Pokémon: The Origin

[Slash]

Originally Posted by Kairne

but Missingno. isn't actually a Pokémon.

[Missingno. Master]

So, it seems this is getting dubbed.

[DaveTheFishGuy]

Excellent.

Airdate is November 15th, so that's a nice quick turnaround.

[Concept]

Jawesome.

[Slash]

I nearly came.

[Doppleganger]

So, I dunno if anyone actually got to see the Origins episode, but

Spoiler: show

Apparently it's not actually a retelling of RBY, it is mostly about the mega evolutions that are so controversial.

Kind of ironic given in the previews, we don't see any of that stuff at all.

[Torkoal Stu]

Just to expand on Doppel's point Pokémon: The Origin actually has an X & Y spoiler just so the spoiler avoiders know. And just as a reminder of people who are exposed to spoilers to be understanding of our friends who have chosen to abstain from spoilers.

I'm going to hold out any judgements of the episode itself until I manage to watch it all subbed to be fair.

[Talon87]

Ugh, really? ^^; Can we please not spoil the events Talon is like 10 minutes away from reaching? Kthxbye.

[Torkoal Stu]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Ugh, really? ^^; Can we please not spoil the events Talon is like 10 minutes away from reaching? Kthxbye.

Ah apologies Talon, I didn't really think of that as a spoiler to be honest. But I'll take it out >:

I hope you're enjoying it~ : D

[Talon87]

I was referring more to EBE's post, which informed me of something I hadn't known. (We'd all seen the trailer, so we all knew what Episodes 01 and 04 were likely to be. But 02 and 03 were still up in the air for me somewhat.) Not the end of the world, but it's like ... I want to be surprised by Nintendo, not by anybody else, y'know? I came in here considering writing a post for "Episode 01" (since I just finished it), but ... hrmph. ^^; Spoiled when your guard's down.

[Electric Blue Eye]

You know, there has been this constant theme as of late of people trying hard to stay spoiler free. And all I've been thinking, is it even possible, or worth it? If its not me, it'll be someone else. If its not one thing, it's another...I apologize for the inconvenience and I'll probably make a note to post things in spoilers from now on; but some advice to you Talon (not trying to be malice or anything) or anyone, you should probably be caught up with the episode or series in question before thinking of looking at a thread about it; I find its the safest way not to find out something you'd rather have discovered yourself. Thats what I do and have found to be very effective but of course that's just me and is just advice.

[Emp]

Has this been subbed anywhere yet?

[Talon87]

Episode 01: Red

Spoiler: show

The episode starts with Professor Oak and an adorable Eevee companion. While the Eevee's cute, Oak's a little distracting. He sounds much younger and stronger than his ShoPro counterpart, which is fine, just a little surprising. He also tries to act hip (what with the snapping of his fingers to advance the technology show), and I dunno, that just made it feel like I was watching John McCain try to be hip at E3. ^^;

Soon after, we cut to Red, and ... are treated to our first of several "Huh? " changes to the character canon. Y'see, Pokémon: the Origin's Red ... is a dojikko. ^^; At least, he is in his opening appearance. Throughout the rest of the episode, he doesn't do anything like this, but I dunno, it ... didn't seem like something the Red I've envisioned would've done. (I guess this problem of fans' various personal headcanons may be one reason why Nintendo's never dared to do something like this project before! ^^; )

For comments on Red's mother, see the non-spoiler discussion below.

Cutting to the Oak lab, umm ... why is it so goddamn dark in here? #3 for major differences between headcanon and P:tO canon. Why #3? Because I skipped #2.

Green Oak's redesign is #2. He both looks and sounds at least several years older than Red, and in no way, shape, or form does he pass for a 10-year old boy. Nor do I think the writers are trying to make him seem quite so young. If anything, it seems like most of the familiar child NPCs have gotten boosts to their ages.

