POKÉMON ANIME REVIEW: THE ORANGE ISLANDS

This is our second and final part of our review of the Orange Islands arc from the Pokémon anime. Now that we've watched all the episodes, it's time for us to put together our thoughts on this arc as a whole.

• Part 1
• Part 2

Back when this arc was first airing, we can see how it would have been disappointing for the fans at the time. Is this just how the Pokémon anime is going to be from now on? Is Brock never going to be back? Are they just going to waste time here and there until the show is cancelled?

Watching it so many years later, knowing what is going to happen later in the show, knowing that this arc is pretty short and that Brock will be back, and knowing what a filler season is and why this is a filler season... it's not actually that bad. It's got good characters, good moments, good pacing, and even character development.

And for all our angst about losing Brock... We actually like Tracey. We've heard people say that he has no personality, but we don't think that's true. He's just a nice and polite person who tends not to make ripples. That is still a personality, even if it's not loud. As a Pokémon Watcher, he's generally in the background, observing, and that's an interesting role as well. On occasion, he gets impassioned about what he believes in, and he's optimistic about what discoveries the future will hold. And it's cute that he's an artist.

We also like his design. He's... wide. A big boy. But not the token fat character. It's a body type rarely seen in anime. We can't think of another character like him, actually.

It is true that Tracey doesn't get a lot of focus episodes, but even when he is not in the spotlight, we think his presence does good to the dynamic of the main cast throughout the whole arc. Don't get us wrong, we love Brock, but his boner antics coupled with Ash's boneheadness mean that Misty never gets a break, and with the two of them she's more usually in the role of constantly scolding everyone, which keeps other aspects of her character from getting a chance to shine. But Tracey is almost always an ally and a friend to Misty, and he has a mellowing effect on Ash, which means that, during this arc, Misty seems less stressed out overall and has fewer opportunities to snap out at Ash. In this arc, whenever Ash does something foolish, Misty says so openly, and Tracey says so in a subtle and polite way, which neither invalidates Ash nor Misty. For example, the scene where Ash decides he's going to bank on beginner luck in the tournament.

1. Misty

   But you never used Tauros in a match.

2. Ash

   Yeah, I know. But when I used Krabby for the first time in the Pokémon League, I won. I know Tauros will try really hard. Maybe I can win again!

3. Tracey

   The beginner’s luck factor might work.

4. Ash

   Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for.

We don't think Tracey really agrees with Ash's strategy, but he tries to see it in the most positive light he can. He's willing to acknowledge that beginner luck is a factor that might work. He's so non-judgmental. And he doesn't put Ash down in the process. He also treats Ash like a peer, rather than as a mentee. We love Brock in his earliest form, when he was often a mentor for Ash, but at this point in Ash's journey, maybe he has more need for a peer.

In contrast with Misty, Tracey's personality is such that he never says anything harshly. Sometimes they even agree, but say the same thing in different ways:

1. Tracey

   This place is supposed to have great hotels and beautiful beaches and natural hot springs!

2. Misty

   Yeah, so even if Ash loses and acts like a baby...

3. Both

   At least we’ll be in a nice place.

4. Ash

   What do you mean, if Ash loses? Just once, can’t you guys have a little confidence in me?

5. Tracey

   Uh, sure, Ash.

6. Misty

   In fact, we have as little confidence in you as possible.

Tracey responds with a yes, even though his face says many other things. Misty outright sasses. But they're in complete agreement about going to the hot springs together.

It's also pleasant to have a character who has Pokémon, but is not a Trainer. Tracey's Pokémon are for assistance with Pokémon Watching. In fact, we wish this season had been a little longer to allow for more exploration of what it means to be a Pokémon Watcher and how does Tracey relate to his Pokémon.

Especially the old Scyther. While Tracey has Venonat for its radar powers, and Marill for its superb hearing, the Scyther was caught as a result of circumstances, and it is an old battler. It has that barely-introduced rivalry with Charizard, and longs for battle and glorious death. Would this be a source of conflict between Tracey and Scyther? It's also interesting that this Scyther is old, and it has had a whole life before meeting Tracey. How will this impact their relationship? Unfortunately, this might have been the subject of episodes that never happened, and these topics are left now for the fandom to think about.

