Plan the first-gen Pokémon games into an anime series!

glennmagusharvey

Rather obviously inspired by Pokémon the Origin, which should have done this instead.  Also which should have stuck to the first-gen game plot, while elaborating on it and explaining the various details.  Also shouldn't have included that silly gimmick at the end.  But most importantly, it should evoke that sense of discovery that accompanied the journeys of all of us who played the first-gen games.

Let's use the old canonical names Red and Blue.  Red is the main character (i.e. "Ash"), Blue is the rival (i.e. "Gary").  I think we should aim roughly for 24~26 episodes, covering the entire first generation from Pallet Town to the Hall of Fame.  And remember that this has to actually be interesting on screen -- though PtO did kinda show a way to make it interesting without turning it into the crazy thunder-armor shenanigans of the main-series show.

Also, PtO does give us some ideas for how to make the story dramatically interesting.  For example, Red ought to suffer defeats in key battles, at certain points, or have other character-developing moments.

One key question to keep in mind: are trainers very rare in the setting?  Obviously there need to be enough of them for the Pokémon League to have a reason to exist, but PtO seemed to imply that otherwise, there really aren't that many of them, and that the League is, if anything, a relatively new organization.  Also, heck, that's why Prof. Oak is tasking these two young whippersnappers with completing the Pokédex.  However, there seem to be quite a few of them running around in gen 1...or maybe we just don't see a lot of the people who aren't trainers, who make up the vast majority of the population?

Also, I'd like this series to showcase the capture/acquisition of every one of the mons.  How should we do that?  One idea off the top of my head is to explain that different mons just appear to different trainers based on their...something unique to them, such as personality or whatever.  So at some point, Red would have to trade for more mons than just Lola (jynx), Marcel (mr. mime), and Dux (farfetch'd).  Maybe the trainers he trades with could be named to represent alternate-universe instances of some characters from the main anime series...

Episode 1 (the beginning)

We start with that speech Prof. Oak gives at the beginning of the game...in the form of a presentation given at his lab, like in PtO.  After this brief intro, we cut to Red: after watching pokémon battles on TV and then dreaming of them, Red wakes up to the day he'll start his journey as a pokémon trainer.  After bidding his SNES and his mom farewell (who is in tears), he stops by the house of his longtime friend and rival Blue to fetch him.  Nah, Blue's already up and gone to Oak's lab; Red is running late (just like a familiar incarnation of him, though not quite that late).  When he arrives at the lab, he finds Blue...but he's been waiting for Prof. Oak to get back.  Fed up with waiting, Red decides to just wander out to Route 1...only to be stopped by Oak, who drags him back to the lab.  There, he does his talking, and like in PtO, Blue purposely lets Red choose first (rather than the game where Oak directs Red to choose first).  Let's have Oak give both of them Pokédexes now, rather than with the silly package thing later.  Let's also use PtO's idea of having Red choose charmander, which means Blue chooses squirtle.  Oak finishes talking, and Red starts heading out toward the door...but then Blue challenges him to a battle.

Episode 2 (the first battle, and Route 1)

Red and Blue battle, and Red loses the battle.  Blue, being as immature as he is (well, they are both, like, 12 or 13 years old), sneers at Red with a familiar olfactory invocation, before leaving.  Oak comforts Red with some words of encouragement, though, to put the loss into perspective, as he heals Red's charmander.  Red leaves, stop by his house one more time to say bye to his mom, then heads north.  He encounters some wild mons, and realizes that he needs a way to actually catch them (maybe include some images of him trying to chase them down or throw his charmander's ball at them or something).  Runs into a guy offering a sample potion, from the Viridian City item shop staff.  Gets to Viridian, and experiences all those little moments that you'd get from talking to NPCs, including running across disobedient drowzee guy and a grumpy old man.  Red discovers what Pokémon Centers are, and hears talk of the mysterious gym that's closed.  He wanders into a mountainous path beside the city, and is confronted by Blue again...who decides not to challenge him again so soon, but does show off the fact that he's already been catching pokémon, sending out his rattata and nidorans (both kinds).  After Blue walks off, Red continues onward to find some guards asking him if he has badges -- and prohibiting his passage if he doesn't.  Finally, he returns to town, where the old man has had his coffee, apologizes for his earlier grumpiness, and teaches Red how to catch pokémon.  The episode ends with Red, now armed with poké balls from the shop, encountering a pidgey again but intending to catch it.

