DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionPocket Monsters (2023)

REVIEWS

• 

  theJokerEvoker

  92/100
  It’s brilliant, and that makes me very annoyed

  Kairyuu to Yuubinya-san (Dragonite and the Special Delivery)

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  A brutally simple and short but effective tale about letters, memories, and connection. The setup is snappy, the conflict is undeniably cheesy but heartwarming, and the resolution—somehow, some way—almost brought actual tears to my eyes. The characters, but especially the Pokémon, are bursting with personality, even the ones that quite literally appear for mere seconds in montage. The music is orchestrated wonderfully, elevating the emotional beats with a sense of warmth and nostalgia that perfectly complements the story’s simplicity.

  What pisses me off the most, though, is just how good the visual worldbuilding is. Seeing Pokémon both thrive so naturally in the wild—“right, of course that Pokémon would behave that way”—and also integrate seamlessly into human society is something the animated Pokémon works consistently excel at. But in this short, it’s simply breathtaking. And that’s before even touching on the animation quality itself, which is utterly fantastic, elevating both the world and the unspoken Pokémon character moments to another level.

  So why does the sheer excellence of this short also make me angry? Simple: why is this level of care and excellence only found in these animated shorts and not in the Pokémon games themselves? The more flexible medium of video games has functionally infinite potential, but, at the time of writing, seeing the currently disappointing quality of Legends: Z-A through trailers has continued to cement the idea that Game Freak will continue to squander opportunity after opportunity for true greatness. Even from a business perspective, it’s baffling—why is the quality for functionally an advertisement so, so much greater than the flagship product of the franchise? Even as the Pokémon franchise leans further into open-world experiences, the worlds in its games often feel comparatively so much more static and lifeless in contrast to the sheer vibrancy of not only this short, but other Pokémon media as well (see Pokémon Concierge, Pokémon Evolutions, Pokémon: Hisuian Snow, to name a few). The way Pokémon interact with each other and the environment, the seamless integration of human-Pokémon relationships—these things should be core to the games, yet they only seem to shine anywhere close to their potential in side media like this.

  Of course, none of this is a knock on the short itself. If anything, it deserves even higher praise as a reminder of what makes Pokémon so magical in the first place. As a self-contained story, it is beautifully crafted, emotionally resonant, and visually stunning—a testament to the magic Pokémon is capable of when treated with the care and passion it deserves.

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  Story: 9/10
  Characters: 9/10
  Visuals: 10/10
  Audio: 9/10
  Enjoyment: 9/10

  Overall: 9.2/10

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  Feel free to message me with any feedback you might have, or if you'd like to agree or disagree. I'm always open to a good discussion.

  If you’re curious on how I rate, I have a short explanation, or a much longer write-up if you prefer, on my profile.

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• 

  Juliko25

  80/100
  Who would have thought expanding one scene from Pokemon: The First Movie into a whole short would be such a great idea?

  I've already mentioned in multiple reviews before this that animation for Pokemon has greatly benefited from expanding beyond the main TV anime, along with finally retiring Ash as a protagonist, so I won't belabor the point here. But in commemoration of Pokemon's 29th anniversary, a new short film, Kairyu to Yuubinya-san, or Dragonite And The Special Delivery, was produced by CoMix Wave Films, famous for making a bunch of Makoto Shinkai's movies. I was already sold, not just from the premise but because I adored all the other Pokemon shorts before this, but with one of the PokeToon directors on this, and Evan Call doing the music? Hell yeah! And sure enough, Dragonite And The Special Delivery is another winner to add to the pile...though I do feel it could have been better, but I'm still happy with what it offers.

  Hana, a young girl from the Paldea region, admires the mail delivering Dragonite and aspires to become an ace mailman, but she's stuck just sorting letters, which leaves her quite bored. One day she receives a letter with no address. Determined to find the sender, she embarks on a frantic search alongside her partner, Fuecoco. After running around town, she finally tracks down the sender—a boy named Rio. Upon hearing his story, Hana learns that Rio wrote the letter to celebrate his father's birthday, and his father is stationed alone in the Kanto region. However, the day of his father's birthday has already arrived, and Rio really wants to send the letter on time. Luckily, they find a way to do just that: Ask the famous mailman Dragonite for help. The titular Dragonite takes them on a high flying journey across the world, an experience like none they've ever had...but can they deliver the letter in time?

  CoMix Wave Films are famous for their work on Makoto Shinkai's movies, all of which are bursting at the seams with absolutely luscious, beautiful animation that really make their settings come to life. I've seen Your Name, The Garden of Words, and Suzume, and they put the same level of effort and quality into this, and by God, it really shows. The animation team didn't waste a single frame when it came to animating everything in this, from the more subtle character actions to the epic flying sequence halfway through the short. There's a ton of detail packed into every frame, not to mention its vibrant usage of color and the way the different Pokemon are animated. One detail I found interesting is that the flashback sequences are done in 4:3 full screen framing, made intentionally blurry, shaky, and even having film grain, similar to how Pokemon looked back when it first aired. I also enjoyed how the short showed the various Pokemon doing mundane, everyday tasks in the post office Hana works at, like various psychic Pokemon levitating boxes around and a Litwick melting the substance that's used for those sigils they put on letters. What are those called again? Tl;dr, animation looks great, and it does an amazing job at showing Pokemon integrating seamlessly with human society.

  The soundtrack is another highlight. Look, I've mentioned in my Frieren review that I've become an Evan Call fan and apologist. His soundtracks for that and My Happy Marriage pretty much won me over, especially how he takes care to make his OSTs for each series unique and distinct. Dragonite and the Postman opts for a whimsical orchestra that tries really hard to sell you on the concept of working as a mailman in the Pokemon world, making it seem like the best thing ever. I do think it goes a little too hard at times, but it's still a good soundtrack overall, and I loved the song by the Yorushika singer. As someone who's not normally a fan of Yorushika's music, I have to admit, this is the best song I've ever heard from them, and apparently there's both an English and Japanese version of it. Considering Evan Call is American, that explains why the English lyrics have proper grammar and syntax and don't sound choppy, even with the singer's Japanese accent still coming through.

  Dragonite and the Special Delivery is a 15 minute long short, much like a lot of the PokeToon shorts. I will admit, much like Paldean Winds, Dragonite and the Special Delivery struggled with fleshing out its characters. At least, the characters that aren't Hana, that is. Hana is a fine character, with her own goals, strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies, even if compared to other characters in the PokeToons shorts, she's a little on the vanilla side. She's certainly a lot more consistently written that Ohana from Paldean Winds was. I actually think the side characters are rather lacking, since they don't get fleshed out as much as Hana does. Rio doesn't have much character to him besides being a child who misses his dad, and I would have liked to see more of what he's like outside of that, such as if he stays in contact with Hana after his experiences with her and Dragonite.

  The premise by itself is nice, and the short manages to be emotionally resonant throughout...though I do feel, at the end, it takes a turn for the cheesy and overly sentimental to the point that it really wants to hammer its message at you with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The resolution might have benefited from a more subtle touch and dialed back the cheesiness and sentimentality. But honestly, I've seen far worse than this (Looking at you, Nanare Hananare), so I'm willing to cut Dragonite And The Special Delivery some slack. I do think it slightly surpasses Paldean Winds when it comes to consistency and actually bothering to answer basic questions instead of leaving them hanging. Still, for a short film that's meant to celebrate Pokemon's 29th anniversary, Dragonite And The Special Delivery is still a wonderful, well made, emotionally resonant little story, reminding Pokemaniacs like myself just what makes Pokemon so special in the first place.

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