Pokemon Images Compare Cities from the Games With How They Look in the Anime Series

Highlights

• Anime takes artistic liberties with Gen 2 cities, such as Cherrygrove and Cianwood, creating differences from the games.
• Cherrygrove City in the games features a beach, while in the anime it shows more buildings and a forest setting.
• Cianwood City is depicted as larger in the anime, with structures extending up the mountain, unlike the game version.

A Pokemon fan has compared images from the games with how they look in the anime to highlight some huge differences. The Pokemon franchise started with the 1996 release of Red and Green, and the anime has taken some liberties from the beginning.

Pokemon Red and Green were released to massive success in Japan and were quickly localized to North America in the same year. Due to the games’ popularity, an anime adaptation was started the next year, and it has continued to this day. The majority of the series follows Ash Ketchum through different regions established by subsequent games that have been released. Ash Ketchum was replaced by the duo of Liko and Roy in Pokemon Horizons after Ash finally won the World Championship following years of attempts. One Pokemon fan has decided to compare in-game screenshots with images from the anime to highlight the differences between the two.

Reddit user FlygonPR recently shared two screenshots of cities from the Pokemon Gen 2 remakes next to their anime counterparts. While the Gen 2 remakes account for HeartGold and SoulSilver, it’s unclear which specific game the screenshots were captured from as the cities are present in both games. The locations highlighted in the post are Cherrygrove City and Cianwood City. Players will discover Cherrygrove City after leaving the introduction in New Bark Town. Cianwood appears after trainers acquire the Surf HM, and it offers the fifth Gym badge and a free Shuckle.

What’s the Difference Between the Cities?

The Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver image of Cherrygrove City shows 5 buildings including a Poke Mart and Pokemon Center. The small town also has a beach that is notably absent from the anime adaptation. The Pokemon anime also depicts the city with far more buildings nestled in a thick forest, with a bridge over a river that doesn’t exist in the games. Cianwood City is similarly shown as much bigger in the anime than in the games, with its structures extending up its mountain. Given the constraints of Gen 2, it’s possible that having buildings go up the mountain was always the intent of the city, but the game version of this town only has 7 that are scattered around its beach.

Though FlygonPR pointed out the discrepancies between these Gen 2 cities and their anime equivalents, the series has taken liberties with locations since Pokemon Gen 1. The in-game storylines are also not always depicted in the anime, further highlighting the differences between the two. Silver is a key character in HeartGold and SoulSilver, but rarely appears in the anime. Conversely, the Kimono Girls of Ecruteak City are represented in the anime almost exactly as they are in the games.