Monday, September 28, 2009
Mario Series History in Animation Articles
The Koopalings
Yoshi
Koopa Troops equipment
Fire Flower
Various Powerups
Christmas
A History in Animation- Koopa Troop's Equipment
The Koopa Troops Equipment.
I thought since the Koopa Troop, or Bowser’s army have so many appearances in animation that I’d split the articles into various ones. This article focuses on one of my favourite parts of the Koopa Troop, their equipment, which includes bases of operations and Various Vehicles.
Firstly, as shown in the pictures above which is probably the most important part of King Bowser Koopa’s army equipment, comes Bowser’s Castle, or Castle Koopa itself. The Castle in the games is always changing similarly to the various parts of the Mushroom Kingdom, like Peach’s Castle. This can be explained away easily by the fact Mario’s always destroying it. King Koopa’s Castle never truly appeared in the Super Mario Bros Super Show, mainly due to the show always doing parodies of various pop culture. As such he did have quite a few castles, but none were at all like his one from the games. For example he had a Castle in the horror themed ‘Count Koopula’ but it was more like Draculas Castle than the one from the games. He also had various places such as an Ice Palace and a Tower of Victoria (a takeoff of the Tower of London) when he was acting like Proffessor Moriarty archenemy of Sherlock Holmes. Koopa having so many castles mirrors the first game where he had a castle in every world, whereas most games after that he has more Towers than actual Castles.
In the Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3, Koopa had a specific Castle in Dark Land, like in the games, called Castle Koopa. This is his most famous Castle, and based on the one that is in most of the games. This Castle coincidently, was the first version of the castle to have Bowser’s face makes up an important part of the design (being the entranceway) and is an idea that was similarly in Paper Mario amongst others.
Super Mario World followed the games as well and gave Koopa a new Castle in Dinosaur World. It’s known as his Neon Castle and more infamously as ‘King Koopa’s Coney Island Disco Palace’ which I guess kinda goes with that Disco ball like light from the game. The Castle had a lot of facilities, including actual sports grounds, which is humorous considering the amount of Mario sports games to feature Bowser’s Castle.
Finally there are the two anime versions of the Castle. The Movie has a pretty ordinary evil castle look with no real distinctions, although this does fit in with the games version at the time. The OVA’s version, which is based on the story of Snow White, actually has probably one of the most visually awe inspiring due to the giant Bowser shaped Mountain it sits on. Compared to the others, on the outside it’s the best, but the inside like most of the others disappoints, as we only see literally two rooms (one of which is a Goomba pit).
This leaves us with the best interior animated version of the Castle
Firstly, as shown in the pictures above which is probably the most important part of King Bowser Koopa’s army equipment, comes Bowser’s Castle, or Castle Koopa itself. The Castle in the games is always changing similarly to the various parts of the Mushroom Kingdom, like Peach’s Castle. This can be explained away easily by the fact Mario’s always destroying it. King Koopa’s Castle never truly appeared in the Super Mario Bros Super Show, mainly due to the show always doing parodies of various pop culture. As such he did have quite a few castles, but none were at all like his one from the games. For example he had a Castle in the horror themed ‘Count Koopula’ but it was more like Draculas Castle than the one from the games. He also had various places such as an Ice Palace and a Tower of Victoria (a takeoff of the Tower of London) when he was acting like Proffessor Moriarty archenemy of Sherlock Holmes. Koopa having so many castles mirrors the first game where he had a castle in every world, whereas most games after that he has more Towers than actual Castles.
In the Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3, Koopa had a specific Castle in Dark Land, like in the games, called Castle Koopa. This is his most famous Castle, and based on the one that is in most of the games. This Castle coincidently, was the first version of the castle to have Bowser’s face makes up an important part of the design (being the entranceway) and is an idea that was similarly in Paper Mario amongst others.
Super Mario World followed the games as well and gave Koopa a new Castle in Dinosaur World. It’s known as his Neon Castle and more infamously as ‘King Koopa’s Coney Island Disco Palace’ which I guess kinda goes with that Disco ball like light from the game. The Castle had a lot of facilities, including actual sports grounds, which is humorous considering the amount of Mario sports games to feature Bowser’s Castle.
Finally there are the two anime versions of the Castle. The Movie has a pretty ordinary evil castle look with no real distinctions, although this does fit in with the games version at the time. The OVA’s version, which is based on the story of Snow White, actually has probably one of the most visually awe inspiring due to the giant Bowser shaped Mountain it sits on. Compared to the others, on the outside it’s the best, but the inside like most of the others disappoints, as we only see literally two rooms (one of which is a Goomba pit).
