Sean loves Pokemon so I'm always walking past him watching and seeing bits and pieces of the show. Unlike Dan, I kind of like it and I was so excited to see Misty again in this weekend's DVD. I wondered what happened to her. A Pokemon battle, I discovered, is incomprehensible without the narration provided by the onlookers like Brock or May. You just see a lot of abstraction on screen and the onlookers explain what's happening and whether it's good or bad. Speed Racer worked in exactly the same way. Most of the time, you're just seeing flashing things and the only way you know what's happening is by the expression on the Racer family's faces. In the case of Pokemon, I think the aesthetic is driven by financial and storytelling concerns. The fights are visually simple (low frame rate) with abstraction taking the place of action. Plus, the onlookers are good for providing the necessary exposition—"What's he doing? You can't fight a water type with an electric type! (or whatever)" It works for Pokemon but generally speaking, it seems better if the audience is able to make those judgements about what's happening for themselves.
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