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Stenoweb Home Page > Cory's Blog > Posts > From Pikachu to Pokemon Reserves: Takeaways from a Pokémon Re-Watch
October 29
From Pikachu to Pokemon Reserves: Takeaways from a Pokémon Re-Watch

I've recently powered through the first 90 or so episodes of Pokémon, which includes all of the early days in the Indigo league, and the first few adventures in the Orange Island league. I was originally going to call this post something relating to the hilariously environmentalist undertones the show almost always takes on, but I ended up choosing a more generic title. The series starts with Ash and his new Pikachu, the Pokémon he got because he was the last trainer from Palette Town to show up at Professor Oak's laboratory. Ash grows significantly in the first few episodes, but he really does spend most of the series being just a little bit dopey. Almost as soon as Ash's relationship with his Pikachu is solidified, he and his new traveling companions Brock and Misty start battling any force that might be interested in either stealing Pokemon, or destroying the environment.

The Pokemon universe is a little bit idiosyncratic, if for no other reason than because it's as ideal as possible without removing some of the human and Pokemon related conflicts which move the series forward. Other than Ash, and Pikachu, and Misty – some of the first characters we meet are Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy (who rightly enough is very harsh on Ash for letting his Pikachu get into a bad condition.) We then meet these two again and again, in every single city, even a mobile Nurse Joy in the Orange Islands. Over the course of the series, we learn that the Joys and the Jennies are two (very large) families (with no men?) where every Joy or Jenny ultimately becomes either a nurse or police officer, and generally has identical hair. Other than the Joys and Jennies, there is no visible established government, and in fact other than the fact that almost everything can be done at green computer-video-phones, which are nearly everywhere, there's no infrastructure at all. Some places have roads, but few people have cars, and there seems to be few or no buses.

Once the series gets established and our Indigo League trio is together, every third episode or so, Ash and his traveling companions come across some kind of reserve, or lost island, or preservation park, and by the end of the episode, all agree (even complete and total random strangers who are committed to some other goal, like their television ratings) that this totally unique event should be kept secret from everybody -- including the thousands of other Pokémon trainers who likely start their adventures each year.

As interesting as it is to watch a single kid who is perpetually ten meet up with everyone and have every unique adventure, Jesse and James from Team Rocket are almost the more interesting characters. Their continuous attempts at dastardly deeds are both entertaining and sad. During the Indigo and Orange Island leagues, they learn on a fairly regular basis that they're actually fairly skilled individuals in a lot of ways, and they're fairly decent businesspeople, too. Their life is hard, but they make what looks like the best of it, make some great puns, and honestly, when it comes down to it, they're fairly nice people. They mean ill, of course – but they end up succeeding when they choose to do the right thing.

There's a lot more to say about Pokemon in general, as well as about specific episodes/series of Pokemon, but this isn't a review of a series of individual episodes. At some point in the future, I may do such a thing in the future.

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