If You Were To Re-write The Animé...

[DANdotW]

If You Were To Re-write The Animé...

If you decided to undertake the tempting project of turning the Animé into a fanfiction, what would you do?

Would you keep it exactly the same, or give your own plot a boost in it, or would you adjust it slightly, so that it makes a better story?

Would you keep Ash, or would you stick with using Red, Blue and Green (with different names, or the same?)?

Discuss.

Stupid topic, I know, but it's purely research for a project I want to take later.

Iota

 

[Ledian_X]

If I rewrote the anime...Hmmmm....

Team Rocket wouldn't be a joke. For one, they'd be a more lethal organization bent on world conquest with Pokemon. Jessie, James and Meowth may have some of their comic relief but at their core, they'd be villains who will kill the main characters if given the chance. Thy're bad guys. They need a motive, drive and will to kill.

Our hero would be still be Ash. And no, he won't be like the Ash from the Evil dead series. This Ash would be around 15 or so starting out on his own as a pokemon trainer. Following the game, Ash would pick his starter (Pikachu I guess) and might join with fellow gym leaders. However, there's going to be a twist in the series.

Oak would give him his first pokemon but still would keep an eye out. After Ashy boy leaves, Oak talks to a man in shadows. It's Lance. Gray's with him too explaining to his grandfather that Ashy-Boy's too green. He wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility. Oak would say "Have some faith..."

Early on after dealing with Team Rocket, Lance from the Elite Four watches our hero from the shadows for some time and sees how he handles them. Eventually, Lance approachs Ash, Misty and Brock for a position in that world's government agency dedicated to stopping the various teams. However, to do this, they must run the gauntlet and do various things like win badges.

But, we are surprised to learn that right from the beginning, Misty and Brock (who are teenagers, too) were working with Lance and Prof Oak. They see potential in Ash as a new recruit to Lance's group. All gym leaders were part of this secret organization Lance is head of. They test Ash with their pokemon and eventually, the organization's revealed and Misty and Brock were in charge of delivering Ash to Lance.

Ash might be a bit angry at his friends for not telling the truuth. He leaves for a bit and returns after being jumped by TR...who successfully takes the yellow rat. He goes back and explains what happened and there's an arc where they raid Team Rocket a la the Sliph co battle and get the chu back (instead of Lapras).

There's some fierce fighting and Lance informs the trio that they have to go see to the other regions of the pokemon world as violence from groups there escalats. They'sd face Magma/Aqua and Galactic. While all the while following the plot of the games more closely. Yes, they'd occassionally help some mareep get sheered or something but while being unassuming trainers to the outside world, they'd be part of an organization dedicated to stopping TR and co.

As for Team Rocket? No more disguises. No more anything. They're tough and Giovanni will eventually put a bounty on the kids' heads.

The anime still goes on with each game. But, still maintaining an edge. There would still be gym battles, Dawn/May, contests. But, the backdrop to all this is Lance's organization....which needs a name. G-Men sounds lame and a rip of X-Men. Perhaps they should be called "Pokemon League." Keep it simple.

LX

 

[Air Dragon]

So, in short, you'd make it run like the manga, only Ash start's out older. Cool. All that's left is to put it on adult swim...

I dunno what I'd do. The anime's been messed up for so long, it wouldn't be worth the work. I mean ten years of crap is hard enough to clean up. LOL.

I personally wouldn't want to do it (write it out as a fanfiction, I mean). Not really worth my time, but actually nice to envision.

L@er!

 

[Ledian_X]

Basically, yeah. The manga I heard is very loyal to the game. Ash starting out older akes more sense. You wouldn't entrust a ten year old with a job like the one Lance will give you. Lance would be in his 20s-30s. He might even be the right hand man of a higher boss...that turns out to be Oak. Pretty fun twist, huh?

It would be hard to repair the anime. But, it can be done as a fic. Just toss everything away and start over. That and not let 4kids/Nelvana or anyone crappy dub it.

LX

 

[Dragonfree]

I'd make each region feature a completely new cast instead of having Ash (or any other set of characters) go over to each region. Have you ever seen the Raikou special? It took it only one hour or so for it to convince me that the three Johto trainers created for that special would have made a ten times more interesting animé season than the adventures of Ash and his traveling companions. They have more entertaining interactions because they've known each other since they were kids and feel more like they have histories than Ash and co. (who feel like they popped into existence the day they first appeared in the animé), and even though the G/S/C rival only appeared for about two seconds in the intro he managed in those two seconds to be more interesting than Gary ever was. To me, the Raikou special is everything the animé could have been and sadly isn't.

