Pokemon: Sun & Moon, Episode 1: Alola! The Starting Island, the Starter Pokemon!
I'm not sure if I'll do the Sword/Shield anime, since the commitment to watch it weekly isn't something that I'm sure I can do -- and these fast few months have taught me that it's a lot less stressful to write reviews on my own pace. It's definitely interesting to jump ahead a couple decades' worth of animation improvement and go from the bare-bones budget of the Kanto seasons to Sun/Moon. Especially since the Sun/Moon anime did the unthinkable and reinvigorated the anime by getting a brand-new studio and redesigned a lot of the characters to be a bit more rounded, leading to many memes back when the anime was first released about how Ash "aged backwards" or whatever. Still, once you get past that little hiccup of "this looks kind of different", it's honestly just a matter of art style changes, and it's still the same old Pokemon anime everyone knows, loves and sometimes hates. Besides, I do love the far, far more fluid expressions and animations this allows the series to pull off.
A brief little introduction to Sun & Moon too -- it's released in late 2016/early 2017, adapting the seventh generation of Pokemon games, and back when it first premiered, it came under criticism for the sudden tonal shift. The previous series, XYZ, was a far more action-packed series, culminating in an epic fight against the mighty Zygarde as well as one of the more well-received tournament arcs in the series. Meanwhile, Sun/Moon ends up with the premise of Ash going to Alola and attending a school, with the series retooled into a more... slice-of-life comedy instead of being action-packed. Instead of three people travelling over a region, this particular season ends up with an ensemble cast at a school. Detractors of the show note that this season is particularly directionless even by the Pokemon anime's admittedly low standard, so I'm genuinely curious to see which side of the spectrum I'm on. I've never minded show retools as long as the end product is a good show, and I've basically shrugged off a lot of the inconsistencies in the anime as "they gotta sell the status quo", so we'll see how well this particular one is handled, yeah?
Anyway, the episode opens with a pretty dang gorgeous depiction of Ash zooming around on a Sharpedo jet-ski on the reefs near Melemele island. Turns out that Ash and Pikachu are on vacation, and the anime definitely portrays the beauty of Alola's ocean pretty well, as is the busy beach. After the Kanto season where most crowd scenes are just people it's pretty awesome to see this season just cutting into huge crowds with people and pokemon wandering about. We get some nice little brief highlights of the new Pokemon, including Pyukumuku, as well as Lana and her Popplio fishing up a Bruxish. It's a fun scene that illustrates the gorgeous Alola stuff before we get the opening.
And then we get the always-awesomely goofy Alolan Exeggutor, and a brief scene of Ash accidentally stepping on a poor Litten's tail and getting a fire hairball to the face. It's probably some foreshadowing for a Pokemon Ash'll get in the future? I'm genuinely going into this series mostly blind, so it's all new to me. After that Litten encounter, Ash and his mom, Delia, gets a bit of a conversation in the bar about how they won the ticket to Alola because Mr. Mime was really lucky... and this is told via a tongue-in-cheek fast-forwarded flashback. It's funny. We later learn as Ash and Delia ride a Tauros-pulled taxi carriage that they also have to deliver something to Professor Oak's cousin in Alola, and we get a brief primer of the games' little gimmick, ride pokemon. And then we get a market scene, and Ash ends up chasing after a Grubbin burrowing through the ground. Again, it's all a lot of "welcome to the new region, have some info-dump" moments, which is pretty neat. We'll give the show some time to settle into the new region.
As Ash chases the Grubbin, he's observed by a weird totem creature, Tapu Koko, which is the legendary guardian deity of the island, and Tapu Koko seems to be a bit troll-y, waking up a nearby Bewear. Bewear is... he's glorious. I'm already a fan of Bewear, but the anime made it even more hilarious, waving with a :D face permanently plastered on its dumb pink face, before accidentally smashing a tree by waving his arms... and the voice that the Japanese anime chose for Bewear makes it sound like a goddamn squeaky toy -- a squeaky toy that dances around and crushes a bunch of trees in its way. I've seen enough of random screenshots to know that Bewear's going to be a recurring character, and this is certainly another fun little spotlight. This episode seem to play hard and fast with just letting new faces have brief appearances here and there, and that's definitely neat!
