Pokemon: The Origin kicks it old school, and takes us back to the days when there were only 151 Pokemon.
If I were to scream out “I want to be, the very best,” how many of you would reply “like no-one ever was”? The original Pokemon anime and videogames, back when mobile phones played snake, people wore their hats backwards, and there were only 150 (151 including Mew) of the creatures to collect is burned into the minds of many of our childhoods.
The Pokemon Company is taking advantage of that nostalgia by producing a brand new Pokemon anime, set during the first generation of Pokemon games (Red and Blue), and starring a new protagonist that’s more like the videogame’s Red than the anime’s Ash Ketchum. It’s called Pokemon: The Origin and it looks awesome.
The first official trailer for Pokemon: The Origin opens with tribute to the original Gameboy games, showing us the classic Nidorino vs. Gengar intro, complete with iconic soundtrack. It then shows us our new main character, who has chosen Charmander as his starting Pokemon. We’re also greeted by some familiar faces, such as Professor Oak, Brock, and Blue/Rival (Gary Oaks’ videogame counterpart), who, as he does in the videogames, has chosen the protagonists’ starter Pokemon’s natural counter: Squirtle.
The new anime will take place in the Kanto region of Pokemon Red and Blue (which was known as Pokemon Green in Japan).
Pokemon: The Origin will air in Japan on October 2nd on TV Tokyo at 7 pm, as a TV special. It’s not known whether it will remain as a one-off special, or continue to be a full series. No US release date was given, but given the popularity of Pokemon, a future Western release is a given.
Source: The Pokemon Company via Siliconera
