"GOTCHA!" JUST GETS IT

WAI KWAN WU- Third Year, Molecular Cell Biology

chikorita is my favorite pokemon

The last few years have been quite something for animation in Pokemon. The ol’ reliable in the main anime had trucked on for its historical number of years before giving a great send-off as Ash finally became the best in the world, with Pokemon Horizons taking its place as a bold reinterpretation. Meanwhile, we’ve gotten a multitude of animated shorts that have managed to capture so much of the Pokemon world that we so love, whether it be Twilight Wing’s poignant beauty or Poketoons’ endless charm. It’s a testament to the adoration that Pokemon receives that we’ve seen talented people from across the industry really emerge to highlight so many great things about it. That said, it should really come as no surprise that Rie Matsumoto’s “Gotcha!” happens to stand out even amongst the past few years’ many givings, in a way that just gets the franchise like no other.

I’m writing for the Bones Issue, but it’s pretty important to highlight the specific people that are behind the production here. It’s definitely interesting to see the trajectory of Rie Matsumoto’s career, who got her start with the Precure franchise at Toei Animations. It is also with this franchise where Matsumoto first worked with fellow Toei animator Yuki Hayashi, whose name will continue to pop up. At Toei, Matsumoto will eventually come to direct her very own magnum opus in Kyousougiga with Hayashi behind the character designs, and it is quite easily a match made in heaven: Hayashi’s joyful sensibilities as an animator translate very well into designs that work well with Matsumoto’s eclectic direction. Matsumoto will then join Bones to direct Blood Blockade Battlefront, which happens to be her last directed series as she seems to have now transitioned to making short music videos entirely. Matsumoto is joined by Hayashi again on Baby I Love You Daze, a short Lotte commercial, with Hayashi hinting at similar collaborations between the two in the future. This would turn out to be none other than “Gotcha!” which brings us here today.

I bring this up because Matsumoto and Hayashi’s influence on this short is felt in every corner of “Gotcha!” and more specifically, the aesthetics presented here do a wonderful job of conveying so much of the personality that is captured within this little short. Hayashi’s designs are effortlessly charming and do a great job of giving an appealing look to these characters that appear only within this short. There is a really great goofy take on the Pokemon of the main characters, whether it be the smug poker face Pikachu or the ridiculously happy Eevee. Pokemon designs are already great as they are, but the exaggeration of their features and shapes are excellent at accentuating the goofy charm of these ‘mons. The actual human characters are given a lot of charisma as well, between the strong drawings or silly fun features that they are given. Even some of the previously existing characters are highlighted with plentiful personality, such as Blue’s smugness being turned up even harder with sharpened look and shading, or Marnie giving a little pout. It’s pretty common to see comments like “THIS is what anime should be like” whenever these works come about. While it is a pretty tired take, can you really blame anyone for thinking this way when the supervision so clearly understands the appeal of these characters and executes them with this much charm?

At its core, “Gotcha!” is very much about capturing the nostalgia of the franchise and highlighting how far it has come along in its history. The opening few seconds of the short capture this immediately, with the song coming in with the simple chimes and the guitar building in. There’s very much a “summer days” feeling that this evokes, and any fan would immediately spot how the opening shot features four men walking along railroad tracks—the very film that plays on the TV in the player character’s house in Pokemon Red, where the journey first started. The compositing of the lighting is also key for getting the nostalgic tones across, with the naturalistic approach to light as well as slight sepia tones. In general throughout the short, we see Matsumoto playing quite a bit with the compositing to capture that very sense of nostalgia. This concept is particularly at the forefront with the sections that depict the most iconic champions and battles in the series. There is a very distinctly stylized cel-like look that is applied to those segments, an aesthetic that is obviously reminiscent of older anime but taken just a little further in the approach. The result works very well, and there is a clear feeling of history that is felt right as Gold squares off against Red on the top of Mount Silver.

Nostalgia is not the only thing that “Gotcha!” has in its bag though, as it also manages to present the many sides of the Pokemon world with aplomb. Pokemon is a franchise with lots of different aspects that appeal to everyone in different ways, and “Gotcha!” does a great job of capturing those little idiosyncrasies in a way that all comes back to a sense of awe in all of it. There’s the quirkiness: the billboard segment that takes us on a tour through the different gym leaders, painted with the personalities of their respective types. There’s the mystique: silhouettes of Pokemon legends flashing across buildings, a tried-and-true aesthetic that harkens back to Digimon Tamers There’s, of course, the coolness of it all: strong effects animation and camerawork that elevates the hype of the different battles that are showcased. The storyboarding also does a great job of highlighting the cool legacy that is involved within the franchise; Matsumoto has one mode and that’s using eyes as a motif to emphasize the connection between the characters, and you have cool match cuts that accentuate how time has passed. There’s something that’s larger-than-life about this approach that really appeals to me. It’s all depicted with so much detail and grandeur that everything just works as a celebration of the franchise.