The final episode. It's very fun. "Mewtwo~"
0:07: Um, why is Green using a map based on the
original Red & Blue Kanto? Shouldn't her map more
look like it did in Let's Go, you know, where they replaced Cycling Road with Pokemon Road?
0:07: Anyway, wonder what those other circled locations are supposed to be. They're around Viridian City, Viridian Forest, Indigo Plateau, Celadon City, and Vermillion City (and of course
Unknown Dungeon Cerulean Cave). I don't recall those locations having hints to Mewtwo (other than Viridian City & Celadon City involving Team Rocket stuff).
0:23: Forgot Green gives you both of Mewtwo's Mega Stones... where did she find those?
0:23: Also, I think this is the first time we've seen Revives in an animated series. There's also a Pokemon GO version of a Potion, I think the green bottle is Burn Heal, and the Let's Go version of the Silph Scope.
0:40: Hey, Trace actually looks decent now that he's not a squished chibi.
0:48: Did Professor Oak not tell Green that he brought on two other trainers to help in completing the Pokedex? She seems shocked Trace has the same research as she does.
0:53: Heh, that's cute. It's the Nugget Bridge Trainers though now the Pokemon they used in the Let's Go games are fully evolved.
1:04: Is that the Team Rocket recruiter? At this point isn't Team Rocket disbanded?
1:53: So, later me coming back to add this in, why is Mewtwo there? We see later in the episode that while Green & Trace are racing through the cave that Elaine would be battling & trying to catch it. Even if this is before Elaine engages it in proper battle, like, wouldn't Mewtwo's attention still be on Elaine since she's furthest into its lair? BTW I have nothing witty/observant to really say about the Green & Trace race so...
4:17: Did they forgot to add the background? Why is Elaine is a white void and not colored in?
4:37: Suddenly things got cartoony.
6:13: I don't like baths. KAMAHAMEHA!
6:17: That was a weird de-evolution; Fading back to the normal form.
7:00: Hey, you're supposed to throw several Poke Balls into their face, animators don't get lazy now.
7:00: Though Green's zaniness does give us one of the few rare (official) times we see Mewtwo without a serious face.
7:23: What do you mean? You saw Mewtwo, it should be registered in your Pokedex. Also is this implying Green has the Legendary Birds? Or does she still not know that Trace and Elaine are also helping Professor Oak with the Pokedex?
7:44: Green, you didn't figure that out from seeing Trace also having Oak's research? Also, didn't you receive your Starter around the same time as Red & Blue? Did you find another Charmander and Bulbasaur and raised them? And going back to the Legendary Birds, if you didn't catch them then someone else had to for them to be in the Pokedex, right? Your personality is quirky, not stupid.
7:56: I knew Blue was evil all along, just look at the way he's sitting in that chair, all he's missing in the wine glass!
7:59: Red is going to be so excited when they discover Mt. Silver so he doesn't have to stand around at the Pokemon League.
8:14: Did Elaine just pat Green's butt?
8:21: So guess Oak is talking with Willow about Meltan & Melmetal? Would have been a neater easter egg if Oak had actually said "Willow".
8:32: Yes Oak, there is, infact 100 more Pokemon can be found in the region to the left of Kanto that you share a Pokemon League with (I think it's called Jahta, Jehte, Jhiti, Jhutu...)! I have no clue how you didn't notice them before (or how Pokemon you have in your current Dex have further evolutions and pre-evolutions). I think Oak not remembering his grandson's name isn't the only thing his memory is failing him at doing...
8:40: Why is Pikachu making rodent noises? Pikachu literally says its name now, and starting with Let's Go so does Eevee.
8:42: Hey, it's the "Technology is amazing" guy!
EPISODE FINAL THOUGHTS: It was a fun episode and nice for them to focus on Green so she could stand more alongside Red & Blue. Kind of sad she isn't as quirky as she was in the games throughout the episode but she still had those moments (though they felt more included because she did it in the game rather then something this character would do naturally from what we saw of her at the beginning and race with Trace, though her swinging on the stalactites with Victreebel was a fun solution to her not having a Flying-type to keep up with Trace). Speaking of which I like we see that she's not only a strong trainer but also resourceful and quick thinking (dodging around the Graveler, helping Trace when he's being swarmed by Zubat). The Green & Elaine battle sadly wasn't that exciting (something I sort of notice with this series, unless they're a main focal point of the story the battles are pretty disappointing with them ending usually in one hit).
Though there were moments the episode threw me off. The cartoony interactions when Green first encounters Elaine, Green not realizing that others were also helping Professor Oak even though she saw Trace with the research notes. They didn't really detract from the episode and wouldn't knock points from it, it was just something that felt off. But overall a good episode, I'll give it an A if only to end the series on a good note.
SERIES FINAL THOUGHTS: Evolutions on the whole is great. Even if the episodes were hit or miss, it had gorgeous animation and even the "miss" episodes were just simply retellings of events that happened in the games which for some scenes never were animated so neat to see as such. I like the idea of focusing on a single notable character and essentially retelling at least part of the story through that character's perspective, sometimes giving us some new insights on them. I wouldn't mind them doing an Evolution 2, though I'm also curious what's the Pokemon Company next series of shorts will be. So a quick thought wrap-up of each episode
- Favorite: The Plan (I'll admit bias here, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking it's at least a great episode. We learn a bit more about what happened with both Ghetsis and N that the player wouldn't have seen & the battle between N & Alder was nicely done having both suspense and plot importance).
- Great: The Champion (Nice to see a side of Leon that isn't all smiles and there's a person behind that cape who gone through a humbling if not traumatic experience but is able to pull himself up with help from his partner Pokemon), The Show (While not exactly character focused and entirely a visual feast, it's the ton of neat small details such as the festival, dressing room clutter, and how Pokemon help with the special effects that really pushes it higher), The Discovery (Glad Green (and to an extent Trace) got an episode to shine and also Let's Go given a fair shake).
- Good But Faulty: The Eclipse (Happy to see a game accurate portrayal of Lillie's story and the battle between Lunala & Necrozma was unexpected and awesome; But it ended with very little bite as it ends with Necrozma absorbing Lunala leaving Lillie only able to scowl as Selene pretty much takes over), The Rival (It was certainly Barry's story from the games... and that's really all we got), The Wish (Another visual feast, but unlike The Wish there wasn't really anything lifting it above that it was just a more visual retelling of ORAS's Sky Pillar ascension, not even an official depiction of Aster).
- Disappointing: The Visionary (PLEASE, can we move on from Lysandre? There's nothing left to tell about him. There was barely anything left to tell about him for Evolutions! Okay, fine, we got his freak out scene and blowing up the Ultimate Weapon, we're done. Though that said, even what was there was awkwardly done with the 1HKO battles and Lysandre having this weird calm pose before freaking out).
I enjoyed this episode and the series as a whole quite a bit...way more than the regular series and probably even more than Generations and Twilight Wings.
Hmm, where would I place Evolutions? Honestly I'd be more willing to rank episode by episode than deciding what series was better than the other since they're all episodic. But, gun to head, I'll say my top would still be Generations, then Evolutions, with Twilight Wings in third but all still very much neck-to-neck with one another (guess if we want to include them, PokeToons would be fourth though it's really episodic with each episode having a different style).
There's still those "Storyboard" videos I gotta look through. Nothing major, just neat to see if there was anything in them that was cut from the final for whatever reason.