Makes the thunderbolt he does here to Petrel look tame, doesn't it.

The animation in this episode isn't as excellent as the previous three, with the scene of Team Rocket trying their best to pull off an intimidating walk looking absolutely inferior compared to the rest of the episode. Or maybe it's intentional? What else... oh, the Electrodes are awesome. I love Electrode.

It's a pretty cool episode, and it's nice to see something that's relatively super-faithful to one of the plotlines in the games. Besides, Lance's awesome. 

Pokemon Roll Call: Dragonite, Gyarados, Magnemite, Raticate, Grimer, Golbat, Houndoom, Weezing, Electrode

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• Team Rocket using radio towers while masquerading as a gift shop to cause all the Magikarp in the Lake of Rage to evolve into a Gyarados, the leader of the Gyarados being a shiny red Gyarados, the large amount of Electrodes being used to power Team Rocket's facilities, the Persian statues in Team Rocket's base, as well as the player character and Lance assaulting the Rocket base, all happen in Generation II's Gold & Silver, though the character of Rocket Admin Petrel is only added in the remakes in Generation IV, Heart Gold & Soul Silver, replacing a previously generic Rocket Admin trainer. In the games, Petrel's strongest Pokemon is indeed a Weezing.
• Likewise, Ethan's Pokegear is definitely the redesign seen in Generation IV, and the presence of female Team Rocket grunts makes this correspond to the remakes.
• Why does Magnemite still able to blink and float around even after Dragonite's fire-type attack (which should be super-effective to Magnemite, actually) that takes down the rest of its buddies? Well, Sturdy, of course!
• While multi-battles aren't introduced until Generation III (and even then, generally trainers fight with an equal amount of Pokemon on each side), Lance's encounter with the five Team Rocket trainers, with them ganging up on Lance's Dragonite five on one, seems to be coincidentally similar to the Horde Battles introduced in Generation VI. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 5: The Legacy

A bit of an oddball, this episode doesn't feature any action at all, compared to the previous four episodes -- and indeed, nearly every single episode in Generations after this. The entire episode revolves around International Policeman Looker, on the hunt for Giovanni, confronting Silver, the rival from the Generation II games, and calling him out as the son of Giovanni... something that I don't think a lot of the Western audience knows without research, considering that Silver's status as Giovanni's son is only revealed in the manga (which sees limited distribution in the English-speaking world) and in a particular in-game conversation that requires an event-exclusive legendary pokemon. So, yeah, it's nice to know that this fact is getting slightly more exposure.

I really wish the voice acting is slightly better for this episode, though -- there's just something lacking in both Looker and Silver's performances, which is a shame because everything around Silver's backstory is interesting. Three years ago, Silver broke ties with Giovanni, his father, who he saw as weak for running off after being beaten up by two kids. Giovanni notes how he's going away to become stronger, to properly utilize his manpower and his Pokemon, which actually explains Silver's absolute obsession with strength, something that is his defining characteristic in the game, how all he talks about is how only strong Pokemon matter, and how he loses because of the weakness of his Pokemon. Silver's decision to be strong on his own, seeing his father's acceptance of defeat as a huge weakness, explains a lot about what drives what is easily my favourite rival character from the games. 

In a way, while this sort of advances the Looker-Giovanni plot from episode 2, it's not really the point of this episode. This episode's only to show Silver, and how the dude's mind works -- which is how strength is everything, and he's got some daddy issues. Now if only we get some payoff to this, or some better voice acting... -sigh-

Pokemon Roll Call: Fearow, Arbok, Koffing, Zubat

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• Looker reappears! Like I said during my review of episode 2, Looker technically never appears in-game during the events of the Johto games, whether the originals or the remakes. 
• Silver, the rival in the Johto games, being the son of Giovanni, was a plot point during the Fire Red/Leaf Green arc of the Pokemon Adventures manga, which is an extrapolation of a brief throwaway line from the Fire Red/Leaf Green games where a scientist notes that Giovanni's kid has red hair. This ends up being adopted into the games and explicitly confirmed in Heart Gold and Soul Silver... though not in the main story.
• Not a lot of people experienced it because you needed an event-exclusive Celebi to activate this particular scene, but the conversation between Silver and Giovanni three years prior to the beginning of the Johto games actually happened in Heart Gold and Soul Silver. 
• Team Rocket's takeover of Goldenrod City's radio tower is alluded to in Looker's dialogue, as is the motivations of the Team Rocket remnants -- to try to contact their leader, Giovanni. Silver also mentions that he's about to challenge the Pokemon League -- in the games, one of the final battles you have to do before entering the league is a battle against Silver.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 6: The Reawakening

Like last episode, this is a calmer one with no action at all -- though to be fair, the Johto games were always lacking in that -- fighting the disorganized, sad remnants of a leaderless Team Rocket, even with the reboots' introduction of named admins, has never been as interesting as dismantling Team Rocket the first time around, nor is it as interesting as saving the world from a legendary-pokemon-caused-apocalypse like literally every other game after this. So for two of the three Johto episodes, Generations opted for more calming ones, showing the lore behind Johto. Last episode we got Silver. This time around, we've got the other major named character from Crystal, Miracle Mystery Man Eusine, the dude with a cape and an unhealthy, unhealthy obsession with Suicune. 

Well, at least in the fandom's collective mind, anyway. Here he's just portrayed as a man whose goal is to see Suicune, and we have him flashback to a very well-animated sequence of the Brass Tower burning down, killing three Pokemon before they are resurrected by Ho-Oh into the Legendary Beasts, and wanting to restore Suicune's faith in humanity. We get to see Suicune a little, as he reveals himself in a poof of mist in front of Eusine, before disappearing. It's Suicune, a Pokemon I have known for more than a decade, so the majesty is a little gone... but in the world of Pokemon not every trainer can be like, well, us, the protagonists, having multiples of every single legendary in existence stuffed into our PC boxes. Most of the people inhabiting the Pokemon world find themselves lucky to even catch a glimpse of these mythical, legendary creatures, and Eusine's reverence and the sheer sense of magic caused by all the mist and the music as Suicune appears for a fleeting moment before him is amazingly played.

