How would an entire Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story work as an anime?

[shoz999]

So if you were to ask me what Pokemon game could rival to that of the emotional, foreshadowed, mature but light-hearted world of Pokemon Adventures where the stakes are not just high but feel real, you grow an attachment with these very relatable characters and how the hero saves the day will almost always take you by complete surprise, that would probably be none other than the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series.

Spoiler: Overboard love for the series.

It's kind of ironic actually. Some of the most human, most relatable, most real characters of the Pokemon series aren't humans but are Pokemon which are heavily drawn inspiration from animals and objects. This is especially often the case in the games for your partnered Pokemon who you have adventures with, laugh with, cry in tears with and grit your teeth with against all the odds stacked against you. In fact the stories of the Mystery Dungeon series are probably far more compelling and impactful than most of the stories the Pokemon games present you with. A simple tale of friendship that is challenged by foreshadowed and unforeseen powers where you not only impact your partner Pokemon's life but also also the lives of Pokemon around you including the villains. Like reading a volume of Pokemon Adventures, when your playing a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, your expecting a good story but a story that plays with your expectations of previous entries where you never truly know what's going to happen next. The story is so good that it's honestly rare to see a Pokemon game's success carried more by it's story than it's gameplay. Except for Gates of Infinity. That game sucks.

To get an idea just how compelling most of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon stories are to me, seeing the cover and listening to the remix of this Undertale Song reminds me so much of some of the most human most complex character that very few Pokemon story mediums are able to fully capture, most notably Pokemon Adventures Diamond & Pearl and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, Time & Darkness. It reminds me of the time a certain ghostly Pokemon wanted to make up for his past mistakes or where the heroes stand up to a world that says you, the main character, cannot exist, defying fate one at a time as a god-like being draws it's fangs to you. If you think this is off-topic, then ask yourself this. What Pokemon stories have you seen or read in your life that you think can fit the image of that song and then for most of you realize it's a pretty small number.

So why am I going pretty much overboard in explaining my personal thoughts just how great the story of Mystery Dungeon series is? I just freaking love the stories it tells and I know there are others like me who think along similar lines but probably wouldn't go this overboard.

So how would an entire Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story work as an anime... voice-acting, what would be a good start, does some of the darker content need to be toned down, how necessary do you think it would be for every Pokemon to yell out every attack's name or are you thinking realistically that the anime crew would probably dumb some of the long expansive story down for younger audiences, especially English audiences, put in too much filler or maybe because it's already an complete story product, they don't see any need for filler?

 

[Tsukuyomi56]

Story is a bit tricky but given the SM anime were not shy in touching into more serious matters the darker elements of Mystery Dungeon may be a non-factor. Don't think there may need for much filler, it could be used to develop some the characters a bit more (more meaty side-stories such as the final side story involving Grovyle in Explorers of Sky could become a special series of episodes/mini-movie).

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Didn't they already try it?

 

[mehmeh1]

Didn't they already try it?

they were just specials, and only the last one adapted something that wasn't the beginning (and did so in a great way). Also, c'mon shoz, while the gameplay and amount of content may have issues, GTI had a great story and did the "villain losing hope for the world and wants it all to end" plot arguably the best in pokemon media by actually showing you the deteriorating relationships of the pokemon.
Anyways, I think the rng dungeon gameplay would be the most difficult part to adapt in a full show without becoming tedious, as the random element would kinda be gone

 

[shoz999]

they were just specials, and only the last one adapted something that wasn't the beginning (and did so in a great way). Also, c'mon shoz, while the gameplay and amount of content may have issues, GTI had a great story and did the "villain losing hope for the world and wants it all to end" plot arguably the best in pokemon media by actually showing you the deteriorating relationships of the pokemon.
Anyways, I think the rng dungeon gameplay would be the most difficult part to adapt in a full show without becoming tedious, as the random element would kinda be gone

So this is just my subjective opinion but Gates to Infinity is kind of like Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee. By itself, the game is actually pretty good, better than most Triple-A titles, pretty much 98% of anything EA has to offer. But compared to the rest of the series, Gates to Infinity falls short behind it's outstanding predeccesor. The best parts about Gates to Infinity is the best friend dynamic here between you and your partner as your building a paradise for Pokemon. You also get these crazy twists which you've mentioned where Hydreigon and Munna are not who they seem to be. You also got some fun characters like Quagsire, Dunsparce or Gurdurr especially at the beginning. You also got your epic boss battles with that epic Mystery Dungeon boss music you've come to expect. These are some of the most memorable parts of Gates to Infinity until you realize just how lacking the plot felt in substance and progression. The plot felt shorter, you progress a lot with your partner Pokemon but the same cannot be said with most of the Pokemon surrounded by you and the personal stakes here did not feel as high as previous entries. And of course the strong lack of a post-game story, a continuation of that story that further explores a story that the player already thought was over isn't here. To sum it up, this isn't a very good Kingdom Hearts spinoff.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Explorers of Sky I think has the best potential for a full animated adaptation if they were to ever go down that route. Thing is, would it be similar to Origins or the Mega Evolution OVAs, or would they do a two-cour spin-off?

They could go down the route of something a bit more original and condensed like Ginji's Rescue Team, but if this was something they had considered once, all they could do with it was make specials to promote the game. It's probably a similar reason why none of the Ranger games got considered for an anime adaptation, so they were just relegated to cameos in the anime (although the 9th movie sort of revolved around it). I find it interesting they never made more specials for Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon, though.

But we're never going to get that Colosseum adaption. *le sigh*

 

[Prof. SALTY]

I think they could totally do a full anime season out of a mystery Dungeon story. I'd prefer an original story that we haven't seen before akin to the more mature games like Rescue and Explorers but adaptions are also fine with me. Just steer clear of Gates to Infinty and honestly maybe even Super. I haven't played much of the latter but it doesn't seem to have the same feel as Rescue or Explorers.

