Hey all, I’m back with a new Fic in celebration of Ash’s final episodes in the Pokemon anime for this week’s Synth Saturday. It’s Chapters 1-5 of “Hard Enough-Pokemon SI” by Viva01.

Plot: This Fic centers on someone who reincarnated as Brock from the Pokemon anime and games, who had to deal with the younger 9 siblings he gets left with in addition to running the Pewter City Gym when his father, Flint, runs off to chase after their mother who ran off doing who knows what. This takes place after that initial drama, and details how Brock runs the gym very differently from his original canon anime counterpart. This first set of chapters details what’s changed, which is a lot, and the first major challenge Brock receives. I won’t spoil what it is, but the last chapter of this set really showcases how different Brock is from canon.

Characters: We get introduced to Brock’s various siblings, and some of his personal Pokemon in this first set of chapters, but it’s mostly focused on Brock.

Overall: This is a widely acclaimed Fic, in fact it was voted Best New Fic in Sufficient Velocity’s 2022 awards, which is not an easy thing. It’s very good, so I suggest giving it a read if at all possible. Plus some of the things that occur just make so much more sense when taking the original season of Pokemon in context.