Yes, there's nothing overtly exciting about this -- Eusine has a flashback to some backstory, then Eusine walks around and sees Suicune, who then disappears. But it's very low-key, it's very calming, set to a very nice remix of the Ecruteak City music, and it's representative to the multiple stories and genres present in the Pokemon world. Yes, capturing Pokemon, saving the world from being devoured by eldritch abominations, taking down criminal organizations are all great and good, but these backstories of legendary Pokemon and these majestic encounters with them embodies a pretty significant part of the game as well. Too often in new generations when we see a Legendary we just rush it with pokeballs and chuck everything at it to add this powerful creature to our arsenal of powerful creatures, and I'm not sure when was the last time when I felt the same majesty Eusine felt when I encountered a Legendary Pokemon like this. Probably when I met Suicune myself as a little child playing Crystal more than a decade ago.

(God damn I sound like an old man in this one)

Featured Pokemon: Stantler, Growlithe, Persian, Vulpix, Hoppip, Rattata, Pidgey, Ho-Oh Raikou, Entei, Suicune

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• Eusine's search and obsession to Suicune, and his visiting the Burned Tower, was first seen in Pokemon Crystal, and was also brought over to the Generation II remakes, Heart Gold & Soul Silver. The backstory of the Burned Tower, the Legendary Beasts being killed in the fire and resurrected by Ho-Oh, came from the original Gold & Silver.
• The Legendary Beasts being distrustful of humans and never revealing themselves to them, however, was not the backstory of the Johto Legendary Beasts, at least if I'm remembering correctly. Yes, they're finicky and run around the region away from you, but in the games, they're just sleeping until you accidentally wake them from their slumber. The Legendary trio that gets oppressed and therefore distrust humans are the Legendary Musketeers of Unova.
• The feather that falls down at the end of the episode is a Rainbow Wing, the item that you need to activate the encounter with Ho-Oh in the Johto games.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 7: The Vision

Bit of a delay from the previous one. Sorry about that. Do intend to take this series all the way to the end.

Ah, the Hoenn episodes. Hoenn is, thanks to nostalgia reasons, one of my favourite regions in the Pokemon world, and I have the entire plot of the original Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald memorized to a T. Generation III is the generation where we actually start having a more rudimentary story instead of just going through the region and fighting Team Rocket every second or third city. Which, in an odd case of conversion, makes this one of the more disconnected episodes of Pokemon Generations. Yes, the Team Magma higher-ups try their best to introdump their plot, but there's not a lot of setup done as to why they want to go to the Seafloor Cavern, or who these Team Magma blokes even are. You're as good as lost if you don't have a slight knowledge of how the Hoenn games play out.

Which is fine, really -- it's a series meant for fans. So yeah, enjoy this absolutely insane depiction of Sceptile with his arm-mounted sickle-leaf-blades of doom, one-shotting every single damn grunt in his way, even cutting through metal doors and shit. My Sceptile can't do that! I had to find a Key Card like every sane person. We didn't get to see either Red or Ethan be a badass in the previous Generations episodes, so it's very awesome to finally see a depiction of one of the protagonists (i.e. you) show off just how badass a kid with a Wolverine-dinosaur can be. 

It's a big complaint that all the episodes in Generations that feature the main protagonists only use the male ones, though, which is a completely valid complaint. Some of the best trainer designs in the games are the female protagonists -- I played through the Generation V games as the ladies because the males looked so generic! Also, female representation! It's a bit annoying, but I don't really want to get into this discussion here. So.

Anyway, one of the best alterations Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire made to the original Hoenn games was giving the bad guys personality, and one of my favourites is Courtney. Courtney already holds a special place in my heart due to being a very important character in the Adventures manga, and to see this different interpretation of her in the games, where she's like this emotion-less robot lady who speaks like she's HAL 9000's cousin... right up until she goes into battle shen she suddenly goes into blood knight mode. Very anime. And... very unsettling. Her sudden twitching and facial expression change at the end before she battles Brendan is absolutely creepy, and Courtney's voice actress is easily the unquestioned best out of this entire series for getting that "I just want to... analyze you -giggle-" line perfect. That's not a distinction I like to make with dubbed shows, because a good percentage of dub voice actors tend to fall flat, but not this lady.

Courtney's random vision literally comes out of nowhere, though, and seems to only serve as an excuse to get Primal Groudon in the thing... which, to be honest, isn't something I'm complaining terribly about. I mean, shit, it's Groudon! Shooting great blasts of destruction and blowing shit up and creating a drought-induced apocalypse! I'm not complaining if the episode decides to jump through logical hoops just to show us that.

So yeah, I really liked this for a lot of Hoenn-related reasons, but I'll be the first to admit that this is one of the more haphazardly written episodes of this series. 

Pokemon Roll Call: Sceptile, Golbat, Mightyena, Primal Groudon, Camerupt

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The visuals for this game are definitely inspired more by the Generation VI remakes of the Hoenn games as opposed to the original versions, with distinct changes being the designs of Brendan, Maxie, Courtney and Tabitha; Courtney's characterization as a creepy psychopathic robot-woman who'll cut you while you're asleep; Courtney being the one to hold the line at Magma HQ instead of Tabitha; Maxie having that Key Stone in his glasses; and the Camerupt-coloured submarine. Oh, and motherfucking Primal Groudon being present.
• The events here take place during the Team Magma HQ portion of Ruby / Omega Ruby, with you, the player character, assaulting the HQ only to find too late that the Magma leader has buggered off in their submarine to awaken Groudon. True to form, the grunts use Mightyena and Golbat, two very common Pokemon among the Magma/Aqua grunts, while Courtney uses Camerupt, the Pokemon of choice of the Team Magma admins and leader.
• In all promotional material for Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, most prominently the animated trailers, Brendan is associated with Sceptile. This is in comparison to his anime counterpart and his manga counterpart Ruby, who both use Swampert.
• Maxie calls the Seafloor Cavern the Seafloor Cave. See, man, this is why Archie is cooler than you.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 8: The Cavern

This episode made me go "WHAT THE SHIT" and I urge you to watch this. Holy shit, man. One of the biggest weaknesses of the weather legendaries rampaging in those old Generation III games is that they never really felt... dangerous. Yes, the rain and the sun weather effects happening everywhere is a constant reminder of this main plot that's going on, and Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire top this by having the music change into a very unsettling one (Primal Groudon's Drought theme is absolutely creepy) but it never really felt like that huge of an impact. Not so in the Adventures comic where Groudon and Kyogre being unleashed caused a multiple-volume-long chaos that's not afraid to show the devastation that these god-like creatures are unleashing... but even that pales to this short six-minute episode.

