Kanto is a magical place in Pokemon. It’s also a real place in Japan, but we’re particularly interested in the Pokemon version here. I have always held 🔯Kanto near to me as a setting, even if I prefer the Johto-based titles and have played dozens of games with more obviously developed settings, I have found myself return🌊ing, time and time again, to Kanto. That’s why I set off on my journey to explore Kanto as a tourist, wandering the region at a glacial place, writing about one step of the journey each week.

The point of this, rather than to see Kanto as a staging ground for Pokemon battles, was to try to see it as a real place. To see th🔯e sights and to drink in the stories. Some often-overlooked places have proved to be unexpectedly deep, while some of the classic locations have been surprisingly shallow. This page is the base of operations - if my weekly columns are postcards from the edge, this is the scrapbook they are pasted into. Whatever time you joined me on my journey, you’ll be able to find everything you missed right here.

Related: Guessing The Letterboxd Top Fo💖urs Of Every Kanto Gy♛m Leader

Kanto Itself

Revisiting Kanto

The first💃 step ཧon the journey was not a step at all. I suppose you might think of it as a collection 🌺of thoughts I had on the plane over to Kanto, a metaphor that almost works before you remember this is the story of a teꦑn year old boy leaving home for the first time. Plus, Kanto has no airport. Basically, before setting off, I took a week to collect my thoughts and write about why this journey meant something to me, and why it was worth undertaking.

Pallet Town

revisiting kanto pallet town

My actualဣ first step🎃 on the journey came a week later, when I finally set foot outside of my house - but not out of my hometown yet. P𒁏allet Town feels like the perfect start to my Pokemon journey, and its rich, cozy feel sets the tone for how the early exchanges go perfectly.

Viridian City

revisiting kanto viridian city

In 💛Viridian City, my biggest takeaway is how impres🙈sive Giovanni’s gym is. It’s such a perfect hiding place for the villainous Team Rocket, and breaks through the idyllic facade of the town perfectly. Also, while I haven’t been dwelling on the battles, the rival battle in Viridian City remains one of the game’s ꦬbest. You pass through Viridian City so many times across 🌺the game, but this first time presents an often overlooked myst🐭ery for us.

Viridian Forest

revisiting kanto viridian forest

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I hate Viridian Forest. I had hoped my new way of playing the game might rehabilitate the place, might help me see the wood for the trees, but instead it only made me more irritated by the forest. So far this is my least favourite stop on the journey, and I don’t expect that toജ change. Can’t win ‘em all.

Pewter City

revisiting kanto pewter town

Hot on the heels of Viridian Forest, Pewter City is the firs💛t major surprise of this revisitation. Often overlooked and ignored, I instead found it to be a littl💙e slice of Pokemon paradise. Though Brock’s gym isn’t up to much, there’s an adorable flower garden at the centre, and a museum of huge importance to Pokemon’s overall worldbuilding.

Mt. Moon

Mt Moon

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Another pleasant surprise. Once the Annoying Cave Of A Thousand Zubats, Mt. Moon is much larger, narratively and literally, than I had once thought of it as. Though it mainly exists to introduce Team Rocket, give you a fossil 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:(a fossil you steal, you thief), and act as a roadblock on your procession of gyms. But in practice, yo🦩u’ll find a lot of story here if you’re looking for it.

Cerulean City

revisiting kanto Cerulean

Two good weeks in a row, and Cerulean looked destined to make it a third. Unfortunately, with this week focusing on the city itself (the surrounding area comes the week after), I found it to be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:deeply empty and entirely soulless. Once one of 🐲my favourite places in Pokemon, I discovered there was nothing in the city itself, only the pathways around it. Another reminder that for all the times I’ve played through Kanto, I still don’t know all of its secrets.

The Area Around Cerulean City

Revisiting Kanto bills house

I wish I had a better name for this region, because it's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:one of th🧸e most in𓄧teresting places so far. Though Cerulean itself has very little to offer, the Nugget Bridge and Bill's House are both emblematic of the sort of stories that d🌠ragged me back to Pokemon in the first place. Team Rocket is slowly but surely making a bigger impression on my playthrough, and I'm beginning to meet some of the game's more fascinating characters, so I'm eager to see where this leads me next.

Vermilion City

revisiting kanto Vermillion City

Vermilion City is the most picturesque town I have explored yet, and the first time I have felt the disappointment at the Game Boy Color's technological limitations, meaning the town cannot bloom into full life the way it ought to. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:It feels like a city full of joy, from the innocently naive trade on offer to t♑he Pokemon Fan Club, and it futher highlights that the player character is a bit of a brat, making everyone's life worse as he seeks to gain an advantage when it comes to making his pets fight for money and glory. Also that dude with the Machop never gets any less strange.

S.S. Anne

revisiting kanto ss anne

After Vermilion City, 168澳🎃洲幸运5开奖网:we hopped on the S.S. Anne and went... nowhere. Isn't it sort of weird that we have a ticket for a cruise ship, but as soon as the ship is ready to sail, we have to get off? And all because we've figured out how to cut down a small tree we could likely squeeze past? Theཧ S.S. Anne, despite it's grandeur, is a very dull part of the game, made up of empty corridors, identical rooms, and forgettable battles. Even with the technical limitations of the Game Boy, it's disappointing to see what could have𓆉 been such a beautiful setting be phoned in. At least we get to see a bucket full of vomit though!