Serena Cosplays: Makoto

Serena cosplays Makoto aka nu-Kasumi.

When I heard Team Rocket had defeated Satoshi in an actual legitimate battle, and later, when I heard an actual Pokemon of some sort had died on-screen, I wondered what depths  this 20 year-long animated series could plumb deeper to gather some sort of emotional weight or stakes that are now as heavy and empty as air, but then I heard the 20 year anniversary movie.

At first I was unconcerned of it rehashing OS as if it was some far-off memory barely worth exploring in the actual series, after all, nothing might as well matter in the previous episode let alone in a previous season for this series. But it had not caught my attention until I heard it was gonna retcon Satoshi's journey entirely, new companions, new rivals, even a new hat, and with him even getting the Pokemon me and my generation could only dream of him getting at that time. Indeed, I heard Satoshi might actually win the Kanto Tournament here and meet Ho-oh. Did I hear that right? Satoshi actually winning a Tournament? Might as well let him catch a legendary Pokemon in this movie. It seems to targeted to those longing for those good ol' days where we were naive enough to think that victory might be around the corner for Satoshi so long as we tune-in to the show.

But it makes me sad to think that Satoshi could only win a Tournament in a movie. Every dog gets their day, and for Satoshi it took 20 years and it is only at this stage that is separate from everything else, a movie that though maybe a retcon, may as well be non-canon, for all we know there is scarcely any reference to them in-show so as to not matter, though I might be wrong in that regard.

Now those are my thoughts on this matter, but I find it funny that not only did they shaft Kasumi and Takeshi for this movie (and if the retcon to the entire series comes to fruition, the entirety of the series from OS to BW, the last one where Satoshi's adventures with them are greatly referenced), but also shafted Satoshi's classmates Mao, Suiren, Lillie, and those other people nobody cares about. If there was any actual affection left in me I would have be ablaze in indignation for getting rid of Kasumi and Takeshi, or on the other side of the coin, delaying the Sun and Moon crew their rightful movie. I don't know how many more Legendary Pokemon they stuffed in this clusterfuck franchise now but I wonder how many more years will they wring out this generation for all its worth since they have delayed a proper Sun and Moon movie.

Anyway, Makoto looked interesting, so I had Serena cosplay her here. I don't have any good reference material for the shorts she wear so I might be mistaken. She wears yoga pants/spats and it would appear her shorts are pseudo-skort things, I assumed. This is also the first time I drew Satoshi in his dorky kiddish 20th anniversary movie look. I wanted to put this Marshadow Pokemon here but I found it more interesting to have Pochama reacting to Serena taking away Makoto's attire. The Pochama here by the way was reused from a Hikari commission. He didn't asked for it, I just put Pochama there reacting to what was going on to Hikari in the commission.