Projects like the new stop-motion Netflix series Pokémon Concierge resonate with people because a lot of us just want to vibe with the weird little guys we store in Poké Balls—we don’t just want to become a Pokémon Champion. Scarlet and Violet have some cute ideas, like letting you have picnics with your Pokémon, give them baths, and, somewhat bizarrely, control them with a headset, but I’m always open for more little things that let us just hang out with our party.
It’s easy to feel like the Pokemon are sanded down until they’re just numbers, stats, and movesets, so every chance we get to hang out with our friends in a different context adds to the connection they sing about in the anime’s theme songs. Yeah, sure we’ll defeat the Elite Four, but I also just want to hang out with my Raichu without him knocking out some punk ass Zubat.
