Pokémon. . . . How do you talk about it, really? The Japanese original first debuted in the 1990's. The franchise originated with games on the portable Nintendo Game Boy video game system before becoming one of the biggest media franchises of all time. From the video games came an endless amount of cartoons, movies, toys, and of course the playing cards. The Pokémon eventually migrated to the US and became a huge phenomenon, showing remarkable longevity. Now, over ten years later, Pokémonremains a popular, lucrative, and bankable franchise.
Viz is now releasing the original anime series for Pokémon in DVD boxset format. ThePokémon: Indigo League DVD boxset features episodes 53-79, the final episodes for the first season of the original TV series before many others would later follow. The 27 episodes are split up onto three discs, and each disc has nine episodes.
Back in the magical 1990's, Pokémon aired on the old Kids WB! Network, which was still fairly new. The series was dubbed, re-versioned, domesticated, and re-packaged for American kiddies and audiences by 4Kids Animation. The DVD's here feature the original American broadcast versions. Back in Japan the culture and standards are somewhat different -- even for kids' shows. So sometimes the episodes had cultural elements or content that either wouldn't fly with American censors or standards and practices, or 4Kids thought American kids just wouldn't understand. Therefore, Japanese snacks or dishes would be called "donuts," and the episodes that depicted things such as gun-play and bi-curious cross-dressing were thrown out. It was OK for Bugs Bunny, but bad for Team Rocket. Go figure. The late 1990's period represents a time when anime began to make waves and slowly and gradually became more viable in the states. More shows were picked up and shown on American television. 4Kids Animation picked up and re-packaged a lot of anime, and burgeoning cable networks such as Cartoon Network showed blocks of classic stuff that was known to American fans such as G-Force and Speed Racer before Dragon Ball Z finally became an anime juggernaut in the US (also started in the late 1990's).
4Kids Animation earned quite an infamous reputation amongst anime fans for what hardcore fans and otaku called the "butchering" and hacking up of many anime such asCardcaptor Sakura and most recently One Piece (4Kids ultimately let go of the American One Piece license before Funimation picked it up in order to give it a more fan friendly and faithful English re-version). 4Kids Animation maintained the stance that they made more anime viewable and available in the states. However, the company says this in the face of fans that are absolutely confused and furious to see their favorite characters dishonored in such lame and cheesy fashions.
So, despite the release of these DVD's by Viz, no effort has been made to show the original Japanese versions or lost episodes. But then again, this is Pokémon, and since this release is probably more focused on the kiddie youth market, Viz probably wouldn't care.
The story follows Ash, Misty, and Brock, three amateur Pokémon trainers. Pokémon are, a type of creature that exists in vast quantities all over the world. There are hundreds of different kinds. Using Poke-balls, you can catch the Pokémon in order to train them and help evolve them. The trainers have their Pokémon fight other Pokémon in friendly battles in order to build up experience and get the trainers new badges and higher levels of respect. Ash is the main character and is determined to catch all Pokémon and become the greatest Pokémon trainer of all time. Misty and Brock stand on the sidelines most of the time and travel with Ash as they search for more new Pokémon species. Ash's favorite Pokémon is the legendary Nintendo mascot character, Pikachu, who [Pikachu] was also the first one Ash attained. Over many episodes, a very close bond and friendship grows between Pikachu and Ash. Ash and Pikachu choose for Pikachu to travel outside with the group together rather than keeping him stuck in a Poke-ball. Sounds like unfair, preferential treatment of the others to me.
The villains of the story are the ever annoying Team Rocket: Jesse, James, and one of the only Pokémon in the series that speaks in a human tongue, Meowth. Pokémon can only talk and communicate using one word: the creatures only make the sound of the name of their species, or one of the syllables of their names. For example, Pikachu can only say, "Pika" or "Pikachu" in lieu of saying anything. Meowth is one of the exceptions in the series since he actually talks in English. Meowth was able to learn how to speak and none of the other Pokémon possess the ability. Well, that's just one of those great, weird, unsolved mysteries of the franchise. Team Rocket is determined to stealPokémon in underhanded fashion. Team Rocket also tries to kidnap Ash's Pikachu and give them to the leader of their organization, whose identity is revealed in the firstPokémon movie.
Ultimately, the show's story is boring, repetitive, and formulaic. The show constantly preaches about friendship and helping others. It also suggests that the Pokémon are more than just mere slaves or objects to their masters, but true companions who share love and friendship for one another. Nearly every episode features Ash, Misty, and Brock on a trip. Team Rocket tries the latest scheme to catch Pikachu or whatever else, and fails miserably. Even though this convention might be decidedly lame to some, it's a gimmick they've managed to work for over a decade, how can you argue with success?
The best thing to ever come out of Pokémon was when Batman was reluctantly forced to sing the Jiggly-Puff song to Robin to help Robin go to sleep. Seriously, it happened.
keep calm and be a pokemon master!
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