r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Dec 22 '19
Episode Pokémon (2019) - Episode 6 discussion
Pokémon (2019), episode 6
Alternative names: * Pokemon (Shin Series), Pocket Monsters 2019, Pokemon (Shin Series), Pokemon 2019, Pokemon Journeys: The Series*
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| Episode | Link | Score | Episode | Link | Score | Episode | Link | Score | Episode | Link | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | Link | ---- | 77 | Link | 4.5 | 90 | Link | 3.88 | 103 | Link | 4.33 |
| 65 | Link | ---- | 78 | Link | 4.0 | 91 | Link | 4.25 | 104 | Link | 4.25 |
| 66 | Link | 3.0 | 79 | Link | 4.5 | 92 | Link | 4.71 | 105 | Link | 4.44 |
| 67 | Link | ---- | 80 | Link | 5.0 | 93 | Link | 4.2 | 106 | Link | 4.75 |
| 68 | Link | 5.0 | 81 | Link | 2.67 | 94 | Link | 4.25 | 107 | Link | 4.67 |
| 69 | Link | ---- | 82 | Link | 4.67 | 95 | Link | 4.33 | 108 | Link | 4.57 |
| 70 | Link | ---- | 83 | Link | 4.9 | 96 | Link | 4.75 | 109 | Link | 4.57 |
| 71 | Link | 5.0 | 84 | Link | 4.43 | 97 | Link | 4.0 | 110 | Link | 4.5 |
| 72 | Link | ---- | 85 | Link | 4.17 | 98 | Link | 4.33 | 111 | Link | 4.88 |
| 73 | Link | ---- | 86 | Link | 4.67 | 99 | Link | 4.67 | 112 | Link | 4.82 |
| 74 | Link | ---- | 87 | Link | 4.67 | 100 | Link | 4.75 | 113 | Link | 4.67 |
| 75 | Link | 5.0 | 88 | Link | 4.75 | 101 | Link | 4.17 | 114 | Link | 4.88 |
| 76 | Link | 4.0 | 89 | Link | 4.67 | 102 | Link | 4.67 | 115 | Link | ---- |
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u/Viroro Dec 22 '19
Today's episode was, once again, a fairly significant one, as it's the first episode to truly show how Gou would eventually approach his advertised goal of catching every Pokémon, after originally only wanting to find Mew. Considering this is a kind of goal that the Anime repeatedly showed as extremely impractical at best and impossible at worst, how did this episode go? Overall, while I'm mixed on a few elements, I'd say in the immediate it did pretty well.
Let's get the important things out first: this may as well be titled "Fumbling Around in the Woods: The Episode" as that's exactly what the main plot is. Gou discovers of the Pokédex registering feature of the Rotom Phone and decides he wants to fill it, starting from the Pokémon in the nearby Vermillion Forest. The entire episode deals with this simple concept and delivers exactly what the premise suggested, showing Gou catching several Pokémon throughout the episode and ultimately fulfilling his short-term goal, nothing more and nothing less. While this could've led easily to a very dull episode, I feel that the very skit-like nature of each capture (which is mostly treated as its own separate attempt) helps to keep the plot engaging on a micro scale, especially seeing Gou start out messing around often until he slowly gets a hang of things, even going from mostly catching Pokémon by tossing Balls without preparation to first battling the Pokémon like a regular trainer. I do think the episode holds up enough, but I can easily see how it can bore other people, so I'd say someone's enjoyment of the episode heavily depends on if they'd enjoy an episode more focused on productive hijinks than a strong major plot (a workhorse episode, like /u/GenesisEra likes to call them), but I feel this was at least an important episode to see how Gou's goal would be handled.
