Pokémon Day – Pokémon ‘Bridged January 1, 2013

We’re coming to the end of Pokémon Day on the site and I wanted to conclude it with the thing that restarted my interest in Pokémon after over ten years.  As I said before in my earlier articles I had an interest in Pokémon back when the original generation was released back in the late 90s for the Game Boy, but that was simply relegated to watching the anime and watching my friends play the game during lunch back in High School.

Then, at Quinni-Con 2012 back in April, I met two of the creators of the series Pokémon ‘Bridged, and my interest in the pocket monsters fired right back up.  Pokémon ‘Bridged is a YouTube series where the original Pokémon animated series is cut down and redubbed with entirely new dialog…a lot of which is highly inappropriate for young children to listen to.  It’s just hilarious in how completely out there it is.

I think what made the series stick with me coming out of that panel was when I met 1KidsEntertainment and Nowacking for the first time, two of the principal cast members for the series.  I could tell that the series was being made by true fans of the subject material.  Legally, they could not make any profit on the episodes they produced, so it must have been a great labor of love for them.  They also reference the original games several times.  It is clear that while they are using the original TV show as a framework for the animation, they reference being inside a video game several times, to hilariously anachronistic effect.

In this series, Ash is a total idiot, Brock is a total creep, Misty is out of her mind, and Pikachu is…well…you’ll have to see for yourselves.

Episodes of Pokémon ‘Bridged can be found on the YouTube Channel for 1KidsEntertainment, but here are some of my absolute favorite episodes.

The series creators recommend this episode for new viewers.  It is a re-release of the first episode they ever did.  Instead of just redoing the episode with improved technology, they wrote entirely new jokes that referenced episodes they hadn’t even released yet.  It’s a great first episode to watch as it tells the quick story of how Ash got started on his quest to be a Grand Pokémon Master.

In Episode 2 we meet Officer Jenny for the first time.  Yeah, not how I pictured her.

This is Episode 4.  They’re still in the Veridian forest.

Next up is Episode 6.  If you’ve ever been interested in knowing just how to meet someone special…DO NOT use this episode as a dating guide!

In Episode 7, Ash visits Cerulian City to battle Misty’s sisters…but Misty only had one sister.  There were problems with the machine.

In Episode 8, the gang finds a Charmander.  Misty loves it making her a disgrace to water trainers everywhere.  Ash thought if he put it in the rain it would get stronger.

In Episode 11 the gang meets Gym Leader Lt. Surge.  What a nice guy.

In Episode 14 we hear Professor Oak talk about his obsession with husks of corn.

For episode 15, they decided to take the animation for a later season of the show and use that as the framework for an episode.  There are some great call backs to earlier parts of the series, and a great moment with Team Rocket.  Just how many times do you think they have to do that introduction of theirs a day?

And finally here is Episode 16, the most recent episode.  Ash battles Sabrina, who can probably hear everything he thinks, and they visit super happy fun town which doesn’t look like anything I just described.

Well guys, that brings us to the end of Pokémon Day here on the site.  I want to thank you all for visiting the site and wish you all a very Happy New Year!