I don't really think the Pokémon animé needs much of an epic overarching plot to it. The main purpose of it is to explore an amazing world and the creatures within it through a kid's Pokémon journey, and I'd keep that. I also don't find it necessary to make it more mature or whatever; it can work fine without blood splattering all over the place. The main focus would be on the development of the characters and their relationships with their Pokémon as they grow up on their journeys, with other conflicts also running through the series (e.g. a competent evil team plotting to take over big corporations the way they do in the games, other villains like the G/S/C rival who the main character meets from time to time, or any of the many things that could be done with the legendary Pokémon of each region - some plot ideas from the Pokémon movies, in fact, are really not bad at all). The side conflicts should take on bigger roles than they currently do and be more common instead of stuffing everything with filler episodes.

So if I were writing the animé: three new main characters in each region, one receiving each regional starter from the local professor. They go on their respective roads and travel alone with their Pokémon, beating Gyms, going through various other side-conflicts and interacting with the Pokémon instead of some annoying human traveling companions. The characters meet one another from time to time and do things together while interacting in fun ways; various conflicts stir on the sidelines. One character is the primary character but there would be special episodes showing the other trainers' journeys directly and flashbacks in the episodes where they meet. Each region has its climax in the regional Pokémon League, in which we see all of the characters' battles and they place wherever is appropriate, not necessarily always having one of them win. The final episode shows them deciding what they're going to do now (possibly to be the subject of movies, spin-offs or special episodes, or if not, to let fanfiction writers take off with it if they please), and then they head off. (They might decide to do whatever they want to do all together, two together or alone as they see fit.) After that we move on to the next season, where some other three characters are setting out on journeys of their own in another region.

Oh, and some of the regions would have some girls who want to win the League and aren't obsessing over those silly contests or being afraid of bugs. Fancy that.

 

[Arcanine Royale]

I too would advocate having new cast, maybe if not in Johto then in Hoenn, when May and Brendan journey together. They could even go to the Battle Frontier in Kanto and even throw in Ash and company back.

I've also had the idea that the anime is just a tv show and Ash Ketchum's real journey was a lot less episodic, but of course that doesn't make good tv...


@L_X: The thing is they can't really just throw everything aside now. They did bring in the Champion's League, though, which might be Ash's final goal. That league requires you to win your home reason, so Ash wins the Sinnoh League, decides to do the Champion's League, and has go back and challenge the Indigo League again.

So my version would probably involve Ash realizing being a pokemon master sooner than later, have Rocket be more of a syndicate or have a different group that is only a corporation bent on making a profit in nearly any way, with Ash maybe teaching May or Max or a Johto character the ropes for a while before winning the Hoenn / Johto League and heading back home, maybe to take up Giovanni's gym...

 

[Verity]

It might be interesting to have the series be more in the same tone overall as the first few episodes were--I went back and watched the very beginning recently, and it had a very distinctly different feel to it. A lot more uncertainty about whether Ash can succeed as a trainer, Team Rocket seems a lot more dangerous, Ash's pokemon don't trust him right away, he tends to get in over his head... etcetera.

And seconding basically everything Dragonfree mentioned, because those sound like great ideas--I'd agree that the Raikou special is a pretty good example, and it had the advantage of being finite, so that it didn't have to be stretched out for 10+ years. I'd also echo there the sentiment that there ought to be some competent female non-coordinators as main or frequently-recurring characters. (Adolescent me would have appreciated this especially.)

And my personal thing--maybe a little bit more in the way of continuity nods, in that more episodes would refer to previous episodes, and there would be very definite character development over the course of the series. Since the anime has been having to go on so long, it's gotten a bit into Status Quo Is God territory, which doesn't leave much room for growth and change.

 

[Ledian_X]

Actually, I just want Team Rocket to be more of a credible threat like in the game for the most part. Have them actually *BE* villains. Mai characters can rotate but a bit of a darker theme might be good.

LX

 

[Crazy Weavile]

Main character would change every season, being the one to "carry the torch", so to speak, for the old one. TR would be totally reversioned- Jessie a sadist, James ruthless, greedy, and amoral, and Meowth as a mafioso-type. The overall portrait would be very grim- essentially one person against an evil organization which is full of people who wouldn't think twice before killing them. Regions would be entered and left as needed, NOT when new games came out.