The Orange Islands arc puts a lot of emphasis as Pokémon as individuals. Beyond the old Scyther, there's also the Crystal Onix, the pink Pokémon of Pinkan Island, the Orange Island Butterfrees that have different markings... In a way, this is the first exploration of regional variations for Pokémon. And, regardless of the reception of the arc in itself, lots of concepts introduced in the Orange Island arc would be highly influential in the fandom, and some of them would even be later explored further in canon.

And let's talk a little more about Lapras. In the Generation I Pokémon games, riding on the back of your Pokémon through the ocean is an iconic part of the game. But in the anime portrayal of Kanto, this doesn't happen. Kanto in the anime is for some reason portrayed as a series of badlands full of rocks and dust devils. But in the Orange Islands arc, the twerps are traveling through an archipelago, so it's all about riding on the back of Lapras from island to island. This creates a nice key visual for this arc, and anchors the anime series closer to one of the core concepts of the Pokémon games, Lapras being one of the earliest designs, and riding on Lapras being one of the earliest proposed gameplay mechanics. We get a sense that the fandom appreciation for Lapras increased after it was so featured in the Orange Islands arc.

As for what concerns the other human characters... We were also happy to see that in this arc, Misty gets some rare positive spotlight. We get to see who she is outside of when she's yelling at Ash. This didn't really get to happen before, for the reasons that we previously explained... and, unfortunately, won't really happen again. Once Brock is back in the party, the dynamic reverts to her yanking Brock's ear and being exasperated at Ash.

You know what, it's good to have characters that don't have conflict between each other. It's not boring! It's good! It's refreshing! We're tired of endless "quirky" bickering!

We'd heard people say at the time that Team Rocket got de-emphasized during this arc. It is true, but as time goes on, it will get much worse. So, in retrospect, watching a waning Team Rocket that is still at 90% capacity winds up being pleasant to watch. During the Orange Islands arc, Jessie, James, and Meowth still have some great moments. We agree that in Kanto they were more often more critical to the plot, but at least in this arc they may still have some of the most memorable moments of the episode. We mean, this is the season of the wedding disguises and of the "make like a tree and leaf" exchange, and the ever more creative hole traps. Later in the arc, they seem to get obsessed with mechas, which is weird, and also a sign of things to come.

And last but not least, Ash. At the start of this arc, Ash returns from the Indigo League, and even though he lost miserably, he's managed to build up an ego over making it to the top sixteen. Not the bronze medal, not the quarterfinals, not even in the top ten, the top sixteen. There's not even a name for this rank, but Ash brags about it like it's the greatest honor.

More typically, a story tackling the aftermath of such a humiliating defeat has the main character lose confidence and spend ages angsting over their loss, and needing to learn that this loss does not define them and that they can recover from it. But not here. Ash instead copes with his defeat by refusing to acknowledge his own mistakes, and seeing it as nothing but a victory. Narratively, this is very interesting. Ash's optimism is one of his key strengths, but here, in this arc, it distorts into a flaw which hinders his growth. By ignoring his role in his defeat, he is not able to learn from it.

Because, if Ash thought about it, he'd have to consider, why did he lose? He lost because he never acknowledged that things changed when Charmander evolved, and he never bothered to confront the fact that Charizard does not respect him any more. He didn't put any serious effort into regaining Charizard's respect, and instead just kept ignoring the issue and expecting it would solve itself. Even when this issue festers to the point of directly causing his Indigo Plateau defeat, Ash continues to ignore it, and instead builds an ego about his top sixteen placement and does not even think about why he lost.

It is not until Ash meets Prima that he is forced to finally think about this. Prima points out to Ash that he has nothing to brag about, because the only reason he made it so far during the tournament was because his Pokémon love and respect him and were willing to give their all for his sake. And he lost once everything depended on Charizard, who was unwilling to give its all for Ash's sake.

