Part 94: Side Note #15: Anime Openings 2 - Whirl Islands Boogaloo

Side Notes 15: Anime Openings 2 - Whirl Islands Boogaloo

Well I said we'd be back to talk about the dreary Johto anime and, well, here we are, moving on to the second opening of the Johto Arc. Let's have a compare and contrast, shall we?

Japanese Opening (an extended movie version is here and the translated lyrics are thus.)

English Opening (and the extended movie opening here)

So it's interesting that they both decided to be remixes of the very first opening theme. And I think the English version does it better. I'm honestly not a huge fan of the Japanese version, especially after OK!, but the English version isn't all that much better, even with a bit of Johto adding in the chorus. While it's more action packed than Johto Journeys, it's a bit difficult to really have these versions stand on their own since the original versions are actually better. But that's just my baka gaijin opinion, so what do I know?

As an aside, since I'll talk about it when I get to the fourth movie proper (I'll say that for the next movie too, ya know) is while the opening isn't as good as the last movie, it's still a cool battle, neat animation and does a really good job of setting the movie up. Though did you really have to shock that boy too, Ash? Ah, whatever, like the movie itself, the opening's pretty good, but not as good as the last one.

Anyway, I should actually talk about the episodes this opening actually falls under, since that's the whole reason I'm doing this Side Notes here and now. In the Japanese version, this opening is used from EP192 (a few episodes after Morty), to EP238 (the Pryce battle), whereas the English version's opening is from EP158 (Ash's first battle with Whitney) to EP209 (the episode where all of Cianwood happens, just before the Whirl Island arc). The reason for such a large discrepancy in episodes is because OK! was an opening for around 80 episodes. English openings are around for 52 episodes so they can be split into seasons and sold more easily, but the Japanese openings have no such restrictions and can last for as long as they goddamn like.

But now I guess I should talk about the contents of this anime season? Honestly, not too much comes to mind, as the run itself is not that particularly interesting, to go along with the fairly alright story the games have. Team Rocket appear as they do in the games on occasion and Ash goes to the Johto League and loses, whatever. If you're that interested, then feel free to watch the anime itself, but I feel like there's not much reason to go over what you can probably guess. One of the few diversions is the expansion of the Whirl Islands and the Whirl Cup. It's always nice when the anime shakes things up and does something different and yeah, it's alright. Just read the manga.