This leaves us with the best interior animated version of the Castle
I previously mentioned how AOSMB3 version of the Castle was based on the main one from all the games, but it honestly is the best version in animation. Firstly it’s actually situated in Koopa’s own country, Dark Land meaning it was difficult to even get to, but also it was probably one of the most like the games RPG’s depictions. We get Koopa’s throne room where most of his plans are talked over with his kids, as well as rooms such as the Jail cells, bedrooms, a lab for Kooky and an underground fire pit. Also a cool feature was that it was constantly being patrolled by various enemies from the games, with Ptooies, Thwomps and Sledge Bros walking around trying to kill anyone they don’t recognise. It really helped make it seem like an actual level from a video game as opposed to some random Castle like most of the others seem.
I’ve included above a picture of one of the only notable things about the Castle from SMW, which were the various traps from the games. These included objects such as the ball on chains, as well as those pencil shaped crushing implements and the chained fences which you could climb up in the games. Overall it was definitely the second best version of the Castle, but not as good as his original in his own country.
Next up, another thing that first appeared in SMB3, the Doomship, or Airships. Now I know that looking above, the cartoon version and the official game art look completely different, but actually the Doomship is almost an exact replica of the in-game version. If you see a diagram of a full version of one of the ships, you’ll see that it doesn’t resemble the concept art at all, it looks like a bunch of stringed together platforms with cannons and flame throwers everywhere, so actually that physically impossible shape is exactly how it looked in the original games. The Airships have made a few reappearances in the games, but they all resemble the artwork above pretty much now. The only real difference between the games and cartoon version, is that Koopa only seems to have one airship in the cartoon, whereas each of his kids have one in the game. The cartoon follows the game’s events, so technically they could of all been destroyed leaving his only ship. There are also floating ships in both the OVA and Anime Movie, but they are more flying boats and are used by Mario both times, so whilst they might be a precursor to the Doomship, I’m not including them.
Next up in war machines we have the small airships from a single level in the games. Coincidently, I believe these things reappeared in Mario Galaxy, as on Bowser Jr’s Airship Armada there’s a tiny ship which flies you straight to the boss whilst you dodge all the bigger ships cannons. Anyway, they made a very short appearance in the cartoon, with their appearance setting up the actual plot of the episode, as they drop different coloured paint on the Mushroom People, making them eventually become racist bigots or whatever due to the Koopalings, anyway, their design is pretty much the same to some of the ships in the armada (the ships in the game shot above are different ones from the same level.)
Next up is another minor appearance. The Tanks patrol Dark Land exactly like in the games, with a Rocky Wrench inside to throw spanners at the Mario’s as well as cannonballs. Overall they are essentially the game Tanks in animated form so that’s a point to the cartoon.
Finally, and the only Super Mario World thing on this list (well other than Bowser’s Castle) is the Ghost House. This is actually an actual Ghost House from the games, as it is based on the one in ‘The Enchanted Forest’ which is the cartoons name for the Forest of Illusion. This fairs pretty well actually, as it’s a house with Boos in it, also another thing to note, is that Yoshi’s too scared to go in there until the end of the episode, which kind of works with him not going into Ghost Houses in the games. The only real difference I can think of with it is that a Koopa Wizard (or magikoopa) is in charge there, other than that though it’s a pretty good adaptation of it.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Pokemon Crystal
Title- Raiku- Legend of Thunder
So yeah. Having just done the Zelda series reviews, I think I’d probably call most shows a masterpiece. This movie is really good however if you’re a pokemon fan. For one thing it’s actually got a character other than Ash and co as the main character. In fact the idea of having other characters, despite how much I do enjoy the regular cast, is a breath of fresh air. It’s a shame that it’s very unlikely we’ll see either of the two main characters again (beyond cameos) as a showdown between Ash and Jimmy would be pretty cool. Anyway, first I want to say I’ll be reviewing the Japanese version for this. Why? Simply because this is officially the most edited (And arguably butchered) dub in the whole franchise. It completely omits many important parts, including anything that gives Jimmy, Marina and Vincent any sort of backstory. This is unforgivable considering that the two main characters as mentioned don’t appear at any other point. One example of this, is that since the dub episode has a different opening, we miss the scenes such as Jimmy getting his starter, being beaten by his rival Silver (for my theories on Silver in the show, see the rivals History in animation article.) and other things. So why am I calling him Jimmy and not Kenta (his japanese name) then? Well because simply put, this is his official name as of now, and unless he gets a new name when he’s an npc in the new remakes, it will remain (and then there’s the case of Vincent making an appearance in the main show and calling Jimmy and Marina different names. They really mucked it up.) Also as I’ll be calling Ash, Ash in the future reviews, I’m going to go with the american names (except Eusine since that is his name in the games)
