All the Right Notes: Pokemon Indigo League Retrospective, Part 2

Time to finish up my retrospective on the Indigo League episodes of the Pokemon anime!  In my previous post, I discussed some of the odd things I noticed in the show that you tend to miss when you watch it as a kid.  With those in mind, I'm now going to address why exactly Pokemon has become such a phenomenon, especially against other similar franchises that have attempted to do the same.  To do this in the most organized way possible, I'm going to actually discuss the two main reasons I think are key to Pokemon's success despite a shakey first season.  So, let's delve right in!

Check out the review after the break!

1. The world is just awesome.

Well, not quite, but you get the idea.

It's not only the vast amount of freakin' fantastic creatures that can be captured in hand-size devices and then be trained.  It's not only the many different kinds of towns, cities, and landscapes that this amazingly diverse world consists of.  I believe that the success of the Pokeverse lies partly with the people of the world.

Just think about it.  The world of Pokemon is incredibly peaceful.  Kids can leave home with just one Pokemon and big dreams, meet awesome people, get involved in exciting adventures, and make it out alive and exhilirated for the next bend around the road!  Sure, there are big evil groups like Team Rocket and Team Plasma, but you know that good will always defeat evil.  And you've also got friends and people just as passionate to back you up when you battle against evil-doers, so no matter what happens, you know you'll be all right.

I think any kid that watched the show wanted nothing more than to travel around with this terrific trio.

You can dream big on the Pokeverse, and with courage and perserverence, you can make your dream become a reality.  And it's not easy!  The show has never sugarcoated the hard work its main and minor casts do.  But this is work that is always worth it, which appeals to mankind's desire to see hard work pay off. 

In short, the Pokeverse is a world of dreams.  You have danger that can be overcome, challenges that can be surmounted, and no end to the goals you can achieve.  What kid--and what adult, for that matter--can resist?  The Pokemon world is well aware that an ideal world is not one without some fear or hard work--rather, it's a world where you can overcome these challenges and achieve your dreams by your own hands.

Even so, however, this kind of world can get boring fast.  Is it possible for something to be too perfect?  How does Pokemon maintain the balance between an ideal world and one that is simply too unbelievable?  Well, that leads me to my next point...

2. The show doesn't take itself too seriously... except when it counts.

Everyone's favorite incompetent villains and comic relief!

The fact is, Pokemon was never a serious show.  And it doesn't pretend to be one.  It doesn't go out to take on huge issues or institute world peace.  (I think it needs said here that often the movies try to do "big life messages," but the success of these is questionable, and I'm just addressing the first season.)  Just for a moment, I'm going to compare Pokemon with another franchise that also had a stint of popularity, Yu-Gi-Oh.

I watched the first two or so seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh.  It was fun initially, but after awhile the show took a really dark turn.  But not the sort of dark ideas that characterized, for example, the later Sailor Moon anime seasons, a show which was able to maintain the weight of those heavier themes.  The premise of Yu-Gi-Oh so ludicrous by its nature that making it appear dark, edgy, or serious only created hilarious results.

Pokemon never had this problem because never, in all the Pokemon seasons (but especially the first), does the show attempt to take itself more seriously than the premise of the show can believably withstand.  Because the show never took itself too seriously, the audience wasn't expected to either, and they could suspend their disbelief and just get swept up in the pure joy of the Pokeverse.

I do not believe Pokemon would have reached the success it did, however, if it did not take one aspect seriously.

One thing Pokemon does embrace wholeheartedly is, well... heart!  Pokemon may be ridiculous more often than not, but at the bottom of the show are basic human emotions that can touch any audience: love, friendship, solidarity, loyalty.

One of my personal favorite episodes--even as a kid, I remember being touched by this scene.

And what fan doesn't remember the episode Pikachu's Good-bye?

In the Pokeverse, love and friendship are two of the most powerful forces in existence.  They may not be able to physically break down walls or defeat evil-doers, they will give you the courage to do so yourself.

And as long as those ideas are central to the franchise, I think I can confidently say after that fifteen years of unashamed fangirling, I and many others will continue to keep Pokemon in a special place in our hearts!