Pokemon: Indigo League (1997-99): Season Review

It might be embarrassing for me to admit it, but when the first season of the Pokémon anime was made available to stream on Netflix, I started to binge-watch the show. That’s because when I was younger, I was a big fan of the Pokémon franchise. I owned a lot of the video games, including some of the main handheld games like ‘Pokémon: Yellow’ and ‘Pokémon: Silver’ as well as a few of the spin-off games for home consoles like ‘Pokémon: Stadium’ and ‘Pokémon Snap’. But you see, this has been a franchise that I started to grow out of as I got older and one of the main reasons why I did was because the franchise continuously expanded with new worlds and new Pokémon species that were introduced with almost every new main game in the series; in other words, the series was basically starting to be a bit overcomplicated. Right now, there are about 719 kinds of Pokémon in this franchise split across six separate regions of the world of Pokémon… and I’m sorry but once you go past the Johto era of the series, that’s where it loses me. In that sense, I guess you can call me an ‘old-timer’ when it comes to the series because my favorite Pokémon games were the ones before the Hoenn era and being that I was born in 1995 that means that I was there when the series first made its debut here in the U.S (just a year later in 1996). So yes, I prefer the original Pokémon to their newer brethren. Now for the record, I still like playing the video games from time to time, but I guess at this point I’m more of a casual fan of the series. But even with that said, today I’ll be looking at the first season of the Pokémon anime, more commonly known as ‘Pokémon: Indigo League’.

(Note: This first season consists of 82 episodes, starting with ‘I Choose You, Pikachu’ and ending with ‘Friends to the End’. There are additional episodes of the following season that are currently streaming on Netflix, but for now I’ll stick to the first 82 episodes.)

In a world that is full of creatures known as Pokémon, 10-year old Ash Ketchum dreams of becoming the world’s greatest Pokémon Trainer. However, on the day that he is set to leave home (and for the record yes, most Pokémon trainers are supposed to leave home at that age… that’s how it works in this franchise) to go out on his Pokémon journey across the Kanto region, he ends up oversleeping and as a result, all of the regular Starter Pokémon that the local Professor, Professor Oak, provides to new trainers have already been taken. So instead, Ash ends up with a Pikachu as his first Pokémon. At first, the two have a difficult time getting along but soon they become inseparable as they travel across Kanto battling trainers, dealing with the criminal Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth, and coming across new Pokémon as Ash yearns to acquire eight badges from the local Pokémon Gyms in order for him to enter the Pokémon League Tournament. Along the way, Ash and Pikachu befriend two of the region’s Gym Trainers who end up joining him on his journey; Brock, the Gym Leader in Pewter City who looks to become the world’s best Pokémon breeder, and Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader who joins Ash on his journey after an incident in which Ash and Pikachu accidentally destroyed her bike when they borrowed it.

Folks, let’s be honest… this show is kind of stupid. I mean, even when I was a kid, I think I remember that even back then I thought that the show was a bit too goofy at times. Looking at it now, it’s kind of even goofier than I remembered. This show can be very corny at times, with a lot of bad Pokémon-related puns being said in almost every episode. Heck, some of these puns were even used in some of the episode titles (e.g. ‘Lights, Camera, Quack-tion’… get it?). Plus, this show is full of odd moments, whether it’s due to an animation error or just an act of pure stupidity committed by one of the characters (I’ll be covering these moments in more detail in the second part of this review). But probably the biggest problem with the show is that it is very, very repetitive. I mean pretty much every episode has the same general plot-points; Ash and friends come across a new Pokémon, which is usually accompanied by its Trainer, and they befriend this new ‘Trainer of the Week’ as they learn more about the ‘Pokémon of the Week’. Then, Team Rocket comes in attempting to kidnap Pikachu (after reciting their motto of course which they do… every… single… time!), or sometimes the ‘Pokémon of the Week’. Ash and his friends then defeat them, and they blast off into the sunset and the episode ends with the group continuing on their journey ‘having learned a new lesson about the world Pokémon’; rinse, wash, repeat. Really, I’m just amazed at how long they were able to stretch out this series, which now stands at more than 800 episodes, and yet have pretty much every episode play out the exact same way. It’s so repetitive that I don’t even feel like the characters mature at all during the show, and that’s not including the fact that they’re seemingly staying the same age a la ‘The Simpsons’.

While the main characters themselves are likable enough that you do want to follow them on their journey, they’re not the most ‘developed’ characters in the world and quite frankly each member of the main trio has their own unique major flaw. Ash may be an optimistic kid who doesn’t want to quit, but most of the time he does come off as a bit too headstrong and at times a little arrogant, acting before he thinks things through. Misty can be very sweet, but is easily prone to getting angry, especially at Ash. Brock probably is the most mature of the three, but he’s also notably always trying to hit on nearly every girl they come across; usually one of the many Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys that inhabit every town… though I will say that this is actually one of my favorite parts of the whole series because I just find it funny how Brock is always trying just a bit too hard to try and score with a girl. As for the Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth… boy, where do we begin with those three? I mean, they’ve been in nearly every episode since Episode 2, ‘Pokémon Emergency’, and yet continuously fail in their many, many attempts to capture Pikachu. They’ve even used some shock-proof equipment which you think they would use all the time… but no, there have been some instances where they use this kind of equipment but then they don’t use it the following episode(s) and even then sometimes this equipment ends up backfiring on them. I mean after all this time you’d think they would’ve learned from their mistakes (or quite possibly have given up after failing so many times) but NOPE!!!

So despite all that I’ve just said, why then do I still like this show even though I feel that it’s incredibly repetitive. Well, even with that in mind I still found the show to be pretty entertaining. For one thing, the show actually has a bit of an advantage over the video games because the Pokémon battles are more engaging in the anime than they are in the actual games themselves, especially when considering what the video games themselves were like at the time the show first aired. Because you see, in the old days, the battles in the video games were much more static as it was really just the two Pokémon staying in a single position facing each other and just attacking their opponents from that position without moving whatsoever… which let’s be honest kind of gets boring after a while. That’s not the case with the battles in the anime; the Pokémon move around much more which I do find to be much more exciting as they really do a better job of pulling you into the action on-screen. Plus, nowadays I really get a kick out of all of the cornier/stupid elements of the show, whether it’s Brock’s repeated attempts at trying to woo girls or Team Rocket’s inability to give up their sort of hopeless mission of capturing Pikachu. I mean, this show is just silly and it at least seems like the creators of the show aren’t trying to take things so seriously. So overall, ‘Pokémon’ is just a fun little show that may not be the smartest cartoon out there but it is still fairly enjoyable to watch and nowadays its first season can definitely serve as a key piece of nostalgia for anyone who grew up with the series like I did.

Rating: If mostly for Entertainment Value: 3.5/5

Check back Tomorrow for Part 2 in which I look at some of the strangest moments in the anime.