I showed up to an early preview of Detective Pikachu in my full-body Pikachu jammies, fueled by 20 years of Pokemon nostalgia and an insatiable love of bad movies, so there was no way I wasn’t going to like this thing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxQ1BhlnE6e/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Even so, you can imagine my delight when it proved to be not a so-bad-it’s-good travesty of Pokemon fandom, but legitimately good, entirely worthy of my Pikajams, and perhaps the only recent piece of entertainment (other than Avengers: Endgame) that has actually respected the dedication of its fans.
Based upon the 3DS game, Detective Pikachu follows once-aspiring Pokemon trainer-turned-insurance drone Tim Goodman as be begrudgingly teams up with a talking Pikachu to investigate the death of his detective father. Given what I’ve read of the game (I haven’t played it), it actually seems to be a pretty fair adaptation, but let’s be real, no one is seeing this movie for adaptive accuracy. We’re seeing it so we can squeal at the absurd miracle of getting 1) a big-budget Pokemon movie in which 2) Pikachu is voiced by Ryan FREAKING Reynolds and 3) the fan artist responsible for the “creepy realistic Pokemon” series was tapped to help design the Pokemon for the big screen. It’s not a perfect movie (I’ll get to that in a bit), but for our particular audience, Detective Pikachu is a treasure.
It’s unabashedly a fanservice movie, but it’s a fanservice movie done right. It watches as if the filmmakers somehow delved into all our Pokefan heads, found what we most wanted to see on screen, and then crafted a plot that allowed us to see it in a way that (mostly) made narrative sense. We get to see many of our favorite Pokemon, and we get to see Pikachu battle both a Charizard and a Mewtwo, all set up in a world that we would willfully inhabit if we could: a world that combines both the childlike wonder of the regions we remember exploring with the adult perspective of the world we grew up to live in.
Tim himself is very much a stand-in for adult fans, who wanted to be Pokemon trainers as kids but now find themselves in significantly less magical adult jobs. And though it’s a movie based on a children’s property, it’s not really a movie for children. Kids can watch it, of course (as long as parents are okay with them hearing Pikachu drop some mild cusses), but ultimately it’s designed for those of us who grew up with the franchise.
Which is why my inner 12-year-old was screaming the whole time, and my adult face literally hurt from grinning so much.
Half the people in my theatre squealed Pokemon names with delight every time they popped up on screen—perhaps the only time anyone has ever been excited to see Pidgey or Magikarp—and though I usually hate it when people talk during movies, this time I was squealing right along with them. Detective Pikachu’s filmmakers earned my trust the moment Tim comments about a cubone wearing the skill of its dead parent, and kept it right though the ridiculous end.
Make no mistake, this movie is an absolute love letter to Pokemon fans.
Its mileage with non-fans, though, will vary. While the Pokemon fan in me gives Detective Pikachu infinite stars, the analytical writer has to acknowledge that outside that context, it’s close to a 3.5-star movie. The opening act is solid, but near the middle and end, the plot undertakes some seriously complicated gymnastics to make itself make sense, and they don’t always land gracefully. Many plot twists are revealed through barely-earned flashback-style exposition dumps, and the device used to make these dumps—advanced holographic imaging tech that can piece together complex environments from video footage—introduces plot holes through its very existence.
Characters often lack information at the convenience of the plot, even though they should logically have that information because of the way the device gathers it. Never mind that some was gathered from police cameras that can apparently travel through time. Given that the source of its most essential information was police footage, Lieutenant Yoshida (Ken Watanabe ❤!) in particular should have had significant plot-affecting information that he conveniently didn’t, purely at the whim of the writers.
Unexpectedly, some of the plot gymnastics became less egregious upon a second viewing (Of course I saw it twice), but even then those come down to the cheap writing trick of cutting off important information the mere second before characters can actually receive it. Granted, it works to keep the structure of the film intact—and the film is tightly paced—but such devices also make the tension feel artificial and frustrating.
