Anime Articles: Study of the Show (Part 1 - Pokemon Showcases)

Welcome to a feature I'll do on this Pokemon blog that focuses on the anime. Ever since I caught up with the anime and got into Pokemon XY, I have been enjoying the character developments. In this feature, we'll look at parts of the anime and examine them in comparison to the games themselves and previous seasons. For our premiere article, let's get into something that is supposedly an anime invention and doesn't appear in the games, sort of like the Orange Island gyms(which may change with Sun and Moon's Island Challenge)... Pokemon Showcases and Pokemon Performers.

Actually, this anime convention was inspired by the Pokemon Public Relation Videos in the games - in the games, your hero can visit the Pokemon PR Studio in Lumiose City and create a Pokemon video where your character and one of his Pokemon can act in a sort of viral video which you can share with other players of Pokemon X or Y. This led to the Pokevision concept in the anime, and that led to the whole Showcase thing.

I cut this from a video. Do not sue me.

Shauna explains to Serena about how Showcases work, and it seems suspiciously familiar...

WRONG

Oh yeah, the Pokemon Contests from the third generation! But in the anime, Pokemon contests worked differently - you had to use your own Pokemon for both rounds. Still, the idea fits - in round one, you do a theme skit showing yourself off, and in the second round your Pokemon does a performance of its own. Serena learns that Showcases DO NOT HAVE BATTLING IN THEM!

CORRECT

Just like the contests in the games, there is no battling allowed... which is 180 from how the anime handles Pokemon contests. Yeah, the writers decided to make the Coordinators battle each other, which is really stupid as Pokemon contests are supposed to show style and grace, not battle skill. I don't give a Fennekin's flying feces if they say that the battles are conducted with grace, the anime Pokemon contests are still mainly battle tournaments with a showcase round to winnow the contestants to four semi-finalists who beat each other up... WITH STYLE! X(

I totally understand that, at the time when May and Dawn were running about doing contest training, the writers had no "funky freshly" clue how to portray Pokemon Contests, and it could have gotten much worse, but let's face it, if they wanted to portray Pokemon contests in the anime, they should have take a cue card from the Pokemon Showcases Serena participates in. I mean, Pokepuffs are a anime knock-off of Poke-block and Pokepuffs are essential to Pokemon-Amie, which is bound to make a return in Sun and Moon. So please, don't tell me to go suck an egg. It's my opinion and if you want, you can comment down below about it.

After all, Pokevision is just the Pokemon world's version of Youtube... which means lots of disgusting filthy viral videos about Pokemon that would make a grown man cry. :p