Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Don’t be fooled by the convoluted title — Pokemon Master Journeys: The Series is simply a continuation of the Pokemon TV series that’s been running for more than two decades, numbering well over 1,100 episodes. It’s the 24th season, which will be released in three episode batches on Netflix, he said, spewing a few basic facts while he tries to wrap his arms around a sprawling multimedia franchise likely to bewilder lesser mortals. But one must remember that one cannot catch ’em all in one sitting, so one should just focus on the task at hand and assess the latest adventures of Pikachu and whatsisname, as they cavort with their human and Pokemon friends and thwart the schemes of their jerktastic rivals.
POKEMON MASTER JOURNEYS: THE SERIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: We see Pokemon trainer Ash and his buddy-for-life Pikachu in profile in the foreground as they’re flanked by whooshing blue effects and the faces of other various and sundry characters. A narrator informs us that Ash’s big goal is to battle one of the world’s greatest Pokemon trainers, establishing the highly dramatic arc of this season, one assumes.
The Gist: The setting: a huge laboratory that’s also a school on a sprawling campus in (checks Wikipedia) Kuchiba City. A moronically adorable Pokemon known as (turns on subtitles) an Eevee dithers and diddlefarts about, falling in love with a passing (consults online Pokemon directory) Slyveon, an evolved, fairy version of the Eevee. Some researchers corral our Eevee protagonist and use multiple methods to get it to evolve, but no dice. “Perplexing,” one lab-coated person says.
Meanwhile, Goh (voice of Zeno Robinson) and Chloe (Cherami Leigh) walk to class. They discuss how Chloe has yet to catch a Pokemon pal for life. Goh drops his own Pokemon slav- er, buddy, Sobble, in the park, but it cries and it makes all the other Pokemon within earshot cry, even that Psyduck there and the Jigglypuff over yonder. Just outside the hedge surrounding campus, the total jerkwads from Team Rocket — Jessie (Michele Knotz) and James (James Carter Cathcart) and their Pokemon Meowth and Wobbufet concoct a scheme to dress up as students to steal some Pokemon. That Team Rocket. Always with the underhanded, conniving horsecrap.
The Eevee escapes from the lab, prompting a couple of assistants to search for it. The Eevee meets a Yamper and they sniff each other’s butts before they play together. Team Rocket snatches a bunch of Pokemon in a net thingy, and Ash and Pikachu try to stop them but fall into a pit trap the sniveling jerkfaces set for them. The Eevee and the Yamper team up to take out Team Rocket while Pikachu frees himself from the pit and releases the trapped Pokemon. Chloe and Eevee bond, and the Pokemon allows itself to become her pit-fighting servan- er, BFF for life, letting her trap it in a tiny ball, which seems really claustrophobic, but hey, you do you, Eevee. Everybody’s happy now. Hooray.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? I dunno, probably something I hallucinated after that one time I took Dayquil after drinking six cups of coffee.
Our Take: The debut episode of Pokemon Master Journeys: The Series (not to be confused with Pokemon Journeys: The Series, Pokemon Masters: The Journey or Pokemon Series: The Journey Masters of the Master Journey Series, two of which I may have just made up) delves profoundly into the human-Pokemon dynamic. I joke about it being a dictatorial master-slave relationship, but it actually appears to be more symbiotic, each player fulfilling emotional, social and pragmatic needs for the other. It’s quite beautiful to the casual observer, as I imagine it is for Pokebiologists studying this elegant and complex dynamic on a deeper level.
Even though Chloe seemed to bond with the first Pokemon she tripped over in order to contain this story within 21 minutes, their meeting surely functions on a subconscious molecular level that we just don’t understand, Destiny reading from its endless tome of reality and rendering this joining of souls an inevitability. Surely Team Rocket understands the way trainer-Pokemon bonds function, but cannot fulfill for themselves due to the corrupt nature of their collective psyche. Their extreme selfishness is surely the great irony preventing them from living complete lives with their would-be animal soulmates. Hence, why they target Ash and Pikachu so frequently — the inimitable duo is the purest archetype of human-Pokemon symbiosis.
Such a glimpse into the human condition — via an exquisitely convoluted conceptual metaphor — is precisely why people watch Pokemon cartoons. Surely it’s not just to watch weird cute made-up animals coo and fart around, and to get hyped up to purchase playing cards, stuffies and video games. The idea of the simple pleasure is never so simple to the more discriminating eye.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Chloe and Eevee stare into each other’s eyes, master and servant for all eternity.
Sleeper Star: I highly anticipate hearing the tantalizing siren song of Jigglypuff — here but a bit background player — in a future episode.
Most Pilot-y Line: (Turns on closed captions) “[grunting continues]”
Our Call: If you’re watching the 24th season of Pokemon, you’re likely in the in-for-a-penny-in-for-100-million-pounds group. Those people are gonna STREAM IT while the rest of us pontificate about how our own favorite multimedia franchise is clearly the superior consumer product.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.
