The Pokemon Sun And Moon Anime Just Debuted In Japan

The Pokemon Sun And Moon Anime Just Debuted In Japan

Last night, the first two episodes of Pokemon Sun and Moon were broadcasted on Japanese television. As expected, they were pretty goofy! But they were also intense.

[Image: myu_kun_]

Note: This article might contain spoilers.

Past Pokemon anime have also had silly scenes, but last season’s Pokemon XY&Z had a more mature-looking Ash who actually seemed like a winner. (That is, until he lost, proving that he is an eternal loser.)

In Sun and Moon, Ash and his mother are visiting the Alola region after winning a holiday there.

While wandering around alone with Pikachu, as Ash does, he comes across a Pokemon school that is filled with students and, you guessed it, Pokemon. The other students show him around the school, and if you are wondering what people learn at Pokemon school, this should clue you in.

Heh. They learn about Pokemon!

However, things really ramp up during dinner at a fancy restaurant, when the Pocket Monster Tapu Koko appears in a rather dramatic fashion and gives Ash his own Z-Ring. Later, Tapu Koko returns, showing Ash how to use it.

The Z-Move is rather intense! This one is Gigavolt Havoc.

My two youngest kids were already standing in front the television trying to pull off their own Z-Moves, so expect Nintendo to sell a bunch of these.

After he gets the Z-Ring, Ash’s mum just leaves and Ash stays behind in Alola, enrolling as a student at the Pokemon school. (I guess Ash’s mum had some stuff to do back at home?)

The Z-Move stuff seems super powerful, and it reminded me of Dragon Ball. However, the way the sequence was done reminded many Japanese Twitter users of Inazuma Eleven‘s dramatic soccer plays.

All the images on the left are from Inazuma Eleven. The image on the right is a Z-Move from Sun Moon. That soccer anime, of course, is from Level-5, the folks behind Yo-kai Watch.

Here are more comparisons, and again, the orange and yellow one is from Sun and Moon, while the others are from Inazuma Eleven.

And in this one, the one with Pikachu is from Sun and Moon. Obviously!

Now, test time. Try to pick out the Pokemon anime from Inazuma Eleven!

The two episodes were good, but there are A LOT of goofy sight gags. The show gets hammy real quick.

The hell?

OK.

Maybe this is Ash’s Alola form? He does look different.

As the show progresses, it will probably settle into a good rhythm of balancing the jokey slapstick stuff and the more serious and heartfelt bits we’ve seen in previous Pokemon anime.

The intro, though, is already very catchy.


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