And after that, lets dive into the actual special. It’s pretty cool, fans of legendaries get to see Raikou in an appearance more than Ash simply glimpsing it. Raikou’s probably the odd one out of the three legendary dogs, as Suicune always seems to be the main one, Entei is the regal looking one with a movie to his name, whereas Raikou’s sort of just there. Anyway, main character wise, Jimmy’s pretty similar to Ash, however he seems less oblivious to girls and slightly more mature than Ash, although he runs into situations without thinking quite often. Marina’s not too bad in the japanese original. She seems to actually be a precurser to the pokemon co-ordinators as she makes her pokemon fight more with style that simply power. Then there’s my personal favourite of the trio, Vincent, who can be really humorous, particularly his first appearance (in the flesh as opposed to on the phone). Vincent also is the only one of the trio to make a real appearance outside of this special, as he faces Ash in the Johto tournament. The main difference between these characters and the usual cast are that there’s a love triangle between these three.
The villains were also a great breath of fresh air. After Team Rocket’s constant comic relief appearances in the anime, and even Butch and Cassidy becoming a joke in the other specials, it was a good reminder that Team Rocket can actually be badass, just like in the Mewtwo special movie. Attila is the strong man, although he’s not stupid in the least and actually tries beating the crap out of people as opposed to simply using pokemon all the time. Hun is actually quite interesting, in the way he coldly justifies himself by asking Jimmy questions like how them capturing Raikou with their machine is any different from making other pokemon beat it up before capturing it in a pokeball. The dub makes Hun a female for absolutely no reason at all (although probably so they could get the nearest voice actor around even if they are the wrong sex for the character.)
We get something that never appeared in the other series too, with the PokeGear. We get a nice scene at the start of Jimmy getting the number of a trainer he battles for future battles. This was a cool way of getting into the anime as Ash never got one. Typically, the scene’s omitted from the dub version. Another character who’s worth a mention is Eusine, a character who appeared in the games and has met Ash. In the episode he appeared in he was very proud and arrogant, taking great offence at Ash saying he saw Ho-oh (also possibly jealousy). In this special he wasn’t quite the same, that said there may be reasons to explain this, as he isn’t just being told by someone they saw a legendary, but he’s there with them. He seems to keep his arrogance slightly by pushing his way into the pokemon Centre to see Raikou.
Overall, definitely worth seeing if you’re a pokemon fan. The plots pretty good and I can’t think of any real glaring plot-holes.
So yeah. Having just done the Zelda series reviews, I think I’d probably call most shows a masterpiece. This movie is really good however if you’re a pokemon fan. For one thing it’s actually got a character other than Ash and co as the main character. In fact the idea of having other characters, despite how much I do enjoy the regular cast, is a breath of fresh air. It’s a shame that it’s very unlikely we’ll see either of the two main characters again (beyond cameos) as a showdown between Ash and Jimmy would be pretty cool. Anyway, first I want to say I’ll be reviewing the Japanese version for this. Why? Simply because this is officially the most edited (And arguably butchered) dub in the whole franchise. It completely omits many important parts, including anything that gives Jimmy, Marina and Vincent any sort of backstory. This is unforgivable considering that the two main characters as mentioned don’t appear at any other point. One example of this, is that since the dub episode has a different opening, we miss the scenes such as Jimmy getting his starter, being beaten by his rival Silver (for my theories on Silver in the show, see the rivals History in animation article.) and other things. So why am I calling him Jimmy and not Kenta (his japanese name) then? Well because simply put, this is his official name as of now, and unless he gets a new name when he’s an npc in the new remakes, it will remain (and then there’s the case of Vincent making an appearance in the main show and calling Jimmy and Marina different names. They really mucked it up.) Also as I’ll be calling Ash, Ash in the future reviews, I’m going to go with the american names (except Eusine since that is his name in the games)
And after that, lets dive into the actual special. It’s pretty cool, fans of legendaries get to see Raikou in an appearance more than Ash simply glimpsing it. Raikou’s probably the odd one out of the three legendary dogs, as Suicune always seems to be the main one, Entei is the regal looking one with a movie to his name, whereas Raikou’s sort of just there. Anyway, main character wise, Jimmy’s pretty similar to Ash, however he seems less oblivious to girls and slightly more mature than Ash, although he runs into situations without thinking quite often. Marina’s not too bad in the japanese original. She seems to actually be a precurser to the pokemon co-ordinators as she makes her pokemon fight more with style that simply power. Then there’s my personal favourite of the trio, Vincent, who can be really humorous, particularly his first appearance (in the flesh as opposed to on the phone). Vincent also is the only one of the trio to make a real appearance outside of this special, as he faces Ash in the Johto tournament. The main difference between these characters and the usual cast are that there’s a love triangle between these three.
