Nidoran Returns the Animated Spotlight for the First Time in 21 Years, Ends Up Being a Monkey's Paw
Well, this was unexpected, but certainly welcome (even if begrudgingly, I'll get to that)! The first Nidoran centric animation since Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon, as far as I can tell. I’d argue Nido-overall since in the rest, they were footnotes, including The Heartbreak of Brock.
Anyway, it’s entirely in Japanese, but the story’s easy to follow, very cute, and wonderfully animated. Pokemon fans and Nido fans’ll enjoy, or at the least appreciate it. If you’ve got some free time, give it a watch and the vid another view so that maybe Game Freak will consider that perhaps the Nido line has some value.
My feelings on it, which’ll definitely differ from 99.9% of everyone else, is that considering I don’t really like the Pokemon franchise enough anyway, when all I care about is the monsters at best, I feel kinda salty on how expressive everything other than the Pokemon are. And for Nidoran I’d argue it’s worse than "Wherefore", at least both Nidoran were allowed to emote at all back then. Aside from a Charizard's old-and-tired face, the mandates are in such strict effect that I can’t get invested, especially since I’ve long stopped caring about Pokemon trainers (as a comic like Dumb Big Sister would prove). The story and the girl are adorable and well animated, but I just don’t relate to doing the trainer shtick anymore and haven’t for years. However, to its credit, it IS a Nido centric animation, so I still have to give it its due there if nothing else.
There's one other thing I'd like to note that I do really appreciate. If you've read Dumb Big Sister, namely the comic TRAINER, you'll pick up on the fact that I have some ethical concerns over the idea of a human ripping a Pokemon away from their family members just so they can win a trophy. Fabulous priorities. The anime largely surpasses this and has for years by showing that its typically the Pokemon's choice in the matter, which is different from the games (and I suppose has to be, gameplay and story segregation and all that, but it leaves way too much up to interpretation, and statistically speaking, most captured Pokemon probably ARE abducted if you get right down to just plain stating what it is). However, I've never seen family members OF that Pokemon give consent to let their own kin go off on their own, up until this short, and that I fully appreciate. Maybe it's happened before, but to me it feels like breaking some new ground, and I'm so much more okay with it being this way. "It's a video game, you're overthinking it", sure, but it's also a series full of sapient creatures, so I can't help but have reservations about the conceit of the entire franchise...
Those are my thoughts about it. I suppose this comes with being hyper fixated on a Pokemon line, I’m surely missing the forest for the trees, here. Then again, TPC’s net worth proves they aren’t missing my not being all that invested, so I feel like it’s pretty much mutual.
Anyway, speaking of comics, still working away on She's One of a Kind, Kine, I haven't abandoned ye!