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Pokemon Evolutions: Series of shorts

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
As someone with a narcissistic and emotionally abusive mother, it meant so much to me when GameFreak tackled that theme in the Sun and Moon games. When I realized that the anime was clearly going to cower out of showing off Lusamine's abusive side, I was done. That was the perfect opportunity for the writers to touch on some heavier themes, especially when considering that children are the main victims of this form of abuse. No, the show didn't have to be pure darkness and depression, but it would be so nice if they had the courage to show some of the harder parts of being a child. A lack of autonomy for example, especially for someone like Lillie who lacks the strength and independence of a trainer. Instead, the SM anime chose for Lusamine to be a workaholic, Lillie to be afraid of Pokemon, and for Gladion to be edgy for *reasons*.

I genuinely enjoyed this 8 minute short more than the entirety of the Sun and Moon anime. My only gripes are how short it is and that they did not do the OG Lusamine/Nihilego battle, although I understand that would be harder when considering the time constraints. I would kill for 20 minute episodes of these, even if they came out once a month or every two weeks. In fact, I'd prefer if the anime did that format. 2 high quality episodes every month instead of wasting time and energy on fillers every other week or so, but we all know that ain't gonna happen anytime soon. I know that my opinion on this subject won't be well received here but there aren't too many places to voice my thoughts. I was just so disappointed with how the anime did Lillie's character, that I just dropped SM until the league and went back and watched the Necrozma arc. It felt like GameFreak represented me, but the anime would rather go through the "rainbows and sunshine" route. Seeing the sudden tone shift from and XY to SM was jarring.
Fair enough!
I personally didn't mind the change as much coz I liked they were going with a different direction and I really loved the new take they went with Lillie and Lusamines relationship in the anime and that it was separate from the games, I love SM story in the games and I loved it in the anime too and I like they were separated but I can also understand people being disappointed they didn't get that adaptation yet.
 

pardusco

"The oppression of Poké Balls."
Fair enough!
I personally didn't mind the change as much coz I liked they were going with a different direction and I really loved the new take they went with Lillie and Lusamines relationship in the anime and that it was separate from the games, I love SM story in the games and I loved it in the anime too and I like they were separated but I can also understand people being disappointed they didn't get that adaptation yet.
I'm not gonna put down people for liking the SM anime, but it was not for me. It was so disappointing to see that direction, especially when I finished XY and expected them to continue that sort of tone into the next series. I just feel like GameFreak has recently been tackling some themes that many children can empathize with, but the main anime won't show/expand on them. Imagine Hop losing to Ash on the big screens. I'm sure tons of kids could empathize with that feeling of inadequacy in being the runner-up. Showing how Hop overcomes that and finds a new goal could be inspiring! In fact, I would have loved if they did a similar thing with Ash back when he was constantly losing leagues.

I'm not asking for a word-for-word retelling of the games, but it would be nice if they expanded on the games while adding their own writing to fill in the gaps and patch up errors. XY and the earlier series were more excusable since the games those series are based on had much less material to work with. GameFreak's writing in SwSh was quite poor, and I did not care about the characters, but Twilight Wings managed to somehow make me appreciate them! Twilight Wings didn't retell the events, it made up its own story that was able to be combined with the main events of SwSh, and touched on smaller aspects that would have been difficult to for GameFreak to properly incorporate. It added more to these characters' personalities.
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
Like I said in the other thread I thought this episode was fine for what it was. Problem was that it ended just when it was getting good.

Kind of wish they adapted the original Lusamine battle and ended with her calling Lillie beautiful after losing.
 
As someone with a narcissistic and emotionally abusive mother, it meant so much to me when GameFreak tackled that theme in the Sun and Moon games. When I realized that the anime was clearly going to cower out of showing off Lusamine's abusive side, I was done. That was the perfect opportunity for the writers to touch on some heavier themes, especially when considering that children are the main victims of this form of abuse. No, the show didn't have to be pure darkness and depression, but it would be so nice if they had the courage to show some of the harder parts of being a child. A lack of autonomy for example, especially for someone like Lillie who lacks the strength and independence of a trainer. Instead, the SM anime chose for Lusamine to be a workaholic, Lillie to be afraid of Pokemon, and for Gladion to be edgy for *reasons*.

I genuinely enjoyed this 8 minute short more than the entirety of the Sun and Moon anime. My only gripes are how short it is and that they did not do the OG Lusamine/Nihilego battle, although I understand that would be harder when considering the time constraints. I would kill for 20 minute episodes of these, even if they came out once a month or every two weeks. In fact, I'd prefer if the anime did that format. 2 high quality episodes every month instead of wasting time and energy on fillers every other week or so, but we all know that ain't gonna happen anytime soon. I know that my opinion on this subject won't be well received here but there aren't too many places to voice my thoughts. I was just so disappointed with how the anime did Lillie's character, that I just dropped SM until the league and went back and watched the Necrozma arc. It felt like GameFreak represented me, but the anime would rather go through the "rainbows and sunshine" route. Seeing the sudden tone shift from and XY to SM was jarring.
I agree with the tone shift, however, I think that Lillie’s development in the anime was done decent and tbf, I haven’t played the SM games. All of the problems with the SM anime imo had to do with Ash.
 

Jangobadass

Surprise!
It looks like Evolutions is going to suffer the same problem Generations did with assuming viewers have played or know enough about the games enough to keep up with the story...
And please tell me they ALL won't keep jumping between the present and flashbacks. Because that will get annoying quick.