The villains were also a great breath of fresh air. After Team Rocket’s constant comic relief appearances in the anime, and even Butch and Cassidy becoming a joke in the other specials, it was a good reminder that Team Rocket can actually be badass, just like in the Mewtwo special movie. Attila is the strong man, although he’s not stupid in the least and actually tries beating the crap out of people as opposed to simply using pokemon all the time. Hun is actually quite interesting, in the way he coldly justifies himself by asking Jimmy questions like how them capturing Raikou with their machine is any different from making other pokemon beat it up before capturing it in a pokeball. The dub makes Hun a female for absolutely no reason at all (although probably so they could get the nearest voice actor around even if they are the wrong sex for the character.)
We get something that never appeared in the other series too, with the PokeGear. We get a nice scene at the start of Jimmy getting the number of a trainer he battles for future battles. This was a cool way of getting into the anime as Ash never got one. Typically, the scene’s omitted from the dub version. Another character who’s worth a mention is Eusine, a character who appeared in the games and has met Ash. In the episode he appeared in he was very proud and arrogant, taking great offence at Ash saying he saw Ho-oh (also possibly jealousy). In this special he wasn’t quite the same, that said there may be reasons to explain this, as he isn’t just being told by someone they saw a legendary, but he’s there with them. He seems to keep his arrogance slightly by pushing his way into the pokemon Centre to see Raikou.
Overall, definitely worth seeing if you’re a pokemon fan. The plots pretty good and I can’t think of any real glaring plot-holes.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A History in Animation- Link
Link
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Well, he’s most likely the second most popular hero of Nintendo behind Mario, yet Link has only two animated series to his name, and one of them is a cartoon he only made a couple of guest appearances on. Why? I don’t know. The Zelda series has always been held in high regard and as such, you’d think it would have a few animations under its belt. But that’s the way it is. Well at least the only animated appearance is awesome right? RIGHT?!?......... Let Link’s expression above set the tone for the… ‘awesomeness’ of this show… So how did Link fair? If you’ve read my reviews of the series, you’d know… not well.
The image above is the recurring ‘joke’ through the series of Link wanting a kiss and when he’s actually about to get one, something intervenes. It usually set Link off with his ‘Well EXCCCCCUUUUUUSSSEE ME! Princess!’ line. As you can see above, this version of Link was very different to the version today, mostly due to the American artwork. That said there are still plenty of things that do stay true to the games about him.
The image above is the recurring ‘joke’ through the series of Link wanting a kiss and when he’s actually about to get one, something intervenes. It usually set Link off with his ‘Well EXCCCCCUUUUUUSSSEE ME! Princess!’ line. As you can see above, this version of Link was very different to the version today, mostly due to the American artwork. That said there are still plenty of things that do stay true to the games about him.
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First and foremost, is his swords ability to shoot a beam. In the game this is achieved when Link has full life (hearts) but in the cartoon he uses it all the while. I believe this is for censorship reasons (which makes it a joke when he full on slices an enemy in half in Captain N later) While it is kinda cool they used something from the games which allowed him to kill enemies whilst not teaching kids to play with knives, it still seems really surreal, I mean no way should he ever be called a Swashbuckler. Anyway, other than that he has his shield which he very rarely uses in the show. This I can understand, as him fighting a guy with a sword and shield when the other guy only has a sword is kinda one sided, so at least I agree with them on that front. Also, there are similarities as you can see above between the original artwork for Link and the cartoon version.
