Japanese Episode 002

Something I really like about this particular episode is how skillfully the show handles its cast introductions. Showing off everyone's roles and personalities by throwing them all into a dire situation right from the get-go is a fantastically efficient way of introducing us to the Rising Volteccers, with Friede, Orio, and Mollie being the stand-outs of the episode. The quick cutaways to each crew member doing their jobs gives this action packed episode that much more of a frantic feel while also highlighting the great sense of teamwork we'll be seeing from this team from here on out. Some characters don't get a chance to shine just yet (Murdock the cook isn't super useful in a high speed chase scenario, and Landau isn't super useful in general) but that's fine; this is still only Episode 2, after all.

We do get a brand new Pokémon debut in the form of Terapagos. When the episode came out we knew about the Scarlet & Violet DLC and so seeing something that looks sorta-kinda like the bejeweled tortoise Pokémon from that second wave of DLC was really exciting. It got everyone even more hyped up for the new series which, again, is exactly what you want to do with a series premiere like this.

The episode also introduces us to Conisch's action and battle themes, and they are, as expected, absolutely top notch. One of my personal complaints about Yuki Hayashi's score for Pocket Monsters (2019) was that it was good music, in and of itself, but that it took a really long while for it to actually start to feel like good Pokémon music. It got there eventually, I'd say, but there was a pretty long while where it kind of just felt like leftovers from one of his My Hero Academia scores played over Pokémon visuals. The music for Pocket Monsters (2023) doesn't suffer from any of those same problems. It blends into the series right away while still retaining its own identity, an impressive feat for a show that, again, is still only two episodes in. It's a really fantastic soundtrack, which is even more of a reason to be upset with TPCi's complete disregard for it.

Speaking of the English dub this episode gives us a better look at the show's supporting cast and how TPCi's going to handle them. Mollie and Orla and Landlow all sound perfectly fine, and Liko sounds great a good 95% of the time. The only member of the regular crew I'm not the biggest fan of right now is Murdock. The voice itself is fine, I guess, but it also sounds like his voice actor's doing a Samuel L Jackson impersonation. Maybe I've watched too many of the MCU projects that've come out this year, but Mr. Jackson's voice is seriously all I can think of whenever I hear Murdock speak. It's something about the intonation, or the cadence, or the swagger he gives the character...I can't put my finger on it but I know there's something off about it. It actually kind of makes me worried how Murdock's cooking episode will turn out later in the season because I don't think this current acting choice is the right fit for this character. The potential for a fantastic Murdock performance is absolutely there, I just think it needs a few tweaks / alternate line readings to make it work.

Captain Pikachu keeps its Japanese voice.

Side Note
The Japanese version doesn't play its opening theme at the beginning of the episode (that won't start until the third episode) and so it puts its opening credits during the flashback to the previous episode instead.

Music Edit
On the music front, we've still got a 100% replacement background music score. I don't have high hopes for the rest of the series getting any better, unfortunately.

The opening theme to the English dub is a brand new song created just for the English dub called Becoming Me. It's a roughly 30 second little ditty that takes select clips from the first Japanese opening, Dokimeki Diary, and then rearranges them to fit the new melody of the English theme.

Probably the most amusing part of the new dub opening is how TPCi Mike Wazowskis pretty much everyone in the cast by thoughtlessly slapping the show's logo front and center, obscuring the overwhelming majority of the show's cast in the process.

Dialogue Edit
The script for this episode is absolutely phenomenal. The only piece of dialogue in the English dub that's even a little bit different from the Japanese version is this line from Friede in the first half. It happens right after Liko meets all the cute Pokémon onboard.

Paint Edit
The text that says "Captain Pikachu" (キャプテンピカチュウ) during the character's introduction screen gets removed from the dub.

Eyecatch
The show's commercial break eyecatches are actually left in for the dub! Is this the first time a non-"Who's That Pokémon?" Japanese eyecatch has been retained for the dub?

Click on each image to view a larger version.

Video Edit
Just like in the last episode, the text "To Be Continued" gets removed from the dub.

Music Edit
The Japanese version uses what is usually the show's opening theme,

Side Note / Cut -- 45 seconds
Starting from this episode, the show has a post-episode segment called Dr. Friede's Pokémon Seminar (フリード博士のポケモンゼミ).