With the departure of Ash Ketchum, the Pokémon anime is currently all about looking to the future. There are new protagonists, new 'mon and new adventures, but while we wait for this series to air in the West (whenever that may be), there has been a nice bit of news about the show's prior series as the scripts for two cancelled episodes have been made readily available online (thanks, The Gamer).
Back in the Pokémon Black and White anime run in 2011, the two-parter was cancelled at the last minute following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster — some of the events of which unfortunately aligned with certain plot points in the episodes. At the time, it was said that these episodes would simply air at a later date, but no such re-run ever took place.
While it doesn't look likely that we are ever going to be able to watch these lost episodes, we can now read them after the original scripts were posted online.
Scans of these scripts were found by Bulbagarden user Maku Atherton who, after being verified, started a fundraiser to purchase the texts from the owner. The fundraising was later cancelled as the owner decided to release the script pages for free (you can find the Japanese originals here) and they have since received an English translation.
A breakdown of the scripts' recovery process was shared on Twitter by @Akilvers. You can find this and the original preview of the episodes (aired prior to their cancellation) in the following tweet:
Of course, there is no guarantee that either of the scripts (translated or original) would completely match the episode's finished product, but they both give a good idea of what went down between Team Rocket and Team Plasma.
It might not be the full animation, but this is a neat win for those with an eye for Pokémon anime history all the same.