A Donut Pokemon...?

[citrus_cactus]

I legitimately never thought I would be this obsessed over the Pokemon anime again. Oh past-Citrus, if only you knew what's waiting for you a few years down the road. So here I am, finally rewatching the original series (or Indigo League, as it's now called) for the first time in nearly 14 years

Comments

[lelenmargyle]

XDDDD

So, my day was going pretty "meh" until just now!

And it goes both ways. You're welcome for the subversive influence, m'dear. ;3

Pokemon actually WAS my very first anime. I don't really remember exactly how or why I first ended up with a Game Boy Color and Pokemon: Blue Version, but after that happened, I saw the anime on Kids WB. What was this strange foreign cartoon? Mannerisms so unfamiliar! Jokes that seemed totally forced! And so I went to the Internet and found out what the heck anime was, and started to fall in love. XD (Incidentally, I initially viewed Digimon as a Pokemon rip-off. One morning when I was home sick from school, I decided to watch it in mockery, and I made a list on a dry-erase board of each ridiculous thing that I would tell my sister about when she got home from school. Somehow it took ~24 hours for me to change my opinion and realize that Digimon was actually pretty cool. Whew! Potential crisis averted. My life took the proper course, after all.)

A couple of years ago, I got all nostalgic for some reason, so I went and blew a wad of cash on the DVD sets of the Indigo League and Orange Islands. (Tracey may suck in that season, but the interactions between Ash and Misty do not, by my recollection. ;D) THEN Digimon was announced and I was like "oh crap, take all my $$". Then Netflix added Pokemon. D'oh! ~_~ Aaaand I still haven't even gotten all the way through the Indigo League. I got my husband to watch it (he totally missed out on everything Pokemon back in the day, poor kid), and he enjoys it, but I think he can only take so much at a time. XD;

I think you've summed it up well, but Pokemon used to be so...kooky? Yes, definitely. It's still great fun, but it's a little more whitewashed now -- Probably because of the knowledge that they have a global audience nowadays. Pokemon in its early days had a distinctly Japanese flavor, and it was a little edgier and more fun at times.

Argh, you're killing me with all of these "Misty" memories. I shipped Ash & Misty so hard. I suppose it was genuinely my first-ever "ship." That Caterpie episode is definitely one of the most adorable things ever. >_< But alas...I just have to tell myself that Ash isn't interested in women (and/or that today's Ash is some sort of cross-dimensional clone, not the same person at all XD).

Palletshipping makes NO SENSE to me either. I think its basis is pretty much just "Gary ignites Ash's passions" or something like that. Whatevz. It never spoke to me at all. (Clemont, on the other hand, ignites Ash's passions in a positive and healthy way, and is someone that Ash actually likes to be around. Call me old-fashioned... e_e) The best things that can be said for Gary are that he's painfully unaware of how lame he himself comes across (snerk, time for lolz) and that he has an Eevee. (I hope his Eevee gets all the proper love and adoration that it deserves...sniffle. I think it eventually evolves into Umbreon?) I also remember these epically long threads on Pokemon forums (Bulbapedia maybe?) in which the hardcore Palletshippers and Pokeshippers would hold endless, deadly serious debates. XD

I never really thought too deeply about Rocketshipping. I was always highly doubtful that James was heterosexual (can you blame me?), so it didn't really cross my mind a whole lot to ship him with Jessie. But I can totally see some kind of kinky or just gender-blind dependency between the two of them. I think as an adult I've warmed up to those two a little more. They seemed so "old" and hard to relate to when I was the same age as Da Twerps. Hah.

[lelenmargyle]

[Part 2 because comment too long O_o]

So they really have left out the Beach episode? Bummer. It's hilarious. You should do yourself a favor and just go find it subbed somewhere. (Wish I could've said that so flippantly in the pre-YouTube era: Back then, I actually paid someone online for a crappy VHS several generations removed from the original source. It skipped a lot and was quite unbearable to watch, but at least it got the point across...sort of...and I could see James's boobtastic inflatable boobs! XDDDD) IIRC, the Dratini episode was banned for no other reason than that the Safari Owner Dude had an arsenal of guns and he pointed one between Ash's eyes or something. How hard would it have been to just edit that scene out? And, excuse me, but it's the unfortunate truth that a good many kids in this country can just visit their ol' uncle (or sit in on a session of Congress, or attend public school or go to the movies -_____-) to similarly appreciate what a gun-loving culture looks like. (I imagine that the dude in Pokemon was an American "Wild West" caricature to begin with. Derp.)

Speaking of banned episodes, did you read about the upcoming(?) XY episode that was suspended due to content because it unfortunately coincided with that South Korean ferry incident? It looks like they're suspending it until further notice in the U.S. viewing schedule as well. Boo. I mean, it was a seriously tragic event, but Pokemon has nothing to do with it. -_- Perhaps understandable not to air it the same week, but I think we can handle it by now. (Reminds me of when they cut that scene of an exploding building in Digimon well after 9/11 happened...)