The opening of the episode is relatively run-of-the-mill, with Shelly (whose voice I just didn't really like) talking to the overly-hammy Archie about how awakening Kyogre is a bad, bad idea. Archie is a huge, huge ham in this episode, with very wild gesticulations and an absolutely insane ham that maybe is a tad too much even for the boisterous pirate-man. His long roar of "KAAAYYYYY-YO-GEEEEREEEEEE!" is absolutely hilarious. We also get a rather large amount of fanservice shots of both Shelly and Archie's ass, too. 

Archie is insane, though, and he summons Kyogre, which then transforms into Primal Kyogre... before Kyogre dives down, and bursts out into Hoenn. What follows is some of the most impressive animation I've ever seen come out of Pokemon, with Primal Kyogre's movements being absolutely fluid yet suitable of a titanic leviathan, and when he activates his ability... from the huge swirling whirpool-tornado that dwarfs the Mossdeep Space Station, to the absolutely awesome remix of the Groudon/Kyogre battle theme from ORAS, to the brief panning shot of Hoenn showing whirlpools the size of the goddamned region all around it... we get to see just how horrifying a weather apocalypse can be, not just for the land-dwelling Pokemon, but also to the Pokemon at sea. The sight of those Wingulls getting sucked into the gigantic water tornado, or the underwater Pokemon struggling to even swim, we really get the scale of devastation that the games never managed to show us. 

Matt's dumbfounded expression, and his absolutely barely-holding-his-shit together delivery of "it's really bad up here..." is amazing, which is sadly ruined by Archie over-hamming the next few lines up. Archie and Shelly and their tiny adorable Sharpedo submarine just looks so tiny in the face of all the gigantic waves and storm winds that Kyogre is summoning, and trust someone who has lived through several nasty floods in his lifetime -- water's scary, man. And these little insignificant humans, trapped at sea, being tossed around... and Archie literally tries to get Primal Kyogre under control. 

And that scene where we get a closeup of Primal Kyogre's eye as the pupil shrinks down is absolutely terrifying, and Kyogre isn't even a scary badass like Groudon. He's a big fat fish! Yet in that scene where he's flying and he rapidly turns directions to charge at the Aqua people, and we just see how monumentally fucked they are as Primal Kyogre charges them... yeah. The Eusine episode might show how majestic and mystical legendary Pokemon can be, but this episode shows something that we first got from the Generation III games -- these Legendaries that are forces of nature, capable of great destruction and are things that you do not fuck around with.

And the music! In game, Groudon gets the better creepy music in drought, but here Kyogre returns with a vengeance, getting some insanely awesome latin chanting in the background as he levitates above the world, summoning storm, thunder and gigantic tornado-whirlpool things that look larger than, shit, the smaller islands of Mossdeep and Sootopolis. It's not just a lot of rain like the games... the rain's probably the least terrible of the gigantic storms Kyogre brings about. And the ending, with Kyogre about to eat Archie and Shelly or whatever, is a stark contrast to the optimistic "the hero saves the day!" plotline that the rest of Pokemon tend to have. It's amazing. 

The few scenes of devastation and gigantic water whirlpool tornadoes are brief, but holy shit -- it truly shows off Kyogre's power in a way that the movies never quite had. Even in the Mega Evolution Specials all Kyogre and Groudon did was launch impressive-looking powerful attacks at each other, and this is truly the leviathan of mass devastation that truly felt like it will drown the world in flood.

Pokemon Roll Call: Kyogre/Primal Kyogre, Wingull, Luvdisc, Horsea, Huntail, Clamperl, Tentacool, Carvanha, Chinchou, Relicanth, Gorebyss, Magikarp, Corsola, Spheal, Lotad, Poochyena, Beautifly, Delcatty, Chimecho, Swablu, Vigoroth, Whismur, Dustox, Azurill, Skitty, Mawile, Shroomish, Numel, Breloom, Volbeat, Illumise, Masquerain, Spoink, Makuhita, Ninjask, Seedot, Wurmple, Taillow

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events that take place here correspond to Alpha Sapphire for similar reasons as the previous episode -- the designs of the Team Aqua members, the Sharpedo submarine, the design of the Seafloor Cavern's final chamber, the presence of Primal Kyogre... hell, even Kyogre slumbering in a chrysalis-like state, before breaking out and Primal Reverting into its Primal Kyogre form is an absolutely faithful depiction of how Kyogre wakes up in Alpha Sapphire... with one key difference: neither May nor Brendan are around to stop Team Aqua. 
• Shelly mentions Team Aqua's attack on the Weather Institute, which is something that she does in the plot of Alpha Sapphire as well.
• Matt is stationed in Mossdeep City's Space Station.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 9: The Scoop

Yeah, using Gabby and Ty being super-investigators and trying to get the truth out to the people is an excellent way to frame this episode, making the events of this episode slightly more coherent to the average watcher. Except, y'know, honestly anyone without the slightest hint of the games would be confused as to what is going on. This series ain't meant for them, though.

Yeah, the Gabby and Ty stuff is interesting, and it's nice to see two of my favourite recurring characters get the spotlight in this episode. The setup bit might take a bit too long, though, and the ending, with the two of them running out with the USB, isn't quite a super-satisfying way to end out this episode as it's a cliffhanger.

The actual battle in this episode is awesome, though, with Mega Rayquaza and the trainer (who could be Brendan or May in that spacesuit) arriving into space to confront Deoxys, and the reporters are flabbergasted that a trainer could be controlling such a powerful Pokemon like Rayquaza, do battle against this alien creature Deoxys... and holy shit, that battle. It's even framed like an actual legendary encounter from the game, where the trainer lobs an Ultra Ball and captures Deoxys -- none of this 'befriend and then let him go on his merry way' nonsense that Ash does in every movie. No, I see a powerful psychic DNA alien transformer, I capture it and add it to my party. 

Also, it's awesome how the rest of the non-main-character NPCs probably see the player characters, yeah? Who the hell is this mysterious kid, able to command the god of the skies, blow up a meteor and capture an invader from space, no effort? The presentation of Gabby and Ty finding out from scratchy, fuzzy videos is very stylish and well-done.

The battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys is a sight to behold, with one of my favourite parts being the moment when the trainer barely survives getting sliced in half when Deoxys swoops down and uses his tentacles to cut a path through the satellite he's standing on, sending shattered pieces of the solar panels floating into space. (Incidentally, this answers the question of where my player character was standing during the space battle in the Delta Episode). But Deoxys's multiple transformations, Rayquaza's Dragon Ascent animation as he breaks through the meteor, the hyper beam animation, Deoxys's very cool version of Protect that involves psychically summoning the asteroids around him, the regeneration that Deoxys does at one point, the psycho boost versus dragon ascent... all set to an awesome remix of the Deoxys theme, itself a very alien and suitable theme...

(In space, your Pokeball doesn't twitch three times -- it just beeps three times!)

Yeah, I'm a sucker for legendary-on-legendary battles. It only lasted like a minute or two, but god damn, Rayquaza and Deoxys are two of the coolest legendaries around and it's amazing to see this absolutely brutal and swift battle between them. 

Pokemon Roll Call: Rayquaza/Mega Rayuaza, Linoone, Ninjask, Dusclops, Castform, Loudred, Deoxys

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events of this episode take place in the Delta Episode segment of Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire, in which the player character rides Mega Rayquaza into space to intercept a meteor, finding that it contained the outer-space Pokemon Deoxys.
• While it's the ORAS games' fault, the Rayquaza-vs-Deoxys fight references the Pokemon movie 'Destiny Deoxys', which sets up the two previously unrelated legendaries as rivals.
• Deoxys appearing from a black triangle that moves around erratically, before revealing his true form, is a reference to the obscure event-only way to obtain Deoxys in Fire Red/Leaf Green, which lets you go to Birth Island, and you have to chase Deoxys in its triangular form before he reveals himself as a Pokemon.
• The whole mission of going into space from Mossdeep City's space station is probably a homage to just how utterly pointless the space station is in the original Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald games, where it's a very huge area that serves no purpose but be a pretty little set-piece, whereas everyone expected that you could go to space on it to encounter a legendary Pokemon. 
• Deoxys's ability to freely change between his four forms mid-battle is a trait that all adaptations have him able to do, but in the games proper you can only change Deoxys's form outside of battle, so in any given battle he's stuck in a single form. 
• Gabby and Ty are a pair of reporters that appear as recurring characters throughout both the original and remake versions of the Hoenn games. 
• Ty wears a shirt with a picture of the generation IV Pokemon Rotom on it. It's a carry-over from his ORAS design, though. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 10: The Old Chateau

Oh man, what the shit is this episode.

So, Generation IV's games are Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. There are a lot of events that they could've adapted into the Generations anthology, but they went with the Old Chateau. Okay, cool, why not? I mean, it's not the thing on the top of my head if you talk about Generation IV or Sinnoh, but it's cool -- the Old Chateau is a pretty iconic part of the Sinnoh region. And, hey, look, one of the guest-star trainers that helped me out during my journey through Sinnoh, Cheryl and her Chansey!

Of course it turns out to be one of the most horrifying ten minutes I've ever seen in Pokemon. I mean, Ghost Pokemon have been around since forever, but never have they actually done any really scary ghost shit other than general poltergeisting or wall-passing Casper stuff. And it's just so jarring. Everything in this episode is just so unsettling -- the haunted mansion itself, Chansey's ever-affixed smile, the way the camera pulls out to reveal that the food that Cheryl and Chansey are eating are all in their minds...

And then the ghostly shit happens, with the butler disappearing, then reappearing walking in the corridor behind them, the butler sinking into a huge purple mass in the ground, the psychotic laughter, the large huge mass of dark monstrosity resembling a Haunter's mouth chasing and ready to rip Cheryl and Chansey up....

And then they wake up in the abandoned mansion, the true form of the Old Chateau. Oh, it's an adaptation of the Pokemon move Dream Eater, right? I mean, like, it's over, and the Rotom or Haunter is going to reveal itself. Cheryl reads a very strange note, and a creepy little girl shows up with the creepiest voice. "You shouldn't have read that..." and then morphs into the most horrifying nightmare face as Cheryl and Chansey scream.

And the music! I'm not sure if it's actually a remix of the Chateau track from the game, but if it is, dang, it's a very creepy version of it. The times in the episode where the music just cuts out is also equally pretty fucking creepy. 

What the shit, man. It's definitely a great episode in that it is a sudden, unexpected infusion of the horror genre into Pokemon -- and, again, it's another aspect of the Pokemon games and the Pokemon world that's very much existent in the games ever since the very first Pokemon Tower, with all the possessed channelers and the ghosts going 'get out, get out', but here we ramp up the horror up to eleven. And it's gloriously creepy, mostly due to how unexpected the ghosts are. As a Pokemon fan I'm expecting a Rotom in a television to pop out and be the cause of all this, but no -- we get a psychotic little ghost girl. 

Pokemon Roll Call: Chansey, Haunter

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• This all takes place in Eterna Forest and the Old Chateau, the ghost-infested abandoned house in the middle of the forest. Eterna Forest is actually inspired by Aokigahara Forest in Japan, better known by its nickname: Suicide Forest. No prizes for guessing what happens there all the time.
• Cheryl is a lady trainer that you meet early on in Eterna forest while playing through the Generation IV games, and she tags along with her Chansey throughout your journey through the forest, serving as a portable healing center. 
• In the Old Chateau in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum games, you actually can see a little girl and a butler moving around and through walls, too fast for you to actually interact with or disappearing when you try to enter the room they're in.
• The note that Cheryl reads at the end of the episode, "Something so peculiar should make off ith the mot" is actually a note that exists in the Old Chateau in the game itself. It doesn't cause a creepy stringy-haired ghost girl to murder you, though.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 11: The New World

Hell yeah. Platinum has one of my favourite plotlines simply due to how unearthly its mascot legendary, Giratina, is. Cyrus is a psychotic nihilist who manages to capture three legendary Pokemon, then use them  make the Red Chains to capture two even more powerful legendary Pokemon, all for the sake of turning the world into a soulless, emotionless nothingness. Cyrus's motive rants are some of the worst Pokemon's ever came up with, with how the world sucks because it has "heart" and "spirit", but damn, he does manage to get results. I think in the games only Ghetsis ever quite got to capture a legendary... but Cyrus managed to subjugate two. 

So yeah, the plot of this episode follows the climax of Pokemon Platinum, starting off with Cyrus using the red chains to subjugate Dialga, the god of time, and Palkia, the god of space. The Creation Trio might have some of the more controversially unnecessarily-complex designs ever in Pokemon, but the movies and Pokemon Generation's higher animation budget make them quite impressive looking.

