##———RESOURCES———
Official interviews (the particularly interesting ones are 1 & 4): https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/meet-mizutamari-higashi-the-illustrator-behind-pokemon-twilight-wings/?cid=
* Note: For Interview 4 w/ yama and Yoh Watanabe, read the interview on Sakuga Blog for a slightly better translation, linked in the thread below.
Blog posts (also includes translated credits (and spoilers)): https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1309918154341130241
Resources about specific episodes will be linked below under their respective episode #s.
##\#1
https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1217439742150750208 https://twitter.com/PurpleGeth/status/1217436738349608961 https://artistunknown.info/2020/01/31/sakuga-week-in-review-11-jan-13-2020-jan-19-2020/##\#2
https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1229762751834226688 https://twitter.com/PurpleGeth/status/1229785519959289858 Goddamn... it just keeps getting better and better!!! There were so many details in this episode with how it portrayed Bea's tunnel-vision with how she left her phone in the cab, how she left in a sandstorm since she didn't want to put the Corviknight in danger (probably also for her own training), all the way down to the climax of the ep. when she found their way out of the cave. With the light shining on her face, the prospect of success blinded her and took her focus away from what was right in front of her. She was so laser focused on her future that she didn't realize her present mental and physical condition, but her Pokemon were able to snap her out of it with their kindness. 😭##\#3
https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1239920778826711046 A Hop and Wooloo ep, lots of great tidbits here. A recurring theme is definitely the characters having big ambitions and looking too far into the future, and this especially makes sense with Hop considering his character arc in the game. Wooloo feeling inferior, thinking that Hop would rather it be big and strong like Leon's Charizard (This also ties in nicely with (EP. 7 SPOILERS) how this differs from Leon's goals of wanting to inspire his audience to pursue their own dreams, not for the glory of being a renowned figure). The scene of him looking down at Milo showing his love for his own farm of Wooloo was particularly good, making us believe that Hop's Wooloo was feeling envious towards them, when in reality it was just a needed reminder that Hop feels the exact same way towards it, that he wants to get to the Pokemon League with Wooloo as Wooloo, not posing as anything else. This is the good shit 😭 kViN makes a great point here and Yamashita himself points out here the parallel between Hop and John—whereas Hop views Leon as an aspirational figure, as a goal for his own journey as a Pokemon trainer, John merely watches Leon's matches in awe, not really believing he could become a trainer himself—he states that his lifelong dream is to watch Leon's match in-person, not become a trainer himself.##\#4
https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1251132706714537991 https://twitter.com/PurpleGeth/status/1251021038810468352 This episode speaks for itself (but also read the two threads above), absolutely incredible... An ep by yama himself and AD'd by team iM@S legend Sunao Chikaoka, these unique creators led the production perfectly by letting each individual creator show their own idiosyncrasies, exemplified most notably by none other than BAHI JD.##\#5
####THE MAKARIA EPISODE!!!
Definitely read kViN's thread, the way he noticed these visual parallels and how they applied narratively to Oleana and the environment around her... I wish I could be that observant and be able to connect the dots like that.
##\#6
https://twitter.com/PurpleGeth/status/1278932973849542656 https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/1278940349923307526 https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1279119493940289541 wowowow this episode... For it only being 6 minutes long, it's incredibly dense with information without feeling overwhelming at all. Kariya's supervision being expressive, varied yet deliberate, is a given (and you should read the threads above to see more about that), but this episode being both about Allister and continuing the threads introduced in ep 1 makes for an incredibly compelling episode. The first scene in the hospital is incredibly telling in how close Tommy is to John, even though it's of them getting into a fight. Just as he related to John's dreams of someday getting discharged from the hospital and becoming a Trainer, so too did he relate to John's feelings of stagnancy and frustration. And just as Allister overcame his fear of people to protect their shared dream (look at this good detail of his Pokemon pushing him along 😭), so too did Tommy overcome his own hopeless feelings towards his own dream in order to support John with his own dreams, to overcome his own struggles and weak physique. That shared connection between, not just with people, but with their Pokemon as well, having these figures on the same journey as them to support them on their own journey has always been the most compelling part of Anipoke, and in this little mini-series Yamashita was able to lead a team to convey that message more powerfully than anything else in the franchise.Also I'm not entirely sure about the implications here... The only thing that seems plausible is that Tommy is actually dead, which is why he had to ask Allister to indirectly make things up with John in his place by giving him an invitation to Leon's match (otherwise, why wouldn't he just go talk to John at any point during the day?). It checks out as well (if you ignore the dub...), since no one actually talks to Tommy himself except for John who seems to have a special connection to Tommy (or maybe he's just an imaginary friend of his). If this is the case, it completely changes things, because then John would've seen first-hand a case where someone had the same dream as him and wasn't able to achieve it. The series would then have this interesting new angle that you could look at it from, where Tommy isn't just a friend, but a symbol to John, a constant reminder of the possibility of failure and the constant, irreversible state of leaving the world with the regret of not being able to fulfill his dream... There is a resolution to this though that ultimately keeps the message positive and uplifting. With the ghost of Tommy encouraging John to reach for his own dream in spite of his own failure, to never give up on overcoming the obstacles that Tommy wasn't able to, and for John to view his journey as entirely as his own—he shouldn't compare himself to the unfortunate end of Tommy's journey, nor to the absolute ideal of his dream that Leon symbolizes for him.
And ofc, this is just one interpretation of many that could be made. Remember, Yamashita made it intentionally ambiguous precisely to allow for different interpretations of the series that encourages each viewer to pay close attention to every detail on screen. You should always (re-)watch the series and decide what feels the most emotionally resonant to you. Personally, I like the simpler version where Tommy is alive bc it focuses on how close the two are, and how they share all the same feelings—both the positive and negative ones. And Tommy encouraging John being as much of a message to John as it is to himself is such a positive look on their relationship that I can't really think about it in any other way.
##\#7
https://twitter.com/PurpleGeth/status/1291415605137080320 What a way to top the series off... To have the ambition to dream bigger, no matter the circumstances. This is what John saw in Leon the first time he watched him, that underneath the fact that he's an accomplished trainer in his own right, what he really wanted wasn't the fame nor the glory, but to inspire people just like John to never compromise on their own dreams. That's what makes this part so powerful—a visual parallel that has an actual narrative purpose behind it. So fitting, then, that John's first encounter with him in-person isn't in some grand stadium, but on an unplanned, random canyon that Leon found himself in after getting lost. This recontextualizes Leon's role as champion in John's mind—not as this unreachable figure, but as someone who has his own flaws and got to that point by overcoming the struggles on his own journey. By wearing his individuality on his sleeve, he leads by example, not by means of pedastalizing himself. And to have the final, after-credits scene be the player characters hitching the same ride to the same open blue sky that John shared with Leon, the message is clear as can be: through the immersive world of Pokemon, we're encouraged to do the very same in our own lives, whatever our ambitions may be.This is what makes the pure passion on display—exemplified through the utterly breathtaking and flashy action setpieces—narratively justified. This is coming from an entire team of artists & creators, most of whom have grown up just as we have in the "Pokemon generation", with Pokemon as a pivotal influence in their lives. This series is serving as a benchmark for their own accomplishments in their respective careers; they're all normal people who are striving for their own dreams, so there's no reason why you can't do the same. Pokemon is an escapist outlet for many of us, which in itself is now more important than ever, but even beyond that is able to inspire real, positive change in the lives of many, and no other installment in the series illustrates this more clearly than Twilight Wings.
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