#pokememories

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Volo

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Volo is an ancestor of Sinnoh Champion Cynthia who, as a member of a merchants guild plus a historical research enthusiast like his descendant, helps you throughout the game, including at your lowest point of being banished from civilization.

And then in the postgame, you find out it was all a ruse and that he's the villain of this story.

In fact, not only is he the villain, but he's also one of the most psychopathic in the franchise with one of the much horrific goals - destroy the universe and make a new one that he can rule over as a god, but unlike Cyrus not with the same people and Pokémon as before - and also among the most powerful, as the battle with him is long and difficult. You first have to fight all 6 of his Pokémon as expected, but then he summons his true partner Giratina whom you must fight, and then after being defeated Giratina transforms into its Origin Forme with fully recovered HP and you have to fight it again! And did I mention that your life is in danger?

Volo - even if you defeat him, he'll still be haunting you forever.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: The Sun/Moon Anime

While the Pokémon anime had experimented in soft rebooting before with Advanced Generation and Best Wishes, it took it to its highest level with the Sun and Moon anime series directed by Daiki Tomiyasu and featuring Aya Matsui as head writer. It reframed past continuity in broad strokes and gave everything a cartoonier aesthetic, with perhaps the highest emphasis on comedy since the original Indigo League series. Despite that, it was still perfectly content dealing with darker and emotionally heavier elements when it needed to.

This was also the first anime series that completely upended the usual formula. Instead of traveling the Alola region to advance in some sort of competition, Ash settled down on Melemele Island to attend a trainer school run by Sampson Oak and Professor Kukui, with his classmates being Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, Sophocles and Lillie. This allowed for deeper world-building and a stronger supporting cast than ever before. The core "Myth Arc" was also the best one to date, centering around Tapu Koko, guardian of Melemele Island, choosing Ash and Pikachu to connect with Alola and gain the strength needed to protect it against a multitude of threats. After having already become re-engaged with the anime in XY&Z, Sun and Moon restored my interest up to Best Wishes levels. It was and is a truly fantastic show.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: The Pokédex

It's nothing at all like a real Pokédex is supposed to be, but still a fun possession to have.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Pokémon Ranger

Pokémon Ranger was released in the last year of Gen III during the lead-up to Gen IV. Like Pokémon Colosseum, it departed from the usual formula and presented a new region that serves as a natural Pokémon reserve, with the player character taking on a sort of park ranger role tasked in keeping the peace between nature and civilization. The game even received cross-promotion in the anime with the appearance of its female lead Solana:

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Alain

I was burned out on the Pokémon anime once more after Best Wishes' third and final year got derailed, and the subsequent XY series did absolutely nothing to endear me to it as it immediately felt like cowardly pandering to all the vocal adult fans on the internet who hated the things Best Wishes had been doing and wanted the tired old Diamond and Pearl style formula back, which XY did with added pseudo-mature edge like Ash physically resembling a teenager and the female companion Serena being in love with him. Naturally, I tuned out.

....Until The Strongest Mega Evolution, that is.

That was the title of four specials that aired sporadically across XY's first two years, and they featured a way more interesting Pokémon journey being undertaken by a teenage boy named Alain and his cute platonic female companion Mairin. Alain sought to uncover the mysteries of Mega Evolution and gain enough power to achieve the strongest Mega Evolution ever recorded, a goal that set him on many intense adventures. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, he had once been a pupil of Professor Sycamore, but had left him in favor of this personal quest, which has a corporate sponsor: Lysandre, of Lysandre Labs. He seems trustworthy!

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Pokémon Hunter J

Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl is my least favorite Pokémon anime series, and one of the many reasons as to why that is? It severely underused the character of Pokémon Hunter J, who is hands down one of the darkest villains in the franchise. A well-funded and well-equipped Pokémon poacher who flies around in a fortified airship, Hunter J sees Pokémon as nothing but things to profit from. Now, that's nothing knew, it's been Team Rocket's MO from the beginning of the franchise. But not only is Hunter J willing to go especially far in harming or even killing Pokémon to claim the profit she seeks, but she has the same view toward humans. People, even her own henchmen, are utterly disposable to J. She sees fellow humans in three ways: they pay her, assist her in getting paid, or obstruct her and thus must be eliminated...even if they're children like Ash and his friends! She was a great villain, but sadly was only used five times across a four-year, 191 episode series before being abruptly killed off in the middle of a three-part event that otherwise had nothing to do with her.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Pokémon Conquest

In one of the more bizarre crossovers in Pokémon history, the franchise crossed over with the historical military tactics series Nobunaga's Ambitions. Historical warlord Oda Nobunaga is placed into the Ransei region and plunges it into a war. His sister Oichi seeks to stop his campaign of conquest, and joins forces with the player character to defeat warlords and build an alliance of them and their armies that can stand against her brother. It's an idea that sounds like it shouldn't work, but it does. As such, Pokémon Conquest is an overlooked gem.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: The Boss

Clad in shadows, wearing an orange suit and speaking with a deep-voiced vocoder - this was my introduction to the ultimate villain of the franchise: Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket. Since then, he would go on to become one of my all-time favorite villains in all of fiction.