[COLUMN] Netflix’s Pokemon Concierge Embraces My Favorite Side of the Franchise | by Marty Sliva (Patreon)

Pokemon Concierge has no business being as delightful as it is. Dropping its short first season on December 28th, Netflix’s stop-motion animated series is a collaboration between The Pokemon Company and Dwarf Animation Studios, a French creative team. It’s only four episodes long, with each one lasting only 15 minutes or so. But in that brief hour, Pokemon Concierge captures exactly what it is that made me fall in love with Game Freak’s monolithic franchise as a kid – it wasn’t the battling or the collecting or the competition. It was simply that I loved spending time in a familiar-yet-fantastical world where these cute little critters were commonplace.

Pokemon Concierge follows Haru (Karen Fukuhara), a 20-something who decides she needs a major change after a string of bad luck in her personal and professional life. She takes up a concierge job at the Pokemon Resort, a scenic retreat where both Pokemon and their trainers can come for a little R&R. Think less gym battles reliant on exploiting your opponent’s weakness, and more moments of self-discovery as you camp on the beach and watch the sun set.

There’s no Team Rocket, no Victory Road, and no urge to collect every single thing that moves. I’m not even sure I spotted a single Poke Ball throughout the four episodes. Concierge strips away the gameplay conceits of most of the mainline entries in the series, and instead just focuses on good vibes and smaller, more personal stakes. In order for Haru to be a good concierge to the guests, she needs to first learn how to treat herself well.

While each episode ends in a familiar feel-good lesson, it’s the presentation that really makes the show stand out. The stop-motion animation presents every human on the island in a doll-like fashion, while the Pokemon themselves feel more akin to stuffed animals and action figures. There’s a tangibility to each creature, whether it’s the Wingull looking like rolled-up towels, tufts of fuzz clinging onto a Furret, or the plastic sheen from a Metagross. It feels like a kid emptied their toybox, and I mean that in the best way.

Side note, if you dig the tactile nature of the stop-motion animation on display here, check out other modern bangers like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Kubo and the Two Strings, Coraline, Mad God, and Anomalisa.

Yeah, Pokemon Concierge’s writing isn’t amazing, its characters aren’t deep, and it doesn’t carry the dramatic weight of other recent animated bangers like Scavengers Reign, Pluto, and Blue Eye Samurai. But that doesn’t matter, because the whole thing exudes a charming sense of childlike wonder. It’s a show for kids, but one that can also be enjoyed by folks who used to be a kid back in the day. And spending a little time with the likes of Psyduck, Magikarp, and Pikachu outside of battle made me remember why I fell in love with the franchise as a kid.

There was a period in the late ‘90s where Pokemon might’ve been my single absolute favorite thing on the planet. I have fond memories of struggling with my television’s antenna, trying to pick up the signal from across the state of the first nearby channel to start showing the Pokemon anime. I shared Ash Ketchum’s sense of awe and wonder as he first glimpsed the Legendary Ho-oh in the pilot episode.

I spent countless hours exploring the monochrome version of Kanto present in Pokemon Blue on my Game Boy Pocket. I collected the cards, went to the movie on opening day and probably cried when Pikachu died (spoilers), and became an amateur wildlife photographer in Pokemon Snap.

And then I kind of just stopped. It wasn’t a charged breakup or some dramatic revelation, and my love affair with colorful video games associated with Nintendo certainly didn’t wane. But one day Pokemon was a major part of my identity, and the next, it wasn’t. These things happen, it’s not your fault, now you get two Christmases, etc.

Flash forward to the summer of 2016, and I floated back into the franchise like a lot of folks thanks to Pokemon GO. The game’s communal element, combined with its relationship with the cities I lived in and traveled to, made it a perfect stepping stone back into the world of Pokemon. While I loved catching those familiar 151 monsters from the ‘90s, there were also hundreds of additional critters that were completely new to me. But this got my foot back in the door, which continued with the various Pokemon games on Switch, though none of the modern installments have been able to recapture what it is that I loved so much about the series as a kid.

Pokemon Concierge arrived serendipitously during a window where I had decided to revisit my love of Kanto in the form of Pokemon LeafGreen. I had never played this GBA remake of Gen 1 before, so it was great to spend the recent holiday break second-screening my way back through those familiar towns and routes.

I settled into my go-to team pretty early on (Blastoise, Gyarados, Pikachu, Primeape, Kadabra, and Flareon), and while I still collected one of every new Pokemon I stumbled across, watching those numbers go up and those badges accumulate wasn’t the reason I kept pressing on forward toward Victory Road. I remembered just how much I liked existing in this world – visiting new towns, marveling at the wonderful critters that inhabited them, and trying to help anyone who might need a problem solved. To me, Pokemon is at its best when it feels like a nature documentary, which is something that Pokemon Concierge absolutely nails. I’d love to see The Pokemon Company lean more heavily into this aspect of their world.

Pokemon as a whole is at an interesting point right now. The past few years on Switch have seen a steady stream of remakes in Brilliant Diamond+Shining Pearl, spinoffs in New Pokemon Snap, experiments in Legends Arceus, and mainline commercial success in Scarlet + Violet, which just released its final DLC expansion. The franchise has seen great commercial success on the Switch, though critical reception has been a bit rocky. With Nintendo’s console successor surely just around the corner, I’ll be curious to see The Pokemon Company plays it safe (likely), or uses this transition period to do something bold (unlikely).

As for Pokemon Concierge, its future also remains unknown. Netflix has a bad habit of prematurely cutting ties with original programming, though I’d wager that this one got the viewership numbers needed for a second season. And if it does continue, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel – just more chill adventures with Haru and Psyduck exploring the island, hanging out with new Pokemon, and soaking in the positive vibes. Honestly, I’d gladly watch a thousand episodes of Pokemon Concierge, if only because I’m in dire need of palate cleansers between harrowing hours of The Curse, Fargo, Slow Horses, and True Detective: Night Country.