kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. Anime Mondays are probably going to be every other Monday (so...about two per month), until otherwise noted on my Facebook page (so if you haven't liked it, please hit the like button).

So...remember Pokemon? For those of you who don't, it was pretty much every late 90s kid's dream "to be the very best, like no one ever was." I started playing the Pokemon video games before I actually started watching the series. My first games were Red, Blue, and Yellow (I can't remember which one I got first). And boy, was I addicted. Trying to complete a Pokedex with 150 (plus one) Pokemon, winning eight badges and beating the Elite Four...*sigh* those were the days. I still play Pokemon to this day, and am currently trying to complete the Pokedex in Ultra Moon. I'm also the proud trainer of a Dusk Form Lycanroc in the game (huge pain to get if you're playing Ultra Moon, but totally worth it), which looks AWESOME. Here's a picture of what it looks like.

Yeah, go ahead, call me a dork. I don't care. Why? Well, I've been called worse, and let's leave it at that.

On April 1, 1997, the first episode of Pokemon aired. The series revolved around Ash Ketchum and his partner Pokemon, Pikachu, and Ash's quest to become the world's greatest Pokemon Master. Given that the anime has been a huge success (14 seasons and counting), 20 (well, technically 21, but the fourteenth and fifteenth movies are counted as one film) feature films were released, as well as multiple shorts, spin-offs, TV specials (both full and normal length), and other things. So, 2017 was Pokemon's 20-year anniversary. And naturally, a movie to commemorate such an anniversary was in the works.

In 2016, the movie was first announced with a teaser trailer that showed Ash and Pikachu alongside the legendary Pokemon, Ho-Oh. It also showed that the film would act as a retelling of the first season, as it explored some important plot points from said season. The second trailer, released in 2017, revealed remade scenes from the first episode of the series and gave us the film's English title, Pokemon: I Choose You!. This was in reference to the title of the first episode of the series, which had the same name.

Without further ado, let's get our starter Pokemon and head out on a journey of our own! Review, I choose you! This is Pokemon: I Choose You!


So the movie actually starts out very similar to the way the first episode of the series started out, but it's also here where one of my really small complaints with the movie is. They play the theme song from the first series, but instead of it being having Jason Paige, the original singer, come back into the recording studio around 20 years later, it was remixed and sung by Ben Dixon. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad, either. I think having listened to the original version so much, I was a little biased. Although I am curious...what would it have sounded like if Jason Paige came back into the studio and sang the theme song?

Moving on.

FULL-ON SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Like I said above, the movie starts out the similar to how the first episode of the series started out. The narrator introduces our protagonist, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and explains that once kids turn ten, they can get Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur as their first Pokemon from Professor Oak and begin their journey as a Pokemon trainer.

Just like in the first episode, Ash oversleeps and gets to Professor Oak's lab late, only to find that the three starters have all been taken by the trainers who arrived on time. Ash is bummed, but Professor Oak reveals that he does have one Pokemon left, and it's an electric-type named Pikachu. Pikachu has a feisty personality, hates to go in its Pokeball, and is initially volatile towards Ash. However, Ash is still happy and takes Pikachu along.

Soon after the journey begins, Ash sees a Pokemon in the grass: a Pidgey. He tries to get Pikachu's help to catch it, but Pikachu refuses. So Ash grabs a rock and throws it, only for it to miss the Pidgey and hit a Spearow. The Spearow gets angry and alerts its friends, which include its evolved form, Fearow.

Ash and Pikachu run, but they aren't fast enough to get away from the flock of bird Pokemon. There's a storm, and the pair are both injured pretty badly. Ash tries to get Pikachu to go inside its Pokeball. Pikachu refuses, and after seeing how much Ash wants to protect it, Pikachu unleashes the Thunderbolt of Zeus (okay, not really, but it's a really powerful Thunderbolt) and gets the bird Pokemon to leave.

When the storm stops, a legendary Pokemon known as Ho-Oh (unbeknownst to our protagonist) flies above them and drops a feather known as the Rainbow Wing. Ash then decides that he wants to meet the Pokemon that dropped it as he and Pikachu begin to form their unbreakable bond.

