Featuring a simplistic plot that's well-known to anyone who's played any of the Pokémon games, Pokémon Origins is a wonderful example of the journey transcending than the destination. Red starts with a Pokémon from Professor Oak and beats all 8 Pokémon Gyms, defeating the criminal organization of Team Rocket along the way. Afterward, he moves onto the Pokémon League, defeating the Elite Four, Champion Lance, and finally his rival, Gary MFing Oak Green. All throughout his journey, Red learns the lesson of friendship and respect, that caring for Pokémon is more important than the power they give you, the moral that all Pokémon games strive to impart.
What makes the anime enjoyable isn't this overarching plot, but the characters themselves, and the little bits of the world that it shares with the audience. At 80 minutes long, the special doesn't even tell most of the story, leaving out all but 2 of the gym battles and glossing over most of the time Red spends on his journey. And yet these four "episodes" manage to inject just the right type and amount of personality into Red and Green.
Red is finally broken from being a simple silent protagonist, but is neither gimmicky nor an Ash clone. Much of his personality and growth of character happens in the first episode, but even in later episodes you can see him mature more, particularly in his trust of his Pokémon and his relationship with Green. Green is arrogant, but not a jerk, and you see his maturation too as he grows to work together with Red, but still retains his pride and his spirit. Even Oak, Mr. Fuji, and other minor characters are handled well. I was particularly impression with the show's handling of Giovanni, making him into a much more realistic and sympathetic character than his game and TV-show counterparts.
In additional to the characters, Pokémon Origins also does a great job at carefully choosing which parts of the game they want to share, and which are glossed over. The world is very carefully introduced in the beginning episode which follows Ash all the way through his first Gym Battle, and various scenes are brought to life, such as Brock carefully choosing his Pokémon based on Red's experience level. The scenes in Lavender Town are particularly remarkable, capturing the eerie melancholy of the Pokémon Tower, and presenting the story of Cubone and Marowak in a particularly heartwrenching manner. In between the various detailed bits of plot, we see Red capturing Pokémon to complete the Pokédex, and battling various trainers and Gym Leaders.
Pokémon Origins is very short, which in some ways is disappointing, but it also keeps the story flowing and focuses on what it wants to show you, avoiding the pitfalls of the original anime that showcases every little detail (and is several hundred episodes long at this point). As much as I would have loved to have at least a cameo of all 151, we don't even get that, but the show has to draw the line somewhere.
In any event, Pokémon Origins impressed me a lot more than I thought it would. It was a legitimately fun show, with good pacing and characterization for such a short special, and was definitely more than just pandering to an older fan base. I'd like to hope that this is a sign of Pokémon recognizing and catering to its older fans more than it has, but even if it's just a one-off, it was a fun ride.
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