Pokémon: Origins
ポケットモンスター THE ORIGIN (Pokemon: The Origin)
- Action
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Fantasy
- Organized Crime
- Pets
- Video Game
- Episodes
- 4
- Duration
- 21 min per ep
- Aired
- Oct 2, 2013
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Pokémon come in countless shapes and types, each with its own powers, quirks, and personality. Renowned researcher Dr. Yukinari Ookido has spent his life studying them, but fieldwork is essential—so he equips two new Trainers with their first Pokémon and a digital encyclopedia designed to record every discovery. One is Green, Ookido’s bold and prideful nephew; the other is Red, driven by the same passion but guided by an earnest sense of wonder.
Pokémon: Origins follows Red across the Kanto region as he works to fill the Pokédex by catching and documenting Pokémon. His journey pushes him through Gym battles that mark the path to the Pokémon League, where the Elite Four stand between him and the title of Champion. Along the way, Red must also confront Trainers who exploit Pokémon for darker purposes, including the criminal group Team Rocket, testing both his resolve and the bonds he forms with his partners.
Otaku Consensus
Pokémon: Origins earns its reputation as the franchise’s sharpest nostalgia project by favoring game-accurate direction, grounded designs, and battles with more physical impact than the long-running TV anime. Its four-episode format gives the Kanto material unusual momentum, especially when Team Rocket pushes the tone darker, but that same compression is the recurring complaint: fans repeatedly call it a 24-episode adventure squeezed into a premium-looking special.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Pokémon: Origins if you want the Kanto fantasy filtered through the original game’s logic rather than the weekly mascot rhythm of Ash’s anime. It scratches the same adaptation itch as Dragon Quest: Your Story or the best game-faithful OVA projects: recognizable systems, brisk milestone storytelling, and fan-service that comes from accuracy rather than cameos. The appeal is in the texture: Pokémon using cries closer to the games, fights staged with harder hits, a single-Pikachu world, and character designs that feel older and less toy-commercial. If your ideal Pokémon anime is compact, battle-forward, and built for players who memorized routes, Gym order, and rival energy, this is the leanest official version of that fantasy. If you need long-form party bonding, the four-episode runtime will feel punishing.
Key Characters
- GGreen Ookido(VA: Takuya Eguchi)
Green is remembered less as a comic foil than as a competitive pressure point, giving the special a colder, game-rival edge than the Gary-style TV dynamic.
- RRed(VA: Junko Takeuchi)
Red works because the special treats him as a player-avatar hero with visible growth in battle judgment rather than as a gag-driven mascot handler.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The production is credited to OLM, Production I.G, and Xebec, a notable studio combination for a four-episode Pokémon special rather than a standard weekly run.
- 2
Origins uses a deliberately compressed structure: four episodes aired on October 2, 2013 to cover a game-shaped Kanto progression, which gives it speed but also causes the most-cited weakness, skipped development.
- 3
Critics and fans repeatedly singled out the battle animation for smoother complicated movement and stronger physical impact, with web commentary noting that fights feel slightly more violent than the main TV anime.
- 4
The audio presentation leans closer to the games, including Pokémon cries that fans specifically praised as more authentic than the usual character-voice approach.
- 5
The first and final episodes had different credited directors, Itsurou Kawasaki for episode 1 and Daiki Tomiyasu for episode 4, giving the special a bookended production profile rather than a single-director showcase.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Satoshi Tajiri is credited as original creator and Ken Sugimori as original character designer, tying the special directly to the creative identities behind the earliest Pokémon games.
- Fun fact 2
- Tsunekazu Ishihara served as supervisor, a significant credit because Origins was positioned as a brand-controlled anniversary-style adaptation rather than an ordinary side story.
- Fun fact 3
- The soundtrack credits are split between Hiroaki Hayama and Shouta Kageyama, while Masafumi Mima handled sound direction and Shizuo Kurahashi handled sound effects.
- Fun fact 4
- On database reception, Origins sits at a 7.74 MyAnimeList score from 165,805 votes and a 75/100 AniList score, reflecting strong fan approval despite frequent frustration over its length.
- Fun fact 5
- Junko Takeuchi, best known to anime fans as a powerhouse shounen lead voice, voices Red, while Takuya Eguchi voices Green, giving the central rivalry a more serious vocal texture than the main Pokémon anime’s early comedy style.
Studios
- OLM
- Production I.G
- Xebec