Next we have the items, and honestly, they were way underused in the show. They did appear, but very rarely, in fact in the whole show I believe that all Link ever uses was the power bracelet (pictured above) a boomerang and a bomb. Zelda had the bow. One really cool thing that the show did do however, was gave the characters pouches which allowed them to shrink items, explaining how Link could use so many weapons. If any competent writer made a show with Link in it, it’s simple what humorous personality to give him which would even stay true to the games. Make him an item-whore. Just look at that picture above, that is official art and he’s perfectly shown as an obsessive item collector. Anyway that’s really about it for Link as the cartoon version was very boring. That cannot be said in my opinion however for his next appearance.
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Link appeared in Captain N. Not only with the voice actor from the previous show, but with a better script, better character, better design basically better everything. I put the picture next to Link as I noticed how both Links suddenly gained a slightly more mature look. Link has longer hair, a more stitched together looking tunic, and an injury. Granted the injury was part of the plot but still it was leaps and bounds over his previous appearance. Also Link had a far more mature character. He was no longer going after Zelda in the over the top ‘KISSS ME PRINCESSS!!1111’ way of the cartoon, but was instead getting angry at the attention Kevin got from Zelda. Also in later episodes he actually gets a few friendly kisses from Zelda and seems to make nothing of it, making it seem like he’s grown up.
Finally a comparison of the voices (As with the comparison of character) was pretty tough. Obviously we’re comparing adult Link and TP Link’s voices as they’re closer in age to the cartoon Link’s voice, but Links got a voice that was very annoying and whiny in the series, but in the Captain N series, the same voice actor became much better. Maybe it has something to do with Captain N being less comedy orientated or something, but he’s definitely better. Link’s voices from the game are clearly Japanese, so really there’s no similarity from what I can tell at all.
Finally a comparison of the voices (As with the comparison of character) was pretty tough. Obviously we’re comparing adult Link and TP Link’s voices as they’re closer in age to the cartoon Link’s voice, but Links got a voice that was very annoying and whiny in the series, but in the Captain N series, the same voice actor became much better. Maybe it has something to do with Captain N being less comedy orientated or something, but he’s definitely better. Link’s voices from the game are clearly Japanese, so really there’s no similarity from what I can tell at all.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
A History in Animation- Pokemon Protagonists
Pokemon Protagonists
Well I wanted to do this as it interests me how often the main characters of the games are often overlooked. I mean it took till Brawl for the actual first playable character in the series to actually even make an appearance as a trophy in the smash series, whereas Jigglypuff and Pikachu were there from the start. Anyway, basically I’m going to go over in this article all of the playable characters from the games and their appearances in the Anime. I’m not going to be doing any articles on pokemon as honestly, there are too many, and there are even lots of human characters now so it would be impossible for me to do both (as well as far too draining.)
Red/Ash Ketchum
Probably the most famous (or infamous) playable character, Red is the most recurring character in the games despite having no personality at all. He also is the only character to do a sort of ‘passing of the torch’ by being battle-able at the very end of the second game, meaning he appears in two separate games (not counting remakes) He does have a slight backstory of being friends with Blue/Gary when he was younger, and them growing apart to the degree that they became enemies (this is carried over into the anime too). His look changed with Fire Red and he retained his new look in Smash Bros Brawl which he was also playable in. Ash is the star of the show, as even though Pikachu’s the mascot, the story follows him. He’s kinda childish at times but actually progresses as the series went on, which to be honest, out of the other shows I’ve done on this site, is pretty impressive. He’s pretty much a typical main character who aspires to become the best trainer and also fights any injustice he comes across. One key point to his character is that he very rarely wins. The first series had him win most of the Gym Battles he had to get badges from through luck. Also in every series so far he’s got to the final tournament and lost (except for the Orange Island saga) Admittedly a character who loses all the time becomes very boring, but the difference is that with more recent sagas, Ash has been actually becoming much better, and the character is actually starting to come up with clever strategies, which whilst they wouldn’t work in the games, make him appear much better than the rash headstrong character from the first series. Also he seems to not get as upset at arrogant characters like Gary Oak, and only truly 
gets annoyed with people who he feels do the wrong things in more recent episodes. A key contrast to Ash is Ritchie (left). I have included him as some people actually feel that he might be based more on Red than Ash is. He isn’t an interesting character as such, but it is interesting to see him being essentially the guy who a main character should be (as in powerful and successful in battles) which makes Ash actually seem more interesting. Design wise I’d say that Ash is more like the original Red, which I feel is part of the reason that the design for Red changed so as not to confuse people between the two. Ash is probably the most different character to his game counterpart in this article, which seems to be true of most characters from the Kanto/Johto era.
