Review Pokémon Generations

I posted this in the other thread, but that one's closed now, and this is probably a better place for it anyway so...

[I'm] curious. How would we rank these? Personally...

1. The Reawakening
2. The Beauty Eternal
3. The New World
4. The King Returns
5. The Chase
6. The Scoop
7. The Old Chateau
8. The Adventure
9. The Frozen World
10. The Cavern
11. The Legacy
12. The Vision
13. The Redemption
14. The Lake of Rage
15. The Uprising
16. The Magma Stone
17. The Investigation
18. The Challenger

I think it's neat (well, in the way that the fact you can survive a gunshot is neat - you still have to get shot first) that, for my experience, you can pretty much draw a direct line at the halfway point between The Frozen World and The Cavern to differentiate between ones that I liked (with increasing enjoyment as you get closer to #1), versus ones that I thought had significant flaws (getting worse as you go down).

I really must stress how much I appreciate The Reawakening and The Beauty Eternal. If this series had stuck to the mandate of being a companion series, to flesh out the narratives of the games a bit more and to show noteworthy events that we hadn't seen, I think it was those two that really pulled that job off with aplomb.

I have to admit to some bias as it concerns The New World - I don't like Cyrus's story in the games, and I love what TNW does with it instead. Qualitatively speaking, I think The King Returns is probably better (their deployment of the Emotion theme is pitch-perfect), but TKR is already working with great material. Certainly the use of Hilbert is very savvy, too. But TNW doesn't just rewrite a great bit of story into a better bit of story - it takes a lame bit of story and turns it into a great bit of story. If they're going to be doing retcons instead of side-stories, then I would appreciate the ones that do manage to improve on lesser scenarios.

With 10-18, there's at least an interesting progression of suckitude. The Cavern is weak and their Archie seems to revert to his RSE-level IQ, but it at least manages to depict Kyogre's fury in a very impressive, harrowing, and suitably bleak way. The Legacy gets some new reflection from Silver regarding his relationship to Giovanni. The Vision... well, it tries to do something new within the space of Courtney's character, however odd it may be. And while The Redemption and The Lake of Rage are pretty much useless and don't offer anything new, they do manage to portray their respective scenarios in ways that are faithful to how they appeared in the games, and in a comprehensible way. Which is more than I can say for The Uprising - while it isn't as incoherent as the following three, it completely misrepresents the scene that it's attempting to replicate. The Gym Leaders' appearance isn't the opening wave of an epic battle, it's an Eleventh Hour, Big Damn Heroes intervention to help us out.

The Magma Stone and The Investigation are just huge messes, with the latter being particularly flawed on a structural level.

And then The Challenger is a completely waste of time. It should have been obvious to them from the beginning that attempting to squeeze four battles into a single episode was not going to result in a good product.
 
Credit for @Esserise for the ranking post

My personal rank for the episodes overall

1. The Beauty Eternal
2. The King Returns
3. The Scoop
4. The Chase
5. The Magma Stone
6. The Investigation
7. The Reawakening
8. The Frozen World
9. The Uprising
10. The New World
11. The Cavern
12. The Vision
13. The Legacy
14. The Adventure
15. The Lake of Rage
16. The Challenger
17. The Old Chateau
18. The Redemption

Wrap up:
I chose episodes that portrayed characters or events in a new light high on the list. Even if the episodes simply told the same story, if they focused from different angles, then I'd say they were enjoyable. Low on my rank list are episodes that have flaws, but still okay. The Redemption being the last because compared to all the episodes, it offered nothing new.

Review by batches
- High on my rank list are the episodes that I think were solid retellings of certain characters or events.
The Beauty Eternal was my personal favorite for showcasing a much needed extra story for XY - more characterization on Lysandre, showing that there's more to him than just being a guy who suddenly announces genocide incoming. I liked The King Returns for switching around the story to make N get rescued by Hilbert while staying true to the plot. I like how they focused on Gabby and Ty trying to get the video file of the Rayquaza battle in The Scoop. The Chase, The Magma Stone and The Investigation are all awesome episodes imo because I like seeing Looker in action. The Chase comes first because it featured an epic ambush with a SWAT team. Heatran had a rather underwhelming design in The Magma Stone, but Crogunk was so badass. The Investigation featuring Emma under control and not recognizing her own friends (kicking Mimi ;_; ) was a great addition but I felt it could have been longer.

