Pokémon Black & White Anime Rewrite Overview
by WeakScallion June 7th, 2026
What even is this?
Surprise surprise, it's yet another Black and White rewrite fan project! Stick with me, please.
This rewrite will be presented arc by arc (more details on that later), as structured episode treatments rather than full scripts. In other words: the rewrite presents and describes all episodes, but these have not been fully rewritten as scripts or prose, like a traditional "AO3-worthy" rewrite would. They are presented as structured outlines, covering the main plot beats, character arcs, battle changes, and how each episode differs from canon.
Because of that, it is highly recommended for readers to be familiar with the canon Black & White anime. These posts focus mostly on what would be changed, added, removed, or reordered, and do not fully summarize the canon episodes unless the episode in question has been written from scratch or extremely heavily modified.
Rationale
First and foremost, I would like to point out that I actually enjoy the Unova anime more than the average person probably does. I have a lot of nostalgia for it, and after rewatching it in its entirety, I think it’s hard not to praise the many strong ideas on display throughout Seasons 14 and 15 especially, even if the execution of these was messy.
Despite that, I do feel the final product is far from what it could have been: a real, sensible step towards Ash Ketchum’s one and only goal; surrounded by characters and rivals that challenge and build upon his pre-existing growth, taking him to new levels as a character. If anyone happens to be interested in a list of what I consider to be the series' biggest sins, let me know..., but I think it will become fairly obvious as the rewrite progresses.
Anyway, I am truly fond of many of the things this series does. Because of that, this rewrite does not mean to throw away the BW anime and replace it with a completely different show. My goal is to stay true to what defines Pokemon as a show, while still addressing the parts that bothered me most in the final version.
Goals and objectives
The aforementioned rationale is meant to say I am not interested in deleting everything I dislike if I think it can be fixed by changing the context, pacing, or character focus. This includes keeping the main human cast, their broad goals, many of the same filler concepts, etc. If I deemed anything to be worth saving, believe me I have tried my best to keep it.
Some of the main goals of the rewrite are:
- Allowing Ash to stay competent following him having defeated 2 mythical/legendary Pokemon and his moral polar opposite back-to-back.
- Make every rival more functional, distinctive and relevant throughout the series.
- Introduce Team Plasma properly so that their ideology (the main selling point of the games’ story, after all) can in some way affect the story.
- A smoother integration of Jessie, James and Meowth into Ash's journey, without making them constant bother-of-the-day material but also without suddenly turning them into James Bond villains.
- Give Ash’s Pokémon more distinct and memorable personalities and arcs, while still preserving the anime’s intent of giving him a wider-than-6 team to show as many Gen V creatures as possible.
Assumptions and disclaimers
This rewrite humbly assumes a limited yet high degree of creative freedom, no production issues (i.e. delays, the occasional real-world ‘disruption’) nor limitations in budget (which I understand constraint the amount of battles the show can realistically include); and has been written under the premise that Ash’s previous and subsequent adventures (including his eventual win in the World Coronation Series) all stay the same.
In addition, this rewrite entirely disregards movies, so the events taking place in those are wholly ignored for a more streamlined execution of the exercise.
Format
Each post will cover a small arc of ≈ 4-6 episodes, going over every single episode throughout my revised version of the series. I have kept a 3-season structure, with 48 episodes in each season.
Each episode has been rewritten to some extent and the ordering of some may have been changed to better fit the pacing goals of the rewrite. Depending on how much each episode has been changed from its canon counterpart, they may be included in one of the following 4 categories.
- Adapted: episodes that stay very true to their canon counterpart, barring some minor adjustments for better continuity.
- Rewritten: episodes that stay fundamentally similar to their canon counterparts, but with significant changes in the way the episode’s elements are arranged and/or presented. Some of these rewrites may be more major than others.
- Replacement: episodes that very significantly deviate from their canon counterparts (to the point of being dissimilar in mostly everything), but still preserve the canon episode’s main goal ("this Pokémon was caught", "this key character was introduced in this context", "this arc took place").
- New: episodes that are fully original, and thus have no canon counterpart whatsoever. They may or may not include elements displaced from canon episodes (such as characters being introduced earlier in a very different context), but the idea, purpose and events of the episode itself are fully original.
The existence of these new episodes means there is a number of episodes that have been deleted from existence entirely, mostly in the form of filler I deem to be needless or oddly timed, and progress in side-plots that are no longer part of our story. I have also allowed myself the freedom of reordering some episodes to achieve the pacing I think to be most appropriate (so, for instance (spoiler alert, I guess), my version of BW018 is now BW020). In any case, and as explained in earlier sections, rewrites have been prioritized wherever deemed possible and positive.
Questions and acknowledgments
I very much welcome any observations and/or criticisms on the material I write and on the way I am presenting it. Rentry is the platform I find to be the most comfortable to share this sort of material, but any recommendations will be welcome :)
Any questions you may have on the project or any of the episodes, feel free to shoot me a message on any post!
I send my deepest thanks to the following webpages, that aided me in the production of this material