We have Cynthia and her Garchomp facing off against Cyrus's two lieutenants, Mars and Jupiter, as well as their questionable fashion senses, while Cyrus's other lieutenant, Saturn, acts as base control. But it's not Cynthia, or the non-existent player character, that frees Dialga and Palkia. No, here, just like it was in Platinum, the unexpected arrival of the cover legendary, Giratina, shocks everyone. And what an entrance it was! Giratina rises out of this eldritch, shadowy realm, dripping inky shadow and being completely, creepily, shadowy-black other than his glowing red eyes. Giratina's already a pretty cool design, this weird skeletal-centipede-demonic-dragon-wyrm thing, and it homages how he appears in the overworld cutscene where he does show up as a shadow with glowing eyes, dripping shadow and extending its wings.

We get a very awesome, short battle as Palkia and Dialga are both forced to launch their signature attacks (holy hell that Spacial Rend tho) before Giratina just dodges everything, launches two Shadow Balls that shatter the red chains and the two other dragons just get the hell out of dodge. Then Giratina just pounces on Cyrus, slamming down on him like a wave, a force of nature, and everyone just watches in shock. Like how Giratina showed up in the games, there really was no warning that Giratina was going to appear at this point, and it's as shocking to everyone present.

Cyrus, however, gives no shit. He's abducted to Giratina's distortion world, and he actually stares down Origin Forme Giratina (who, in his defense, looks more curious than furious) as everyone stares in confusion. It must've been real confusion for Saturn as we cut to him screaming "MASTER CYRUSSS" so many times into his intercom, only to get a brief, static-distorted reply to not look for him.

Man, can I just say how much I loved this episode? From how Giratina looked with ink dripping off his body, to the very awesome remix of the Giratina theme with orchestral music -- it does use the energetic parts instead of the otherworldy, unsettling chunks of that theme, but shit, Giratina's theme is one of my all-time favourite themes from the Pokemon games, and seeing the brief Giratina-Dialga-Palkia fight set to that theme is awesome.

Yeah, it's another one of those episodes that doesn't really make a whole load of sense to anyone not familiar to the plot of the games. And honestly? Other than me fanboying over Giratina (oh, all right, Palkia and Dialga too) it's actually one of the weirdly disconnected episodes in Generations that could've used some introdumping and setup, and Cyrus could've used a less generic-sounding voice, but shit, it's the climax of Pokemon Platinum, one of my all-time favourite games, so I ain't complaining too much.

Pokemon Roll Call: Glameow, Stunky, Dialga, Palkia, Garchomp, Giratina

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• As I said, the plotline is almost identical to the climax of Pokemon Platinum -- Cyrus, Mars and Jupiter at Spear Pillar, and Cyrus capturing Dialga and Palkia with the red chains, while Cynthia goes up to confront them, only for Giratina to show up, free Dialga and Palkia, and kidnap Cyrus to the Distortion World. And Cyrus loves the Distortion World and the emptiness there that he refuses to go back. The main differences, of course, is the removal of the player character (Dawn/Lucas) and the rival (Barry), as well as the rescue attempt that the player, Cynthia and the Lake Guardian makes into the Distortion World to calm Giratina down. Everything else, right down to Giratina's appearance and his cry, is all very much identical to the cutscene in that game.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 12: The Magma Stone

I really wished we had one of the Sinnoh episodes focus on the Lake Guardian hunt. The Dialga/Palkia/Giratina/Cyrus episode is kind of necessary, being the crux of the story's plot, and I get excluding the event-exclusive legendaries because not a lot of people experienced their plotlines... but you could've gone for the Lake Guardian hunt and the big explosion when Saturn blew up Lake Valor. We could've had the awakening of Regigigas. We could've had Looker investigating Team Galactic. But nah, instead we get the Old Chateau (not complaining, though, that was creepy as fuck) and... this episode.

The Stark Mountain plotline was one of the post-game storylines that was added to Platinum. In the original Diamond and Pearl, Heatran was kind of just kinda... there as part of an urban legend, and you team up with local punk Buck to get the plot device required to summon Heatran. In the Platinum update, Galactic creepy scientist Charon shows up as the villain and you and Buck have to beat him up.

For whatever reason, despite all the other five generations having the protagonist show up, in the Sinnoh episodes we never even see the shadow of either Lucas or Dawn, which everyone takes as proof that they're going to be redesigned soon. Um, okay? In any case, though, this means Buck takes over as protagonist as he has to stop Charon from awakening Heatran. Which I suppose makes this episode have a solid plot instead of a series of events taken out of context from a larger storyline... but man, it's so boring. It doesn't help that Heatran is probably one of the least-interesting legendaries ever, but the voice actor they had for Buck made him absolutely annoying. He went from just a punk to someone who drops "dude, DUDE!" like he watches way too many TMNT cartoons.

To be fair, though, we get a short Looker role (again continuing his recurring role as someone who hunts down criminals from both the Kanto/Johto episodes), and his Croagunk can poison jab the fuck out of one of Heatran's attack. Not sure if it means Heatran's crap or Croagunk's awesome, but holy hell, that was a badass moment. Also kudos for the animators for making Claydol actually look cool with his levitation and detachable arms -- I never hated Claydol. He's strange, but I always liked his design, and it's nice to see him actually get some love in animated form.

But the rest of the episode is kinda just generic. A good chunk of it is Buck himself being a bit of an irritating twat, but Charon's also bland as all hell, and Heatran randomly disappearing when the heat stone is removed is kind of... eh.

Pokemon Roll Call: Claydol, Heatran, Croagunk

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events here all reference the events that took place at Stark Moutnain, specifically the version in Platinum, where Charon attempted to use Heatran for the use of the remnants of Team Galactic, and is stopped by Buck... and, well, you, the player character. Buck, like Cheryl, is a trainer that accompanies you throughout this area. The Magma Stone is also an item necessary to summon Heatran. Contrary to what this episode might have you believe, he only says 'dude' like, once in the game. 
• In addition to the player character being absent, in Platinum Charon is accompanied by Mars and Jupiter, who both abandon him partway through the sub-plot. Both are absent here. 
• At the end of the Platinum version of the Stark Mountain encounter, Looker and his buddy Croagunk do show up to arrest Charon, though unlike the version here Looker doesn't really have that much meaningful dialogue (or a battle) with Buck. Worth noting that Platinum is the only appearance of Looker's Croagunk, and subsequent appearances (the Generation VI and VII games) make a point to note how Looker's partner was killed in action... man, that poor Croagunk.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 13: The Uprising

So unlike the Sinnoh games, the Unova games are the most story-oriented games in Pokemon history, with only Generation VII's Sun and Moon approaching close (and even then Generation V's story is a lot denser than Generation VII) so there are a lot of moments to adapt. They decide to go with the most hardcore battles in the climaxes of the games, which is just fine by me. The fact that the game's NPCs all have a lot of personality, the sequels tell a completely different and branching storyline, and the gym leaders and secondary characters actually do a lot of things makes it a lot easier to tell stories without involving the protagonists as well.

