Ahh, Pokémon! It was a new world of child like adventure and wonder. A world brimming with new life, new experiences, and it is one that I have slowly over time let fall by the wayside. Not that Pokémon has stopped just becauseI’m not paying attention to it. Pokemon is nothing less than a massive worldwidephenomenon that few can truly encapsulate, one that has been in the works continuallysince the original release of Pocket Monsters Red and Green back in Japan 1996. It has spawnedgenerations of games, films, albums, and books. But we here at Glass Reflection like talkingabout one particular kind of medium, and that is what we are going to be focusing on today. THE VHS TAPE! ...or more specifically, what's on the VHS tape and everything like it. I’m called this video “Remembering Pokemon”because, as I said, the Pokemon anime has not stopped airing just because at some pointin my young life I stopped watching it. At the time of recording this video, Pokemon has been on the air for 22 seasons and has a current total of 1,058 episodes. That’s a lot. Take that One Piece. But today, we are really only caring aboutthe first 82-ish. Or 77, if we decide to exclude the episodes banned in North America due toguns, seizures, and inflatable breasts. While Pokémon was not my first anime, nordid I watch it at a time when I really knew what Anime was, I cannot argue its importanceto my childhood and its influence on me. But it has been quite a while since I actually sat down to properly try to enjoy and watch the series. So how does this initial seasonhold up? Is it still worthwhile to watch, or is it only palatable with a heavy glassof nostalgia juice? Let’s find out.
The original baseline plot of the Pokémon anime is quite similar to the video gamesreleased only a year prior. A young 10-year-old boy, Satoshi – or, as we know him, Ash Ketchum– prepares for his 10th birthday when he is finally old enough to head to the localPokémon professor’s laboratory and receive his first ever Pokémon. This small pocketmonster will accompany him through his journey across the country in a competition that defineshis entire existence. Where the anime differs, however, is quite apparent from the get-go.Not only does Ash arrive too late to receive one of the three original starters (Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle), but Professor Oak really only has one Pokémon left: a smallelectric rat Pokémon Pikachu, a Pokémon that even Oak is reluctant to hand over dueto its poor temperament. But Ash is nothing if not stubborn, and if he’s going to basehis entire self-worth on being able to capture and train these creatures, then bad temperamentis nothing he shouldn’t be able to handle. Pikachu disagrees.
"It's also known as an electric mouse. It's usually shy but sometimes can have an electrifying personality." "I see what you mean." "Shocking isn't it?" Throughout the show’s first episode Ash literally drags Pikachu through the countrysideoutside his home town and tries his best to deal with this Pokémon who would much ratherbe anywhere else. This was just episode one and, while it didn’testablish the status quo that would soon come to light over the next few episodes, it clearlylays out several facts that remain prevalent throughout the series’ first season.First, Ash is a horrible trainer. I’m not the first person to say this, but it bearsrepeating. Ash constantly measures his worth by trying to become a “Pokémon Master”,which in this world involves catching Pokémon, training them to challenge gym leaders forbadges, and to attend the Pokémon League and compete to be the very best…..like noone ever was. And this is identical to the same journeythat players take through the original games. There’s only one problem. By Ash’s ownmetrics, he fails constantly and very rarely succeeds. Out of the original 150 Pokémon, try and guess how many out Pokémon Master Ash caught during his time in the Kanto region? Eleven. And even that’s being generous and counting the Tauros that we in North Americadidn’t actually see him catch because it was in a banned episode.Now let’s take a look at the other metric upon which Pokémon Masters are usually judged:number of gym badges. By the end of the series, it is true that Ash physically owns all eightKanto badges required