One thing that becomes clear during the scene where Oak gives Red the Pokédex is that the studio has fun lifting dialogue straight out of the games from time to time. Oh sure, they may tweak things a bit and only lift one or two lines, but like, the part where Oak explains to Red that it was his life's goal to complete the Pokédex but then suddenly "now I'm an old geezer ^^;" with the ジジイ took me right back to when I played Pokémon Red in Japanese back in 2006.

But like I said, the studio has plenty of fun inventing new dialogue for characters (obviously), and we get some of that when Red explains his choice of Charmander for his starter:

Oak: You should think well about it and then choose.
Red: No, [that's okay], I've already decided.
*picks up Charmander's PokéBall*
Oak: Ohh~, Charmander?
Red: Yes! "Become a man with a passionate heart that burns red like fire!" -- it was with that meaning in mind that my father named me Red. That's why I decided that the first Pokémon I ever have would be the fire that's embedded in my very name.

I like it. And I liked even more how they then followed this up by having Professor Oak ask Green if he'd be picking Bulbasaur since it'd fit with his name and Green was like, "Hmph! I'm not gonna pick based on a girly reason like that! " and goes straight for Squirtle. Funnier about it still being that Green claimed to let Red have the first pick because he, Green, is "a grown up" and would let ittle wittle Red pick first ... only to now prove he's the bigger child by counter-picking for the type advantage.

I like how they mentioned nicknames but in the end Red decides to stick with Charmander.

And before we know it, it's time to capture Pokémon! This part makes some interesting references to the games, first of which is that the Pokédex won't fill in unless you capture the Pokémon. This then prompts Red to go on a catching spree, culminating in a battle with another trainer where ...

... he attempts to catch the other guy's Nidoran-F. ^^; I liked how the other guy responded, explaining to Red that it's common sense that people who steal others' Pokémon are thieves. And I liked how this studio had Red respond in turn. If it were ShoPro with Ash, they'd have Ash be all "DERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP ^^;;;;". But not these guys. They have Red be remarkably naive yet intelligent. He's not stupid: he's just uninformed. "Is that so?" he asks, and then he proceeds to ask where he can capture his own Nidoran. And the other guy is nice enough to tell Red where he can find one since Red won their battle.

This was another nice way to tie things into the video games: it justified getting Red to that one patch of grass west of Viridian where you have the option of fighting Green. And sure enough, we had that battle. The highlight for me was when they had Squirtle use Bite at the very end. I thought this new studio handled both the Bite attack as well as Charmander's "fainting" (a.k.a. Red calling him back into the PokéBall before he could die) very well. Definitely beats the swirly-eyed knockouts we're so used to seeing in the Ash Ketchum anime.

Yikes, only halfway through. Better pick up the pace, me.

I liked how Red met Brock without learning Brock's name. This allowed for Red to later be surprised when he discovered that Takeshi, Gym Leader of Pewter City, was the very man who gave him advice on the riverbank.

I liked how we got to see gym trainers for once. What a surprise. Yes, they've been in the original anime before too, but it's really refreshing to have 'em there right from the start.

Nice to have some passage of time given to us too. (Red's mention of "five days" being how long he'd been a Pokémon trainer in response to the female gym trainer's questioning.)

Thought it was kinda random how this studio cracked an honorifics joke. ^^; ("Mr. Takeshi! Mister! ")

I liked how Brock asked Red how many badges he had and Red answered that he didn't have any -- and so Brock then deliberately chose two Pokémon to fight with. A nice nod to the fan theory that gym leaders are all a lot better than what we see during Story Mode but that they adjust their teams accordingly depending on how many badges we have when we challenge them.

I liked how they referenced the fact that Nidoran is one of the most popular ways for trainers who choose a Charmander for their starter to defeat Brock.

I also really liked how Brock actually coaches Red in how best to battle. You can really tell that this virginal gym battle of Red's is less about winning and losing to Brock and is much more about helping this beginner to figure out what Pokémon battles are all about. It's thanks to Brock that Red even calls Charmander back in the first place and it's thanks to Brock that he eventually sends out Nidoran with the Double Kick super-effective strategy in mind.