Holy shit, this episode is awesome. Sadly not all of the gym leaders' voice actors are well-done (Burgh and Skyla both have very iffy voices) but it definitely is epic. From N's Castle rising and destroying the Pokemon League, with the Seven Sages giving loud speeches about how King N and Team Plasma will bring a new dawn to this world, while Iris stands alone against them. This is a battle that's merely implied in the games, with little more than sprites facing each other, but here we get to see the gym leaders of Unova, a.k.a. the only gym leaders who actually did anything in the games beyond being a one-time boss, fight.

And boy, what a very awesome roll call that is. From Iris and her Druddigon standing alone against the assault of Team Plasma and their Pokemon, to the dramatic entry of Clay's Excadrill, to the gym leaders coming to battle one by one, it's an amazing moment of fanboying for me. Yes, some of the Pokemon used by the gym leaders (Beartric, Druddigon and Swanna, in particular) are some of my least favourite things ever, but this episode makes them look awesome. It's an amazing roll call moment as the gym leaders show up one by one and show off just why they're so badass, why they're the head honchos of the Unova region. From Elesa nonchalantly riding her Excadrill and blasting Plasma mooks apart, to Burgh and Leavanny dancing while slicing Team Plasma's Pokemon apart, to Drayden's Haxorus rampaging, to Excadrill's dramatic entry, it's just badass.

Special kudos to Brycen, who goes all Bruce Lee on a bunch of Team Plasma grunts, while his Beartric picks up a Gigalith with a single hand and lobs it at a bunch of other Plasma grunts.

I don't think I have much to really say about this episode other than I probably watched the scene with the gym leaders arriving one by one and tearing their way through Plasma mooks like two dozen times. It's just a badass action sequence.

Pokemon Roll Call: Druddigon, Gigalith, Scolipede, Sigilyph, Whirlipede, Liepard, Excadrill, Mandibuzz, Herdier, Krokorok, Zebstrika, Leavanny, Seismitoad, Beartric, Swanna, Haxorus, 

Pokemon Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events of this episode take place during the climax of Pokemon Black & White, where N's conquered one of the legendary dragons, and uses its power to bring up a castle that expands out of the ground around the Pokemon League (yeah it doesn't make sense to me either but it happened), and all of the gym leaders bar the Striaton triplets show up to take on the Team Plasma Sages and grunts while the player character runs up to stop N and Ghetsis. Like how it was in the games, the Striaton triplets are absent from the conflict, and both Iris and Drayden (only one of them act as the gym leader of Opelucid in the games, depending on the version) show up.
• The gym leaders that show up all use their strongest Pokemon when you fight them during the gym leader battles in Black & White, which is why Lenora is still using an unevolved Herdier. Burgh uses his Leavanny, Elesa uses her Zebstrika, Clay uses his Excadrill, Brycen uses his Beartric, Skyla uses her Swanna, Drayden uses his Haxorus and Iris is the notable exception with Druddigon, probably to differentiate her from Drayden with whom she shares an in-game party with.
• The Seven Sages all appear here, and they are recurring villains in the games. A good chunk of their speech at the beginning of the episode is lifted wholesale from the games as well.
• Brycen's knowing of martial arts is a nod to how he was in the games, where his occupation is a movie actor that does his own stunts. 
• Excadrill bursting out of the ground behind Iris and landing next to her is a bit of a cross-media nod to how Iris's anime counterpart has Excadrill as one of her Pokemon.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 14: The Frozen World

Around the release of this episode, a meme ran around in the internet briefly showing Drayden from the anime with Drayden from Generations with the caption "at this point, it's like a Mega Evolution", to show just how different the animation styles are... yet both Draydens are still unmistakably based on the same design from the games. It does show just how much better the animation budget for Generations is, and while it's shorter, the actions sequences are a lot more brutal and downright amazing.

From the Neo Team Plasma Liepards unleashing Dark Pulses to blow apart buildings which really sells them as terrorists, to the amazing turnaround sequence as Drayden unleashes his Haxorus that absolutely owns the Liepards, to the amazing animation of Dragon Pulse versus Ice Beam... it's just amazing all around. Honestly, the Unova gym leaders are easily some of the most badass dudes ever in that they actually defend their region in the game they're from -- I don't think any other region's gym leaders ever does it in-game (though in the manga and anime a fair amount of them participates in the big world-shattering events).

The second half of the episode, showing Team Plasma's Frigate, Colress and Kyurem unleashing the ice cannon upon Opelucid City and freezing everything in it, is pretty cool too, though not as much as Grandpa Drayden and his Haxorus kicking Team Plasma ass. It's a pretty faithful adaptation of Team Plasma's actions during the events of Black 2/White 2, with Zinzolin and Colress being prominently featured, and the animation is just amazing, showing Team Plasma being victorious and completely crushing one of the gym leaders by weaponizing Kyurem's powers... while at the same time still making Drayden one of the most badass motherfuckers around.

Another strong entry, though one that doesn't really have a good follow-up and very much strange if you're not familiar with the plot of the B2W2 games.

