Pokémon Live-Action TV Series Gets Its First Trailer

Looks cool. Will watch if it ends up here.

So glad I am learning Japanese! Now I understand…exactly zero words that they said lol. (I just started)

Good trailer, will watch.

«The series will tell the story of Madoka Akagi, a young girl who moves to Tokyo and becomes enthralled with the world of Pokémon when her mother gifts her a Game Boy and a copy of Pokémon Red.»
If this series gets transcreated like other Pokémon media, then, I think, all Japanese things will be changed to American/European. And this girl, Madoka Akagi, will be renamed to Alana Kim or Eva Cheng or something similar. Or, there would be an American remake of this series.

Oh, I thought it was going to be a period piece set in the 90s. That would have been really interesting to watch, to see the early days of its popularity. Since Pokémon started in Japan and then went to America before arriving in the UK, it was pretty much a giant phenomenon before it even got here, with the game appearing at the same time as the cards, the anime, and a whole skip full of merch. Would have been cool to see how Japanese people reacted to it sight unseen, how word of mouth spread etc. Not really interested in seeing some 20 year old hipster playing a Game Boy Pocket in 2023

Wow, this trailer looked so boring.

@Exerion76 this. I kept waiting for pokemon to pop up in world like it was Detective Pikachu: The TV Show.

I dunno; it looks kinda charming in a goofy way. But, really, if it's just a sitcom in which the characters play pokemon, then it's only going to be worth watching if the characters have...well...character.

Lol i was waiting for a charmander to jump out of her bag 😂 but nice trailer!

I saw the screencap at the top of the article and thought: isekai.

Turns out, not an isekai.

Okay.

I actually really like the idea of her thinking of the challenges in her life like getting a new job, studying, dealing with arguments, building relationships etc as if she is playing pokemon, battling, leveling up through stress and day to day challenges, grinding through boring tasks because you have a bigger goal in mind...

Gamifying your life in your mind like this can be very helpful and is recommended by lots of self help style books. Helps you rationalise the daily grind, and find motivation to do self improving tasks, working out, eating healthily etc rather than procrastinating and doing whats easy and fun in the short term, but harms your future self, health, finances, relationships etc.

I personally find that gamifying difficult tasks with long term rewards is super helpful. Using apps like DuoLingo for languages, learning a musical instriment, or gym, fitness and diet apps, online study courses etc. Just seeing the little progress, gaining xp or seeing the graph go up makes it feel fun and rewarding and appeals to the same part of my brain as progressing in a game. Leveling up your real life rather than an avatar. It's the same reason I love working in creative mediums like writing, art, music, making games and films... its fun, but you can feel that you are making progress and improving every day.

Anyway, seems like that's what this show is about, and done in a creative and fun way. Sure, it's a lot easier and cheaper to film this kind of show than doing a 90s period piece with cgi pokemon... but I actually think this concept is more interesting. The animation is a better way to flesh out the actual game story and characters.

I really want to watch it. I was afraid of a live action like detective pikachu. This is interesting.

Love this take! I LOVED Detective Pikachu, so this is a nice change but I hope we get live action films without humans one day.

A dungeons film would be insane!

@samuelvictor Pokemon gameplay if it were real life lol

Is there a way to stream TV Tokyo with subtitles in the US?? I'm so excited for this show! I love K- and J-Dramas, and this is the perfect theme for one!

Might be unpopular opinion, but that looks terrible. I thought it would at least have Pokemon in it; but it appears to be about a women playing the original game.

@Vivianeat Haha yeah exactly. Thouh I love Pokemon, for myself I've always seen it more like a traditional RPG where I'm levelling up myself to improve my life - all my stats like health, strength, money, love, kindness etc. Not sure where the actual Pokemon would come into it... though I do have a habit of buying plushies that I don't need but totally do.

@dkxcalibur Yes it is, but more about how playing the game affected her view on life and how she intuits lessons from the it to level up and progress IRL by imagining she's part of the game. If it was just a standard soap opera style drama where she keeps stopping to play Gameboy that would be pretty boring! lol

Looks great. It is a telenovela with people playing Pokemon and is exactly what I was expecting. Very excited for Pokemon Concierge as well. You love to see it.

Looks to be what I expected, a slice-of-life show with the main draw being about playing the classic Pokemon games (and maybe the recent ones if the kid playing on Switch is any indication).
Oh well, I may give it a watch since I do like a good "cozy" show, even more if its from the Asian TV market.

This is so cute! Using the parallel of games to get through life's daily drama.

@fabiop Did you not like that movie?

Reminds me of that Final Fantasy Dad of Light show or whatever. never saw it but always thought it looked super cute.

@demacho no, bought the bluray for one pound. Gave it to a charity shop 😂

Come back to me when we get a subbed version. I still can't understand Japanese.

You can watch them on catchup service TVer with VPN. The service is free to use but will be one episode to watch after airing for one week only.

@fabiop haha. at least you gave it a shot

Here is the thing.

I know ... I KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, based on multiple studies including one I was part of as well as a strong understanding of the underlying technology, that blowing on the cartage doesn't help and over time makes things worse.

But I'm going to do it anyways. Every time.

There is also a reference here to her having a special ritual around how the Poké Ball bounces to increase catch rate ... another thing I know does nothing that I will NEVER STOP DOING.

This looks great and really relatable.

Part of the fun of playing video games is having it relate to some aspect of your life (or vice versa), so this show seems like it'll hit the right notes.

Also, that trailer reminded me just how butt-ugly some of the early monster designs were.

@Frogspree

You should work for tv tokyo

@demacho That FF show about a kid and his dad is ultra forgettable. I KNOW I've watched it, but I remember next to nothing about it. And I usually remember everything about shows I've watched.

@demacho yes 😀 the part I hated the most was the voice acting. Story was stupid but hey…. Children movie I could not expect a k-drama plot 😂

@Vexx234 Wow is my favourite word for expressing boredom.

@Maxz Same!

Wow. Dissapointed not a single pokemon.

Why did she blow into a brand new game straight out of the box 😂