Indigo League (also referred to as Brick Bronze Pokemon: Season 0) is an Neo-Japanese OVA (Original Video Animation) series that ran from June 17th, 1991 until July 8, 1994. It was produced by OLM and is what would later be the main inspiration for the existence of the first fully-fledged Brick Bronze Pokemon television anime from 1997, which was produced by the same studio.
The anime was first dubbed in Robloxia on November 17, 1994 by Brick Bronze Pokemon USR (a subsidiary of Bloxtendo), this dub ended up airing on Avast Television in January 1995 under the title “Indigo League”.
Summary
Disk #01
Disk 1 is mostly of the everyday adventures of a teenager, Ash Ketchup (who is depicted mostly the same as his 1997 counterpart, except that he is more intelligent than his counterpart and is 17, unlike the 1997 counterpart which made him forever 10 and less intelligent) and his group of friends, Misty and Brock as they travel across Kanto to battle other people’s Pokémon (which in this anime are described as creatures who battle each other for the sake of entertaining others).
Disk #02
Disk 2 is about Ash and his friends attending a school festival. (it is referred to as the “School Festival” arc). However, this disk is only eight episodes long, and is mostly considered to be a series of eight "filler" episodes.
Disk #03
Disk 3’s summary is about Ash Ketchup (now 18) and his friends finally graduating high school and they are seen trying to figure out what they are going to do for their futures.
Cast (from what is known)
Neo-Japanese
- Haruka Amami as Ash Ketchup (Satoshi Asakura)
- Hiro Tanaka as Brock (Takeshi Suzumiya)
- Michiko Takahashi as Misty (Kasumi Tachibana)
- Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Bloxlish
- Judith Amy Bell as Ash Ketchup
- Rachel Lillian as Misty
- Brandon Andrews as Brock
- Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Rating
Unlike the actual Brick Bronze series (which is aimed at children), this specific series was aimed at older teenagers and early adults (who are often referred as Ōtaku). It also included significantly more crude humor and profanities than the 1997 series.
Thus, this anime’s modern Bloxlish DVD releases in Robloxia (by Ro-Viz Media) are officially considered to be rated 14-16 in Robloxia due to the severe crude humor and language featured in the anime.
In Blox Zealand, the anime is officially rated 16+ due to the aforementioned content.
Reception
It has mostly been positively received by viewers, scoring an 18/21 by viewers who have seen the first two disk's content.
The “school festival” arc has also become a popular arc due to being considered “wholesome”. However, it is worth noting that some of it has been criticized for how some of the plot has been executed.
Legacy
In 2021, it was added in the Brick Bronze Pokemon TV BloxTube Channel catalog under the name “Indigo League”, all of the episodes from the series were added to the service and were put as extra episodes from Season 1.
This series also received a Robloxian comic book adaptation that was serialized on Archie Comics, Inc.’s “Bloxtendo Power Magazine” from May 21st, 1995 to June 28th, 1998, it would later be released as a stand-alone book in July of 1998 under the title “Indigo League: The Graphic Novel”.
In 1999, an visual novel based off this OVA series was released, the rating of the game was 11+ due to the fact that the themes of the OVA were toned down, however, unlike the OVA, an official translation/dub of this game does not exist and fans of it have to rely on fan-made translations of the game.
Trivia
- Despite being considered to be “Season 0” nowadays, it was at one point released as “Season 1” of the Brick Bronze Pokemon anime, which confused consumers since both have several differences from each other.
- It has aired in Avast Television several times.
- The idea of Misty and Brock being his group of friends in Disk #1 was later adapted to the 1997 anime by the Brick Bronze Pokemon executives, where they remained together until Brick Bronze Pokemon: Advanced Generation, when Misty was replaced with May and Max.
- In Disk #3, the idea of Ash being able to age was scrapped by the Brick Bronze Pokemon executives, as well as Disk #2's school festival.
- It is a adaptation of a side story in the Pulseman manga, where it is mostly the same except that Ash is not present and his role was taken by Red.