Pokemon Roll Call: Liepard, Haxorus, Weavile, Cryogonal, Kyurem

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• So yeah, the attack on Opelucid City by Neo Team Plasma doesn't happen as extreme as this, but it does happen, with Neo Team Plasma stealing the DNA Splicers and freezing a good chunk of Unova with their captured Kyurem within Team Plasma's flying frigate. Some notable differences include the absence of the protagonists, Colress being a card-carrying villain instead of being only in it for the science... and, well, Drayden's battle with Zinzolin, really. In the games while he does use his Haxorus to investigate the frozen city, it's only after Team Plasma unleashes the ice cannon. 
• Zinzolin in the games does use Cryogonal and Weavile as part of his ice-based party, while Drayden's signature and most powerful Pokemon is his Haxorus.
• Cryogonal is off-model throughout the entire episode, with its glowing orb-like eyes and beard not being animated. 
• "Frozen World" (kogoeru sekai) is the Japanese name for Kyurem's signature move, localized as "Glaciate" in the English games. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 15: The King Returns

So, like I said in my review for the previous episode of Pokemon Generations, Generation V has got the most intricate story, one that spans two games with a time-skip in-between them. And really, considering you play a different protagonist (Hilda/Hilbert in BW; Nate/Rosa in B2W2) the thing connecting the two stories set in different time periods are the side-characters. But this also means that despite being built up as counterparts to each other, N and the BW protagonist never got their reunion. And as much as I like B2W2's story, Nate-Rosa never quite had the same amount of personal interaction with N. He's just another NPC, whereas in the first BW game N and Hilda-Hilbert had a long, long series of interactions including uncomfortable ferris wheel rides. As much as the fandom likes to mock him, I have a very soft spot for N, this charismatic puppet king who can speak with Pokemon and is trying to find his own path in the middle of everything that's going on. His 'father', Ghetsis, wants him to be the charismatic ruler to get everyone in line with Team Plasma's "Pokemon should be freed from human oppression" PETA ideology, by forcing N to see only one side of the argument. It's a pretty fucked-up childhood N lived in, where he's only shown injured and abused Pokemon and thus he ends up being absolutely baffled when our character in BW shows up and he/she's very nice to their Pokemon. This ends up with a battle of truth versus ideals (choose your Tao dragon as appropriate to the game version) between N and the protagonist, which causes N to basically realize he's too small-minded and that his adoptive father Ghetsis is a human piece of shit. N takes his partner dragon and buggers off to seek the meaning of life or whatever...

Only to return in B2W2, where he's reduced to little more than an NPC to bail us out in a cutscene before immediately losing to Ghetsis and having his dragon eaten by Kyurem and used as a power-up mushroom. And while this battle was short, and all we had is a short cutscene that was somewhat impressive for the DS's powers, it was a pretty anticlimactic end to N, because, well, the B2W2 player took his dragon, and he's just an NPC for you to battle every other season or so.

So this episode finally expands that battle between Ghetsis and N, and expands it. The Unova episodes doesn't really seem to be a retelling of the important cutscenes, but rather more of an expanded take on them, to show what the gym leaders, Drayden and N respectively in the three episodes were actually doing instead of the truncated versions we had in the games.

Regrettably, though, this is another episode that's basically confusing to anyone not familiar with the plot of the Pokemon games, because you wouldn't know who the fuck N, Ghetsis, Reshiram or Kyurem are and what their connection to each other are. And when the BW protagonist shows up with Zekrom at the end it's going to be a big 'who the fuck is this dude' moment. But as someone who knows about N and Ghetsis, seeing their personal confrontation as Reshiram and Kyurem do battle with each other -- easily the best animated legendary battle I've ever seen, with only the Rayquaza/Deoxys brawl in space coming close to competing with this -- Ghetsis and N have a battle of words. Ghetsis is the most abusive of fathers, mostly because he never saw N as a child, but rather a tool, a puppet king to put him in power. Whereas N is a hero of compassion, one who believes in the best in everyone, and he still wants to reach out to his father.

Of course, as is in the games, Kyurem defeats N's dragon, Reshiram, and absorbs him with the aid of the DNA Splicers (hey, continuity to the previous episode!). N's attempt to appeal to Reshiram's heart doesn't work -- though honestly the episode really portrays like it might actually happen -- but the arrival of the BW protagonist and Zekrom was a huge, huge surprise and, well, in this version of the story apparently things went far more awesome than it did in the games.

So yeah, enjoy the conflict between N and Ghetsis, and the absolutely awesome battle between Reshiram and Kyurem. It's amazing for taht alone, and while we don't really have much of a conclusion beyond Zekrom arriving and thunderbolting everything, and Ghetsis is still the father of the year [/sarcasm] it's still a pretty awesome fight to show. Yes, part of me wants to rage about the lack of continuity, how it's trying to just inject an awesome scene by having Hilbert and Zekrom appear... but then I'm too busy fanboying and appreciating the awesomeness of Hilbert and Zekrom arriving.

Also, shit, the animation made Reshiram look absolutely cool. How did they do that? I always thought Reshiram is one of the clunkiest designs ever, but here she actually looks pretty freaking graceful and powerful at the same time, like an actual dragon of legend instead of a mutated chicken, something I never got from seeing her sprites in the games.

Pokemon Roll Call: Kyurem, Reshiram, Zekrom

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The events here depict the events as it happens in the climax of Pokemon White 2, with N and Reshiram fighting Ghetsis and Kyurem. However, instead of Nate or Rosa being present throughout the entire scene and battling the combined White Kyurem with his/her party, N is instead rescued by Hilbert, the male protagonist of Black/White and his Zekrom, whereas in the actual B2/W2 games the dragon that's not used by N never appears in the story at all.
• The assimilation cutscene of Kyurem absorbing Reshiram takes a lot of cues from the actual cutscene that plays in the game itself, albeit with far prettier anime art instead of the clunky 3D graphics that the DS tried to render. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 16: The Beauty Eternal

Woo, we've reached the final lap, with only the Kalos episodes left to go. See, Lysandre is one of the most threatening villains in Pokemon... in the anime. In the games, however, he felt like a poor man's Lusamine or Cyrus, where a lot of what he did ended up being more of an informed ability than anything. Yeah, sure, he's supposed to be this super-awesome and well-respected businessman and inventor, and Team Flare is supposed to be masquerading as like an Illuminati of sorts with members as high up as the Elite Four, but in the XY games Lysandre ends up being a shittier version of N or Cyrus, showing up to say some cryptic things, and then suddenly making a full 180 from wanting to make the world beautiful to wanting to murder every single thing with the Ultimate Weapon other than a select few. And his whole classy act of being a respected member of society is never really represented in the games. All the fandom ever remembers him for is his wacky Doctor Octopus contraption that he dons in the climax of the game.

