Unoriginality 1: An Original Trainer Story

Starting Options

In the vein of several other chapters, this one endeavors not to attack a concept, but to adequately demonstrate it.

While reviewing OT fic, authors often reply to some of my comments by saying the story was game-based, not anime-based. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Unfortunately, they say this after writing a story using the anime opening, and therefore I am filled with a desire to maim them.

Red and Blue

Taylor considered the tall grass in front of him. It was true he'd been told never to enter it, but he was so bored, and how dangerous could it really be? He was eleven years old and could take care of himself! He stepped into the thick blades.

"Stop!" shouted a familiar voice, sounding horrified. "Don't take another step!" Taylor froze in panic as the professor raced up to him.

"Don't you know anything?" Prof. Oak demanded. "A wild pokemon could attack you at any moment out here."

"...sorry," Taylor mumbled, chastised.

"Didn't your mother tell you I was looking for you?" Oak asked.

"Well yeah, but I looked-" Taylor started to say, only to be cut off.

"Never mind that, you should have come as soon as you heard. Now follow me, there's something at my lab for you."

"Really?" Taylor grinned and followed right behind Oak to the laboratory.

Once there, Oak marched right past the assistant to the inner room. Taylor saw the professor's grandson, Jake, waiting there, and made a face. Jake and he had been friends when they were younger, but when they got older, Jake had gotten more and more competitive...

"Hey, Gramps! Loser!"

...and nasty.

However, even Jake's obnoxious presence couldn't detract from the three pokeballs Taylor saw on the table. His heart raced with excitement at the rare sight. He wondered why Prof. Oak had called him there, and if there were any pokemon inside them.

Anime, Season One/Kanto

Willow couldn't sleep. Her father rolled his eyes and said she could stay up as long as she was just watching the educational program on the three starters and pokemon training, being rebroadcast likely for this very reason. She listened intently as Oak stood in front of pictures of charmander, bulbasaur and squirtle, discussing the pros and cons of each pokemon, and final fell asleep with the images churning in her head, dreaming about bulbasaur and squirtle with hovering stat lists, whose abilities kept flickering in and out every time she tried to pick one.

She woke up to someone shaking her shoulders. "Wh..." she mumbled for a minute before getting her bearings. "MOM! AM I LATE?"

"No, sweetie. It's seven-thirty. Oak won't even be opening up until ten."

Willow's addled brains struggled to do the calculations. "Three...two and a half hours." She jumped out of bed. "I have to hurry and get ready. He might not give it if we're late!"

"Willow, you know as well as I do that we live ten minutes away. Calm down and eat your breakfast."

Willow gobbled down breakfast and raced back upstairs to get dressed. She spent the rest of the time running back and forth, grabbing some minor item she'd forgotten or badgering her parents to go. They finally left a bit after nine, and arrived by nine-thirty. A few minutes later, a second boy, Rowan, came along, parents in tow. Willow waved madly as he approached. The adults exchanged amused glances as the two children jumped up and down with excitement.