- The next are episodes I thought were enjoyable. Showing what we know, but from a different angle.
The Reawakening, while technically nothing out of the ordinary, was a great episode to summarize the myth of the Legendary Beasts - especially using Eusine's narration. The Frozen World, The Uprising, and The New World comes next because again, while technically showing nothing new, still tells the climax of the games from a different angle where the protagonist isn't present (hasn't arrived yet or has already departed for the next destination). We get to see how Vio and Colress teamed up to get the DNA Splicers while freezing over Opelucid City. We get to see the Unova Gym Leaders in action against the Plasma Grunts and the Sages. Then there's the additional focus on Cyrus trying to control Dialga and Palkia, until he gets taken to the Distortion World. The Cavern and The Vision are pretty much tied for showing a similar story, where the Teams witness the mass destruction a legendary can cause. The only reason I put The Cavern on top is because I found Kyogre a lot more terrifying. The Legacy has Silver tell you about his last conversation with Giovanni. The only reason this episode ranks among this batch is because Silver makes an appearance in animated form. If it had more time and showed Silver and Giovanni's relationship before it turned sour, I would have ranked this at the top of the batch.

- These episodes are just okay. However, they either suffer from terrible pacing or bad animation.
The Adventure is a sweet tale on Pikachu's battles in every region. I like the animation, but the sequence showing footage from the games took up too much time. While a nice nod to nostalgia, I feel that was unnecessary. The Lake of Rage, despite showing Lance's side of the Team Rocket Hideout raid, ranks low on the list because I watched it again, and the animation errors were just too distracting (especially the over-the-top Team Rocket swag). The Challenger is next. Looking back, even though we see Green's league challenge that was never shown before, it's a predictable episode with a complete Elite Four challenge reduced to 1:1 battles. The Old Chateau, while showing Cheryl's own adventure, felt boring. The hallucinations was creepy enough and the butler from the games showed up, but the episode felt pointless.

- Finally, The Redemption is last on the list because it showed literally nothing. Nothing from a different angle, nothing new, no additional scenes. Nothing. It shows the exact same story using the exact same scenes from the games. As I said in the episode thread, this was a wasted opportunity, especially considering AZ and Floette's backstory was what led to the entire XY plot to take place. I also mentioned in the episode thread that they could have told this from Floette's perspective. I had so much expectations for this episode, but this was the most disappointing.
 
1. The Reawakening
2. The Chase
3. The King Returns (last bit only)
4. The Legacy
5. The Scoop
6. The Old Chateau
7. The Investigation
8. The New World
9. The Beauty Eternal
10. The Uprising
11. The Lake of Rage
12. The Adventure
13. The Challenger
14. The Frozen World
15. The Vision
16. The Cavern
17. The Magma Stone
18. The Redemption

The Reawakening is way above the rest. I can't even say I liked anything from 8 down, but 8-12 were at least serviceable.
 
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I will probably go with a lot of others in saying it was a mixed bag. Some were really good and others, not so much. It did do exactly what I wanted it to do and shine light on some things that the main anime did not. Was there more they could've done? Absolutely, part because this was limited to so many episodes, and the episodes could only be a few minutes apiece. I can understand them being pressed for resources due to this not being a major part of their promotion. It's still phenomenal this got done regardless.

Do I wish the anime was like this? Yes and no. Yes, we should have events that have real stakes to them and deal with real issues. No, having such a thing all the time would be tiring, which is why I've favored it being a smaller production. It doesn't need to last all year, it can just be a miniseries, tackling only the things that are important as opposed to faffing about for most of the time. This does go a long way in showing how much better things are when you only focus on what's important, or at least the only things you have good ideas for. However, I also don't feel like a straight retelling of the game is that interesting, either. Some room for exploration is needed. This was great as a celebration of the games, but as a series, no, it needs to be more than this.

I liked this for what it was, though, and I am not going to say that it should replace the anime or even be a companion to it. It should remain as it is, just a side thing that was novel for the time.
 
I definitely prefer Origins to Generations, but I understand why giving each generation a 90-minute special is too much to ask for.

That said, even Origins was too short. I really hope that the upcoming movie is the start of a trilogy, because 270 minutes (the equivalent of 13 anime episodes) is pretty much the minimum for a decently paced adaptation of any game. Regardless, the more liberties they take with the original anime storyline, let alone the game one, the better.
 
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I think my perspective on the series is probably slightly different due to the fact I haven't actually played any of the game versions animated here (I didn't realise that Silver/Giovanni was already canon!)

