You just don't get it, do you?
We get it, all right.
We just don't evolve our Pokemon that way.
You like your way of evolving, and we like ours.
The Pokemon TV series was a gigantamax
sized step forward for what would become not just
a franchise but an unstoppable empire in kids' media.
And gigantamax really is the word
to use here, because just like in the in-universe effect,
the Pokemon TV series has not only grown to new heights,
but it has changed its appearance drastically
in the process.
The most obvious example of this change
has been in the series protagonist himself.
But before we dive in, be sure to subscribe to Nerdstalgic
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Pokemon began its life as a set of unfathomably successful
video games created by Game Freak co-founder Satoshi
Tajiri.
But in just a few short years, the little pocket monsters
would be emblazoned on merchandise, adapted
into a card game, and of course, be featured in an animated TV
show.
When the Pokemon TV series was finally
released to North American audiences in 1998, one year
after it debuted in Japan, it became a cultural icon
in its own right.
The simple concept of a 10-year-old boy
going on a grand adventure with his friends
and an army of little monsters by his side
was enough to keep kids enthralled.
The design and animation of the original series,
which ran from 1998 to 2003 in the States,
will forever remain iconic.
Done entirely by the talented minds at the Japanese animation
studio OLM Inc, the show had a distinctly '90s feel to it,
which other anime at the time were also steeped in,
but the look and feel of the characters
was where Pokemon really broke apart from the herd of Tauros.
The primary director of the show was and still is
a man named Kunihiko Yuyama.
He had the daunting task of bringing
Pokemon designed by video game artist Ken
Sugimori to the screen.
But he also had to add new characters that felt like they
were part of the world.
Luckily, because the games had such a clear and distinct style
that worked so well with anime trends at the time,
he succeeded wildly.
There's a long-held belief in the art of character design
that says your characters need to have
recognizable silhouettes.
When stripped of all their features,
you still need to be able to identify them.
Pokemon was so good at this that they literally made a game out
of it.
Who's that Pokemon?
But it's not just the titular pocket monsters
that were designed well.
The human characters are just as memorable-- none
more so than Ash.
Dressed in what might be the most '90s outfit ever
conceived, Ash quickly became one
of the most identifiable parts of the show,
just behind his little yellow sidekick.
His jagged jet black hair, angular face,
and bold facial features are etched permanently
into a lot of fans minds.
These early designs in the original series
were vibrant, highly detailed, and sharp-edged against more
softer backgrounds.
Since the Pokemon anime was initially
created by hand painting cels on a tight deadline,
there are countless instances where
you can see little flaws where trees weren't
filled in all the way or they'd forgotten
the white on Ash's hat.
This of course only adds to the charm of the original series.
But the rough around the edges nature of the first few seasons
wasn't just apparent in its art style.
The animation was equally as rudimentary.
Once again due to the high output expectations and it
being done by hand, the Pokemon anime often had to cut corners.
Battles in the original series may
be looked back on with fondness, but they
were done as cheaply as possible with repeating animations
or hardly any animation at all.
What is this?
What's wrong with it?
While this practice is pretty common in anime,
especially those in the '90s and early 2000s, Kunihiko Yuyama
and the other creatives at OLM used it super effectively
by covering half the battle ground in lightning
or using character cut-ins as important moments
to segue into or out of the action.
And while that worked in some instances,
it wasn't as strong when it came to the characters
moving and emoting outside of Pokebattles.
Ash and the rest of the characters
were stiff in their movements, often
appearing more like flat images with a single moving
limb or flapping mouth.
But that's not to say the entire show was like this.
There were gems in the original series that
became staples of the show moving forward,
like the fluid movement of Ash throwing
a Pokeball-- the animation for which we saw in the show's
introduction and then again and again
throughout the original series.
And even though the attacks were mostly stagnant,
the animators at OLM made them feel epic.
[EXPLOSION]
While Pokemon was certainly not the only anime
to garner a North American audience at the time,
it was undoubtedly the biggest.
And as the Pokemon franchise continued
to roll out down the hill and pick up speed,
the TV show was helping to lead the charge, which
meant that as more games came out,
new series were created in tandem.
The Advanced generation, Diamond and Pearl, Black and White,
and XY ran from 2008 through to 2017 in North America.
We were introduced to new characters, new regions,
and plenty of new Pokemon.
It was clear from the level of polish
that the budget had increased with each season, which
had at least something to do with the newer
generations of games that they were
expected to emulate on screen.
The backgrounds had been upgraded in detail and quality,
and Ash was given new outfits to fit with the changing times.
Those sharp features were still very much part of his character
though, and the art style was very similar to how it looked
in the beginning of its run.
It just got progressively smoother.
This was due to the jump from hand-drawn animation
to digital.
There was really no choice but to make this switch in order
to keep up with the workload.
Digital animation was really the only option.
And though Ash and the rest of the characters
still moved pretty stiffly and flatly,
it was obvious that the team behind the Pokemon TV show
had big plans in mind for the future of the franchise
as they moved into this new technological age.
So came the Sun and Moon era.
By far the most controversial move in the TV show's history,
Sun and Moon completely upended the established design
of seasons past.
In order to fit with the aesthetic of the most
recent set of games, they brought
in new characters, a new region, new Pokemon,
and an update on Ash's outfit as every other series
had done before.
But they didn't stop there.
Ash's redesign would be the most complete fans
had ever seen in the nearly two decades since the show's
release.
Those familiar sharp edges to his hair and clothing
were rounded out.
The colors he wore, while still being bright and fun,
were less saturated.
For the first time in series history,
he was no longer in some variation of his signature
jacket, and even his bold features
were shrunken down and simplified.
In some ways, looking more like a Ditto version of himself
than the character viewers had come to know.
There was predictably quite a bit of backlash to this change.
Where was the Ash we had all grown up with,
and who was the soft squishy character in his place?
I'm Ash Ketchum.
I came from Pallet Town in the Kanto region.
These changes were not done out of spite for longtime fans.
In reality, there were a lot of practical and artistic reasons
for Pokemon's new look that people like director Kunihiko
Yuyama and producer Hiroyuki Kato
were using to their advantage.
These simpler character designs actually
made room for a lot of improvements
to the show overall.
With a less defined face and body structure,
Ash and the rest of the characters
were able to emote in new ways that just hadn't been possible
before.
And that also applied to the Pokemon
who could squash and stretch to their heart's content,
giving them more personality and life than ever before.
With simpler characters, backgrounds
were able to be more elaborate, and the animators
got to play with different art styles
without it feeling jarring or out of place.
Even the battles maintain the general vibe
of the original series while simultaneously stepping up
their game in terms of animation.
And so, despite the controversy surrounding the change,
this is the direction the Pokemon TV
show has continued in.
The current iteration of Pokemon, 2019's Journeys
the series is even softer and squishier than Sun and Moon.
Its colors are more vibrant, and the movement
is smoother than ever before.
Whether all of that is a good thing
is up to each individual fan.
But if Pokemon has taught us anything,
it's that nothing ever stays exactly the same.
It evolves.
And the creative minds who have stuck
with the series since the beginning
are clearly invested in evolving with their fans.
Now it's up to the fans to grow and change alongside them.
Change isn't easy, but it is necessary.
And that's important to remember now more than ever
with the recent news of Ash's departure from the series.
With every new iteration, the show
distances itself further and further
from the one we remember from our childhoods.
And that's OK.
It's undeniable that Pokemon has undergone and will continue
to undergo new and solid evolutions--
ones that will hopefully leave the show stronger
than it was before.
Ones that are full of fun, fluidity, and life--
just how the world of Pokemon should be.
But that's all we have for you today.
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