for entry into the Pokémon league. But if you were a fervent watcher,you will recall that Ash…didn’t earn most of them. At least not really.Let’s go through them real quick shall we? Bolder badge against Brock: Ash fails in his firstattempt, and after hooking up Pikachu to a nearby watermill to charge his electricity,faces Brock again. Only this time…Pikachu still fails, but a stray electric boltactivates the building’s sprinkler system which showers Brock’s rock Pokémon Onixwith water, which you know it is weak to, and that makes him more susceptible to Pikachu’selectricity. That’s not actually how that works, but okay, fine. So Brock gives hima badge. Bonus, he joins Ash on his journey. and to become one of Ash's closest friends. Badge #2 Cascade badge. Ash’s rival GaryOak has already swept through the city and wiped out the gym’s Pokémon supply. Buthey, it just so happens that the girl who’s been following Ash around, Misty, is the sisterof the gym leaders and challenges Ash to a battle in their stead. Now Ash should be ableto wipe the floor here. Electric Pikachu vs Misty’s water Pokémon, no contest right?Well unfortunately for him, Pikachu doesn’t want to fight a friend and refuses to participate.Leaving Ash stuck to only fight using the other Pokémon at his disposal. Which…isn’tgood enough. Then Team Rocket barges in, has their moment in the sunshine when they capture all of the Pokémon in the gym, but then fail spectacularly because they were fighting against the literal god of thunder that is Pikachu…and Ash gets his badge. Not for defeating the gym leaders,but because Pikachu is OP as hell. In fact, this is kind of a theme that youmight start to notice. Ash is not succeeding because of his own personal ability as a trainer orbattler, but because he won the lottery in receiving a Pikachu who holds the power ofThor. Badge #3, Pikachu vs Raichu. To furtherdemonstrate how OP the little rat is, he defeats his own evolved form through sheer tactics,because Pikachu is a better battler than Ash himself. True Story. Badge #4, Saffron city and Sabrina. Ash fails twice overall, and after literally DYING andbefriending a Haunter, said Haunter makes the Psychic demon of a gym leader laugh, which apparently is good enough for a badge. Who knew? Badge #5, Ash insults the gym leader and then has to cross-dress with the help of TeamRocket to get into the gym itself. He fails to actually defeat the gym leader, butluckily for him Rocket sets the gym on fire. You know, the Gym for...Grass Pokemon. So then Ash is able to save the gymleader’s Gloom. Earning him a badge. Uh huh. Badge #6, now this time I would like to be perfectly fair. This is one where I can't really fault Ash’s skills. This is thefirst time he legitimately defeats the gym leader in question and earns the soul badge. It’s just odd that Koga, being the poison type gym leader, doesn’t actually use any poisonmoves and much more emphasis is instead placed on him being a ninja? But sure, this one Ashgets. Fair enough. Badge Seven. This one occurs around thetime Ash’s Charmander has evolved into a Charizard and has begun his proper teenage rebellionphase. As such, Ash has zero control over Charizard, because again he’s not reallygood at what he does. Charizard eventually helps fight because, while he’s enjoyingnot listening to Ash at the moment, he also doesn’t want to be one-upped by Blaine’sMagmar. So technically this is another one where Ash wins in a legitimate battle, butonly because Charizard decided to cooperate, not because Ash is in any way a good trainer.Badge Eight was basically a throwaway. Instead of fighting Giovani like in the games, orlike Gary had to do, Ash faces off in a gym battle against Team Rocket. You know, thesame trainers that Ash has been fighting since episode two who he has never lost to becausePikachu is a god. Now I’m not going to continue very far afterthis, but the point is that by Ash’s own metric of success he’s a constant failureand does things against the grain in hopes that everything just works out. and it just so happens that it does...most of the time. He constantly fights opponents going against type advantage, without actually training his Pokémon, instead relying on their own innate intuition and abilities to win fights on their own.