While escaping Bewear, Ash then stumbles onto the Pokemon School, which is where a majority of this season will take place. We get a machine-gun introduction of many of the human characters (and I'll be using the English dub names, already being way too familiar with these guys via the games), although the one that gets the most screentime is the happy excited girl Mallow. We do also get a brief spotlight on Lillie, a girl who is interested in Pokemon academically, but is actually scared shitless of them -- like me and spiders! After an accident involving Tauros (something Ash brushes off because he owns a lot of them) Mallow drags Ash around to see the main building. Lots of fun features like the pokemon fossils and classes and stuff, and we eventually meet with Oak's cousin, Samson Oak (Nariya Okido). Ash's mom has done the delivery, and Samson... really loves doing Pokemon puns and impersonations. I haven't watched the dub for this one, and I'm curious how faithful the dubs are translated because Samson temporarily mimics the appearance of the Pokemon he is making lame puns about.
Oh, and we also briefly get to see the much younger professor, Kukui, but we don't really get a lot of him before Team Skull shows up with their glorious rap gestures and demands that one of the students, Kiawe, hand over his Charizard because they blocked the road. Sure, Team Skull, threaten the dude with the giant fire-breathing dragon. I'm sure your aggressive rapping gestures will intimidate him. They gang up on Kiawe and unleash three Zubats, Salandits and Yungooses, but Ash zips in to help Kiawe out. Pikachu speed-blitzes the Salandits in some pretty cool animation, while Kiawe sends out Turtonator and shows off Turtonator's gimmick, which is using his shell as a shield... an explosive shield that blows up the Zubat and Yungoos swarm. It's actually pretty cool seeing this in action!
And then we get the gimmick of the generation, Z-moves, and it's... it's actually pretty cool in the anime, with some nice background music, Kiawe's voice actor hamming it up like there's no tomorrow, and the animators having some fun with animating Turtonator unleashing DAINAMIKKKU FURRU FUREEEMUUU.
We get a brief little intro-dump about how the locals of Alola need to go through a pilgrimage through the islands to learn how to use Z-moves, and a brief scene of Tapu Koko continuing to stalk Ash, culminating in a meeting while Ash and Delia are having dinner. Tapu Koko unleashes a loud scream, before zipping around and leading Ash towards a fountain, handing him over a Z-ring. We then have a brief flash forward to Ash apparently already crashing in Kukui's house, having asked to stay on the island to discover more about Pokemon and Alola in general, and he's enrolled as a student in the school.
The episode is... it's a pretty fun little opening. The episode mostly just focuses on a wild showcase of Ash experiencing and meeting the many colourful Pokemon and characters of Alola, which honestly is probably how the character feels while going through this. It's a decent enough introduction to a new region, and yeah, the series is light-hearted and all. I did enjoy myself watching through this episode. We'll see if the rest of the season grabs me!
Pokemon Index:
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Sharpedo, Whimsicott, Mankey, Abra, Petilil, Bonsly, Sudowoodo, Slowpoke, Growlithe, Sableye, Finneon Lumineon, Luvdisc, Relicanth, Chinchou, Shellder, Staryu, Alomomola, Corsola, Milotic, Pyukumuku, Lapras, Popplio, Bruxish, Pikipek, Cubone, Carvanha, Wailmer, Poliwag, Alolan Exeggutor, Litten, Dratini, Wingull, Herdier, Mr. Mime, Drifloon, Smeargle, Makuhita, Eevee, Golem, Butterfree, Golduck, Sandslash, Nidoran M, Nidoran F, Tauros, Krokorok, Growlithe, Machop, Grubbin, Tapu Koko, Bewear, Charizard, Elekid, Noibat, Pichu, Riolu, Surskit, Rufflet, Parasect, Paras, Lilipup, Poliwhirl, Sandile, Bousweet, Togedemaru, Primeape, Machamp, Boldore, Yungoos, Salandit, Zubat, Turtonator
- Humans: Ash, Lana, Ash's Mom, Professor Oak, Kiawe, Lillie, Mallow, Samson Oak, Professor Kukui
Assorted Notes:
- Holy shit, the later seasons really love their Pokemon cameos, huh? There is a lot of featured Pokemon, and I loved looking at the backgrounds and hunting them down.
- It's kind of hard to note which season Sun/Moon is. It's kind of the 12th season in the Japanese numbering, but the Sun/Moon series is technically the twenty-first season in the English numbering, who really likes to rebrand the show throughout the Johto through Unova series. Until I figure out which episode numbering I want to follow, this one will just be titled "Sun & Moon" in this blog.
- In a fun easter egg, the green shirt Ash wears in the flashback has the stock menu sprite of a Water-type Pokemon from the old GBC games.
- Ash also makes a reference to being used with Tauros, having captured thirty and prominently using them during the Kanto season.
- Team Rocket's "this feels bad" ("we're blasting off again" in the dub) is changed to "what is this feeling?" for this season. No 'dub changes' for this episode, because the dubs have been pretty consistent about not changing too much from the original Japanese in later seasons, while the Japanese studios have also been pretty good at not including too much questionable content.
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