#houoh

[bhrm555]

Zuihoh (瑞鳳) by Kazuhisa Kusaba

[fancifuldancingstar]

So, I just thought I’d offer up my own thoughts in regards to what appears to be the replacement of Misty, Brock, and possibly even Gary in the movie retelling of the Pokemon anime’s beginning for the 20th anniversary of the anime.

First, I’d like to preface this by stating my own views about the anime, so people will know where I’m coming from, and so that I hopefully will not be brushed aside as just a “nostalgia crybaby” as so many people are wrongfully being accused of.

I don’t mind change. In fact... I feel the Pokemon anime series hasn’t had ENOUGH change. With the runaway success of the franchise as a whole, the anime started playing it safe in the latter half of season 1, and we ended up with Ash traveling to Johto, when in my opinion he should have wrapped up his story with Kanto and we should have had Jimmy and Marina be the central characters for Johto, then Brendan and May for Hoenn, etc. A controversial opinion, but at least my stating this might help people see that I’m not some genwunner that’s simply mad because “notmuhpokemon” or whatever.

With that said, I’ll even say this. I love, love, LOVE that they’re using Pokemon from newer regions (it makes sense, I mean, those Pokemon have always existed in-universe), and a lot of the other little changes make things fresh, too. I especially like that the movie will revolve around Ho-Oh and Ash’s historic encounter with it. Expanding on that seems like a GREAT subject matter for a movie meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the anime.

A movie meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the anime. I think that’s where we get a misstep with these character replacements. Brock, Misty, and Gary were a big part of the anime’s history, and were pivotal characters. It just feels a bit disrespectful to replace them with wholly new characters for this retelling of the early anime stuff. It’s right there in the title, “Pokemon The Movie 20″. It’s all about the 20th anniversary of the anime, yet these important characters didn’t get an invite. We see Jessie, James, and Meowth, though. We even see Nurse Joy. But not Ash’s rival or his best friends? Yes, I get it, this is a re-imagining. I’m fine with that. But considering the purpose of this movie (beyond the obvious advertising for Sun and Moon and a possible Gen 4 remake), which is (and I know I keep hammering this in, but it’s a point people keep missing) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon TV show. Changes are expected, sure. But this particular change seems to be crossing the line a bit. This isn’t some new anime where Ash goes to a new region and has new traveling companions while avoiding Team Rocket’s attempts at capturing Pikachu and failing to win a Pokemon League for the billionth time. It’s, and I know you’re probably getting tired of hearing this, a retelling of the early stuff as celebration of the 20th anniversary of the cartoon.

Lots of people are defending this, and hey... if you like this, more power to you. But for me, this isn’t what I would have wanted out of a retelling of Ash’s Kanto journey. Outside of this stuff, this movie seems to be doing so many things right. Ho-Oh being the focus, using newer Pokemon, and what looks like might be a gym battle with Erika... these are all really cool things. But the exclusion of Brock, Misty, and Gary with the replacement of completely new characters just feels wrong, and it killed my interest in this movie. I hope I won’t get called names for stating this, especially after I’ve made it clear that I’m not someone simply blinded by nostalgia (seeing as I would have liked each region to have a different protagonist), but for an anniversary movie, this one change is a bit too drastic to really feel like it’s paying respects to the TV show’s origins. We weren’t promised anything, sure. But for what this movie is supposed to be, it’s fallen short, if only because of that one major change.

I guess I don’t have much more to say without repeating myself. I’ll stop trying to preemptively defend myself and just leave it at this, then. I am disappointed at all the people writing off those of us who take issue with this change. Lumping all of us in with the likes of Genwunners just isn’t fair and is overly dismissive of a very valid complaint.

[keepfronting]

#houoh #ninjamasters #neogeo #neogeomini https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw7jzWNl8QU22zVduBZ_A2aNoiPFmQEpI6oAgM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=19muhnua1vb4q

[horizaru]

#houoh https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEkKsvHRRx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1lde8jmt75vgh

[horizaru]

in progress. #houoh https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEjQm7Hb3X/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tqa39thbc5zu

[horizaru]

out line #phoenix #houoh https://www.instagram.com/p/BmLCtrXHX9z/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x3sh81adrlup