So here, Lysandre channels his inner Lex Luthor as he delivers a product presentation, the Holo Caster, to the public, in a way that's really stylish and felt like it could've happened in the real world. Sans fire-breathing lion. Also, until Lysandre actually says it out loud, I never caught that the 'Holo Caster' is actually a stealth pun to the Holocaust, which is something that Lysandre was trying to bring along.

The episode's simple, just showing off how much of a great and well-adored by the public Lysandre is, and the orchestral remix of his in-game battle theme as he enters the helicopter is undoubtedly badass. It's a nice little villain-centric piece, and while it's probably one of the weaker episodes of Generations it's nice to show Lysandre being pretty cool.

Pokemon Roll Call: Pyroar, Yveltal

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The events of this episode take place in Pokemon Y, what with Team Flare trying to awaken Yveltal. While Lysandre unveiling a product isn't part of the game's storyline, a lot of allusions made to events that happen in the XY plot is made, among others:
• A conversation between Lysandre and Diantha, the champion, which our XY player character sees the sequel to in-game. As a bonus, this conversation takes place in the Flare Cafe, a pretty important location in the game.
• Malva, the Elite Four member that's also a member of Team Flare, being present.
• Pyroar being one of Lysandre's most powerful Pokemon.
• The unveiling of the Holo Caster, which is the game's phone device.
• We see the Team Flare HQ near Geosenge Town, the location of the final confrontation with Team Flare and Yveltal in the game.

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 17: The Investigation

Looker has a pretty big presence in the post-game sideplot in XY, where he's part of a city-wide questline involving a mysterious Pokemon thief in a suit of armour calling herself Essentia, who turns out to be Looker's adopted daughter figure Emma. It's not one of my favourite stories in Pokemon mostly due to how convoluted it is, and adapting it into a five-minute story doesn't really work. While we're familiar with who Looker is, the buildup to the mysteries surrounding Emma and Essentia are basically bullrushed to us, and we don't even get any explanations to why Emma is running around without her memory in a robot suit, because the episode adapts out the whole 'brainwashed by Xerosic' thing.

So yeah, this episode is a pretty weak one that's a pretty poor adaptation of a sub-par story, so I'm not going to talk much about it. I dunno. It's a storyline and an episode that I'm not too particularly fond of, so it's not something that I'm going to really talk a lot about. The action sequences are short and not too impressive, the dialogue is kind of confusing as to what the fuck's going on... well, the animation's pretty consistently good, so there's that, I guess.

Pokemon Roll Call: Furfrou, Espurr

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The Essentia/Emma/Mimi plotline takes place in the post game of Pokemon X/Y, where we have to help Looker's investigation bureau investigate a series of mysterious pokemon thefts in the dark alleys of Lumiose. 

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Pokemon Generations, Episode 18: The Redemption

The final episode of Pokemon Generations ends with the same teary note that XY ends in. While the pacing of the actual main story isn't to my liking, AZ's story and the whole backstory regarding the Ultimate Weapon, the wandering immortal king and the history of tragedy surrounding Kalos is one of the best backstories Pokemon has ever had. And AZ's story being used to cap off this anthology is pretty suitable, with a mother telling her daughter about the legend of the immortal king and the devastation he caused.

It helps that AZ's story is pretty tragic. Embroiled in a different world than the modern-day Pokemon world we are familiar with, AZ lived in a world where Pokemon are used as tools of war, where Pokemon die -- one of the few times in the games where death is actually shown happening. AZ's beloved partner Floette is killed during the war, and in his grief AZ unleashed the Ultimate Weapon to suck dry the life force of many Pokemon and bring Floette back, as well as using its energies to basically kill a lot of the warring Pokemon. It ended the war at great cost -- one of which is Floette's respect to AZ, and AZ is forced to wander the world forever, an immortal burdened with the sins of murdering so many people, cursed to be hated by the Pokemon he loved.

Also, fucking hell, AZ's a huge mammoth of a man, isn't he? I mean, his sprite was huge in the games, but I never realized how big he's supposed to be.

While AZ himself doesn't really do enough throughout the plot of XY, he does reunite with Floette at the end in one of Pokemon's most heartwarming moments, and, yes, his story might be a little uneven considering how he doesn't actually do anything significant to redeem himself in the present-day story, but the backstory of the Kalos region is definitely one of the best stories that show the franchise's growth by having more mature and intricate backstories with war and death and tragedy, while the present-day sequences show that Pokemon still won't forget its ultimately optimistic theme. It's one of the best endings to a Pokemon game, one that's a lot more story oriented beyond 'hey I just beat the champion woo' and one that's pretty touching.

Yeah, that brings Pokemon Generations to a close. It's more of a fanboy's review than anything, but eh, whatever. Pokemon's a franchise that's been with me for more than twenty years, and this series of shorts really show off the range of genres that it's been able to do. Epic battles. Jackass rivals. Horror. Stories revolving interesting side characters. Epic battles with the fate of the world in balance. Villains. Heroes. Trainers. Yes, the Generations anthology isn't perfect -- some episodes leave me questioning why they picked this moment instead of others, and I probably would've liked Unova to have one or two more episodes, and maybe the female protagonists could actually show up (Red, Ethan, Brandon, Hilbert and Calem all show up, with only Generation IV's Lucas being absent) but hey, it's still a pretty glorious celebration of Pokemon's milestone. It's a franchise that's been with me and means a lot to me personally, and the stories it tells are absolutely amazing. Here's to twenty more.

Pokemon Roll Call: Chesnaught, Floette, Steelix, Golurk, Rhyperior, Sorlock, Aggron, Abomasnow, Magnemite, Weavile, Gyarados, Honedge, Talonflame, Salamence, Noivern, Magneton, Bisharp, Rhydon, Granbull

Pokemon Easter Egg Corner:

• The flashback sequences of the story is told to the XY protagonist by AZ during the storyline of Pokemon XY, with some dialogue being lifted wholesale from the games (including the iconic small coffin line), but the parade, the battle with AZ, and Floette coming down and forgiving AZ, all happens in the mid-credits scene of Pokemon XY.
• The protagonist featured here is Calem, the male protagonist of Pokemon XY, and true to how the XY storyline went, you're able to pick two starters, one from Generation VI and one from Generation I -- Calem has visibly picked Chenaught and Charizard. One of AZ's Pokemon in the game is a Golurk, which is shown here. The scene where Floette descents also draws from the cutscene in the game almost shot-to-shot.
• Professor Sycamore and Diantha make brief cameos in the parade, but none of Calem's friends are seen.