Wow, this post took a dark turn. :[ YAY POKEMON

FOREVER AND EVER

A part of me is still really incredulous that the franchise is still going so strong. And yet even more incredulous that I've found a reason to get back into it again after all these years. BUT I'LL TAKE IT! FUN IS FUN :D You might be interested to know that I actually happened to wear a Pikachu shirt today (working from home, of course...) YAY! ^_^

[citrus_cactus]

I should look up the original of that episode. Aaah, the magic of modern Internet. And whoops, I was wrong about the Porygon episode-- never been seen anywhere after the initial airing in Japan. I had forgotten about the Dratini episode too (and if I bothered to do any fact-checking before making that post, I would have known that! This site has quite a detailed discussion about it). I guessed that *firing* guns is the thing that makes the censors start getting out their scissors, even if that seems like a pretty pointless distinction.

Somehow, I don’t think I’d heard about the ferry incident at all-- what an awful thing. I certainly understand wanting to be sensitive the survivors and siblings/friends of any of the victims (who may watch the show?). Maybe Japanese networks hate controversy as much as American ones do and they think there's never a “right time” to air it once the decision has been made to pull it because that just calls attention to the issue again (just guessing at reasons here, although it does seem like erring a bit too much on the side of caution for a children's cartoon).

Did they cut a scene of an exploding building in Digimon? I’m guessing that was Tamers… I really need to rewatch that season, it's been a long time. It is interesting that one of the Adventure drama CDs (“Two and a Half Year Break”) chose to perform a bit of a retcon and addressed Mimi’s presence in New York on 9/11. Not sure what that says about anything in particular, just interesting.

Hmm, this did get serious. But on a less serious note, YAY PIKACHU SHIRT, and hey, why do so many people have "that one uncle", anyway?? O_o

[citrus_cactus]

Indigo is kooky (and great)! I do miss that aspect. And even though Sailor Moon was my introduction to anime, Pokemon being #2 still taught me a lot about goofy/awesome anime tropes and dubious/hilarious dubbing decisions (and I remember the veeeery first time I looked up Sailor Moon on the internet, I know I was super-confused as to why I was seeing the word "Anime" all the time. Like, I guess that's an interesting girl's name, but who is she and why is she so important?? Oy. At least it didn't take me too long to figure it out XD). And that's the only reason I started watching Digimon too, to see how much of a ripoff it was (but, but, the whole trapped in another world thing was really intriguing, and all they wanted to do was go home, and-- yes, thank goodness for being angrily curious!)

So, OK, confession time: one thing that made me a little reluctant to give X/Y a try was that I really didn't want to acknowledge that Pokemon could still be going on with Ash but not Misty. Obviously it can, and has for a looong time, but c'mon, IT'S MISTY! Even without actively *shipping* them, I do think I always took it for granted that they were going to hook up eventually. I don't even want to imagine how her goodbye episode actually played out ;____; But hmm, I like where you're going with this cross-dimensional theory: X/Y takes place in some parallel universe where Ash has feelings for boys and science, and Pokeshipping is totally canon somewhere else. :D

Haha, my feelings on Rocketshipping (and James) are... complicated. Believe it or not, there IS actually some sort of canon precedent for the ship, depending on what you define as canon-- at the end of "The Electric Tale of Pikachu" manga, Jessie and James are married and Jessie is pregnant (proof!), but I was always kind of "meh" on that (and o-oh geez. I have never looked at a shipping article on Bulbapedia before. That is one long page!) One thing that I like about how the show treats James is that while his somewhat... unconventional personality and preferences make you seriously wonder about his sexuality and are probably supposed to be a joke, no one in the show ever seems to comment on it or ridicule him for it. I like that both he and Jessie are kind of open to interpretation, which (to me) is two eccentric, somewhat genderfluid characters who also happen to have kind of a loose morality and are *technically* bad guys (but only kind of-- usually). It's also refreshing that the show just has these two people of opposite sexes just being together without explicitly being together, but at the same time, thinking of them as "just friends" doesn't seem quite right either. So I guess I can see them pretty much anywhere on the spectrum, from yeah they might be a couple (now or in the future) to kinda kinky friends-with-benefits to celibate life-long partners, in which case orientation doesn’t really matter (because they clearly don't have any sort of lives outside their jobs and, like you said, they are quite dependent on each other!) So... yeah. There’s probably something there, I don’t know what it is, but I also don't feel the need define it any further than that (so uh, is it even shipping at that point??). The show is (most likely) never going to elaborate on their relationship or sexualities, but it's also never going to give them anyone else to interact with on any sort of meaningful level, so in my eyes, they're kind of an exclusive item anyway. Whew. Like I said, complicated. Honestly, I just like the moments that involve them being super-campy and reaffirming whatever bond they have :)

And oh man, thinking about "The Electric Tale of Pikachu" makes me remember that in that storyline, Gary had a older (very um... well-endowed) sister who Ash was totally crushing on so... yeah, there's that. Bleah. That artist drew the *cutest* faces and Pokemon, but coupled with his ridiculously sexualized female bodies... sigh.