Pokemon Origins: File 2 Cubone – Review and Initial Thoughts
“Red encounters a place called the Pokémon House, where he learns of a baby Cubone’s ordeal at the hands of an evil organization known as Team Rocket.” – Pokémon TV excerpt
Initial Thoughts
Getting mentally prepared for this episode, I understood that a lot of things would be skipped for the sake of telling the Pokemon Origins story. Like the first episode, I did not watch the Japanese dub version before watching the English version, no matter how tempted I was.
From the Pokémon TV excerpt, I knew this episode would primarily be about Red’s time in Lavender Town. If you remember Ash’s time in Lavender Town, it consisted of flying around as a ghost with a Gengar, Haunter and Ghastly – not exactly in sync with the video game at all. I was excited, to say the least.
Review
Pokemon Origins skips through much of the adventure after getting the Boulder Badge from the Brock at the Pewter City Gym. I really loved how they showed a montage of different key points from the adventure, though. They showed the man selling Magikarp at the Pokémon Center, the Super Nerd guarding the Fossils in Mt. Moon, Team Rocket in Cerulean City, Misty, the Fishing Guru with the Old Rod, the S.S. Anne Captain, Lt. Surge and the Chairman of the Pokémon Fan Club. It makes sense that a lot of this was skipped because it doesn’t really contribute to the main story line of the video game.
During the episode, we visit the story of Cubone and its mother, Marowak. We see Team Rocket inhumanly capturing Pokémon, as expected from such a group of ruthless thugs. Marowak tries to protect its baby Cubone. The defenseless baby Cubone then witnesses its mother perishing at the hands of such terrible goons.
Red then finds out that Team Rocket took over the Pokémon Tower and are keeping people from paying respects to their beloved Pokémon. During the aftermath, I loved how the people you see are specifically people from the video game, like the man crying for his Clefairy and the woman mourning for her Growlithe.
The scene where Cubone reunited for one last time with its mother was very touching. Honestly, a tear came to my eye when the baby Cubone ran into its mother’s arms. Pokémon has a way with dealing with sad moments – remember the when Ash was turned to stone in the first Pokémon movie? Yep, I’ll admit I tear up when I watch it.
As we all know, in the end Red ends up defeating Team Rocket in the Pokémon Tower and saves the day. Mr. Fuji then gives PokéFlute to Red, explaining that it wakes up sleeping Pokémon. He also gives him something else that never happened in the original games – a Mega Stone.
Final Thoughts
Oh man, Mr. Fuji gave Red a Mega Stone! Obviously, from previous news and screen-caps, we know it’s Charizardite X, which turns Charizard into Fire- and Dragon-type.
The way Pokémon dealt with the passing of Marowak was very tasteful and calm, just like the video games. I’m sure it’s even more tear-jerking in the Japanese version, which tends to be a little more emotional compared to English dubs.
Like I said in the review of the first Pokemon Origins episode, I will be watching the original Japanese version after completing the English version. I can’t wait to see the differences between the two.
The next episode of Pokemon Origins will release on Pokémon TV on November 20, 2013.
Watch Pokemon Origins
Pokemon Origins can be viewed on the Pokémon TV app for iOS devices and the Pokémon TV app for Android devices. If you don’t have access to a either of these types of devices, you can view it on the official Pokémon TV website.
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