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.