However, I think this is mostly just a problem with him and how he views himself and hisself-worth. He constantly proceeds under the impression that battling and earning badgesand their equivalents is the only thing worth-while in his adventure, despite the fact that hehas been shown to be very adept in other Pokémon-related professions. His Pokémon absolutely adorehim as a person, and he takes great care of them. To him, they are not mere tools to beused to win battles, but friends with which to face challenges, and that’s a worthwhiletrait to have. For like a Pokemon Breeder. But a Pokémon Master he ain’t. One of the reasons I never enjoyed watchingAsh as a protagonist is because he just seems to be failing upwards through life. He keepsrunning into great Pokémon that are so enamored by him they just want to follow him, badgesare mostly given to him without great challenge, and he is living a life that us watchers canonly dream of. Like seriously, they never explain how he can afford to continually feed himself, or make money at all really, doing what he does. So it's quite literally a dream formost of us regular folk. But at least I can talk solace in the fact that we regular folk,unlike Ash, can actually beat Brock and Misty without bullshit tactics and instead justpummel them with sheer force and an adequately levelled Charmander. Like I did! Dooooooooooon't "That's what I'm talking about!" In fact, what kept me watching Pokemon for as long as I did wasn’t Ash at all, butrather... because of Team Rocket. Team Rocket is the group of three failureswho appear in basically every episode of Pokémon after the first, who constantly try to capturePikachu because they are one of the few who recognize this electric god’s power. Unfortunatelythough, because they keep trying to face a literal god of thunder, they almost never succeed,and them blasting off again every episode is played mostly for laughs.But I would posit that Team Rocket, often, are shown to be better trainers than Ash himself.Now I am not saying that they are always good people. Their first introduction shows themraiding a Pokemon hospital to steal sick and defenseless Pokémon, not something good peoplewould generally do. But as characters, they are the ones who grow the most over time.Their constant ideas and inventions get more and more grandiose, and honestly, while theirsuccess rate is near 0%, if they weren’t constantly up against the god of thunder thatis Pikachu, they’d probably find much more success for the effort they put out on a regularbasis. Team Rocket is the team of loveable losers that I’ve grown more attached toas I’ve grown older, because it’s hard to relate to this kid that has a lot of thingshanded to him when instead you can relate to these three shmucks who fail constantlybut never let that get them down…well, at least not for long.Hell after almost two decades worth of episodes, they actually manage to succeed in defeatingAsh fair and square in a battle, Pikachu included, and it is such a good moment to watch. Yes,they are the token villains, but their villainy is just cartoonish in nature. No one is reallythreatened by them and they don’t actually harm anyone, but they have the capacity tolearn and grow, which is something I never felt Ash was able to properly do.Now this all comes back to determining how enjoyable the show as a whole now is, whetheror not it has stood the test of time and can still be enjoyed by those who have never watchedit before now. To which I say….ehhhhhh, probably not.As a test, I watched several episodes beyond the initial 80-some-odd to try and get a feelfor how the series progressed and how enjoyable the Pokémon formula actually is, while somewhatremoving my nostalgia googles by watching episodes I had never seen previously. I watchedsome episodes from the era of the Orange Islands, only to discover that I was suddenly a lotless lenient towards many aspects of the series that I otherwise was able to brush off.The tone, the pacing, the puns. My god, the English dialogue is so full of puns that itwould make a committee of the most cringe-worthy dads cringe. "Stop pussyfooting around!" "Just biting my time!" "Ahhhhhh! The moment of tooth!" Now in fairness, the closer youget to present day, the less jarring this becomes. Many sections inthe X-Y era up until the current seasons appear to be a lot more enjoyable considering. Though I haveto admit, it feels a little odd for me after that unfortunate voice actor swap that happenedback in 2006. But we're not gonna get into that. But classic Pokémon as I grew up with itis a bit more of a relic. Something that doesn’t really stand up unless it is as steeped innostalgia for you as it is for me. I am a kid who grew up watching the series religiously,memorized the PokeRap (in the wrong order) just because I was watching it at the end of every episode, and it wasn't necessarily in order back then I went to go see the first two films, because A) watching a Pokémon movie in the theater was nuts as a concept back when I was a kid and 2) Lugia is my favourite legendary. Fight me.It’s a product of its time that I will rewatch, not necessarily because it’s a good series,but because for me it reminds me of better times. The kind of times when this naive littlekid, who played N64, drank juice out of a box, and collected Pokémon cards, had nota care in the world. I do have a holographic Charizard though,so I have that going for me. This little card made me king of the playground! ...That's a lie I was never a king of the playground. Downside to all of this, if you truly lovePokémon and want to watch it, your options keep changing over time. At the moment theoriginal series is available on Netflix but we don’t know how long for and even thenit doesn’t contain all of the original series, only going up to episode 52 by my count. Surprisinglythough A bunch of Pokémon episodes are available on the official Pokémon Website, but onlyup until somewhere in Joto for the classic episodes, and the most recent Sun and Moonepisodes. Still huge swaths of Pokémon anime history left undisturbed. But if all you wantis the nostalga those will do you fine. Lastly, a very special thank you to my patrons,who not only support my work in general, but who also allow me to do what I do. I loveand appreciate you all. Specifically though, as I like to do, I want to give particularshout-outs to patrons Matthew Robertson, Hector Montemayor, Siri Yamiko, Ryefan Boneapart,Rune Jachobson, Joshua Garcia, and Calhoonboy for being especially awesome. You guys aregreat! And until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime…and stayfrosty.
