Gotta Catch A Break
It may sound disturbing but many don’t consider
Pokemon an anime. How can something so big and so expansive and still ongoing,
having influenced so many modern day anime watchers or at least opened the
gateway toward it, find itself given the snobby nose. Clearly it’s a part of
the genre, it’s been around so long that even people that don’t watch anime or
watch Pokémon have accepted it. Maybe because it’s accepted it bothers some
fans, I mean this year will be the 14th year that Pikachu will be a
part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. In many ways that means it can’t be
labeled as a fad, the games are still high sellers even guest staring in games
beyond their own world and they’ve introduced a whole new generation of kids
while still maintaining a large fan base from when it began. Now let's not forget about the onslaught of cards that continue to come out. So why the
critique, some might be scratching their heads, having seeing so many
cosplays of Pokémon and never heard anyone say anything of the sort before, well
trust me there are people out there saying it and believing it. That brings us
to one final question, is it because they believe Pokémon has no substance to
it, well that’s where we will definitely have to cry foul.
There are plenty
of thought provoking and tear jerker scenes in Pokémon. No I’m not talking
about the early reminders by Ash’s mom for him to put on and keep clean
underwear though laughter from tears really should count. I mean certain scenes that can capture the
questions we probably would start to wonder or maybe bring up when we’re
talking to a buddy of ours. You got to respect a show that knows how to turn
things serious when its least expected. How can we point out our proof of this
without addressing the elephant in the room, the Butterfree effect. That’s
right folks we got hit with it pretty early in the game especially considering
the episode count now. Looking back though it shouldn’t bother us so much,
doesn’t Ash (using his English name for consistency here all you purist out
there) give all of his Pokémon to Professor Oak in order to start fresh each
time he enters a new region. Well nearly all besides Pikachu of course. So hindsight
we shouldn’t still look back at it and feel so sad and yet we do. That might be
because it was his first official loss of a Pokémon and after all the raising
he put into it. Well I suppose we have
to accept it, there was a special girl involved. No doubt a tear jerker but
shouldn’t we have seen it coming, look no further than the first episode and Ash and
Pikachu’s rocky start to a friendship. Inexperienced
and attacked by Sparrows Ash tries to protect Pikachu who refuses to go inside
his pokeball. It would show Ash doing
something that is a habit of his and was definitely something he did during the
start of the show, put himself in harm’s way for his Pokémon.
A good example of
Ash risking his life, the first movie in which he tries to stop the battle
between Mewtwo and Mew and is turned to stone, Pikachu crying over him and
trying to shock him back to life. It’s to me one of the saddest scenes, up
there with the waiting Dragonite episode and the farwell to Butterfree. The
movie itself also raised some interesting questions, should trainers be able to
possess Pokémon, after all Mewtwo is basically a genetic experiment that
Giovanni tried to control. I suppose though that Ash could be the other side of
the argument, his devotion as contradicting as it can be is usually touching.
Just remember when he gained Charmander, who was again raising a question on
the treatment of Pokemon by humans with him abandoned by a previous trainer,
left in the rain until the fire on his tail nearly went out until Ash rushed
him to the Pokemon center. An interesting back and forth of treatment in the relationship
of human and Pokémon. Some love them, others try to steal them, sell them or
twist them into weapons for their own gain. To be able to question the very
foundation of the show speaks in truckloads of the substance you can find in
the show. Of course all of them leaving an emotional connection toward it, sometimes it can be just among the humans,
think Brock’s starving brothers and sisters that he left behind for long
periods of time. How’d they survive
without him so long anyways? Somehow all of the characters in this show maintain
themselves, their made of sturdy stuff with their natural survival skills
apparently. I mean Ash and the gang or
just kids and they somehow learned how to camp out for days at a time and
probably not shower and still can stand to be around each other. Knowledgeable
indeed.
The point I’m
making is that there’s so many memorable moments, even after all the shows
we’ve seen since how can we say Pokemon is not an anime. The lost on the
mountains cave scene people with Ash and his Pokemon people! They’ve got actual Pokemon Centers in Japan
for crying out loud. Do the good guys always win, maybe but maybe not, how many Championships has Ash won besides the Orange League, not many. Let's face it Ash loses a hell of a lot and there were plenty of times he didn't take it all that well. So not everything comes up roses but he has his friendship with other humans and Pokémon to rely on. There’s you’re
proof. Need more? Want an appreciation of characters, time or simply friendship itself
then check out Pokemon 4 Ever and it proves that the show pulls on the
emotional strings just like some of the others shows we watch. I figured one
last example couldn’t hurt. So bring on
the proof by saying what your favorite scene in Pokemon has been.
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