While the animation was really rather crappy during the Onix fights everyone scene ^^; , I really loved the idea behind that scene. Fast-paced and exciting, and I loved how even the "crappy" Pokémon who fainted in one hit were able to wow us. Spearow's flight, Rattata's scampering, it was all good.

LOVED seeing TMs show up. And it looks like a floppy disk too! NOSTALGIA!

Finally, I liked how they ended the episode with the save menu screen. Very neat little touch. Would definitely love something like this at the end of every single episode were they to ever attempt this project again but with 50+ episodes instead of just four.

First Impressions:

I'd say you can click to expand this. (It was originally untagged.) But I decided to tag it on second thought because of a few comments which might be considered spoilers to the super-picky.

Spoiler: show

Pokémon: the Origin is a mixed bag, a veritable cornucopia of delights and disappointments. Nowhere is this more clear than with the animation, so let's start there. As we feared, the trailer for this special was definitely the victim of cherrypicked cels 'n' scenes. Most of the animation you'll find in this special is nowhere near as good as what you see in the special. I'm not even talking in terms of art direction or character design. I'm talking in terms of the care that went into drawing things properly, the care that was put into this project, the budget they had to work with, etc. For example, check out Red's mother's face. (1a, 1b) While I love that they were bold enough to depart from Delia Ketchum's character design (all the more impressive since her design's rather popular), that doesn't mean I don't notice just how ugly she looks here due to really sloppy facial animation. Her eyes are weird. Her mouth is weird. Things look like they're in the wrong proportions relative to one another or are perhaps not even in the same plane. It's jarring and you notice it immediately. Now, is it always this bad? Hell no. Take this cel for example. While it may not be 10/10 très magnifique by 2013's standards, it's clearly a step up from ShoPro's anime -- not to mention the cels I just showed you of Red's mom. That's what makes cels where Red's very own face looks misshapen (here, for instance) all the more sad. 'Cause I know this studio can do it right when given the time and resources. It's just that, clearly, they were rushed to get this production out. Which is a real shame.

Now, how about we do talk art direction for a second? 'Cause that too is a mixed bag. Pokémon: the Origin shines brightest when the director is being both brave and fanservicey, when he does things completely different from ShoPro's fifteen-year-old mold and trusts his own directorial instincts. Take this scene, for example. It only lasts one or two seconds but it's a beautiful look at Red's nighttime arrival at the next city in his journey; and while it's such a simple departure from what we've seen in the Ash Ketchum anime, its relative freshness cannot be underestimated for the impact it will have on long-time fans of the franchise. Unfortunately, the director isn't always quite so brave. Indeed, Pokémon: the Origin shines dullest when it straight up copies ShoPro's anime, at times so spot on that you can't tell the two apart. Take this image of Pidgey, for example. Now I realize, Pidgey's design is set in stone and there's only so much you can do with it. But the thing is, we already see from this studio's interpretation of Charmander that they were able to give us a baby dragon who 99.99999% of Pokémon fans would recognize yet at the same time be able to tell apart from ShoPro's Charmander design. There's something "different" about Red's Charmander in Pokémon: the Origin. You can just tell. The eyes look a bit different. The head's shaped slightly differently. Its uniqueness is distinct. Not so for Pidgey. Pidgey looks like he was copied and pasted straight out of the latest ShoPro episode, right on down to the color shading (or lack thereof). While I love Pidgey and think ShoPro did a great job with the design, it's distracting to me when everything I'm looking at doesn't look like the Ash Ketchum anime and then SUDDENLY ASH KETCHUM ANIME-STYLE POKÉMON DESIGNS!

