Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. You all ready for some Sun and Moon? It’s been a few weeks on my end since I last indulged in a pokemon episode, and life’s troubles have been dutifully piling up on my back in the meantime, so I think it’s past time I let down my burden, and just let Sun and Moon be good for a while. The show’s last episode was a delightful tribute to Speed Racer, and also a celebration of the humble Charjabug, as Sophocles received his requisite level-up episode to match Lana, Kaki, and Mallow’s recent adventures. Given how these cycles go there’s a fair chance we’ve got a Lillie episode approaching, but Sun and Moon is full of surprises, and they’re pretty much all pleasant ones. Let’s not waste another moment then, and dive right back into Sun and Moon!
Episode 42
Ash himself is introducing the Pokeproblem this week, so I guess this isn’t a Lillie episode. Well, maybe she’s just feeling nervous about presenting it
These Pokeproblems are actually a pretty neat way to integrate the audience into the narrative, making us feel like we’re actually members of the group. Children’s anime frequently have their stars greet the audience, but the Pokeproblems are actually set in the school’s main classroom, as if we’re sitting in the class while one of our fellow students gives a presentation. An easy way to further emphasize Sun and Moon’s slice of life tone, as it strives to remove any sense of distance between the cast and the audience
“Where do we go for the special extracurricular lesson taking place in today’s episode?” Oh damn, we’re actually jumping to one of Pokemon’s previous regions! This’ll be an interesting one
“It’s been decided that in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the pokemon school, a special extracurricular lesson is going to be held.” Hah. So this is actually Pokemon’s 20th anniversary episode, meaning I’m guessing we’ll be going all the way back to the Kanto region, and maybe meeting some characters I’ll actually recognize. It’s going to be a little odd to see my childhood pokemon cast meet my adulthood pokemon cast, but I guess the grim, inexorable march of time is just one of those things even Pokemon cannot protect us from
Unsurprisingly, everyone except Ash is excited to visit his hometown. Meanwhile, the pokemon are doing some adorable, indecipherable trust fall shenanigans at the side of the room
Some friggin’ “extracurricular lesson.” What kind of endowment must this school possess, that it can afford to fly half a dozen students to another country for a day trip
Team Rocket sneakily hiding out a few seats behind our heroes, with Jessie predictably in some kind of argument with a stewardess
Kaki doesn’t trust any flight method that doesn’t also breathe fire
“An Alola in Kanto! Brock and Misty!” AW SHIT
It’s kinda fun seeing the cast get excited about the possibility of seeing pokemon from the original 150, and remembering my own excitement about capturing that original group. This episode is just gonna be a lethal dose of nostalgia, huh
Snowball is unhappy. Stop everything, alert the president, this is a national emergency
And there’s Brock himself
Rocket are here for a meeting at headquarters. Incredible gag for Jessie here, as she references the person who summoned them, thus creating a thought balloon of that character that she promptly gets angry at and shoos away. Jessie is perpetually a bit more of a cartoon than everyone else, and it is wonderful
Right, Brock’s thing is that he’s in love with every woman. I suppose this will also be a reminder that Pokemon’s character writing has improved quite a bit over the years
It’s a little strange hearing Brock and Misty’s Japanese voices for the first time, twenty years after I first watched this show
Hearing Misty and Brock list off their accomplishments is an odd reminder of how time works in Pokemon. Ash is a perpetually young boy who essentially runs the Ash Internship System, wherein other trainers join him for a year or so, then wander off to become various kinds of pokemon legends
Team Rocket’s motivation is more relatable than ever: they want to steal pokemon to avoid being yelled at
Accustomed to island life, the Alolan kids are taken aback by the scale of this world
Ahaha, they even brought back Ash’s entire paddock of Tauros
Ooh, I love this cut as Kaki cracks the reins to make Charizard move faster. Charizard’s burst of movement basically flows down his body like a cat stretching his back, with Kaki’s more solid form bouncing up and then catching his back again. A remarkable sense of gravity and physical exertion in a very short cut
Mallow is a Vileplume enthusiast. I knew she had good taste – Vileplume was actually one of my main Sword and Shield team members, handling all my status ailment needs over the course of the game
Raichu can’t keep up with Togedemaru’s enthusiasm. Beyond their generally animal-like behavior, I appreciate how Sun and Moon has actually given the pokemon a variety of distinct animal-reminiscent personalities. Togedemaru is essentially riffing on the kind of tiny, extremely excitable dog that frequently ends up chasing its own tail in a frenzy
Snowball meets a Ninetales, who is just as regal as you’d expect. We’re essentially getting a greatest hits celebration of Pokemon’s original lineup
At the same time though, it’s also easy to see how significantly pokemon designs have evolved. We’ve come a long way from “basically just a fire horse” and “literally a seal,” even if each new generation still has its share of bugs, rats, and pigeons
Rotom, a man after my own heart, is working on completing his Kanto pokedex
Brock cruelly releases both an Alolan and Kantonian exeggutor at once, giving the Kantonian exeggutor a lifelong height complex
Pikachu hasn’t really been doing any group electrocutions lately, but they were a common feature of the early pokemon episodes, so he zaps the whole party for old times’ sake
Oh my gosh, Pikachu raising his ears up vertically like a scouting fox. Will they ever run out of adorable new mannerisms for this perfect creature
And more classic references to the early pokemon episodes, as Misty is once again terrified by a caterpillar. This episode must have been a fun experience for the staff
And there’s Ash’s old Bulbasaur, still trying to keep the peace among the forest pokemon. I am drowning in nostalgia right now
Lana is utterly unfazed by a Gyarados, as you’d expect
This episode is also reminiscent of Sun and Moon’s first episode, in its generosity of background pokemon. This truly feels like a world that’s brimming with magical creatures
Onyx is enormous. Turtonator’s smaller than just his damn head
They’re doing a lot of playful splitscreens for the reaction shots in this episode, which makes sense – when your group contains a cool dozen members, splitscreen is basically the only way to convey a coherent mass of reactions
Misty’s response to Team Rocket’s arrival is the devastating “are you still doing this?” Misty’s a gym leader now, while you guys are still chasing after a school boy’s pet
Poor Team Rocket. Only showing up so they can let Misty and Brock be the cool heroes one last time
BEWEAR DROPS OUT OF A PLANE TO BLAST TEAM ROCKET OFF AGAIN. INCREDIBLE. I’m not sure how they could stretch Bewear’s powers any further than this, but I’m eager to find out
But please, compose yourselves everyone, Jigglypuff would like to sing a song
While some of the early pokemon designs are a little dubious, Jigglypuff always has been and always will be a perfect creation
And of course, one final callback with Mew’s brief appearance
And Done
The Kanto classics return at last! It was wonderful to see Brock and Misty again, and perhaps even more comfortingly nostalgic to simply be in Kanto again, surrounded by all the creatures I coveted and fought for back in the Red and Blue era. I’m of the age bracket that essentially grew up alongside the franchise, so basically every episode of Sun and Moon feels like a visit to my childhood; but this episode was an outright celebration of that history, and this world we’ve shared. It’s comforting to see Pokemon expressing such love for its own legacy, and I can’t wait to see next episode’s gym battle. Sun and Moon soars again!
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