The original baseline plot of the Pokémon anime is quite similar to the video gamesreleased only a year prior. A young 10-year-old boy, Satoshi – or, as we know him, Ash Ketchum– prepares for his 10th birthday when he is finally old enough to head to the localPokémon professor’s laboratory and receive his first ever Pokémon. This small pocketmonster will accompany him through his journey across the country in a competition that defineshis entire existence. Where the anime differs, however, is quite apparent from the get-go.Not only does Ash arrive too late to receive one of the three original starters (Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle), but Professor Oak really only has one Pokémon left: a smallelectric rat Pokémon Pikachu, a Pokémon that even Oak is reluctant to hand over dueto its poor temperament. But Ash is nothing if not stubborn, and if he’s going to basehis entire self-worth on being able to capture and train these creatures, then bad temperamentis nothing he shouldn’t be able to handle. Pikachu disagrees.
"It's also known as an electric mouse. It's usually shy but sometimes can have an electrifying personality." "I see what you mean." "Shocking isn't it?" Throughout the show’s first episode Ash literally drags Pikachu through the countrysideoutside his home town and tries his best to deal with this Pokémon who would much ratherbe anywhere else. This was just episode one and, while it didn’testablish the status quo that would soon come to light over the next few episodes, it clearlylays out several facts that remain prevalent throughout the series’ first season.First, Ash is a horrible trainer. I’m not the first person to say this, but it bearsrepeating. Ash constantly measures his worth by trying to become a “Pokémon Master”,which in this world involves catching Pokémon, training them to challenge gym leaders forbadges, and to attend the Pokémon League and compete to be the very best…..like noone ever was. And this is identical to the same journeythat players take through the original games. There’s only one problem. By Ash’s ownmetrics, he fails constantly and very rarely succeeds. Out of the original 150 Pokémon, try and guess how many out Pokémon Master Ash caught during his time in the Kanto region? Eleven. And even that’s being generous and counting the Tauros that we in North Americadidn’t actually see him catch because it was in a banned episode.Now let’s take a look at the other metric upon which Pokémon Masters are usually judged:number of gym badges. By the end of the series, it is true that Ash physically owns all eightKanto badges required for entry into the Pokémon league. But if you were a fervent watcher,you will recall that Ash…didn’t earn most of them. At least not really.Let’s go through them real quick shall we? Bolder badge against Brock: Ash fails in his firstattempt, and after hooking up Pikachu to a nearby watermill to charge his electricity,faces Brock again. Only this time…Pikachu still fails, but a stray electric boltactivates the building’s sprinkler system which showers Brock’s rock Pokémon Onixwith water, which you know it is weak to, and that makes him more susceptible to Pikachu’selectricity. That’s not actually how that works, but okay, fine. So Brock gives hima badge. Bonus, he joins Ash on his journey. and to become one of Ash's closest friends. Badge #2 Cascade badge. Ash’s rival GaryOak has already swept through the city and wiped out the gym’s Pokémon supply. Buthey, it just so happens that the girl who’s been following Ash around, Misty, is the sisterof the gym leaders and challenges Ash to a battle in their stead. Now Ash should be ableto wipe the floor here. Electric Pikachu vs Misty’s water Pokémon, no contest right?Well unfortunately for him, Pikachu doesn’t want to fight a friend and refuses to participate.Leaving Ash stuck to only fight using the other Pokémon at his disposal. Which…isn’tgood enough. Then Team Rocket barges in, has their moment in the sunshine when they capture all of the Pokémon in the gym, but then fail spectacularly because they were fighting against the literal god of thunder that is Pikachu…and Ash gets his badge. Not for defeating the gym leaders,but because Pikachu is OP as hell. In fact, this is kind of a theme that youmight start to notice. Ash is not succeeding because of his own personal ability as a trainer orbattler, but because he won the lottery in receiving a Pikachu who holds the power ofThor. Badge #3, Pikachu vs Raichu. To furtherdemonstrate how