At last, the first episode of Pocket ni Bouken o Tsumekonde finally came out. How was the first episode? It was pretty enjoyable and brought back the nostalgia and excitement of a young woman’s life in the real world working at a mundane creative agency.
Summary:
As expected, the show is centered around a young woman named Akagi Madoka, who just graduated from university. She leaves her hometown at Mashiromachi to work at an advertising agency in Tokyo called ADventure, which is her dream job. Of course, only 6 employees are working at the agency. Of course, she got herself wrapped up in a presentation challenge at Saijirushi (a bland name of the small Japanese appliance maker, Zojirushi). With nobody willing to help her, she is on her own.
One day, she found a care package from her mother, containing a tin containing her old GameBoy Pocket and a copy of Pocket Monsters Aka (Pokémon Red). However, she has no batteries, but the funny thing is that she found that GameBoy in her bag and was tempted to play it. She eventually picked Charmander as her starter and got to the first gym but couldn’t beat the first gym.
However, with the presentation with Iwakura Takeshi coming up, she takes inspiration from her Pokémon Game. Eventually, she found Takeshi’s weak point and took advantage of it during her presentation, and she won the challenge.
Thoughts:
As expected, the main character, Akagi Madoka, goes to the big city to work at a small creative agency. As expected, she experiences the life of a white-collar worker, complete with a drawer that won’t close. Apparently, from what I read, each worker at the company besides Madoka is supposed to resemble the personality of a certain Pokémon. Not to mention, the actress who plays the main character is a big fan of Pokémon.
I admit working at her company is a bit more stressful than my cushy job as an IT System Administrator. Most of the time, nothing happens until something on the system needs to be done.
It all started when her mother sent a care package, including a tin can containing a Gameboy Pocket (the same color my little sister had) and a copy of Pokémon Red. Yep, I find it funny how she tried to play it, but it has no batteries. Hopefully, someone changed that button cell battery; otherwise, her saved data will disappear.
It happened to show up in her bag. Of course, there were two AAA batteries in her drawer, and of course, she spent time playing the game… and choosing Charmander because she got to get that Charizard. (You know, I pick Squirtle). Also, she couldn’t find a Pikachu and couldn’t beat the first gym because normal moves aren’t good against rock-type Pokemon while playing at a bar. Also, she talks about type effectiveness, which is probably something that we had to figure out as children.
As expected, seeing her play the game after discovering the batteries brings a lot of nostalgia. Yes, I played a lot of Gameboy during my childhood during recess. I didn’t get into Pokémon until months after the game was released. I started with Pokemon Blue, the updated version that fixed some of the bugs in Green. Of course, I eventually got the Yellow version with a special Pokemon Yellow-themed GameBoy Color.
Also, she met her friend, Midori (complete with the rival theme and such), who is basically her rival who works at a more prominent creative agency. Also, I find it funny how the whole presentation competition game sequence is basically a Pokémon battle with herself and the company president of NOT Zojirushi, Iwakura Takeshi. It reminds me of those parody Pokémon battle videos on YouTube. I admit that was fun.
Ultimately, she managed to win as she researched to find that weak spot Takeshi had. Yes, believe it or not, the president is named after the Japanese name of the first gym leader, complete with the game sequence. This applies to Madoka’s hometown, which plays that familiar theme of Masara Town (or Pallet Town in English), and the town’s name in the JDrama looks almost familiar. It will be interesting to see how they make Madoka’s not-so-mundane life as a career woman working in a white-collar job and incorporating the elements from the Pokémon games.
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