It's honestly kind of surprising. The 2010s have actually been a pretty amazing decade for the Pokemon anime, and by that, I don't necessarily mean the TV anime starring Ash. It's no secret that Pokemon as a franchise has been going on for years, and it's popularity isn't going to wane anytime soon. But for years, for anyone who couldn't play the games, the TV anime was all we got, and it's made no secret of the fact that it's mainly aimed at children and has no interest in getting rid of Ash Ketchum anytime soon, even long after he overstayed his welcome. Then aslew of new Pokemon anime not centered on him got released into the wild, such as Pokemon Generations, Pokemon Twilight Wings, the PokeToon shorts, and this most recent offering, Pokemon Evolutions, which is basically a season 2 for Generations, or at the very least a different continuity for it, covering content from Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield, which didn't exist when Generations was made. Needless to say, Pokemon fans who wanted more out of the anime are very happy to have more options, even if those options are small compared to the TV anime's over 1000 episodes and counting. Fans were hyped for Evolutions, as was I, and...well, it does have moments where it shines, but many can attest that out of all the short Pokemon anime we've received, Evolutions stands as being the weakest.
That's not to say Evolutions is bad. Like Generations, it's basically an anthology of shorts depicting abridged versions of significant events that happened in the games, with each episode covering a different game and event. Unlike Generations, Evolutions goes backwards, starting from Sword/Shield and ending with Red/Blue (Or, in this case, the Let's Go games). Rather than spend paragraphs talking about the entire series as a whole, I'm going to talk about each episode individually, as each one has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and the entire story doesn't have one singular narrative to comment on, with each episode being self-contained stories and all. There is one interesting thing to note though: Apparently, the animation was made to accommodate the English audio rather than the Japanese voices, with the entire music soundtrack done by not a Japanese composer, but by Abe Goldfarb, who makes the music for Pokemon's English dub. Not sure what prompted this idea, but I do like that Pokemon's trying to expand their repertoire like this.
The first episode, The Champion, focuses on Leon and his lingering feelings of guilt after the Eternatus incident. I like that this actually gave us some insight into Leon's state of mind after the encounter with Eternatus, and since the episode is very light on dialogue, it manages to convey Leon's feelings and guilt through his body language and the animation. Basically, show don't tell. But it does have the opposite problem of coming across as rather ambiguous in regards to what Leon could actually be thinking or feeling because it's so light on dialogue. I'm also not a fan of how overly muscular and bulky his design looks, especially the shape of his face and chin. He looks way too much like a bodybuilder who overdosed on steroids. On these aspects, I think Twilight Wings did them better. The second episode, The Eclipse, is honestly my favorite one and, in my honest opinion, the best episode, focusing entirely on Lillie and her progression from frightened shy girl to a more confident, self-assured person who doesn't have to let her mother's abuse rule her life. Not only are the character designs less bulky and much smoother compared to The Champion, it also shows us, in short snippets, Lillie's character development and how she became the person she does at the end of the Sun/Moon games. Combine this with great voice acting, luscious animation, and well-choreographed battles, and you have a feast for the eyes and ears. Also, I'm going to say this because I can: THANK FUCK THEY GAVE LILLIE AN ACTUALLY GOOD ENGLISH DUB VOICE FOR ONCE!!!
The third and fourth episodes, titled The Visionary and The Plan, are admittedly the two weakest episodes. I liked that they focused more on the villains and offered more insight to them, but in the case of Lysandre, Generations already covered his story, and this just felt like a rehash of it from different angles. Plus, the battle at the end was just Xerneas one-shotting his Mega Gyarados, because it's totally a good idea to pit a Dark/Water type against a Fairy type, riiiight? Plus, it didn't really show us anything that we didn't already know about Lysandre. The same goes for Ghetsis in The Plan. Poor N only got one line in that whole episode and that's it, and Ghetsis didn't sound menacing enough to me (I only saw it in English, so he might sound better in Japanese). Those two episodes felt more like rehashes than anything and didn't offer anything new.
Thankfully, episode five, The Rival, marks a return to form. Some people might have issues with this episode because of the static Pokemon battles, Barry's less emotive personality, and focusing more on his relationship with his father than with the player character, but I personally really liked it. It's refreshing to see Barry display other aspects of his character and be more contemplative than what we're used to, and I always appreciate it when creators try something new, even with established personalities for characters. Hey, if Pokemon Adventures can get away with it, I don't see why Pokemon Evolutions can't either. The next episode, The Wish, is also one of the weaker ones to me, because it has the same problem as episodes 3 and 4, in that it just shows us what we already know about Zinnia and the lore for Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire while only hinting at her backstory...and not letting the player character do anything besides walk around and shriek and survive falls from cliffs. If anything, The Wish would have been so much better had it delved more into Zinnia's backstory and explained who the original Aster was that she loved so much.
The seventh episode, The Show, is definitely one of the most creative ones, as it dives a lot deeper into the lore of the series and expands on its world, making it feel like a place that's actually lived in. It also has the neat idea of showing off the Kimono Girls performing a show and incorporating Pokemon attacks into it. It does suffer from some pretty glaring continuity issues in regards to the history behind the two Ecruteak towers, which Generations already covered, but that's really the only problem people had with it. Plus, it also has some cute comedic bits as well. I consider The Show to be my third favorite, just behind The Rival and The Eclipse. The final episode, The Discovery, achieves the perfect balance of being action-packed, funny, and heartwarming, and ends the anthology on a surprisingly sweet note.
Bottom line, Pokemon Evolutions is mainly focused on telling bite sized stories about the different Pokemon games, so the characters don't have a whole lot of depth to them unless you've played the game. If I had to name the most significant flaw Evolutions has, is that it's inconsistent. Some episodes do a great job of expanding on the characters and Pokemon world, while others just rehash plot points from the game and don't do anything new, and others have really glaring continuity mistakes. It tries to do what Generations did, but doesn't have the larger episode count the former has and often struggles with characterization and keeping with the basic lore of the series. That being said, I think the series works better if you consider it like a pseudo-sequel to Generations, since Evolutions is basically it but covering the generations the former didn't and having alternate takes on various events, like the Ecruteak towers. I still think Pokemon Generations is better, but I wouldn't entirely miss Evolutions, as it does have some good stuff to offer if you're willing to give it a chance.
And with that, this is my final review of 2021! Here's hoping 2022 will be even better for not just Pokemon, but for the entertainment industry in general.