OP the little rat is, he defeats his own evolved form through sheer tactics,because Pikachu is a better battler than Ash himself. True Story. Badge #4, Saffron city and Sabrina. Ash fails twice overall, and after literally DYING andbefriending a Haunter, said Haunter makes the Psychic demon of a gym leader laugh, which apparently is good enough for a badge. Who knew? Badge #5, Ash insults the gym leader and then has to cross-dress with the help of TeamRocket to get into the gym itself. He fails to actually defeat the gym leader, butluckily for him Rocket sets the gym on fire. You know, the Gym for...Grass Pokemon. So then Ash is able to save the gymleader’s Gloom. Earning him a badge. Uh huh. Badge #6, now this time I would like to be perfectly fair. This is one where I can't really fault Ash’s skills. This is thefirst time he legitimately defeats the gym leader in question and earns the soul badge. It’s just odd that Koga, being the poison type gym leader, doesn’t actually use any poisonmoves and much more emphasis is instead placed on him being a ninja? But sure, this one Ashgets. Fair enough. Badge Seven. This one occurs around thetime Ash’s Charmander has evolved into a Charizard and has begun his proper teenage rebellionphase. As such, Ash has zero control over Charizard, because again he’s not reallygood at what he does. Charizard eventually helps fight because, while he’s enjoyingnot listening to Ash at the moment, he also doesn’t want to be one-upped by Blaine’sMagmar. So technically this is another one where Ash wins in a legitimate battle, butonly because Charizard decided to cooperate, not because Ash is in any way a good trainer.Badge Eight was basically a throwaway. Instead of fighting Giovani like in the games, orlike Gary had to do, Ash faces off in a gym battle against Team Rocket. You know, thesame trainers that Ash has been fighting since episode two who he has never lost to becausePikachu is a god. Now I’m not going to continue very far afterthis, but the point is that by Ash’s own metric of success he’s a constant failureand does things against the grain in hopes that everything just works out. and it just so happens that it does...most of the time. He constantly fights opponents going against type advantage, without actually training his Pokémon, instead relying on their own innate intuition and abilities to win fights on their own.
However, I think this is mostly just a problem with him and how he views himself and hisself-worth. He constantly proceeds under the impression that battling and earning badgesand their equivalents is the only thing worth-while in his adventure, despite the fact that hehas been shown to be very adept in other Pokémon-related professions. His Pokémon absolutely adorehim as a person, and he takes great care of them. To him, they are not mere tools to beused to win battles, but friends with which to face challenges, and that’s a worthwhiletrait to have. For like a Pokemon Breeder. But a Pokémon Master he ain’t. One of the reasons I never enjoyed watchingAsh as a protagonist is because he just seems to be failing upwards through life. He keepsrunning into great Pokémon that are so enamored by him they just want to follow him, badgesare mostly given to him without great challenge, and he is living a life that us watchers canonly dream of. Like seriously, they never explain how he can afford to continually feed himself, or make money at all really, doing what he does. So it's quite literally a dream formost of us regular folk. But at least I can talk solace in the fact that we regular folk,unlike Ash, can actually beat Brock and Misty without bullshit tactics and instead justpummel them with sheer force and an adequately levelled Charmander. Like I did! Dooooooooooon't "That's what I'm talking about!" In fact, what kept me watching Pokemon for as long as I did wasn’t Ash at all, butrather... because of Team Rocket. Team Rocket is the group of three failureswho appear in basically every episode of Pokémon after the first, who constantly try to capturePikachu because they are one of the few who recognize this electric god’s power. Unfortunatelythough, because they keep trying to face a literal god of thunder, they almost never succeed,and them blasting off again every episode is played mostly for laughs.But I would posit that Team Rocket, often, are shown to be better trainers than Ash himself.Now I am not saying that they are always good people. Their first introduction shows themraiding a Pokemon hospital to