Pokémon are marvelous creatures that come in a variety of types and sizes, with abilities, powers, and personalities as diverse as they are numerous. Doctor Yukinari Ookido has dedicated his life to studying these fascinating beings, that can be caught, trained, traded, and battled against each other. There's only so much he can do from his lab though. With this in mind, Ookido entrusts two young boys with a Pokémon of their own and a computerized encyclopedia to catalog them. One of them, Green, is brash, passionate, slightly arrogant, and Doctor Ookido's own nephew. The other boy, Red, is equally passionate, and filled with a wide-eyed, mildly naive sense of wonder.
Pokémon: The Origin follows Red in his journey through the region of Kanto in his attempt to complete his "Pokédex" by capturing and cataloging all the Pokémon that exist. Along the way he'll discover there's more to himself and his goals than he originally thought. Red will have to put both himself and his Pokémon to the test in special Gyms whose leaders are steps along the way to the Pokémon League, in order to challenge the Elite Four and become a Pokémon League Champion.
Aside from his goals to become a Champion, Red has other problems brewing. There are others who capture and train Pokémon for more sinister reasons, with the infamous criminal organization Team Rocket being one of them. If Red can defeat them, fellow trainers, his rival Green, and wild Pokémon all through Kanto, he just may fulfill his own dream, and Doctor Ookido's as well.
First of all, I was amazed when a friend of mine told me that Pokémon: The Origin was about to come out and I was like "What? Not only Pokemon X and Y but also an anime too?!". I had a great expectation for this anime and I guess I was right after all. I only play Pokémon games. I don't watch the anime because I think it's too much repetitive and is always the same thing, but this one is really the exception. Most people started to connect with Pokémon not only because of the anime but thanks to the amazing games it has. Makingan anime of the original Pokémon game and the trainer Red was just something that people of my generation 90's and some older fans were needing. While watching this anime, I felt a big feel of nostalgia, but the anime itself helped even more.
Story - 8/10
The story is basically a summary of Red's Story as a Tamer in Kanto, however, since this anime only has four episodes, they are not enough to tell the whole story in detail, but still the most important parts. Don't want really to spoil, but what they showed was the first days of Red has a Pokémon trainer, his fight against Brock, the story at Pokémon's Tower, the fight against Team Rocket (including Giovanni's Gym), the final fight against Gary and Mewtwo. All the others Gym fights and important events are mentioned at the beginning of each episode. Since most of the people who watched/are going to watch this already played the Gameboy Pokémon game, they already know somewhat what is going to happen a little. Even though the story has been shortened, I really enjoyed the story overall.
Art - 10/10
I don't really have argumentative competences to really talk about the art on detail, but you will notice as you watch the anime that it is really great and different. For example, in the first episode when Charmander uses the fire attack, the effects are really different from Pokémon's original anime, it almost feels that you are watching the art of a Pokémon movie, and doesn't it feels like? :P
Sound - 10/10
Yes, you can hear some musics recorded in your memories while you were playing Pokémon in your childhood. I don't have any complaints when it comes to this part, I think it's appealing and the voices are cool enough. Notice that Ash sounds exactly like Naruto, something that really called my attention.
Character - 8/10
Why didn't I rate it 10/10? Not wanting to spoil, certain things don't happen exactly like the game showed. Gary is not that little bast*rd that we used to know with his "Smell ya later" expression, but still we notice that he has on his personality his greedy and rival part that we always expected from him. When watching Red in images, I always thought of him as a badass character, somehow a little cold and serious, unlike Ash, but I got surprised that he was a boy with a nice personality, wanting to be a Pokémon Master just like his rival. It is funny because he did so much mistakes during the anime while battling and capturing and how he took advantages of learning from it and evolving as a Trainer. Still, I think they didn't really lost their essence. As for the other character, they have the same personalities as expected.
Enjoyment - 10/10
I watched the four episodes on a row and it was enjoyable. I think that those who played Pokémon Red/Blue won't deny that even though they don't really watch anime or enjoy Pokémon anymore will feel some nostalgic moments.
Overall - 9/10
A really great anime for four episodes. I could give it 10/10 if they did they really integrated some other parts of the story in this anime, but the important was there. One more thing I though is somehow a little "What the hell" is what happens in the end of Mewtwo's battle. I won't say what happened but they really took advantage of this anime to make an "ad" for Pokémon X and Y videogames and I think they ruined that part of the original story, but still enjoyable. I even though why did they not made it a movie instead of a four episode anime? Oh well, those are little details I took in consideration but they are not ruining the anime overall. So, Pokémon Red/Blue ex-players, what are you waiting for?
