All these moments show that Pokémon can be a series with themes that are not at all childish.

It is no secret that Pokémon is a franchise known for being focused on a children’s audience and this is something that does not change over time. In fact, this is what prevents adults from they grew up with the saga receiving games or series with more adult themes.
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However, despite the fact that Pokémon is a franchise for children and even has a lot of adorable designs, we cannot deny that, on several occasions, the series has deviated from this approach and It is no longer a project for childrenaddressing brutal and even terrifying plots or situations.
Sabrina turns humans into dolls
Sabrina had a skill worthy of a horror movie
When Ash began his journey in the Kanto region, he encountered many powerful opponents, among which we highlight Sabrina. She was a fairly strong gym leader who dominated the psychic type. Furthermore, his personality was distant and ruthless, because he treated his rivals cruelly. We later learned that there is a reason for this, as it was a way of dealing with his horrible childhood.
Sabrina demonstrated to have several interesting abilities, but the most gloomy and merciless was the power to convert She turned people into living dolls and forced them to play with her. This is a horror movie plot.
Haunter steals Ash’s soul
As the episodes of the first Pokémon animated series pass, viewers were able to meet all kinds of fascinating creatures and that they were adorable and friendly. However, ghost types are usually much scarier.
In fact, Ash himself experienced this terror in episode 23 of the anime, when he was trying to catch a ghost-type Pokémon to defeat Sabrina. It was here that he entered Lavender Town, where a Haunter stole his and Pikachu’s souls. This was not with bad intentionssince I just wanted to play with these spirits. However, it was surely a great trauma for the protagonist to be separated from his body.
The origin story of Mewtwo
Mewtwo was created and tortured to become a weapon
Trainers must respect the Pokémon they get and it is something that is repeated like a mantra throughout the series. However, there are also quite depressing exceptions. And it is that the bond between creatures and trainers is trustworthysince the former trust that humans will treat them well.
However, Mewtwo is a character that did not suffer this fate, as he was created by Team Rocket to be a weapon. His origin story is depressing, as he was artificially created at from Mew’s DNA and to achieve its strengthwas tortured until he became a warrior. This is how his hatred towards humans was born.
The death of Enriqueta’s Snubbull
In 2018, a Pokémon movie was released, which told us an interesting story about humanity’s greed. But it’s not all, since, despite having a quite colorful atmosphere and a cheerful tonehid much more.
And half a century before the events of the film, some humans tried to destroy a forest while trying to catch a Pokémon. Enriqueta was a woman who had built a wind turbine to power the city and tried to use these mills to stop the fire and protect the forest creatures.
She had a Snubbull who was her great friend, who entered the woman’s house to find an important key. However, it was consumed by flames. The woman had to see her friend perish in the fire.
The tree of the beginning and the end
In this film, the protagonists died temporarily
The eighth film in the franchise is considered one of the best for different reasons. But it also hides a very dark plot.. In fact, we can highlight that it is the one that shows the most deaths of protagonists.
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While Ash and his friends enter the tree of beginning and end to recover their Pokémon, they are attacked by the tree itself. These were absorbed into the bark of the tree and became its essence and before this, They let their friends go so the same thing wouldn’t happen to them.. This was a temporary death, but real.