Last but not least, the pacing. Oh good lord the pacing. This is one of those "damned if you do and damned if you don't" problems, so I don't blame the studio too much for this, but ... good lord is it frustrating just how much this production feels like the video game canon on fast forward. ^^; You can see so much tantalizing potential in this production that got fucked over by time constraints. (I discuss these more above inside the spoiler box.) When the story does go slowly, it's great. When it goes fast, it's ... acceptable. Not intolerable, but not something which makes me happy either. It's Unlimited Blade Works: the Movie all over again. And that's a shame.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Electric Blue Eye

You know, there has been this constant theme as of late of people trying hard to stay spoiler free. And all I've been thinking, is it even possible, or worth it? If its not me, it'll be someone else. If its not one thing, it's another...I apologize for the inconvenience and I'll probably make a note to post things in spoilers from now on; but some advice to you Talon (not trying to be malice or anything) or anyone, you should probably be caught up with the episode or series in question before thinking of looking at a thread about it; I find its the safest way not to find out something you'd rather have discovered yourself. Thats what I do and have found to be very effective but of course that's just me and is just advice.

Like I said, I came here to post about Episode 01 and you went and spoiled me on Episode 02. It's a minorly dick thing no matter how you slice it. That stated, it is pretty minor: we find out your Episode 02 spoiler within the first two minutes of the episode. Not the end of the world. It's just that, like I said, I would have preferred to have found out what the series' creators' intended focus was from them, not from you or any other fan.

Originally Posted by empoleon dynamite

Has this been subbed anywhere yet?

Not that I've seen. I wouldn't expect a competent English translation before tomorrow.

[Doppleganger]

Still waiting for the adult hardcore Pokemon Adventure OVA where Red bangs Yellow, Giovanni kills Beedrills by zapping them with Ice Beam in air and having them shatter on the ground, and Team Rocket kills enemy Pokemon and trainers by machine gun.

Oh yeah, and Brock + opium = open eyes!

[deoxys]

Haven't seen it yet, but I saw a bit that really surprised me:

Spoiler: show

Team Rocket is shown cornering and then off camera killing Marowak, later being shown as the ghost in Lavender Tower. Glad they didn't cut it out, but damn this combined with Squirtle biting the shit out of Charmander while he screams bloody murder... I'm just really taken aback O_o

[Jerichi]

It's Pokémon FOR ADULTS

[Mercutio]

If you don't want to get spoiled, Talon, go away.

[lilboocorsola]

Watched episode 02.

Spoiler: show

Green is such a little bitch. (Lol @ the fujoshibait.) Did he climb a tree at the end and wait for Red just to look cool?

Also I admittedly almost teared up a little when Cubone hugged its mom. (Its voice is so weird though...)

P.S. How did Team Rocket kill Marowak with an electric rod when it's a Ground-Type...?

[phoopes]

I watched episodes one and two subbed earlier today, couldn't find three and four subbed quite yet. I have pretty much the same feelings as Talon, in that there are parts that really shined bright for me while others I felt could've been done a bit better. The only thing I'd say differently is that I'm a lot less picky with animation, but that comes with me being an anime weaboo I suppose. ^^

[Talon87]

Note: Wrote 80% of this post yesterday but I got distracted by conversations with a couple of people on Skype last night, so ... yeah. There was no sub out yet when I explained certain scenes line by line. Oh well. ^^;

Episode 02:

Spoiler: show

Or should I say ...

Episode 02: Cubone

Our episode begins with a quick slideshow of the major events we missed in between Episodes 01 and 02. These include ...

... the Magikarp Salesman trying to sell Red a Magikarp for ¥500, the Fossil Maniac refusing to share a fossil with Red, Red having his very first run-in with Team Rocket and managing to recover the stolen TM, Red challenging Misty, Charmander evolving into Charmeleon, Red receiving the Old Rod from the first Fishing Guru, Red receiving HM01 Cut from the captain of the S.S. Anne, Red challenging Lt. Surge, Red getting a bike voucher from the president of the Pokémon Fan Club, and Red getting his free bike from the Cerulean City bicycle shop. Hell, we even get to see what looks like a combination of one of the underground tunnels (the look of it) and Dark Cave! (the location of it)

And then ...