LostJoker
HaHalkenburg
August 29, 2015
Not Recommended
Ah, Pokemon: The Origin. The highest-rated Pokemon-related anime in MAL's database. It is an interesting case for sure, and I will attempt to explain why in my first (and probably last) review. For contextual purposes, I think it is extremely important to understand the basic history of the Pokemon franchise before trying to make sense of Pokemon: The Origin, so I will start with a brief historical summary. Also, from here on out, I will be referring to the original anime series and its sequels as simply "Pokemon" (as it is listed in MAL's database), and Pokemon: The Origin as "PTO". In 1996, thelow-budget Pokemon Green and Red were hesitantly released in Japan. The unexpected success of the games led to the demand for the original anime series loosely inspired by the games to start airing in Japan barely a year later. Within a few years, the Pokemon franchise was a worldwide phenomenon, featuring massive commercial success across three mediums: anime series, video games (released outside of Japan as Blue and Red), and trading cards.
One aspect of the Pokemon anime that has bugged certain fans of the video games, such as myself, for over a decade, is that it makes no attempt to take anything but the surface elements out of the game and transpose them onto the framework of a Saturday morning cartoon. I say this not as a criticism of the Pokemon anime as it should be judged on its own merits, but rather to give context as to why there would be a demand for a "faithful adaptation" of the video games - one where we get to see the protagonist go through the same basic journey that we went through as video game players, only with new life brought to it through 3-dimensional graphics, human interactions, and various other nuances that couldn't be programmed into the low-budget video games.
PTO makes it clear in its presentation and promotional material that it should be viewed as an adaptation of the video games. Production IG provides great visuals that fit the setting perfectly, bringing new life to a two dimensional world. However, the plot basically goes like this (#7 may be a bit of a spoiler):
1. Introduce the main characters, similar to the main characters in the video games.
2. Spend a painful amount of time beating it into the head of the viewer that a kid leaving home for the first time has life lessons to learn.
3. Big battle, replacing any sense of video game mechanics with willpower and friendship power-ups, while showing HP bars to remind the viewer that apparently they are actually watching an adaptation of the video game
4. Skip over a big chunk of the video game plot in seconds, while making it seem the character has matured and learned.
5. Show a new filler scene that never happened in the video game. Progress through the filler slowly.
6. Repeat some combinations of steps 3-5 for the (almost) remainder of the show, while making sure to show that the protagonist somehow manages to simultaneously:
a) be a great natural talent who matures and learns quickly
b) actually not learn anything about Pokemon battling (using Normal instead of Fighting moves against Rock Pokemon for example)
7. At the very end of the series, in the midst of the final big event (where the protagonist still knows as little as ever despite being simutaneously talented and experienced), reveal that PTO is actually just a promotion for the new video games with a shameless asspull featuring game mechanics that weren't introduced until 2013.
I also forgot to mention some of the other not-so-subtle intermittent reminders that PTO was a video game adaptation, such as having characters repeat rote phrases from the game like "Your Pokemon are fighting fit!", and showing a save screen at the end of each episode, as well as the aforementioned HP bars in the middle of battles decided by willpower and friendship. All of these are done awkwardly, but I guess they serve the purpose of reminding the viewer that they actually are watching a video-game adaptation, because with about half of the 90-minute series being anime-original content that couldn't happen in the video games, the reminders may very well be necessary.
If you are a fan of Pokemon Red and Blue and want to get trolled by an "adaptation", Pokemon: The Origin is the anime for you.
Rating: 2/10 as an adaptation, 5/10 as an anime-original. Since it can be somewhat enjoyed if you keep telling yourself that it's not a video game adaptation, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a 4.
DeDeletedUser7717
August 20, 2015
Recommended
Most Reviews on here thrive at the fact that the whole thing was short, and while it sadly was too short, I will be ignoring this for my own one. Pokemon: The Origin is a story seemingly based of the core of the original Pokemon. While short, this story takes things like the base game and similar things into a animated adventure. With lot's of good moments of fun and tense stuff, plus all the memes we got from these 4 short episodes, this was a very valuable thing to watch for the huge Pokemon fan that I am. It's simple... Do YOU like Pokemon?If so, watch it. This one is like a short special Limited Edition OVA. It was a great experience.
Recommended
The Pokemon anime series is something i droped for many years, basically is just the same formula but a different region with new Pokémon and so on. I came back just for one reason. I played the original game in a Game Boy when I was 10, and since then i followed the games, maybe for someone the games are like i just said about the anime "the same formula but a different region with new Pokémon" but i think the games, in fact, are more fun and engaging. Now, back to the animation... I love it. It takes the most memorables moments of the original game likethe Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town,maybe it will jump many of your personal favorite moments, but the ones you really know, they are here. For only 4 episodes it was pretty good and awesome. 8/10
The characters are just like in the game like our cocky-hated rival Green or our greedy Giovanny, a copycat form the game, and that is GOOD 8/10
The music, an orchestrated tunes form the classic tracks from the game. Sure they are many, but I wish it had been more. 9/10
The art is not bat at all, acutually is pretty awesome but i think they could do it much better, like the Pokemon Movies.
Is something between a regular episode and a movie 7/10
It's a love letter to the first games (with a little wink to the next Nintendo 3DS relased) I recomend to any fan of Pokémon, more if you are more in the Games rather the anime and I enjoyed a lot 10/10
It's gets a 8,4/10 + 0,6 for nostalgia.
TOTAL=9/10