The film’s emotional beats also fall flat. It’s hard to take seriously as anything but a comedy, which means that its attempts at genuinely sad scenes don’t really work, especially when Tim is mourning his dad to a talking Pikachu of all things (despite a convincing performance by Justice Smith). When it combines its emotions with comedy, though, it excels—as when a devastated, lonely Detective Pikachu sobs the iconic Pokemon theme in a truly inspired gem of a scene.
Finally, though she’s essential to moving the plot along, Kathryn Newton’s unpaid intern-slash-aspiring reporter Lucy Stevens fills her role with every spunky reporter stereotype ever and as a result is, frankly, grating to watch. The way the movie uses her Psyduck partner, however, is hilarious.
Psyduck itself raises pesky world building questions—Why the heck would a person in a high-stress environment in the middle of a densely populated city want a Pokemon whose stress headaches can literally trigger apocalyptic geography-leveling energy pulses?—but then, those kinds of questions are ultimately irrelevant to Pokemon fans, given the absurd characteristics we’re accustomed to seeing in Pokemon lore (see again: cubone wearing its mother’s skull. And that’s not even the most WTF of them).
Pokemon’s is a world that functions best when you don’t think about it too much except in terms of how it’s awesome, which is something the filmmakers did quite well—even for Pokemon that didn’t necessarily merit it, and this is yet another great success of this movie.
I’ve never given two thoughts to Mr. Mime or Ditto except to be pissed at how hard it was to find them and how lame they were once I did. Detective Pikachu took two of the lamest Pokemon, used them brilliantly, and instantly turned them into two of my new favorites.
More than being mere fanservice, this movie contributed something new and wholly unexpected to the Pokemon universe—first by simply existing, and then by giving fans a movie that loves its world as much as they do.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to don my Pikajams and see it again.
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EXTRA: Also, because they’re fun, the other promos, including the brilliant and adorable release day “full film leak.”
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Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
Fanservice
Food Wars (S1) – Anime Review
After subjecting Jacob to the emasculating experience that was Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, I decided to have some mercy and suggest Food Wars, which has become famous (infamous?) for its fanservice.
Food Wars (aka Shokugeki no Soma) follows amateur chef Yukihira Soma, whose dream of becoming a full time chef at his father’s restaurant is derailed when his dad suddenly closes up shop to travel – and tells him he can only have it if he survives the rigorous training at the elite Totsuki Culinary Academy. This being a shonen anime, nearly every episode comes down to a high-stakes shokugeki – a cooking duel through which students settle debates and rivalries – and through which Soma learns much about cooking and about himself.
Food Wars has become my new second-favorite anime, y’all. It very nearly dethroned Gurren Lagann as my absolute favorite, but there are few anime out there like Gurren Lagann, and many food anime, so Food Wars sits solidly at #2.
This comes as a surprise to no one who knows me, because first of all, FOOD. But I’m also an enthusiastic fan of weird, well-executed premises, complex characterization, meaningful conflicts, and good-natured, genuine competition (as opposed to angst-ridden competitive nastiness), and Food Wars has all of those.
But then there’s the fanservice.
Normally I can’t stand blatant fanservice, so it takes an extra special twist to even get me to watch a fanservice show. (See again: FOOD.) Even with the food appeal, though, I initially wasn’t sure about it, as many reviewers had been uncomfortable with the fanservice, some going as far as to call it rapey.
But fear not: That is (mostly) pure Internet exaggeration.
Still, that said, if no amount of food will make you comfortable with sudden explosive nudity, don’t even try Food Wars. As with many cooking-themed anime, much of the comedy comes from characters’ over-exaggerated reactions to the taste of food, and in Food Wars’ case, Soma’s cooking launches diners into such overwhelming fits of bliss that their clothes periodically burst off in no small approximation of orgasmic pleasure. Though I disagree, I can see why some viewers would compare Food Wars to porn.