Episode 3 (Viridian Forest)

With his new knowledge about capturing pokémon, Red captures the pidgey, and then a rattata, and then nidorans F and M.  He then makes his last preparations in town and heads into the Viridian Forest.  The forest is a bit spooky, the foliage is dense...and there are new things to catch!  Red gets a weedle and is going after a caterpie, but then a bug catcher sees him, and challenges him to a battle.  He gets his first win against an opposing trainer, and during after-battle chatter, the trainer talks about a cool bug catcher with a pinsir while Red catches a glimpse of a bright-yellow mon in the distance...but loses track quickly.  After another bug catcher battle, Red finally gets a caterpie...and then learns that he can only keep six mons with him at a time, the rest being teleported to a free repository accessible from special computers at Pokémon Centers.  With more battling, he also discovers evolution, as his weedle evolves into a kakuna, as well as his charmander learning to use its fire affinity with more experience (i.e. learning Ember).  As he leaves the forest, he finally nabs that yellow mon -- a pikachu.  The episode ends with Red walking away from the dense forest, spotting what looks like a side path and a rocky outcrop behind some thick growth, but tired from his adventures in the forest, and out of pokéballs anyway, he follows the path to Pewter City just ahead.

Note: mankey not caught yet.  Alternatively, Red can catch a mankey and have an easy time with the Pewter gym (see below).

Episode 4 (Pewter City)

Arriving in Pewter, Red beelines for the Pokémon Center with its free coffee, healing up his mons and checking out the caterpie and pikachu he just captured.  He talks with some other aspiring trainers who introduce him to type affinities.  He rearranges his team with that in mind, and then explores the rest of the city.  At the shop he remembers to pick up some more poké balls.  He tours the museum and learns about prehistoric pokémon.  He watches a homeowner tending to his garden and learns about repel spray which may or may not be his pee.  Finally, he learns that the local gym, which gives out badges to trainers who best its leader in battle, uses rock-type mons.  Well, this will be interesting...Red's got no mons good against rocks.  He thinks carefully, and ends up putting together some strategy (I'm not sure what, yet...maybe training up a butterfree) that lets him pull off an unexpected and narrow victory against Brock.  With that, he wins his first badge and sets off eastward from the city, toward the gritty dirt paths toward Mt. Moon.

Episode 5 (trainer battles, catching spearow and jigglypuff, Mt. Moon, confronting zubats and rock-types (wild and trained), learns of Team Rocket, learns more about ancient pokémon, receiving two fossils and probably keeping in touch with that pokémaniac, catching zubat and geodude, encountering but not quite catching clefairy)

Episode 6 (catch sandshrew/bellsprout/ekans(?), get to Cerulean, explore town, see a curious cave behind a river, want bike but too expensive, see Team Rocket in town, complete "nugget bridge" (give them some more personality!), catch mew listen to youngster's crazy-talk about legendary pokémon with really great abilities (maybe), meet Bill, challenge Misty for cliffhanger)

Episode 7 (win against Misty, see Team Rocket's aftermath firsthand, discover daycare (can expand on this a lot, maybe actually use it?), discover a trainer who wants to trade (I think this is where one first appears?) and learn about trading, discover guards (who are preventing people from accessing Saffron because of Team Rocket crime), go to Vermilion, explore Vermilion, visit the St. Anne, get Cut HM, help move someone's truck at the docks, encounter and lose to Blue (in the city, instead of on the ship), discover Diglett Cave)

Episode 8 (use Diglett Cave and Cut to fast-return to Viridian, go back to Pallet, visit Mom, visit Oak, get a pokédex rating, get Flash HM, go back to Vermilion refreshed, defeat Surge, get blocked off by things (?), return to Cerulean to go east, spot the Power Plant, get to Rock Tunnel, use Flash HM, get through Rock Tunnel, arrive at Lavender Town)

 

Feel free to tack on more episodes or expand on or tweak ones already described.

Kraken

Every episode should have a Pokemon just screaming for its dear life.

Icalasari

Episode one for the first gym, episode 2 for the first TR plot and Misty. 3 would be for Bill and the SS Anne. 4 Diglett Cave and Surge. 5 would be Erika and the acquisition of the Silph Scope (although it would already be gone since I think the tower was done wonderfully). 6 would be the Pokemon Tower. 7 would be for the Safari Zone and Koga. 8 would be for Silph Company. 9 for Sabrina (SHE IS ENOUGH OF AN ASS TO FIGHT THAT SHE DESERVES A WHOLE EPISODE, DAGNABBIT!). 10 for the Pokemon Mansion and Blaine. 11 for Articuno and Zapdos. 12 for Victory Road and Moltres. 13 for the E4. 14 for Blue. 15 for Mewtwo (really should have had him exploring the cave first, I think). And a final special 16 involving Mew and Missingno. (because dammit Missingno. was a part of our childhoods!)