There's a lot of stuff that happened in the first few episodes of the first season that's shown in the movie, such as Ash catching a Caterpie and said Caterpie eventually evolving into Butterfree, Ash letting Butterfree go and mate, Ash rescuing a Charmander a trainer left out in the rain, and so on. However, there are a few slight differences, as well as side characters.

I won't talk about the side characters too much, as they don't really do much, but there is one character I want to talk about, and that's Cross. Cross is the trainer that left his Charmander out in the rain, claiming it was weak and didn't belong on his team, which consisted of a Midnight Form Lycanroc (I really don't like the way that thing looks) and an Incineroar (the third and final evolved form of Litten, a Generation VII Pokemon). Ash and the side characters, Verity and Sorrel, nurse the Charmander back to health in a cave while a Pokemon named Marshadow (um...this one is complicated, so I'll talk about Marshadow at the end) watches from the shadows.

Later on, Ash has a battle against Cross with a newly evolved Charmeleon, Ash loses and openly states that he could have won the battle with Pikachu instead of Charmeleon. He runs off from Verity and Sorrel as Pikachu follows, before Ash says that he wishes he chose another starter Pokemon instead of Pikachu.

Upon realizing what he said, he runs away from Pikachu and slumps against a tree. Ash says he doesn't need Pokemon, and Marshadow reappears and puts Ash to sleep. In the dream, Pokemon don't exist and Ash goes to a regular school with Verity and Sorrel. A "phantom" of Pikachu appears and Ash realizes that he does need Pokemon in his life and wants to see the world. He wakes up and reunites with Verity, Sorrel, and Pikachu. When they return to the cave they were in, Sorrel explains that Pokemon actually can be lost. And get ready, because this is where the movie takes a pretty dark turn.

When Sorrel was little, his parents were barely home, so he lived with a Luxray that looked after him. The two were very close. However, one day, when Sorrel was trying to walk home in a snowstorm, he was pretty close to home before he fell down and got stuck in the snow. Luxray walked over and kept him warm as Sorrel passed out/went to sleep. When Sorrel woke up, he discovered that Luxray had froze itself to death as it protected Sorrel.

Yeah. They don't say that Luxray died (I mean, it's a kid's movie...kind of), but it's pretty heavily implied. In Pokemon: Sun and Moon (which I eventually gave in to watching, and...it's actually not that bad), they touched on Pokemon death a little, but this...I have no words. They also touched on it in the original series, when Ash arrived in Lavender Town and there was a Pokemon cemetery.

Moving on (RIP Luxray).

Back in the present, the trio meet an old man named Bonji. He explains that the Rainbow Wing is given to a "hero" and relies on positive feelings to keep its glow. When filled with negative feelings, the wing turns black and disintegrates. He explains that not only Entei, but Raikou and Suicune were also following Ash because of the wing. Cross listens to all this in the shadows. Bonji also explains Marshadow and how he was aware that Marshadow was following the trio.

Before Ash is able to place the feather in its place, Cross attacks Ash and Marshadow comes out of the shadows to observe. Ash sends out his newly evolved Charizard against Cross's Incineroar, and the two battle it out. Ash defeats Cross and is about to place the feather, but Cross reveals that he, too, saw Ho-Oh. However, he wasn't given a Rainbow Wing like Ash was.

Cross wants to be strong, and Ash reveals that he does, too, but he wants to become friends with his Pokemon and not just rely on their brute strength. Cross attacks Ash again and takes the feather. He places it where it needs to go, but because of Cross's negative feelings, the feather turns dark and Marshadow grabs it next. Marshadows power grows as it takes control of almost all the Pokemon in the area, including Cross's Lycanroc.

Bonji tells Ash that Ash has to get the feather back from Marshadow. So, after battling various Pokemon that stand in the way, Ash and Pikachu battle Marshadow. Ultimately, they lose and receive a full-on pummeling from the other Pokemon. As the two lie on the ground, Ash weakly asks Pikachu why it won't get in its Pokeball. And it's here where we get the part of the movie that pissed off fans more than I have ever seen. Pikachu uses HUMAN LANGUAGE (I kid you not) to tell Ash, "It's because... It's because... I always want... to be with you."