There isn't really anything visually that would need toning down, it's mostly just emotionally mature situations and a darker tone that give the series it's edge which could be left in tact.

 

[AznKei]

I dunno. I'm used to see more of the human characters than the Pokemons. I know that the Pikachu shorts mainly features the latters, but I'm not sure if it would work for a full anime series that last over 100 episodes each.

 

[Zoruagible]

I don't think it would work. The games are a masterpiece(Apart from Gates to Infinity lol), but I just find it hard to make a good reason they should get a full on anime series. I mean they practically gave up themselves, Infinity got 5 minutes and Super got cheated(Which is a shame as that's arguably the best game)!

Not to mention.... what would they do for filler? Random jobs in dungeons?
And it's honestly quite hard to think of how they could make the story different enough from the games to avoid feeling like a 100% copy, the villains Gengar, Nuzleaf and Dusknoir were all pretty much fleshed out already. MD does a great job at doing that, such a shame the main games can't do that apart from Ghetsis/N and Lusamine/Guzma. In fact.... most the MD characters have enough personality to not feel wasted(Apart from Gates lol.... I don't even remember anybody apart from that Dunsparce who had the hots for Virizion as I actually liked that bit. Man that game sucked)

 

[shoz999]

I don't think it would work. The games are a masterpiece(Apart from Gates to Infinity lol), but I just find it hard to make a good reason they should get a full on anime series. I mean they practically gave up themselves, Infinity got 5 minutes and Super got cheated(Which is a shame as that's arguably the best game)!

Not to mention.... what would they do for filler? Random jobs in dungeons?
And it's honestly quite hard to think of how they could make the story different enough from the games to avoid feeling like a 100% copy, the villains Gengar, Nuzleaf and Dusknoir were all pretty much fleshed out already. MD does a great job at doing that, such a shame the main games can't do that apart from Ghetsis/N and Lusamine/Guzma. In fact.... most the MD characters have enough personality to not feel wasted(Apart from Gates lol.... I don't even remember anybody apart from that Dunsparce who had the hots for Virizion as I actually liked that bit. Man that game sucked)

Honestly I think filler could work very well as "random jobs in dungeons", or more specifically random adventures in dungeons. It would be a great way to introduce new Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeon series and shaped how endless the Mystery Dungeon world is. Also as for it being hard to make the story different enough from the games while making it similar enough to the games to not anger or bore fans, that should be the goal. Kusaka of Pokemon Adventures said the hardest part was to make the story interestingly different enough from the games while attempting to be faithful to the source material in order to not anger or bore fans and in doing so, he created arguably the greatest Pokemon adaptation ever. So why shouldn't a Mystery Dungeon anime aspire for similar challenges? What you see as a very difficult challenge, I see as the pathway a Mystery Dungeon anime series should take.

I dunno. I'm used to see more of the human characters than the Pokemons. I know that the Pikachu shorts mainly features the latters, but I'm not sure if it would work for a full anime series that last over 100 episodes each.

Personally for me to be accurate, I'm used to seeing more of humans talking than Pokemon talking. In the Gates of Infinity shorts and the Mystery Dungeon special, they both featured Pikachu. The original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon special featured an "Older Brother" Pikachu that I felt talked a bit off, sounding too much like a young adult whereas the later Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity special featured a female Pikachu that sounded more like what you'd imagine a female Pikachu would sound like. I feel like voice-acting would be one of the harder aspects to capture, the Pokemon Company and even GameFreak perhaps having no clue what these Pokemon could sound like if they spoke human languages.

 

[RedR]

expand on the anime specials that already exist

 

[Leonhart]

Well I've only played the Gen 3 and 4 PMD games, but I would've loved to see a separate series for each of the first two sets of PMD games. The whole plot of Time and Darkness itself was amazing enough to warrant more than just two specials. Twelve episodes for each set of games would've worked nicely.

 

[shoz999]

Well I've only played the Gen 3 and 4 PMD games, but I would've loved to see a separate series for each of the first two sets of PMD games. The whole plot of Time and Darkness itself was amazing enough to warrant more than just two specials. Twelve episodes for each set of games would've worked nicely.

Honestly I think they can split the Mystery Dungeon games into story arcs. Take the original mystery dungeon for example. You can split it up to a story arc where in introduces how the Mystery Dungeon world functions, then the chase sequence where they meet Absol, and then the Rayquaza plot story, then the Latias/Latios storyline and then there's of course the Cures of the Ninetails storyline. Same with explorers where the plot doesn't really end with Dialga but with Darkrai.

 

[Peter Harrison]

It would be cool to see this idea.

 

[Nodqfan]

I would be onboard with an anime of PMD.

 

[Leonhart]

In hindsight, I wonder why the second set of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games wasn't made into a full-on series since the games themselves had such a rich storyline. We did get those two special episodes featuring Hikozaru and Pochama, but they didn't feel complete since there was a huge chuck of the storyline missing between the first and second episodes.

 

[MockingJ]

I'd only want to see a full anime adaptation of PMD if it can handle the vast amount of world building that the games had. Also it would have to keep all the tearful moments intact because those are the scenes that made the games so memorable.

 

[BTS_fan]

I'd only want to see a full anime adaptation of PMD if it can handle the vast amount of world building that the games had. Also it would have to keep all the tearful moments intact because those are the scenes that made the games so memorable.

The sad scenes would probably be kept but I don't trust the usual writers to be able to handle those in a way that makes them truly emotional. It's just something that I've noticed about the writers and their inability to make me shed actual tears.