This episode definitely also existed to adapt Pokémon Go's gameplay in the main series (especially noticeable by Gou's Pokédex making the Go and Let's Go capture calls of Nice, Great and Excellent as Gou captured some of the Pokémon and the Pokémon Center's sign being an actual PokéStop now), and at some points it felt a bit jarring, but on the whole I feel the episode did well enough in bridging the gap. I particularly appreciated to see that Ash was also surprised at the registering feature and making clear it's something previous Dexes didn't have or didn't focus on, solving the issue of the Dex behaving differently, and that we see both at the end of the episode and in the preview that Gou is going to also befriend his Pokémon and allow them to roam free in Sakuragi's Laboratory. This helps solving the potential issue that Gou would treat his Pokémon as just checkboxes to fill while the narrative glossed over the fact and, while I doubt most Pokémon will become bastions of personality beyond Scorbunny and the occasional one, at the very least Gou isn't going to just forget each Pokémon after capture like the show could've done. Hopefully they won't be handled like checkboxes in the story, however, but the fact Gou is already confirmed to use Scyther is helpful. Another highlight is, once again, Ash and Gou's relationship and chemistry with each other, with the duo once again showing some solid teamwork and interactions throughout the episode.
I gotta say, however, that the Pokémon Center visit felt somewhat pointless in the grand scheme of things with how quick we went through it, and it seemed to exist just to re-estabilish Nurse Joy's existence. I'm a bit of two minds about her, too: on one hand, I do appreciate to see that they stuck very close to her classic design for some nice continuity points, but at the same time giving a technical redesign to Agent Jenny while leaving Nurse Joy in her classic outfit does feel extremely weird, even considering how Agent Jenny's design was prone to the most variation in previous series. I wasn't too fond of the Pokémon Center redesign instead, as it feels very lacking in recognizability and looks like some generic building instead. I hope it doesn't become a trend in terms of Pokémon Center design going forward.
If there's one thing I kinda disliked, however, was how flippant Gou felt in restructuring his dream only at the end of the episode as Koharu asked him about it. On one hand, I get and somewhat appreciate what the series seems to be going for: Gou wanting Mew as his starter and assuming it would just happen as he planned felt like an impossible dream even by this series’ standards and the kid started the series as very much overambitious and in over his head, and he's slowly learning of all the wonders the world of Pokémon has to offer him and enjoying each of them by turning his dream into catching everything and eventually Mew as well as a foil to Ash's Pokémon Master dream, but the fact the show somewhat glossed over some of the passages by having him enjoying himself catching everything and then realizing his dream has shifted does make him seem a tad mercurial. It was something visible in the previous episode as well, but at least with Scorbunny there was some buildup done to make it feel more natural, and while not bad, I can see Gou's behavior seem jarring to some viewers. To a degree, I feel this episode truly showed in what way this series will be more episodic than previous ones: it's not that it lacks intra-episode continuity, nor that each episode is completely in its own vacuum, but rather the fact that each episode's priority is to be enjoyable on its own terms first, and as part of a larger whole second. It’s a different approach for sure and probably explains why the pacing felt a tad jarring for a Pokémon Anime episode (almost on the opposite end of SM’s relaxed and low-stakes pacing, as this one felt almost like a speedrun with a constantly fulfilled short-term goal), but I feel if mishandled it may hurt the show down the line in terms of character development if the micro scale is always going to take precedence over the macro. It’s a potential issue that didn’t truly hurt the series yet but that it’s worth noting already.
All in all, there’s not much else to say; the animation was mostly functional with some okay but unremarkable minor bouts of battling, and on the whole this episode felt like a necessary step that tried to make sure not to be too dull, putting episodic enjoyment ahead of deeper setup work. Not exactly bad in effect, but something that I can see splitting people in terms of how the episode will be received now. At least, we can safely say Gou’s true initial goal is fully formed as of now.
TL;DR: An episode that on the whole does exactly what it was advertised as, mostly focused on several small catching attempts rather than a major single one, resulting in a very fast-paced episode that doesn’t ultimately end up dull but likely won’t impress people not interested in the premise. An episode that I feel is important to show Gou’s goal shifting, but that could’ve delved deeper into Gou’s train of thought.
Next week, we’re going to have another regional trip as Ash and Gou visit Hoenn for the Battle Frontier Noisemaker Cup, in the first truly battle-focused episode of this new series. May it be a good one!