But like everyone else there were things I loved and things which I found very boring. As I didn't really know any of the pre-existing stories except the bare bones versions we got in the original RGBY/GSC or the anime adaptations, this tended not to fall into what we already know vs brand new info. So anything which felt world expanding was great - character development, fulfilling self-contained story or amazing animation of the world - and anything where I was already expected to know what was going on (which ironically tended to be the straight retellings) didn't hold me.

I suspect I'm alone in this but my favourite episode was the Team Aqua/Kyogre one just because it was both hilarious and an absolute visual treat. I actually enjoyed most of the rest of them to a greater or lesser extent. Notably bad was the last one, Heatran, Iris and the gym leaders and N vs Ghetsis.
 
Overall, I'm going to say that this has been one of my favourite things from Pokémon's 20th anniversary. I prefer such events when they commemorate everything instead of only the beginning at the expense of everything else. There might have been a few stinkers in the 18 episodes but I'm very glad and thankful for Generations.
 
1) The Reawakening
2) The King Returns
3) The New World
4) The Chase
5) The Legacy
6) The Beauty Eternal
7) The Scoop
8) The Old Chateau
9) The Cavern
10) The Uprising
11) The Adventure
12) The Frozen World
13) The Vision
14) The Lake of Rage
15) The Redemption
16) The Investigation
17) The Magma Stone
18) The Challenger


-The Reawakening I can't say enough for how much I love it, I like lore for the series and seeing this brought to life in this episode was something I enjoyed greatly. It was a story that was (mostly) untold that went on to be very well told. The King Returns is a retelling, but it's one that really does benefit the events that are being played out and I did enjoy how it handled the scene in its own way. The New World is very similar in that regard too, but I ended up preferring the updates in the former over it.

-The Chase I enjoy more because it actually gives a bit more development to what Looker does as a character as we get to see him and the International Police in their element. The Beauty Eternal is similar in that it give Lysandre more development to an aspect that we don't get to see in the games, which is him being an innovator of his region and someone that people felt they could rely on and trust. The Legacy is in the middle as I think the scene conveys Silver pretty well and I like the addition of Looker, and The Scoop, while it does partially retell the events of the Mega Rayquaza vs. Deoxys battle, it's neat to get that perspective shift and see a few minor characters in a different light.

-The Cavern lands here because while dumbing down Archie irked me, at least it gives some nice visual context to the power of the Primals. The Uprising I honestly debate where I should put it as when I first watched it, I enjoyed it a lot, but I do agree with some of the points that were brought up against it (namely, context issues). Ultimately, it's somewhere in the middle for me, and it could go above or below The Adventure and The Frozen World.

-The Redemption is just a straight retelling of the XY events with nothing to it, but even though I like Emma more as a character (especially since I feel AZ has many flaws to his characterization and writing), the way the episode played out was structured better then how The Investigation was. So while it's just a bland episode of something we knew completely, at least it didn't have the pacing and development issues that the latter episode had.

-Both The Magma Stone and The Challenger are terribly structured, but the latter was worse about it. Having Blue fight all four of the group was a terrible idea with the runtime of the episode, and it would've been more beneficial to start it at Agatha and stick with her and Lance then to shove all four in there and give none the character and time for us to really care about them.
 
I just can't love Pokemon game characters, I feel nothing for all of them except for a few exceptions, so I expected this to bore me to death. And for the Kanto shorts, I was. Then I appreciated The Lake of Rage for taking more risks and a more dynamic pace, and I loved the 2 that followed. After then there were some shorts that felt like a waste of time but others that were awesome, and I overall enjoyed the ride, and looking at the same generation between 3 different angles. I'm also pleased by their accesibility, they were free!

My favorites were The Cavern, The Scoop, The Uprising and The Beauty Eternal.
 
I liked the series, but, now that it's over and done, what now?
 
Srebak said:
I liked the series, but, now that it's over and done, what now?
Click to expand...
The next unconventional, nostalgia-driven anime adaptation is Movie 20. It remains to be seen how close it will be to the original anime, but I don't expect it to be faithful to the games.
 