Gold is like all the other playable characters, he has absolutely no backstory however whereas all the others have at least a short one. Jimmy is similar, the only real backstory we get is from his talks to Marina and during the Japanese opening where he’s shown with his Cyndaquill running in the sunset as it evolves (similar to the scene from the Lion King where Simba grows up) Also we see a quick glimpse of him being beaten by… well it’s a tough one which I’ll address in more detail in the eventual Rivals article... he’s beaten by Silver. Anyway, Jimmy’s pretty similar to Ash, as a character, the only real difference being that he actually makes it clear he has romantic feelings for Marina, something which Ash very rarely does. That’s really about it, but compared to the other male characters (other than Ash) he’s actually fared much better. As you can see design wise he’s similar to the original.
Kris/Marina
Kris was actually a special bonus in the games as Pokemon Crystal was the first game to allow you to play as a female. That said she was the exact same character as Gold. In the anime, a lot of people I believe feel that her character was absolutely ruined by the English dub (which is considered one of the worst dubs of the series.) Kris and Marina have really had it bad though. As well as being butchered in the English dub, Kris actually isn’t coming back for the remake of Gold and Silver, being replaced by a new character. Honestly I don’t care too much, but she was the first ever female character in the series, so it’s strange that she’s gone.
Brendan
I really don’t like this guys design. I dunno what it is about it. Anyway, Brendan was in the first game in which the two playable characters were rivals. As such he was either Professor Birch’s son and the players rival, or Norman’s son. In the anime, as May is Norman’s daughter, he is most likely Professor Birch’s son. I would actually be able to compare his personality this means, if he had one. He’s had two cameos in the anime, and that’s it. His designs practically the same as you can see, and that’s really all I have to say.
May
May is actually one of the few playable characters with an actual backstory, having moved to Hoenn at the start of the game. Also she’s a Gym Leaders kid, which means if she actually spoke she’d most likely be very into Pokemon, or hate them due to her father being so involved in them. In the show May caught a lot of flack. She is most often claimed to be the turning point for the series, where people got sick of it. Honestly, I stopped watching during the Johto arc as it got boring, but now I’ve looked back, May was exactly what the show needed. She was an all new travelling companion, and actually started off hating pokemon and only really going on an adventure to travel. Also she’s a food fanatic. I think, no, I know that the reason why a lot of people hate her is because she replaced Misty, who was on the show longer than even Brock and Team Rocket. May also introduced the concept of contests into the show, as she gained an interest in them and decided to not battle Gyms but win at contests (More on them in another article). May also admittedly doesn’t have the dominant personality of Misty, which actually meant we’d have a different group since she’s not quite the sort to row quite as often with others except her brother (at least not to the degree that Misty did.) I won’t mention her brother, Max as really I don’t want to, although he actually is believed to be based on a character who’s present in the game at her house. She’s also notable for being one of the few characters who has a revealed family with a father and a mother, which only Brock has. All the other characters either have no parents shown or only one. Design wise she is the absolute same, and even has her Emerald outfit in her most recent appearance.
Lucas
In the games, Dawn is simply the daughter of a woman who used to be a trainer who took part in contests. Also she’s friends with Pearl/Barry which she stays as even when they become rivals. In the anime she’s actually one of the few characters who seems to be similar to Ash. She starts off knowing what she wants to do and goes for it. She is similar to Ash in the way she is slightly headstrong and very confident, in some cases overconfident. She’s actually one of the few characters who travels with Ash and has caught more pokemon than any of his previous companions as well as actually fighting a Gym battle. The only real difference between her and her game character is that whilst she knows Pearl/Barry, he doesn’t remember her at all (then again, he’s portrayed as the sort of character who’d know someone for years and then forget who they are because something else gets his attention, so it’s possible they could have a similar background to the games.) Design wise she’s the same, and wears her platinum outfit for snow episodes.
Lyra
Kris’s replacement in the remakes of Gold and Silver. Lyra joins the group for a short while as she’s travelled to Sinnoh to do some sort of show inviting people to Johto. She’s actually unique amongst the other female characters as she fights in gym battles and doesn’t have much interest in contests. Design wise she’s exactly the same. Personality wise she’s pretty different to the game version as she’s very determined and similar to Ash in her recklessness. She also is one of the only main characters to talk about love and whether other characters would make good couples, whereas in the game she gets embarrassed when it’s suggested she likes the player.