steal sick and defenseless Pokémon, not something good peoplewould generally do. But as characters, they are the ones who grow the most over time.Their constant ideas and inventions get more and more grandiose, and honestly, while theirsuccess rate is near 0%, if they weren’t constantly up against the god of thunder thatis Pikachu, they’d probably find much more success for the effort they put out on a regularbasis. Team Rocket is the team of loveable losers that I’ve grown more attached toas I’ve grown older, because it’s hard to relate to this kid that has a lot of thingshanded to him when instead you can relate to these three shmucks who fail constantlybut never let that get them down…well, at least not for long.Hell after almost two decades worth of episodes, they actually manage to succeed in defeatingAsh fair and square in a battle, Pikachu included, and it is such a good moment to watch. Yes,they are the token villains, but their villainy is just cartoonish in nature. No one is reallythreatened by them and they don’t actually harm anyone, but they have the capacity tolearn and grow, which is something I never felt Ash was able to properly do.Now this all comes back to determining how enjoyable the show as a whole now is, whetheror not it has stood the test of time and can still be enjoyed by those who have never watchedit before now. To which I say….ehhhhhh, probably not.As a test, I watched several episodes beyond the initial 80-some-odd to try and get a feelfor how the series progressed and how enjoyable the Pokémon formula actually is, while somewhatremoving my nostalgia googles by watching episodes I had never seen previously. I watchedsome episodes from the era of the Orange Islands, only to discover that I was suddenly a lotless lenient towards many aspects of the series that I otherwise was able to brush off.The tone, the pacing, the puns. My god, the English dialogue is so full of puns that itwould make a committee of the most cringe-worthy dads cringe. "Stop pussyfooting around!" "Just biting my time!" "Ahhhhhh! The moment of tooth!" Now in fairness, the closer youget to present day, the less jarring this becomes. Many sections inthe X-Y era up until the current seasons appear to be a lot more enjoyable considering. Though I haveto admit, it feels a little odd for me after that unfortunate voice actor swap that happenedback in 2006. But we're not gonna get into that. But classic Pokémon as I grew up with itis a bit more of a relic. Something that doesn’t really stand up unless it is as steeped innostalgia for you as it is for me. I am a kid who grew up watching the series religiously,memorized the PokeRap (in the wrong order) just because I was watching it at the end of every episode, and it wasn't necessarily in order back then I went to go see the first two films, because A) watching a Pokémon movie in the theater was nuts as a concept back when I was a kid and 2) Lugia is my favourite legendary. Fight me.It’s a product of its time that I will rewatch, not necessarily because it’s a good series,but because for me it reminds me of better times. The kind of times when this naive littlekid, who played N64, drank juice out of a box, and collected Pokémon cards, had nota care in the world. I do have a holographic Charizard though,so I have that going for me. This little card made me king of the playground! ...That's a lie I was never a king of the playground. Downside to all of this, if you truly lovePokémon and want to watch it, your options keep changing over time. At the moment theoriginal series is available on Netflix but we don’t know how long for and even thenit doesn’t contain all of the original series, only going up to episode 52 by my count. Surprisinglythough A bunch of Pokémon episodes are available on the official Pokémon Website, but onlyup until somewhere in Joto for the classic episodes, and the most recent Sun and Moonepisodes. Still huge swaths of Pokémon anime history left undisturbed. But if all you wantis the nostalga those will do you fine. Lastly, a very special thank you to my patrons,who not only support my work in general, but who also allow me to do what I do. I loveand appreciate you all. Specifically though, as I like to do, I want to give particularshout-outs to patrons Matthew Robertson, Hector Montemayor, Siri Yamiko, Ryefan Boneapart,Rune Jachobson, Joshua Garcia, and Calhoonboy for being especially awesome. You guys aregreat! And until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime…and stayfrosty.