... Red pulls right up to Lavender Town. And I feel like an ass for getting upset with EBE for his soft spoiler when I was only three minutes away from it at the time he spoiled me. ^^; Three minutes, thirty minutes, I still would've preferred to have found it out from the anime myself. But yeah. This entire episode is all about Lavender Town.

I thought the scene with Red in the Lavender Town Pokémon Center was done really well. He overhears a man telling a woman that ghosts have recently been spotted in Pokémon Tower. When Red asks if it's true, the man says that it is; although admitting that he personally hasn't seen any, he says that everyone's saying so. When Red then asks what Pokémon Tower is, the man realizes that this must be Red's first time visiting Lavender Town. He asks if Red's ever heard of the Pokémon graves for which this town's famous. Red says that he has, and that's when the woman joins in, pointing out, "Those graves are Pokémon Tower." The couple explain to Red that trainers whose Pokémon have died may bury their Pokémon here and that many will travel far distances to pay their respects here. This prompts Red to ask if the ghosts the man was talking about are the ghosts of deceased Pokémon. He nods, but then backpedals a bit by saying that everything they've been discussing is just a rumor. (Nice. >_>) The woman sounds a bit nervous and asks Red, "Do you believe there're such things as ghosts?" Red laughs it off, saying he doesn't believe they exist. "Probably, anyway. ^^;" The woman laughs. "R-right. The white hand on your left shoulder ... I must be seeing things." Red panics, nervously looking over his shoulder for the white hand. When he realizes the woman was joking, he turns back around to face her, chastising her for telling a joke like that ...

... only to find that both the man and the woman have vanished.

That ... was a nice touch. I really quite liked that scene. Anyway, skipping ahead a bit and being a bit more brief, I s'pose ...

The writers for this special prove once again that they have absolutely no qualms about mixing and matching video game canon with made-for-TV material. The nurse at the Pokémon Center encourages Red to pay a visit to Pokémon House before he visits Pokémon Tower. Wondering what Pokémon House is, Red arrives and meets Reina, a girl who volunteers at Pokémon House. She explains to him that it's a shelter for Pokémon who were abandoned. There we see an adorable Oddish, a wonderful Growlithe, and a beautiful Vulpix. Just who in the world would abandon such sweeties? And, in the corner of the room, Red spies ... Cubone. Reina explains to Red that the only human Cubone is okay with is Mr. Fuji. When Red asks her why this is, Reina blames it on Team Rocket. She tells Red the story of how Team Rocket kidnapped a bunch of wild Pokémon and killed Cubone's mother who died defending her child. Let's take a break to talk about this scene real quick since it bugged me for two reasons.

The first thing that bugged me about this scene was that Cubone was depicted as already having a skull on his head. I know that the ShoPro anime fucked this one up, guys, but do you really have to follow their lead and put a skull on Cubone already when he's clearly not supposed to have a skull until after his mother dies? I know, I know -- it's a bigass mystery what Cubone looks like underneath the skull helmet, but wouldn't this have been an acceptable opportunity to get an official answer from GameFreak and run with it? The second thing that bugged me about this scene was that, for such a famous part of the game (and one I was really quite shocked to see on television!), I feel like they didn't handle the plot very well. Why didn't Marowak do more to attack Team Rocket? If Team Rocket's goal was to kidnap wild Pokémon and they used a stun rod on Marowak, why on earth would they set it to maximum and kill her? Why wouldn't they have tried to knock her out safely and kidnap her for the Boss? I would've liked to have seen Marowak successfully kicking Grunt #1's ass, causing him to cry out for help and for Grunt #2 to panic, pull out a weapon (be it the stun rod, be it a gun, be it whatever) and kill Marowak. Just killing her when all she's doing is growling at you seems a bit silly. That stated, good job, guys, for even giving us this scene. Thanks.

Red learns from Reina and the others that Mr. Fuji has gone missing (but was last seen heading towards Pokémon Tower), that Team Rocket has taken over Pokémon Tower and turned it into their hideout, and that there are ghosts haunting the tower right now. Well at least two of those three things are from the games! ^^; But since when did the Rockets turn Pokémon Tower into their hideout? (Note that they clearly refer to it as their ajito, or hideout, on a number of occasions.) Maybe I just don't remember my Pokémon Red and Blue as well as I used to ...