I'll get to that later.

Ash ultimately gets Pikachu in its Pokeball as he takes the full on brunt of the other Pokemon attacks. He turns into energy as Pikachu gets out of its Pokeball and watches his partner ultimately vanish. Marshadow notices that the wing has disintegrated, and Pikachu in anger and grief unleashes a super powerful Thunderbolt. Pikachu cries as Ash finds himself in a grey world. And...*sigh* through the "power of love," Ash is able to come back to Pikachu. Ho-Oh arrives after that and Ash challenges it to a battle. The outcome is never shown.

There's...a bunch of other stuff that happens, but the short version is that everybody parts on good terms and Ash and Pikachu continue their journey. They show Ash's friends through all the seasons of Pokemon in the end credits, and we also see Jessie, James, and Meowth from Team Rocket. They were in the movie for comic relief, though, and our heroes didn't see them.

So, that's the movie. Rating: um...wow, this is hard. I'll give it 8.5/10.

Why: First off, the good parts definitely outweighed the bad. The animation was great, I loved the music, and the character development was great. We really got to see Ash grow as a trainer. And this was definitely pretty nostalgic for those of us who grew up watching the anime. While I wouldn't call it the ultimate nostalgic dream, it was still really good, and I would definitely watch it again.

HOWEVER:

If you've seen Pokemon, you're going to notice A LOT of changes with the voice actors. And I mean A LOT. The narrator sounds different, Ash sounds different (fans wanted Veronica Taylor, the original voice of Ash, to reprise her role), and...well...pretty much all the familiar characters sound different. The studio decided they wanted the current cast (the cast in Sun and Moon) in the roles, though, which I don't really understand. Why? Oh, I don't know...maybe because this is only Pokemon's TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY! THIS SHOULD BE A NOSTALGIC DREAM! AND YOU PEOPLE COULDN'T GET ANY OF THE ORIGINAL VOICE ACTORS BACK FOR THE ENGLISH DUB?! WHAT THE FRICK?

Ahem.

Not only that, but...since when could Pikachu talk?! Pikachu isn't Meowth, who taught itself to speak human language so that he could impress a female Meowth (which didn't work and left Meowth broken-hearted). Last I checked, all Pikachu could say was its name. That was it. That moment in the movie seriously pissed off fans, myself included. While I get it was supposed to be emotional because of the line that Pikachu says, I think fans were too pissed to pay attention to what the line actually was. I also understand that this movie is supposed to take place in an "alternate continuity," but that doesn't really matter. Alternate continuity or not, Pikachu should NOT have been able to talk.

I also feel like there were a few key things that were kind of glossed over, such as when Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, it listened to Ash. This didn't happen in the show. Charmeleon didn't listen to Ash as a Charmeleon, and it didn't listen to Ash for a while after it evolved into Charizard. I mean, I get that this is a movie and there's only so much you can put in, but this movie didn't even hit the two hour mark. I don't get it.

I should probably touch on the inclusion of Marshadow. Marshadow is a Generation VII Pokemon that was only obtainable through an event. I don't remember what the event was, when or where it was, or anything like that, but I do know that as of right now, you can't get it in Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon, Sun, or Moon. I don't have it, which really sucks for me. However, I do have two shiny legendaries (Uxie and Entei) that are both level 100, as well as a level 100 Rotom (and that was all through Wonder Trade), so I guess it's not all bad. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get Marshadow through the GTS or Wonder Trade. Who knows?

Well, that's my review. I'm curious, though: if you could pick a starter Pokemon from any generation, what would it be and why? Leave it in the comments! For me, I think it would either be Charmander or Froakie. Why? Well, they have pretty cool final evolved forms (Charizard and Greninja, respectively), and when trained the right way and taught the right moves, they can be total powerhouses.

That's all for this week! See you soon! ~k