#amarouge

Basically, the story is about two Charcadets that lived peacefully in the wild—I’ll describe the first Charcadet as ‘Charcadet’ and the second one as ‘Shiny Charcadet’ just so it’ll be easier to differentiate. One day, Charcadet encountered a lost Rotom Phone and saw a recording of a Pokemon tournament, implying to be the Academy Ace Tournament, and became enamored with what it saw. When encountering the phone’s owner, a boy named Yuto, the Charcadet is challenged to a battle for the device. When it lost to his Shroomish, Yuto makes an offer to come along with him as he could see potential in its strength. Charcadet accepts the offer and leaves Shiny Charcadet behind to fend for itself.

The storytelling was brilliant in that it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue. The main characters are two Charcadets that later evolve into both Branch Evolution. Because they’re Pokemon, they just use Pokemon-speak and body language to communicate. A majority of this story lacks dialogue, yet the body language totally made up for it. I can easily tell one Charcadet was mischievous and the other was timid. Their personality changed once they evolved, as a sign of growing up, but how they changed is also different. I love that this story is actually based on a little story you can find in the in-game library about Charcadet fighting a Gengar and choosing the future it would take to stop it. Yuto tells this story to Charcadet as his family has been housing the Auspicious armor for generations, apparently.

Despite this being a seventeen-minute short, it gives a lot of details regarding each character and the small amount of details that make them feel whole. Charcadet starts off mischievous and cheeky, yet it evolves into a noble and composed Amarouge. Shiny Charcadet, timid and very shy, evolves into a Ceruledge that held a grudge for being abandoned. In all honesty, Amarouge wasn’t a very good friend with the way it just up and ditched Ceruledge when they were in their first stages. It didn’t even think about his friend in its childhood and when it did remember it, it was only once until it showed up in the tournament.

Yuto, the trainer, actually has a lot of character too. When he first met Charcadet, he sends out his Shroomish despite having a water-type in his party. It’s to show that he’s not willing to hurt it and that he is a kind and thoughtful person. He doesn’t even capture Charcadet after defeating it. All he did was ask if he wanted to join him to get stronger, to which Charcadet did. I love how small details about him shows off that he is a rich boy like his backpack and his poise. He’s also a good trainer because he spends time with his Pokemon, training them and evolving them and even caught a Rufflet that Charcadet fought. Props to the creators for giving him a Quaxwell. The Quaxly line definitely needs more love.

The animation was superb. Studio Colorido needs start producing their original works or do anime adaptations because the way they animate is seriously amazing. If they’re able to make quality action sequences like the Amarouge vs Ceruledge fight, who know what else they’re capable of if they’re given larger projects! Just to let you know, this is the animation studio that also did previous PokeToon shorts like Blossom’s Dream and animated a majority of Twilight Wings.

The ending is definitely one that brings in a lot of thoughts. Shiny Charcadet never really wanted a trainer and as a Ceruledge, I think wandering around with Gengar and the group of Bronzor it met at an abandoned building was a nice conclusion. Like the book Yuto read to Charcadet, the story is ultimately about the future a Charcadet chooses. Charcadet chose to be with Yuto and evolved into Amarouge while Shiny Charcadet evolved into Ceruledge and then when realizing its friend was content with the life it was living, it decided to walk its own path. Besides, the end credits show that Ceruledge is living a peaceful life befriending other wild Pokemon. It kind of shows that not all Pokemon want to be captured or have a Trainer. I feel like it would be too typical if the ending had Ceruledge join Yuto.

The voice acting in this animated short was superb as well. Charcadet, and later Amarouge, is voiced by Yuki Sakakihara. I think this is the first time I’ve seen him in Pokemon, but he’s a rising star in that he’s known for his role in Hypnosis Mic as Jyushi Aimoto. Yumiri Hanamori voices Shiny Charcadet who later becomes Ceruledge. I think her take on Ceruledge is a nice difference from the Ceruledge seen in Horizons as Hanamori gives it an androgynous voice. Hanamori is known for voicing Sagiri from Hell’s Paradise. Yuto is voiced by Soma Saito who has been in Pokemon before. He was Trace in the eighth episode of Pokemon Evolutions and voices Cress in Pokemon Masters.

This marks the end of this year’s PokeToon season. Hopefully, there will be more next year or when Gen 10 comes! For now, I’ll do my best to review the older episodes of this season and the previous one! But seriously, I want every Pokemon fan to watch this episode at least once in their lives. It’s such a beautiful episode. If you have watched it, what are your thoughts on the storytelling and on the ending?