Reina tries to rally the other volunteers to all go as a group and rescue Mr. Fuji, but they excuse themselves for their various reasons, one saying he doesn't want to go up against Team Rocket, another saying she's too afraid of the ghosts. Reina asks them if they're really okay with abandoning Mr. Fuji like this, after all he's done, after he went himself to the tower for the sake of everybody else. But the volunteers won't change their minds, leaving Reina disappointed in them but ultimately powerless herself to try and rescue Fuji-jiichan. That's when Red speaks up: "I'll go." The volunteers try to talk him out of it, pointing out that not a single one of Lavender Town's adults had proved able to toss out the Rockets, but Red says that he's got some confidence in his ability to win at Pokémon battles and he shows off his three gym badges. Red says he doesn't want to let Team Rocket get away with everything as they please, and there's also the situation with Cubone to consider. For these reasons, as well as rescuing Mr. Fuji, he'll head off to the tower.

Green overhears all of this, and in a surprising departure from fanon take on the game, he decides to head off to the tower not to mourn for his dead Rattata (what dead Rattata? ) but instead to try and steal all of the glory for himself.

Note: Post resumed the following day here. Since there's a sub out now according to phoopes, I'll just keep things super brief and mention my thoughts only, no need for plot summary.

I thought it was slightly clever of the writers to have Green's and Red's separate adventures in the tower cross over and cover all the various bases we players expected: the ghost of Marowak, the Silph Scope being used for the first time, the fighting Team Rocket, and the rescuing Mr. Fuji. While it was disappointing to see that Green's role had no tangible relation to the games (other than them both being in the tower), I at least liked that his role here felt like a bit of a plot upgrade for him. And the part where he hugs Red, for instance, was a bit of character development for him / fodder for Red x Green fanshippers.

I was disappointed to see that Red had a Jolteon when we'd never even seen him get an Eevee. Worse still, the writers were basically implying that Red had visited Celadon City already (to get Eevee) yet hadn't done any of the other Celadon City activities yet. (And this was later confirmed at the start of Episode 03.) It would've been nice to see Red get his Eevee, battle with it, bond with it, and then see it evolve into a Jolteon. It would've been nice to see a lot of things. *sigh* Oh well. Such is the nature of this special being so damn short.

Mr. Fuji was another character who (as far as I can recall) got slightly changed from his role in the game. He uses the kun suffix when referring to Professor Oak, implying that he's several decades older than the professor. Combine this with Oak's younger, stronger-sounding voice in the special and sure enough it's easy to imagine that they might be arguing for Oak being only in his late 60s while Mr. Fuji is already in his early 80s, possibly older. What's the problem with this? Well, no problem, really, it's just that ... I dunno ... I always imagined Blaine, Mr. Fuji, and Professor Oak as being about the same age, roughly. I certainly didn't think Blaine (who was friends with Mr. Fuji) was older than Professor Oak. And maybe he wasn't? Maybe Blaine's just as old as Oak and he happened to become friends with Mr. Fuji despite their difference in age? *shrug* Anyway ...

One thing I wanted to see happen at the end that didn't was, I wanted to see some or all of the volunteers at Mr. Fuji's Pokémon House adopt the abandoned Pokémon. Why? Because: once they could go back to the tower, it was revealed that at least one of the volunteers was mourning the loss of her Growlithe. While this was a nice nod to the game -- "Ah! So she's that character! " -- it would've been nice if she'd then taken a look at the Growlithe in the Pokémon House and been like, "*sniff*, he's not the same as my old Growlithe, but ... I think I'd like to keep him. :')" Something. Instead, the Pokémon remain abandoned as Red bikes off. Kinda sad. ^^;