 

[Falthor]

Some of the elements of the Pokémon anime really need to be remolded. Elements of the program are very childish, and those characteristics are what make the show completely boring, uninteresting, and most importantly, just a waste of some time slots and of money, acting, and the like. Considering the audience, that idea is plausible. However, since the audience who has watched, played, read, participated in, and enjoyed Pokémon over the last couple of years have developed and matured, and––obviously–-aged.

What I would do if I were to rewrite the anime is I would just eradicate every aspect that has been mentioned in the anime. We would not have any canon characters; Ash, Misty, Brock, May, whomever, will be completely eliminated from the "show," and will be replaced with complex, round characters, aged around sixteen or seventeen. Since these individuals will be older in the show, the audience will also shift to that of an older one, perhaps geared toward a TV-14 U.S. rating. So I guess the show would be seen on Adult Swim.

More adult themes will be explored in the anime, such as sex, drugs, and violence. Common speech will be used a lot more often, slang definitely incorporated into the dialogue that the characters will engage in, and––if certain individuals are more realistic than others, or have less "morals" than others––foul language may be used, but not to an excessive amount.

The plot will change overall. Teams Rocket, Aqua, Magma, and Galactic will not exist. Ever. Traveling around the region to collect badges? Sure, that may be the foundation of the whole story, but that will not be the essential plot structure. Something that has depth will be the controlling premise in the plot's overall development, such as a battle amongst the Legendary Pokémon (or somebody thinking that they are, so schizophrenia may be another element thrown in to the mix for dramatic effect), or a man trying to reclaim his honor, a la Avatar: The Last Airbender. The author will have many plots and twists at his disposal, and it is his choice as to whether or not the plot will fit well with the characters. Furthermore, along with those plot changes, elements from literature and myth should be heavily drawn in the show. I'll try to take a different approach to scriptwriting and focus on giving the show more of an aesthetic appeal and that of a more philosophical approach to it. Because without philosophy, where is our love of knowledge (points to you if you get the pun)? As the plot continues, these philosophical elements will intertwine with the development of both the story and the characters themselves, and therefore, creating more of a dramatic effect for the show itself, and thus, creating a more powerful story arc and a better show.

What I just wrote just gave me a good heads-up of what to do with my fic. xD

 

[Bay]

Hm, everyone will probably kill me for this, but if I were to re-write the anime, I would still keep Jessie, James, and Meowth as themselves. I guess the thing is I'm used to watching animes and shows with really serious and very driven antagonists (which I still like too), but once in a while I would like to see silly ones just for laughs. XD However, I would also probably have another TR group but they're more serious and probably will go greater lengths to capture Pokemon and other stuff.

As for other things, I'll probably still keep Ash and company but moreso explore more of their personalities and also give them a bit more development. Also, would have the main female character go into gym battles instead of contests as there could some good competition between Ash and her. Lastly, like Falthor, would too put in philosophical and parable themes in the story for the characters to explore.

 

[Chozo]

How would I rewrite the Pokemon anime?

Well, after spelunking fanfiction.net for as long as my sanity would allow (read: 45 minutes) I have learned the way to rewrite the anime in a way that would apparently appeal to the vast majority of fanfic writers.

I present to you:

IN THE GRIM DARK FUTURE OF THE POKEMON UNIVERSE THERE IS ONLY DARK GRIMNESS​

1. Angst. Tons and tons of angst.
Being angry, sullen, and hating your parents = character depth. Man, I wish I'd known this when I started Penultimate!

Ash? Illegitimate child of Ms. Ketchum, conceived during a dark time when Ms. Ketchum turned tricks for crack cocaine and Three Musketeers. Leaves home disgusted at his mother's zoophiliac obsession with Mr. "Magic Hands" Mime. Is mopey a lot, often pontificates about the inner blackness of his soul. Which is black.

Misty? Escaped from her incestuous sadomasochistic sisters at the Cerulean gym. Dyes her hair black and dresses like a man, and then angsts about how men don't think she's pretty. Often pontificates about the inner blackness of her soul. Fond of using dead flowers as allegory.

Brock? Years of repressing his latent homosexuality have turned him into a self-hating gay man, seeking to fulfill his true inner desires but yet utterly repulsed by them at the same time. His journeys with Ash and Misty is emblematic of his inner Freudian conflict. When not chasing women often pontificates about the inner blackness of his soul. Wonders why his constant pontificating turns women off.

