By Kennith-san

Although Pocket Monsters is a great anime, there are tons of things about it that I can’t stand. Like, for instance, the stupid filler episodes that have NOTHING to do with the game. The fire-fighting Zenigame/Kamele episode in the Orange League is easily the worst Pokemon episode I have ever seen, and is such a waste of the animators’ effort. Or how about all those useless, corny "emotional" scenes? Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some REALLY good tear-jerkers in this show, but a truckload of dumb ones to go with them. Will someone please tell me why, in the Satoshi-becomes-a-Bariyaado episode, the circus ringleader starts crying when her Bariyaado starts obeying her? The scene where Kaiza hugs Hakuryuu in the Miniryuu episode is a close second, but I guess that’s OK since he hasn’t seen this Pokemon for 30 years. Another thing that really bothers me is the predictable repetition of the filler episodes:

The three characters find themselves in an unusual situation, and the newly-introduced character will ALWAYS be a girl so as to give Takeshi an excuse to go head-over-heels for her, causing Kasumi to pull him away by his ear. Then, the Rocket Gang shows up with some big ol’ Pokemon-shaped contraption that they intend to steal Pokemon with. They manage to snatch Pikachu too, with the mouse letting fly with an electric attack, which Nyarth claims won’t work because they’re wearing rubber gloves, or something else that’s electric-resistant. Pikachu somehow manages to break free, and ALWAYS delivers the final blow, which breaks the invention and sends the Rockets into the sky. Yeesh.

But you know what REALLY frustrates me? Listen to the musical score. It’s incredibly good beyond belief, and a lot of the songs are well thought-out. So what’s the problem? They’ve released only one CD of this stuff (no, the movie CDs don’t count). Although I don’t know if it’s true, I have read that CDs have been released of ALL the DragonBall BGM. Why can’t they do that for Pocket Monsters?! Oh, sure, they’ll release countless singles of every last one of the lyrical songs (even the stupid ones and the ones that aren’t even in the show), but the BGM only gets one CD of attention??

I love the Pokemon BGM, and here’s why. I played the Game Boy game long before seeing the anime, and hated most of the music. That 4-bit "bee-beep-boo-boop" stuff really gave me a headache. All it took was one peek at the TV series to change my mind. Hearing the same songs upgraded to orchestra quality was unbelievable, and as a result I HAD to buy the Sound Anime Collection.

But an absence of some of the best songs from the series really left me cold. So I bet you’re wondering why I want CDs of this music, and why just hearing it on TV isn’t good enough for me. Well, I like my music uncut, and re-mastered for better sound quality. Also, who in their right mind wants to hear Satoshi screaming, "Zenigame! Mizu Teppô!" in the middle of their favorite song?

Since I’m already nitpicking, I’ll take some time to mention a number of the songs I want to see – err, hear released on CD.

Number one on my list is a great song that’s also in the game – it plays when you’re inside a gym. Well, the Game Boy version isn’t all that impressive, but in the show it’s an amazing heroic piece consisting of a combination of an electric guitar and fine orchestra instruments. It’s easily the best thought-out song in the series so far. After two run-throughs of a guitar/orchestra mishmash, it dies down to about 20-30 seconds of a soft performance, then kicks up again to the heroics. I simply do not understand why this one didn’t make the cut for the Sound Anime Collection. In case you don’t know what song I’m referring to, it’s in episode 18 where Hitokage redirects the heat missile, in episode 67 when the surfer plants his flag on the top of the rock, and in countless other scenes. The most complete version that I know of plays in the aforementioned Bariyaado episode.

One of the best songs from the game is the "final battle" music, vs. Shigeru. And yes, they actually made an orchestrated version of this for the anime. It plays in episode 36 when the three heroes are on Cycling Road during a storm, and during Buubar’s first appearance in episode 58. But of course, it isn’t on CD (at least the orchestrated version anyway).

I had become quite particular to the anime-only "disaster" music, only to discover that it wasn’t on the S.A.C. But to my delight, I found that it’s on the Birth of MewTwo CD (track 20)! So why am I complaining about it? Umm… good question. Let’s move on.

While watching the latter Sekiei episodes, I noticed something interesting… they had composed a second, non-album version of "Shakunetsu no Battlefield"! This one sounds less chaotic, and has an interesting interval that isn’t in the original composition. It’s in the "Pippi vs. Purin" episode, when the Pippi’s rocketship blasts off (although in the dub, they replaced this with some stupid-sounding alien music), in Shigeru’s battle with Sakaki, and in the Lizardon vs. Buubar scene, just to name a few.

The Jouto League music is a whole ‘nother can of worms in itself. I figured what they’d do for the Jouto score is take the music from Gold and Silver, and perform them with an orchestra, and I was right. NONE of this good stuff is on CD though! Arrrgh.

My favorite of the Jouto music happens to be an absolutely perfect song (which is in G & S too, though I can’t place my finger on exactly wherein). It starts out softly, and gradually builds up to symphonic splendor. I’m sure most of you have probably played "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," right? You know when you’re walking through Hyrule Field at night with no music, and then the sun rises, bringing with it a song that starts out with a sort of "waking up" feel, then bursts into an adventurous theme? That’s kind of how this song feels. It’s in the episode "Pikachu and Pichu," where the Pichu are beaten, but then get right back up to save Pikachu, and in episode 171 where Blackey (Umbreon) lights up a tool shed so Satoshi can find something. Both episodes are to come to America soon, and hopefully they won’t replace this music, so you’ll know what I’m talking about.

And finally, all of the battle music from G & S has been orchestrated, but I’ve yapped too much already, so I won’t go into detail about that.

In any case, it’s not too late for Pikachu Records to release these songs. After all, the TV series is far from over, even in Japan. Let’s hope they turn their focus from the lyrical songs (for a while) to come out with the BGM on another Sound Anime Collection.

Also, I feel that I am the only Pokemon fan to complain about this. If you care about the BGM as much as I do, please e-mail me at compassman@hotmail.com, and we can banter about which songs we think should be released.

Man, I could write a novel about this stuff…