And in turn, Charizard's problem is that when it became stronger, it got an ego, mirroring Ash's own flaw. Charizard and Ash have the same arc. Ash realizes that he is not strong in himself, but rather that he must rely on his Pokémon. In turn, Charizard realizes that it is not strong in itself, but rather that it must rely on Ash.

The writing here is really great, actually. All of this is great character development that Ash had not had before, and that he will rarely have ever again.

However, we do wish that it would have gone there a little harder. One thing that muddles the point is that for the majority of this arc, Ash succeeds at just about everything he does. He wins all the Gym Leader battles, legitimately, on the first try.

So, Ash is winning, but he still hasn't addressed the situation with Charizard or his top sixteen ego. It would have been a really interesting wrinkle for Ash's victories to also be an obstacle to his growth. Because he thinks he's good, and look, he's good? What need does he have to change anything?

It is neat that Ash being out of balance does not necessarily result in constant defeat. Ash needs to confront his problems even while things are going well, but he doesn't. And we wish that the narrative embraced this and pointed this out in some way. Ash never has even one moment where he thinks about how things are going great, but... Ash's dream is to be a Pokémon Master, the best there ever was. Is he really content with being in the top sixteen without striving to improve any further? And he could realize that he could be both good and need improvement.

Unfortunately, the contradiction is never incorporated into the narrative. His victories in the Orange Islands and his ego problems are treated as completely separate, while they could have been two pieces of the same overarching plot.

We don't think the writers saw this connection, and instead, Ash is just winning here because the writers decided that he needed to win. We can understand that this decision was probably to counterbalance Ash's humiliating defeat at the Indigo Plateau, so that the audience can still respect him as a skilled and capable Trainer. And the filler arc provides a good opportunity to let Ash win without it mattering too much.

The writers even did set compelling challenges for Ash, but then handwaved how exactly did he manage to overcome them. For example, in the race against Danny, we saw Ash go completely off course and get lost in the woods, but then he appeared out of nowhere and won, with no explanation. In the double battle against Luana, it seems unlikely that she wouldn't have won while Charizard and Pikachu were bickering, but their spat magically solved itself just in time for Ash to win. It seems like, in this season, Ash only wins because that's what has been decided - the phenomenon that we have been describing as "main character powers".

The resolution with Charizard is also just as handwaved. It happens all at once, with no build-up, and no satisfying motive. Charizard refused to listen to Ash, which led to it getting frozen solid, but this event has no thematic relevance to their issue. It just so happened that, at this time, Charizard reflected on its relationship with Ash, and remembered how Ash had saved its life as a Charmander. And while the parallels of the situation kinda force Charizard to notice, why was this ever forgotten? It almost makes us wonder if Pokémon evolution causes memory loss. If not, why is this the moment that Charizard comes to this revelation, and why didn't it come to this revelation at any other moment? We've had fifty episodes of conflict, and the resolution comes randomly and all at once, with a handwave.

And once Charizard chills, it becomes irrelevant. Ash lost the Indigo Plateau tournament because of Charizard's lack of respect, but it's not like he wins the Orange League because of Charizard's restored respect. What a missed opportunity! And, shortly after, Charizard dumps Ash to pursue dragon ass, so there's really no payoff after all this agony.

Another frustrating thing is that, at the end of the arc, it's like Ash's character development never happened. He returns to Pallet Town, and he's back to ranting about the top sixteen and generally being an immature embarrassment during his battle with Gary.

We really don't understand why the writers felt the need to undo the entire Orange Island arc like that. Yes, it was a filler season, but as long as they did not cause any conflicts with what would happen in Johto - and they didn't - there was no reason to give Ash a factory-reset like that. Even if Ash retained his lessons from the Orange Islands, he would still have plenty to learn and more adventures to have in Johto.

We can only assume that the people in charge were afraid to further Ash's character and bring the story one smidge closer to completion, so they acted as if all the previous adventures had no impact going forward, and Ash is an immature rookie just like he always was, so that he can have his adventures in Johto, and then act like those never happened, so that he can go to Hoenn...

But, all in all, the Orange Island arc was not as bad as we feared. In fact, we went in expecting trash, and then kinda came out of it as its defenders.