Though I will give it credit for that AMAZING animation during the fight, and finally giving Lillie a better English voice.
 

Soniman

Break the Limit
Eugh that protagonist handling was very Generations-esque in the way I'm not a fan of. Voiceless, faceless, out of focus, and unacknowledged and it feels forced every single time they do it. I know this is Lillie special and in that respect it's great, even if I'm FAR less of a fan of how her arc with Lusamine is handled in USUM compared to the original. It was well animated, we'll told and the music was actually good, took Goldfarb long enough to compose something that isn't annoying background noise but hey Im proud of him.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Great episode and will probably be my favorite of this series. While I prefer SM’s story, I’ve come to appreciate USUM’s and the climax of the story is mostly fine so using the Ultra games’ canon. Lusamine is probably my second favorite antagonist behind Guzma and a main part of that is because of her character in the climax of the story.

For as much of a fan I am of SM, I feel as though the anime did a disservice to the Aether Family’s “arc” by removing some of their respective plot lines which helps sell how deeply troubled this family is. My main issue being Lillie having a fear of Pokémon being her main drive as opposed to her wanting to reason with Lusamine/save Nebby. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t see all of the build up with Lillie interacting with characters like Hau, Kukui, Burnet, Hala, Olivia, Hapu, and Acerola as those were the moments that made her telling off Lusamine in Ultra Deep Sea satisfying. I also usually don’t mind when Ash gets to interact with the Legendaries but Nebby was the one exception so it’s good to see Lillie have the main connection with it.

The other highlight of The Eclipse was seeing Necrozma and Nebby fight. It perfectly portrayed how terrifying and persistent this elderitch prism is for light. The fight was exactly how I envisioned it when playing Ultra Sun for the first time. Also usually don’t care about the MCs in these but the way Selene shows up in the end was pretty cool admittedly.
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Those Pikachu with the PCs hats were the best part of the episode for me. Hope they are released someday, somewhere. Even PoGo would be enough
Eugh that protagonist handling was very Generations-esque in the way I'm not a fan of. Voiceless, faceless, out of focus, and unacknowledged and it feels forced every single time they do it. I know this is Lillie special and in that respect it's great, even if I'm FAR less of a fan of how her arc with Lusamine is handled in USUM compared to the original. It was well animated, we'll told and the music was actually good, took Goldfarb long enough to compose something that isn't annoying background noise but hey Im proud of him.
Same here.

If they went the trouble of showing which one they are using, at least let us see her. A few lines would be enough and not take away from the Lillie focus.

Can't believe Masters is the only place where they are allowed to have characterization (I'm not counting the ones the main anime used)
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
This was light years better than the trash heap that was last episode. The battle between Necrozma and Lunala was amazing and Lillie actually sounds like how you'd imagine her to be! I was legitimately sad when it was over, I didn't want it to end. I'd have loved to see the Ultra Recon Squad and Ultra Megalopolis!
 

Kungfu-Bear

Well-Known Member
(+) Good animation overall, especially on Necrozma vs Lunala. I was expecting they'd both just shoot some lasers at each other but it was a surprisingly well choreographed fight.
(+) Selene's entrance was unnecessarily cool and I loved it
(+) Nice music when Lillie got ready to fight alongside Nebby
(+) It's nice to see a little more of the toxic relationship between Lillie and her mother than the main show
(+) It looks like we'll be getting a regional Pikachu pair in each Pokémon Evolutions episode
(+) I hope they keep showing the starters during the end credits. Idk just for fanservice I guess.

(-) Background music is still bothering me, the constant generic synthesizer noises somehow keep distracting me from the scenes, at least in the first 3 minutes. Why is there a pumping adrenaline-rising action music playing while Lillie is just standing there having an introspective moment in a calm place? There's an exception this time though as mentioned above, that OST rocked because that's when I really felt it precisely intensified the emotion and message of the particular moment.
(-) I think my problem with the music is related to the direction of the episode as well, everything is too rushed, jumping between different places and times in a less fluid way. This made the episode feel more like a trailer and less like a solid and condensed story. Things got back on track when the battle against Necrozma started.
(-) I always thought Mother Beast Lusamine version a way more interesting route than Ultra. I even thought they were going in that direction, since they established the awful relationship that Lillie had with Lusamine in the first minutes.

I didn't get the Murkrow.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I didn't get the Murkrow.
In the games, on your way to the Altar of the Sunne/Moone to summon Solgaleo/Lunala, there’s a scene where Lillie is crossing a bridge and a group of Murkrow try to stop her before she ignores them & runs across it. This is supposed to show how Lillie has grown as in the beginning of the game, she was too scared to cross a bridge that had Spearow attacking Nebby before the MC and Tapu Koko step in.
 

Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
I wish the Fully Evolved Alola Starters appeared here like the Galar ones did in the last episode

We didn't even get to see who Selene threw out... :(

Also this trend of ending the short after setting up a Huge Battle is annoying.

I'd rather just skip straight to Victor and Inteleon vs Leon and Charizard or Selene and whoever VS Ultra Necrozama instead of these setups any day of the week
 
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Shneak

this is a Nessa x Sonia stan account ✨
These are all going to end abruptly at the best parts huh?

I think the thing I appreciate most about this episode was the way Necrozma moved in battle.
 
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