Snap
Snap is the first playable character to appear in the anime and personally my favourite. He immediately pisses off Ash, and he doesn’t have any pokemon which is actually a real difference for this show. Game to anime wise he’s pretty much the same except with a different shirt.
I haven’t played any of the ranger series, so all I can say is that he seems actually a bit older in the anime. Also it was cool having a character who was far more capable than Ash and his friends.
Well she looks pretty much the same, and that’s all I can say having not played the game or even seen the episode she’s in.
Well I wanted to do this as it interests me how often the main characters of the games are often overlooked. I mean it took till Brawl for the actual first playable character in the series to actually even make an appearance as a trophy in the smash series, whereas Jigglypuff and Pikachu were there from the start. Anyway, basically I’m going to go over in this article all of the playable characters from the games and their appearances in the Anime. I’m not going to be doing any articles on pokemon as honestly, there are too many, and there are even lots of human characters now so it would be impossible for me to do both (as well as far too draining.)
Red/Ash Ketchum
Probably the most famous (or infamous) playable character, Red is the most recurring character in the games despite having no personality at all. He also is the only character to do a sort of ‘passing of the torch’ by being battle-able at the very end of the second game, meaning he appears in two separate games (not counting remakes) He does have a slight backstory of being friends with Blue/Gary when he was younger, and them growing apart to the degree that they became enemies (this is carried over into the anime too). His look changed with Fire Red and he retained his new look in Smash Bros Brawl which he was also playable in. Ash is the star of the show, as even though Pikachu’s the mascot, the story follows him. He’s kinda childish at times but actually progresses as the series went on, which to be honest, out of the other shows I’ve done on this site, is pretty impressive. He’s pretty much a typical main character who aspires to become the best trainer and also fights any injustice he comes across. One key point to his character is that he very rarely wins. The first series had him win most of the Gym Battles he had to get badges from through luck. Also in every series so far he’s got to the final tournament and lost (except for the Orange Island saga) Admittedly a character who loses all the time becomes very boring, but the difference is that with more recent sagas, Ash has been actually becoming much better, and the character is actually starting to come up with clever strategies, which whilst they wouldn’t work in the games, make him appear much better than the rash headstrong character from the first series. Also he seems to not get as upset at arrogant characters like Gary Oak, and only truly 
gets annoyed with people who he feels do the wrong things in more recent episodes. A key contrast to Ash is Ritchie (left). I have included him as some people actually feel that he might be based more on Red than Ash is. He isn’t an interesting character as such, but it is interesting to see him being essentially the guy who a main character should be (as in powerful and successful in battles) which makes Ash actually seem more interesting. Design wise I’d say that Ash is more like the original Red, which I feel is part of the reason that the design for Red changed so as not to confuse people between the two. Ash is probably the most different character to his game counterpart in this article, which seems to be true of most characters from the Kanto/Johto era.
Ok, so I said I wasn't going to talk about Pokemon themselves in these articles, so why on earth is Pikachu here? Well it's because he represents a key thing that differenctiates Pokemon from almost all the other series on here (except F-Zero) in that the TV show actually inspired something in the games. This was Pokemon Yellow, which apparently was considered in japan simply as a fanservice game (since there were 3 games in the series before Yellow in japan). As such I thought it was worth mentioning, as Red's journey with Pikachu in Yellow mirrors the anime in most ways. From the Pikachu initially disliking Ash/Red to the gym leaders and ability to get all starters from ways similar to the games (such as Charmander being an abandoned pokemon, although there are differences such as the Charmander being looked after by someone until they decide that he'd be better off travelling with Red) Also Blue/Gary Oak is similar in that he has pokemon from the anime, but more on him in the rivals article.
