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Pokemon: the American Cartoon

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ehh123

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Let's say that in an alternate universe, the anime is never brought over to America because of the seizure controversy. However, the games still become a big international hit. Nintendo gives an American animation studio the license to make their own television adaptation of the game. The cartoon premiers in the fall of 1999; one year after the games were released in North America.

Think about it. Would the writers have taken plot elements from the games? Would the artists change the design? Would Pokemon fans be disappointed with the final product and wonder what the anime was like until fansubs were available online with loading times that were shorter than a single episode?

By the way, this would be around the time that Sonic Underground aired.
 
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Like most American cartoons, it likely would have no more than 13 or 26 episode seasons. I also imagine the show in general would end after about 5-7 seasons, which is the standard length for an American produced cartoon series.

The only cartoons that go on for a long time are sitcoms like Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, with the rare exception of Ninja Turtles, etc.
 
I'd assume they'd do what other American shows based off of non-American shows do, just take the plot of the non-American shows but Americanize it.

So basically we'd have the dub.

I also doubt it would end in 5-7 seasons like Gliscor'd mentioned as it exists as an advertisement for a videogame that's still clearly going strong.
 
Hypothetically it might not be exactly a great idea of an americanized Pokemon cartoon, considering the company in question that would develop the show might get a lot of details wrong and turns the whole thing ether as a "So bad its good" thing or a abomination of animation.

Not saying its impossible to make something watch-able, though experience has told me that making an American cartoon of something made in Japan (and vise versa) usually ends terribly mostly due to unfamiliarity or "Americanization".
 
Psystrike said:
I also doubt it would end in 5-7 seasons like Gliscor'd mentioned as it exists as an advertisement for a videogame that's still clearly going strong.
Click to expand...

It would end. Look at the Mario cartoon that ended after Super Mario World came out, and this is when Mario was a worldwide fad back in the 80's and early 90's.

American cartoons wouldn't keep up. With only 26 eps a season at most, they definitely wouldn't go on forever no matter how popular the Pokemon games remained.
 
It would probably be way shorter and have more cliche type of things in it. For some reason a less awesome Pokemon sort of version of Avatar:The Last Airbender comes to mind. I don't know why lol. I feel like they would've made things way more straightforward and I think romance would be major plotline of the show and the romance between the female and male lead of the show would be a cliche and be really predictable. I also think the main character would have less of a personality and be VERY Mary-Sueish, or even more Mary-Sueish. There also may have been a time-skip or something as the show started to "die". But, I guess we'll never really know what would happen, would we?
 
I see potential in an American Pokemon cartoon. However, it is best if it's not in the same continuity as the anime one, because there may be creative differences that they don't share, like probably Misty...well the thing is, a different story and characters is the best way to go, because their own creations are easier to handle.

Thanks for reading.
 
American cartoons based on Nintendo games usually don't go very well. Your mileage may very, but even back then, Japan did and still does video game adaptations better, even if only slightly. Sonic and Kirby were all terrible, but Pokemon was alright at the time, for what it was.

One example is Zelda. While the only voice acting we got from the series was this and this, Japan had this and this. Not exactly a straight example, but whatever.
 
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I doubt an american pokemon would've lasted too long, based off of the examples people have already stated such as mario and sonic. Something I could see is them actually having Ash strive to catch all of them, like have a catchprase or song at the end of every episode as the inevitable thrown pokeball stops shaking. I'm imagining it terribly (I'm spoiled by anime what can I say), but I'll admit that the thought of Ash actually accomplishing that goal is something I'd watch. That being said, we'd probably never get there given the short lifespan. But there could be hope years later, when Pokemon the Next Generation comes out in eye-popping 3D!
 
I doubt it'd even get more than three seasons...

I'm kind of afraid of how the Pokemon would look like.

FANG-TAN said:
American cartoons based on Nintendo games usually don't go very well. Your mileage may very, but even back then, Japan did and still does video game adaptations better, even if only slightly. Sonic and Kirby were all terrible, but Pokemon was alright at the time, for what it was.

One example is Zelda. While the only voice acting we got from the series was this and this, Japan had this and this. Not exactly a straight example, but whatever.
Click to expand...

(Of course you linked to Excuse me, princess...)

Wow, not even in Japanese does the characters talking sound right at all...
 
Eitaroo said:
(Of course you linked to Excuse me, princess...)
Click to expand...
It had to be referenced some time in this thread. :p Especially since the Zelda cartoon is a shining example of how scary it would be if an American Pokemon cartoon came along in the 90s.

Eitaroo said:
Wow, not even in Japanese does the characters talking sound right at all...
Click to expand...
Obviously, since the characters have remained audibly mute in main titles, so hearing them speak never sounds "right" since we're not used to it. Tetra and other Wind Waker characters used their in-game voice actors in Navi's Trackers, so the only reason why they wouldn't sound right is because we never heard a character from that game say a complete sentence with their voice. And at the very least, the drama CD didn't sound obnoxious and used professional actors.

Compare to Pokemon, where a character (hypothetically) suddenly speaking in the video games may not come as a surprise since we're used to hearing voice acting in the anime.

I'm being a little unfair though, since the latter two links were provided by the official Nintendo of Japan company as oppose to the terrible CD-i games and American cartoon, which did not have any insight from Nintendo of America. But it's obvious that they are the reasons why Zelda gets treated to a little bit of voice acting in promos and side stuff on the Japanese side of the fandom more than America's non-cartoon and CD-i fandom.
 
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If Pokemon was an American cartoon, it would just be terrible and inaccurate. Most cartoon adaptions of video games are ridiculous and are terribly done. I mean, not all are terrible. (Sonic the Hedgehog (Not Adventures or Underground) comes to mind.) But for a game like Pokemon, there needs to be complete accuracy with it's content. I can see an American cartoon of it having only 1 or 2 seasons that barely shows all 151 Pokemon, and have nothing to do with the games plot. It just wouldn't be right.
 
I wonder if Ash would have looked closer to Red as well. I also doubt Misty and Brock would be traveling companions, they'd probably make up all new characters for Ash to be with.

There might have likely been no Jessie/James either, and the TR plot probably would have been similar or more kiddish to what it was in the games.
 
Depends on who made it, to be honest.

Imagine, for example, the guys who did Batman: TAS, or, perhaps, Dexter's Lab for a more comedic twist.

It just seems a bit dumb to instantly decry the series being good simply because it was made by Americans, even though American Cartoons have their plus-sides, and the fact that, well, the anime itself isn't an untouchable masterpiece by any means.
 
Well the old Zelda cartoon was horrible. The old Mario cartoon is somewhat fun to watch only because of nostalgia (for anyone who saw it as a kid), but that type of show wouldn't fly today. Bad animation, nonsensical plots (even for something like Mario), and most eps have a typical saturday morning flair.

The Mario cartoon loosely covered Mario 2 through Mario world. It got canceled after that so who knows if it would have covered the later games from Yoshi's Island onward.

I doubt Pokemon would be any different.
 
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