Since this review is in English, I'll use the English names of the series, as depending on where you grew up, you may not have known the characters or Pokémon by the same name. For example, in Japan, the heroes are called Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kasumi, while in France, my home country, they are named Sacha, Pierre, and Ondine. However, I will use the English names, namely Ash, Brock, and Misty!
Firstly, let's establish some basics. Pokémon is an anime aimed at a fairly young audience. Moreover, the anime was released during a complicated period in terms of censorship, especially in Europe, which restricts many things. Furthermore, the anime is intended to be a generic one, a TV show that children can watch out of order without feeling lost in a story. These are logical considerations given all these factors, but unfortunately, they diminish the experience of the work because the anime minimizes the connections between episodes. For someone wanting to watch all the episodes in order like me, it quickly becomes tiresome because there is no overarching storyline. The episodes generally follow the same format: Ash must win badges to qualify for a championship, so he has to face different gym leaders to earn their respective badges. The anime operates almost exclusively in this manner across its 276 episodes:
Ash arrives at a gym to face the gym leader and win a badge.
He wins the badge.
He continues the journey towards the next gym.
During the journey to the next gym, we get many generic episodes where Ash and his friends encounter a person or Pokémon with a problem, usually involving an intervention by Team Rocket, until they reach the next gym. This pattern repeats for 276 EPISODES!
It's a shame because Pokémon had a lot of potential to create fabulous stories, as evidenced by the movies! During the 276 episodes, five films were released, and you can see them in this chronology:
Movie 1: Between episodes 69 and 70
Movie 2: Between episodes 107 and 108
Movie 3: Between episodes 157 and 158
Movie 4: Between episodes 207 and 208
Movie 5: Between episodes 256 and 257
The movies contain what should have been in the series for it to be a masterpiece – incredible stories based on legendary Pokémon. Even if these Pokémon were not legendary, I would have loved to see stories spanning multiple episodes, as deep as those in the movies. The content of the movies across multiple episodes would have been incredible, and they could have explored certain points they didn't have time for in the films!
Pokémon doesn't delve into any theme, all due to its generic episode system. For example, in the early episodes, we are introduced to the Pokémon Eevee, being told it has only three evolutions: Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon (1st generation). However, several hundred episodes later, we discover that Umbreon and Espeon (2nd generation) also exist, but no explanation is given. They are introduced as if nothing happened, and it's a shame. I expected to learn more, to understand why they hadn't been discovered until now, especially when it's as simple as exposing them to moon/sun radiation, and they evolve if they are ready.
I would also like to mention the uselessness of the trainers in the work. They are there because without them, the anime couldn't exist, but they almost exclusively state the attacks for their Pokémon, even though logically, a Pokémon knows its attacks and doesn't need its trainer to tell it. It would act more quickly following its instinct. Despite this, the trainer can have an impact, such as asking their water-type Pokémon falling to use its Water Gun attack on the ground to slow its fall. This is an example that proves trainers can have strategic ideas that a Pokémon wouldn't normally have. However, the anime almost never uses this aspect and mostly just has trainers say the names of the attacks. I also find the training aspect nearly nonexistent. I would have liked to see several episodes focused on the training of a particular Pokémon, how they go about it, and new skills appearing during their training. But no, evolutions almost always occur during battles against other Pokémon, and we have almost no training moments outside of combat.
Since the episodes are generic, they also have at least one appearance of the "villains" of the series, Team Rocket. I must say that I was worried at the beginning of the series, seeing how many episodes there were. I was afraid their attempts to capture Pikachu would all end up looking the same, but their interventions renew themselves well, even if some episodes are similar. Their interventions never bothered me!
I also appreciated the humor around Jigglypuff! The musicality is not bad at all, even if the openings were translated according to your listening language!
In summary, the Pokémon series had tremendous potential, an exceptional universe easily exploitable, but conditions forced it to become what we know now. If the series were to be released today as a seasonal anime, using the same type of content as in its movies but targeting a slightly older audience, this anime could be a true masterpiece. Unfortunately, this is very unlikely to happen.
(Togepi is the cutest Pokémon of all, I don't want to hear otherwise!)