I mean…
The difference between Food Wars and other fanservice shows, though, is that Food Wars generally handles its fanservice with class (if such a word can be applied to fanservice).*
First – and most pivotally – though Soma’s cooking makes clothes explode off left and right, he himself is absolutely unaware of this (possibly because all the nudity seems to happen in the same alternate dimension as magical girl costume transformation). He just wants to make people happy with his cooking, and given how sensual the best cooking can be, it’s perhaps not inappropriate that his customers have sensual reactions to match. The point is, no one in this series gawks at nudity that wasn’t meant for their eyes, and even the fanservicey characters are only treated as such for the self-aware humor of it. (It is a blatantly un-ironic joke that the most scantily-clad female is a master of meat, but even then, that joke rarely leaves a cooking context).
Second, the fanservice is equal opportunity. Though the majority of it is female, the series doesn’t shy away from male nudity (young or old). One main male character literally walks around in an apron and nothing else in several scenes.
Finally, the fanservice isn’t even exclusively human. If this series is aiming to be any sort of porn, it’s foodporn. The food art in this series is hands down the best I’ve seen in any anime ever, and I literally ended every episode saying “I want to cook that.” Not only that, the level of detail the series puts into describing the techniques behind each dish shows dedication far beyond what one would expect from a typical anime production. Real research went into making the culinary facets of this show work, and it shows in every episode. My only dislike about this research is that the more complex the characters’ challenges become, the more complex their ingredient requirements, such that, by the end of the first season, I couldn’t make anything in my own kitchen without visiting a specialty store first or learning a very specific time-consuming technique.
But seriously, even if you’re indifferent to everything else about this show, watch it for the food.
All this foodie goodness, though, flows on the hands of the show’s characters like the waves of the most delicious mosh pit. There’s not a single unlikable character in this show, even among the antagonists. All of the characters face each other in the spirit of competition rather than generic antagonism; all are fully rounded people with their own hopes, goals, and high stakes to overcome, such that even when an opponent character loses, the viewer has a reason to be bummed for them. The one possible exception to this is antagonist Erina Nakiri, whose hypersensitive God Tongue is so thwarted by Soma’s cooking that she’d love to see him fail, but even then she judges him fairly.
Strangely, the weakest character of the bunch is Soma himself. He’s a typical shonen protagonist, determined to win no matter the stakes, but he often raises the stakes so high himself that viewers automatically know he’s going to win. After all, if the show’s about a cooking school, it can’t go on if its main character loses enrollment in a bet! As a result, there’s absolutely no tension in the show, except where the semi-expendable minor characters are concerned. But then, even though you know Soma’s going to win, seeing how he does it is a real treat, and therein lies the show’s real suspense.
The same is true, if not more true, of all the other characters. Consider that each character represents a different preferred ingredient, style of cooking, or even food preparation technique, and you’ve got a show that is downright educational! I’ve learned more about creative cooking from this show than I’ve learned from years of Food Network and cookbooks.
In short, Food Wars is a masterpiece. Watch it.
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*Admittedly, the first episode piles on the fanservice (see: the above gif), as do some of the finale episodes, and there are a few references to tentacle hentai here and there (usually in reference to one particularly disgusting squid dish – thus why some viewers have called it rapey). But outside those instances, the show tones itself down significantly.
P.S. – If you want to recreate some dishes from the show, AniTAY has a series of recipes modified from a few episodes. The Gotcha Pork recipe is now a mainstay at House Holo, but I recommend separating it into 4 to 6 smaller loaves rather than two big ones, as they’re easier to move off the pan when finished. They will take an extra pack of bacon, though.
P.P.S – I’ve also finished Season 2, but I don’t plan to review it because it’ll just be more of the same gushery. And the complaint that, now that the characters are competing in very advanced competitions, with recipes to match, little amateur me has no hope of being able to cook these foods.
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Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.