The most recent trailer for Pokemon Concierge dropped this week, and it’s the primary pocket monster challenge in years that has made me need to make like a Wooper by the water and take a dive again into the collection. When the miniseries hits Netflix on December twenty eighth, I am absolutely planning to take a web page from its blissed out Pokemon patrons and relax, loosen up, and Panpour myself a tall drink.
Although my heyday with Sport Freak’s collection was the early to mid aughts, I’ve dabbled just a few occasions since. I made it about midway by way of Pokemon Black years after its launch. I completed Pokémon Sword again in 2019, and had an okay time with it. I borrowed Legends: Arceus from the library for just a few weeks, and thought it appeared high-quality. All of these experiences made me really feel the way in which I believe numerous old-school gamers really feel once they come again to the collection after some time: prefer it hadn’t advanced almost sufficient within the decade that I’d been away.
Probably the most I’ve loved something Pokemon associated within the (no less than) 17 years since I final liked one of many video games needs to be Pokemon Detective Pikachu. Rob Letterman’s 2019 live-action movie tapped into just a few of the identical issues that additionally make Concierge look so thrilling.
For one, each Detective Pikachu and Concierge give the world of Pokemon some texture, eschewing the easily polygonal renders the video games have used for his or her 3D fashions since Pokemon Stadium. As an alternative, these Pokemon look tactile. In Detective Pikachu, the creatures had been nonetheless created utilizing CGI, however had sensible fur, scales, and feathers that made the pocket monsters pop. Letterman additionally shot on movie, a choice that provides the picture a bit extra texture, too. Concierge does not have fairly the identical selection in its supplies. Many of the Pokemon seem to have fuzzy felt pores and skin or molded plastic elements. However, as a fan of Wes Anderson’s stop-motion movies (and the medium basically), I actually like with the ability to inform that the factor on display really exists.
Exhibiting off a brand new nook of the world — a metropolis drenched in neon, with rain-slicked streets — was a part of what made Detective Pikachu thrilling. And Concierge, equally, takes place in a setting that hasn’t gotten a lot consideration within the video games or anime: a Pokemon resort on a tropical island. The Pokemon video games and anime have sometimes been laser-focused on one type of story: the coach narrative. While you begin a mainline Pokemon recreation, you possibly can count on to be a child residing at house who picks a Pokemon companion on the close by lab, then units off to beat eight trainers earlier than taking over a ultimate problem. However, Detective Pikachu wasn’t about that. It was set in Ryme Metropolis, a metropolis the place Pokemon battles are unlawful, that means man and ‘mon reside collectively in concord. As an alternative of being a slow-motion hero’s journey, Detective Pikachu was a noir.
Concierge, in the meantime, appears to be a easy story with stakes no greater, because the trailer’s YouTube description places it, than its protagonist Haru “steadily uncover[ing] herself” as she performs with and pampers Pokemon. It seems to be to be a slice-of-life about studying to care for your self by caring for Pokemon. After a long time of changing into the easiest like nobody ever was, Haru’s mission sounds pleasantly low stakes.