Gold/Jimmy
Gold is like all the other playable characters, he has absolutely no backstory however whereas all the others have at least a short one. Jimmy is similar, the only real backstory we get is from his talks to Marina and during the Japanese opening where he’s shown with his Cyndaquill running in the sunset as it evolves (similar to the scene from the Lion King where Simba grows up) Also we see a quick glimpse of him being beaten by… well it’s a tough one which I’ll address in more detail in the eventual Rivals article... he’s beaten by Silver. Anyway, Jimmy’s pretty similar to Ash, as a character, the only real difference being that he actually makes it clear he has romantic feelings for Marina, something which Ash very rarely does. That’s really about it, but compared to the other male characters (other than Ash) he’s actually fared much better. As you can see design wise he’s similar to the original.Kris/Marina
Kris was actually a special bonus in the games as Pokemon Crystal was the first game to allow you to play as a female. That said she was the exact same character as Gold. In the anime, a lot of people I believe feel that her character was absolutely ruined by the English dub (which is considered one of the worst dubs of the series.) Kris and Marina have really had it bad though. As well as being butchered in the English dub, Kris actually isn’t coming back for the remake of Gold and Silver, being replaced by a new character. Honestly I don’t care too much, but she was the first ever female character in the series, so it’s strange that she’s gone.Brendan
I really don’t like this guys design. I dunno what it is about it. Anyway, Brendan was in the first game in which the two playable characters were rivals. As such he was either Professor Birch’s son and the players rival, or Norman’s son. In the anime, as May is Norman’s daughter, he is most likely Professor Birch’s son. I would actually be able to compare his personality this means, if he had one. He’s had two cameos in the anime, and that’s it. His designs practically the same as you can see, and that’s really all I have to say.May
May is actually one of the few playable characters with an actual backstory, having moved to Hoenn at the start of the game. Also she’s a Gym Leaders kid, which means if she actually spoke she’d most likely be very into Pokemon, or hate them due to her father being so involved in them. In the show May caught a lot of flack. She is most often claimed to be the turning point for the series, where people got sick of it. Honestly, I stopped watching during the Johto arc as it got boring, but now I’ve looked back, May was exactly what the show needed. She was an all new travelling companion, and actually started off hating pokemon and only really going on an adventure to travel. Also she’s a food fanatic. I think, no, I know that the reason why a lot of people hate her is because she replaced Misty, who was on the show longer than even Brock and Team Rocket. May also introduced the concept of contests into the show, as she gained an interest in them and decided to not battle Gyms but win at contests (More on them in another article). May also admittedly doesn’t have the dominant personality of Misty, which actually meant we’d have a different group since she’s not quite the sort to row quite as often with others except her brother (at least not to the degree that Misty did.) I won’t mention her brother, Max as really I don’t want to, although he actually is believed to be based on a character who’s present in the game at her house. She’s also notable for being one of the few characters who has a revealed family with a father and a mother, which only Brock has. All the other characters either have no parents shown or only one. Design wise she is the absolute same, and even has her Emerald outfit in her most recent appearance.Lucas
Lucas is in the same position as Brendan, as he doesn’t actually appear in the anime for more than a cameo. Since Dawn is from Twinleaf town, it can be speculated that Lucas is most likely from Sandgem town. In the games he isn’t actually a rival, and instead simply helps the player out whilst researching for Professor Rowan. He’s involved in Spear Pillar, but that’s all notable I can really think of.
Dawn
Dawn
In the games, Dawn is simply the daughter of a woman who used to be a trainer who took part in contests. Also she’s friends with Pearl/Barry which she stays as even when they become rivals. In the anime she’s actually one of the few characters who seems to be similar to Ash. She starts off knowing what she wants to do and goes for it. She is similar to Ash in the way she is slightly headstrong and very confident, in some cases overconfident. She’s actually one of the few characters who travels with Ash and has caught more pokemon than any of his previous companions as well as actually fighting a Gym battle. The only real difference between her and her game character is that whilst she knows Pearl/Barry, he doesn’t remember her at all (then again, he’s portrayed as the sort of character who’d know someone for years and then forget who they are because something else gets his attention, so it’s possible they could have a similar background to the games.) Design wise she’s the same, and wears her platinum outfit for snow episodes.Lyra
Kris’s replacement in the remakes of Gold and Silver. Lyra joins the group for a short while as she’s travelled to Sinnoh to do some sort of show inviting people to Johto. She’s actually unique amongst the other female characters as she fights in gym battles and doesn’t have much interest in contests. Design wise she’s exactly the same. Personality wise she’s pretty different to the game version as she’s very determined and similar to Ash in her recklessness. She also is one of the only main characters to talk about love and whether other characters would make good couples, whereas in the game she gets embarrassed when it’s suggested she likes the player.Snap
Snap is the first playable character to appear in the anime and personally my favourite. He immediately pisses off Ash, and he doesn’t have any pokemon which is actually a real difference for this show. Game to anime wise he’s pretty much the same except with a different shirt.Kellyn
I haven’t played any of the ranger series, so all I can say is that he seems actually a bit older in the anime. Also it was cool having a character who was far more capable than Ash and his friends.Solana
Well she looks pretty much the same, and that’s all I can say having not played the game or even seen the episode she’s in.
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