Professor Oak? His heartwarming exterior hides his deep hatred for God's green earth and all of His creation, and he regularly abuses his position as a Pokemon professor and unofficial patriarch of Pallet Town to sate his own misanthropic impulses. Represents how illegitimate governments abuse their power and how such authorities should be overthrown by sixteen year-olds whose closest thing to being a revolutionary is that Rage Against the Machine album they keep hidden in their underwear drawer.

Gary Oak? His behavior is caused both by his latent homosexual desire for Ash and an inferiority complex brought up by his boyhood under Professor Oak's abusive gaze. Runs around with a car full of older women to compensate for the size of his genitals. Is shown kicking puppies, because as explained above anger = depth.

Team Rocket? Generic murderous thugs, because generic murderous thugs are superior to lovable comic relief.

2. I'll write a mature Pokemon story for mature writers such as myself.

Even though the tone of the anime's source material (read: game) is at a similar level, an anime for young children should be rewritten to cover mature themes for mature people such as myself. These mature themes include but are not limited to:
-Angst
-Racism
-Angst
-Sex
-Angst
-Corruption
-Angst
-Religion
-Angst
-Violence
-Angst
-Blood
-Angst
-War and/or the Military industrial complex
-Angst

And to ensure that everyone adopts my highly erudite and sophisticated world view the characters will not be able to complete a conversation/digression/order at a fast food restaurant without pontificating for three pages on the injustices of the world and how only they are enlightened enough to see what the Mareeple do not. I will also devote large amounts of text to how the world is not black and white but will depict people who hold views in opposition of mine as strawmen with Snidely Whiplash mustaches.

3. Screw you Freud. A cigar isn't just a cigar, even if it actually is a cigar.

Everyone will want to have sex with everyone, regardless of prior relationships or interactions with each other. Phoebe will want to make the beast with two backs with Misty, for example. What's that? "Phoebe has never even appeared in the anime," you say? Poppycock, we all know Misty has the jungle fever for those sweet, sweet legs...vanilla with chocolate syrup, mmm...

Uh...

Ahem...sorry about that.

The pairings most depicted in the anime will be determined by which group of shippers has the most cultlike vitriolic disdain for the uneducated mongoloids who advocate inferior pairings.

4. References galore

Characters should reference Nietzsche for no particular reason as often as possible. Pop culture references should also be included liberally because that shows you're clever, witty and "with it."

5. My work is the pinnacle of all literary creation and if you disagree you are wrong.

I have reached the highest echelons of English literature so you should be grateful that I write for crude, savage curs such as yourself. Disagreeing that I poo solid gold bricks is simply proof that you are a nincompoop, jealous of my literary ability, or both. Only those with glowing praise for my works are permitted, for such people are required to reinforce my perception of reality and my place of importance within it.

With the five points above I am sure I would create a work of Pokemon anime superior to the banal drudgery we have now. Satoshi Tajiri should be ringing me up any day now.

 

[SudovVoOdO]

First of all,... then

-Don't let team rocket show up in every episode
-More Battles less fillers
-Capture more pokémon
-Delete Pikachu,
-Make it a bit mature, more BLOOD!!!

pokémon animé is doomed, we cannot change it!!!!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Hm, everyone will probably kill me for this, but if I were to re-write the anime, I would still keep Jessie, James, and Meowth as themselves. I guess the thing is I'm used to watching animes and shows with really serious and very driven antagonists (which I still like too), but once in a while I would like to see silly ones just for laughs. XD However, I would also probably have another TR group but they're more serious and probably will go greater lengths to capture Pokemon and other stuff.

JJ&M by themselves are perfect, and why mess with perfection? We just need more representation of what TR is really capable of. We've had so many great agents for that, like Domino, IMM, Bashou and Buson, etc, but they're far and few between. And we haven't had a new Rocket introduced since the two in the HoSos (Viper and the girl at the burger shop).

And Ledian_X, you *do* know that "G-Man" is a real-world term, right? It stands for "government man".

 

[Ledian_X]

Yep. I know. I was a Poli Sci major. I'm just saying the term would be called something else in my reimagining of the anime. Which, btw would definitly include more of the baddies from the HoSos, movies etc. Some of them had more depth that Yippie, Yappy and Yahooie over here (JJ and M.)

The guy in your avatar needed to show up more and be more badass than anything. Though, you would be happy that I'd keep Jirudan (sp?) an his flying machine the same. Dude was great as is. Just OCD.