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After holding off initial reviews for each individual episodes just to get an overall impression of Generations, I think it's time for me to share my thoughts overall:

Kanto episodes:
I'm disappointed that "The Adventure" counts as a Kanto episode rather than a prologue opening to the rest of the series. It has to little to do with Kanto aside from Red and Pikachu, and they have more in common with Ash's travels than anything from the Generation I games. "The Chase" is a good episode and something that I would expect from this series. It showcases a different side of the Generation I that we have not seen, just as the tagline suggests. My only complaint is that Looker doesn't look like the Sugmori artwork. "The Challenger" is an episode that shows an unseen story (namely the Elite Four from the rival's perspective), but it's essentially the Elite Four challenge just with the rival (which you can emulate in your own games) and the only thing new is that Agatha gets to use the relative button.

Johto:
I would say that these episodes are the best of the bunch. These are all stories featured in the games, but all of them showcased in different perspectives. We see Lance's side of the Team Rocket hideout raid with a brief glismpe of the player trainer. We see the story of Giovanni and his son told through a conversation between Looker and Silver. And we get the story of Ho-Oh and the Three Legendary Beasts from Eusine and visuals that both the games and remakes lack, adding something fresh to this old legend.

Hoenn:
I would figure that they would have to give up all the Hoenn episodes to the three Legendaries each. But this is where the tagline "untold stories" starts to waiver a bit and we see abridgments. I'm disappointed that "The Cavern" doesn't feature May or Brendan despite the fact that the player is present when Team Aqua awakens Kyogre. "The Vision" has a good focus on Courtney, but "The Cavern" is virtually the AlphaSapphire cutscene minus the player. "The Scoop" is the best one as it gives focus to more obscure character and how they see the main protagonists in a unique way.

Sinnoh:
I would say this batch is the weakest of the them. Two episodes are essentially abridged versions of the games minus the main characters. And they felt too brief. "The New World" in particular felt really anticlimactic and underwhelming though it offers a unique twist to Cyrus's fate that sheds new light. The episode that feels unique is "The Old Chateau" but I feel that it should have been more Pokémon-related rather than a typical ghost episode. I mean in the Generation IV games, it's the only place you can catch Rotom. Wouldn't that be a great surprise for the end. And you can still have it chase Cheryl and Chansey around.

Unova:
It's great to see the Gym Leaders team up and fight against in "The Uprising" though I believe I have been spoiled by XY&Z, since their Gym Leader team up was more epic and grand than this one. "The Frozen World" actually legitimately shocked me with the level of destruction featured here. It almost felt like watching a completely different anime altogether and I mean that in a good way. "The King Returns" is where the abridgment is simply a brand story altogether considering that Hilbert comes N's aid rather than N comes to Nate's aid. One of the downsides of the games is the that previous main characters don't really get a shot of returning as a recurring important character (unless you're Red). That's one of the benefits of the anime and it does make me wish they made a BW anime out of this altogether.

Kalos:
It's amazing how nearly every adaptations does Lysandre better than the actual games, whether it's Alain's story subplot from the main anime or "The Beauty Eternal" showcasing Lysandre's daily life. I think it has to do with the fact that both media were clever enough to put the focus on Lysandre alone and not on Team Flare. And actually make him smile a lot more than the games. Really, I think Team Flare's obviously evil and comedic shtick is what actually hurts Lysandre's credibility as a villain. "The Investigation" is really an episode that should have focused from Xerosic's side rather than Looker's. Because the story from Looker's perspective is already told (and told better) in the actual games. This feels like an abridgment that requires outside information for newcomers to fully understand the story. "The Redemption" is basically the animated version of the story told in XY beat by beat and really doesn't offer anything new. It works for something like the Ho-Oh where you had no visuals to copy from (and offer something new by default), but AZ's story is already told with visual story art and from his side already. This is something we've already seen before. Should have done with AZ's perspective (and not in a fable aspect) while he's battling Calem, thus making it an "untold" story.

The best way to summarize Generations is that it's anthology series made for American audience. And I do mean it's made for American audiences. The first episode features the U.S. version of Pokémon Red, with the same title screen and battle sprites. When I checked out the Japanese version of the episode (which came out months after), virtually nothing was changed. It didn't have it's own Japanese title screen or sprites from Red. Even the names of the locations remained English rather than retranslated into Japanese. So you can say that Generations is, in a way, an American series. There are benefits to this as it would mean that the script would have more freedom with dialogue and we would not have to worry about losing any particular jokes to the language translation. On the other way, that also means more scrutiny when the dialogue sounds bad. "The Challenger" is a notable case as it made me laugh out loud of how corny the Elite Four sound, like they actually read from the game script word per word.
 
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