But there were other things about the ending I quite liked. One was the Pokéflute. Wish it didn't look so dopey with that bigass PokéBall on the tip there, but that's the way it's always been. That design gripe aside, I loved that they included it. (How could they not? ) Another I liked was how Green and Red crossed paths again outside of town. This was another change from the real games that I felt was a minor improvement to the canon. It helps make Green a bit more believable as Red's friend-rival than Red's dickweed-I-grew-up-in-the-same-town-as rival. 'Cause man, Green in the games (RBY) was a rotten little jerk. But Green here is a bit more complex -- he's got some bad sides to him (as we'll see more of in Episode 03 ) but he's also got some nice sides to him -- and seeing Red tease Green about being scared of ghosts was a fun little touch, showing the playful nature of the two boys' friendship.

As for the Gen 6 spoiler stuff, it first peeks its head at us at the very end of Episode 06. I'm naturally disappointed to see them anachronistically trying to involve Gen 6 bullshit in the Gen 1 story, but that stated, what we saw here wasn't too bad.

So yeah. Post's a bit late and the final bit's a bit rushed compared with the earlier portion, but oh well. Now that I know the episodes are subbed, my next two posts will probably be a lot shorter.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by phoopes

I watched episodes one and two subbed earlier today, couldn't find three and four subbed quite yet. I have pretty much the same feelings as Talon, in that there are parts that really shined bright for me while others I felt could've been done a bit better. The only thing I'd say differently is that I'm a lot less picky with animation, but that comes with me being an anime weaboo I suppose. ^^

Nah, the animation gets pretty damn atrocious at times. Going to link this one outside of a spoiler box so that everyone can have a chance to see it. (Don't worry, I'll be talking about it at full length in my eventual Episode 03 post. ^^; ) And that's their animation job for Sabrina. Make no mistake: the Ash Ketchum anime is usually much better animated than some of the low points seen in this special. Given the positive glimmers I see in the art direction and in some of the cels, I'm pretty positive that this was a simple matter of budget and time constraints, mostly time constraints. Like ... that Sabrina is terribly rushed. ^^;

[Princess Ana]

My God they've taken perhaps my favorite GL and disfigured her.

See now this is why it should have been an anime and not an OVA.

[phoopes]

It should be noted that the sub I found for episode two did have some problems with it, but was overall understandable. There are a few mistakes, like using the wrong "their," or saying Red had two badges when he clearly had three, and even two or three lines of dialogue in Spanish for some reason (though understandable if you took a few years in high school and remember it) but all that should only be a problem if you're really anal about your subs being 100% absolutely perfect English... Which is understandable, but I didn't mind. Maybe by the time tomorrow rolls around we'll have subs out for episodes three and four.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by blazeVA

My God they've taken perhaps my favorite GL and disfigured her.

See now this is why it should have been an anime and not an OVA.

The problem with this logic though is that OAVs tend to be known for their superior craftsmanship, not inferior. ^^; Like, that's part of the reason why the Suzumiya Haruhi film looks a touch better than the second season of the TV series. It's also why the older Kara no Kyoukai OAVs tend to look, constantly, like the very best parts of the newer Fate/Zero anime. Granted, this isn't really a hard-and-fast rule or anything, but yeah: the fact that it's an OAV is no excuse for the series to look as bad as it does at times. Whatever it was that made this special look bad would have made a TV adaptation look just as bad if not worse.

I want to stress that there are glimmers of excellence in the animation direction and execution. There's this one really nice cel, for instance, but it'd be as much of a spoiler as the one I got grouchy about yesterday, so I'm just going to be patient and hold off on posting it until I write up my Episode 03 post. But yeah, they do animate some things really nicely and in ways which show ... how to put it ... more directorial imagination than what we're used to seeing with ShoPro's anime? ^^;

But at the same time, yeah, I want people to realize that this isn't just me being some sort of art snob or animation critic poseur or something. Take one look at that Sabrina for yourself and I think you'll easily see just how right I am that the trailer for Pokémon: the Origin was deceitfully lovely. ^^; A ufotable or P.A.Works masterpiece this is not. God though I wish it were.