LX

Edit: Now that I thought about it, rotating cast or each region would be great. Know what would acctually would be good? Admitting the characters age! I mean my god! They still say Ashy boy's 10 when it's been years since Kanto. Still, a ten yr old leaving home like that isn't really credible.

Edit 2: Bay, we won't kill ya. Just put you into hiding. But, never kill ya. *shifts eyes*

 

[Pkmn Breeder Jack]

Um, I wouldn't ever try to rewrite it, but, hypothetically, if I did, I would most certainly cut out a lot of pointless stuff in it. There are so many episodes dedicated to introducing just one new pokemon, which gets the story no where.

Ash would definitely mature, so he'd be like, sixteen in Sinnoh.

I would actually keep James, Jessie, and Meowth the same, but make TR much more violent and sinister. ANd there'd be more team Rocket agents than just the dork trio. Yeah, they'd be comic relief, like the group from the evil power that doesn't do squat right. XD

And uh, Brock would be in college, getting a good education(probably on pokemon breeding) and Ash would be alone with Dawn, which would seem weird, since Dawn is only ten...I guess Dawn would be older too, mostly to satisfy shippers.

I dunno, I'm not going to write too much on this subject, because I really can't stand the anime, and part of me thinks it's beyond saving.


Jack ;466;

 

[The Admiral]

How would I rewrite the Pokemon anime?

Well, after spelunking fanfiction.net for as long as my sanity would allow (read: 45 minutes) I have learned the way to rewrite the anime in a way that would apparently appeal to the vast majority of fanfic writers.

I present to you:

<snip>​

You know, after reading that, I had an urge to do that just for the sake of pointing and laughing at everyone. That's going on my list of things to do right after re-writing Moonlight Lady for a less mature audience. *snrk*

In all seriousness, I'd make it a little darker, but:

1. Not right away; progress as Ash gets older to more dark themes with increasing number of multi-parters later in each series.
2. Not too much, stay at about a T/PG-13 rating tops.

I'd try to balance between the evil angsty emo **** and comedy, somewhere between those two, that way it can be something that is not exclusively for older audiences (since, how many more eighteen-year-olds do you expect to be interested in Pokemon than ten-year-olds?), but not completely for young audiences. By staying here it does tend to avoid cliches to ann extent, as well.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

Hmmm... Well, first of all, I'd make it more serious, like in the games.

As in, Pokemon can do more to humans with their attacks that comically blasting them away. If legendary Pokemon have power over things like space and time, it's logical that normal ones would be dangerous to humans as well. Flames burn. Bolts fry. Compressed shots of water hurt. Poison poisons. Everything can kill.

For the characters... Well, Ash's start is ok. The problem is, that he doesn't grow at all in the whole series. He doesn't have a minimum of character build, like most of the characters in the series, sadly. I would make him learn something from every encounter, and not just that 'Pokemon are your friends!'.

Team Rocket Trio... Well, here they are. The only characters in the whole series to have a build. As in a sad past, a realistic personality, inner conflicts... Team Rocket has the potential to become everything. They're characters that can be shaped in all the three different directions of main characters: Heroes, Villains, Anti-Heroes. It's a damn shame and it makes me sick that they're a joke of a joke, when they could have been shaped into much more.

 

[.Mari.]

Well... there are some things I'd add and get rid of. Firstly, I would've sticked with the original cast so that the voices don't just change instantly. Of course as they grow older they are going to experience change depth in the voice, so I'd probably have the cast have their voices either deeper or higher, depending on the character.

Something I've always been bothered with on the show is that Ash and Co apparently always have everything with them. Brock has a nicely large-sized backpack that carries equipment such as feeding bowls or the Pokemon. Plus he also has a sleeping bag connected to the backpack. What I don't get is how he has all these pots and pans with him. I'm pretty sure that all of it wouldn't fit into his backpack. And then there's Misty's backpack. It isn't rather huge, but it could possibly fit a sleep bag inside (maybe a small one). But last I remembered, she also carries her pokeballs inside, too. And this is the same problem with Ash. His backpack is just too small to fit a sleeping bag and all the other junk his mom packed him. I'd changed something about that, just not quite sure what exactly.

Other than that, I like the anime as it is. Although I do think they should commonly give the dates of the years and months so we can get a good idea of when someone will be growing another year older, or if it's summer or spring. The area doesn't always explain the season and time.

 

[.Bright Side.]

I'd have the characters have personality.