Episodes made with Love

[ii kanji]

Fans of the Pokemon anime are used to mediocrity. But sometimes the creators of the anime remind us that they're doing this for love, with an episode which really stands out. This might be in the script, animation, acting... anything (or if we're lucky, everything!).

Over 18 years I can think of numerous examples, but the one that always comes first to mind is "Rocket-dan: The Origin of Love and Youth" ("Training Daze" in the dub). Although the special effectively retconned much of the TRio's past, every time I watch it I can really feel the love which Junki Takegami put into writing the story, resulting in one of the best pieces of dialogue I think the show has ever seen (when they're camping). It is also a shining example of animation, the best IMO of everything produced during AG relative to budget, and the TRio's seiyuus gave the acting some serious welly.

Does anyone else have any episodes they feel were made with special attention and tender loving care?

 

[!Z!]

The one where Team Rocket release Arbok and Weezing and fight the poacher's tyranitar personally themselves. There was so much emotion and the writers did so well really showing how strong the bond between TRio and their Pokemon was, way more than we've ever seen from Ash even. To me this episode always stands out in my mind.

 

[Cybersai]

Usually the last rival battles of each series have the most amount of love/work put into them:

May Vs. Drew at the Kanto GF
Dawn vs. Zoey at the Sinnoh GF
Ash Vs. Paul at the Sinnoh league

You can tell the writers greatly cared about setting up these rivalries and their dynamics with the main characters especially since they were subplots that went on the entire span of the saga. They had the best animation at the time of each saga and they represented the climax of 4 years of story plots for the region.

To be honest I think the writers love writing rivalries most of all. They're easily the best part of each saga, seeing the female leads interact with their rivals and Ash with his main rival.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

"Pikachu's Goodbye". Despite the fact that basically nobody was fooled into thinking Ash and Pikachu actually would separate, it still managed to be emotional.

 

[ii kanji]

May Vs. Drew at the Kanto GF

I just watched this! You know, I really felt for Tomioka who wrote this episode - he obviously cared A LOT about the Haruka/Shuu relationship (you could feel an electric buzz every second the two were on together!) and wanted it to end spectacularly on-screen but had to fit into the episode:
-Haruka & Shuu's battle (which was very good for its time)
- The (ultimately pointless) capture of Aipom
-Haruka & Saori's battle
- The end of the GF & Haruka's entire on-screen journey (and I actually welled up when Haruka tried not to cry, I can't believe I laughed the first time I saw it!)
...resulting in a pretty jolting episode overall.

The other two battles you mentioned, particularly the Nozomi/Hikari GF battle, gained from being written in an era where they were allowed the time to fully blossom. Sigh...

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Charizard's Burning Ambition. That one is a classic. You could really feel the connection between Ash and Zard in those last couple of minutes when they part ways. I love the way that Charizard just kinda knows how Ash is feeling and what he's trying to say, without any direct communication. And that last little thumbs up that he gives Pikachu on the way out is just precious xD They feel like such close comrades.

Then just in general, its rare that we get such a lengthy, meaningful character progression like the Charizard storyline.

 

[GaryOak123]

The episode where James says goobye to Cacnea is an episode where the connection between trainer and pokemon was clear to see and it's rare to see that sort of relationship in most episodes

 

[PTOldMan]

I think that the episode in which Jessie decides to leave Team Rocket and stay with that doctor with Wobbuffet, ultimately returning and saving James and the twerps from that poacher is one of the episodes in which we really see the love behind it! It debuted yesterday here in Portugal and, even though I have already seen the original version of it, I couldn't avoid being amazed by everything, particularly the animation! It is probably one of the best episodes ever animation-wise, everything was really full of details and its fluidity was abnormal for a Pokémon episode! It is just very obvious that everyone gave their best doing the episode.

 

[ii kanji]

It debuted yesterday here in Portugal and, even though I have already seen the original version of it, I couldn't avoid being amazed by everything, particularly the animation! It is probably one of the best episodes ever animation-wise, everything was really full of details and its fluidity was abnormal for a Pokémon episode!

I couldn't agree more about the animation in that episode! I know I'm biased, but I also feel that this episode has some of the best animation in the history of the franchise, glad I'm not the only one!!

This may seem a bit random, but one of the stand-out episodes from DP for me was DP103 because the animation is so zany. There's nothing really new or special in the plot of the episode (failed TRio scheme ends up splitting all the pokemon) but I think the finished episode shows that Natsume had a hell of a lot of fun animating the episode.

 

[BugMite]

Infernape's whole story arc throughout DP. From the times Paul tried to bring out Chimchar's inner Blaze to its max potential, to the moment it is revealed why and when Paul gives up on Chimchar, all the way to the point when Ash and Infernape manage to control the high-level Blaze and use it to ultimately defeat Paul in the Sinnoh League. I don't think it could have been written any better.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

"Snow Way Out!" is another memorable one.

"You win. Guess we'll all be cold together." That's pretty much an immortal line now.

 

[Rockapheller]

Charizard Chills leads the list without a doubt.

 

[technickal]

From XY:

A Fork in the Road! A Parting of the Ways!
Lights! Camera! Pika!