I’ve been working my way back through all of the Pokemon movies for a weekly column, and there’s one film I can’t stop thinking about. Pokemon Heroes isn’t the grand adventure that Pokemon 2000 is, nor does it have the emotional weight of Pokemon 3, and in many ways it’s pretty basic rehash of Pokemon 4Ever, but it does have one thing that no other Pokemon movie can lay claim to - its location. Alto Mare is the most fully realized, beautiful city in the entire Pokemon universe, and it’s such a shame that it hasn’t been featured in a Pokemon game yet. Sword and Shield may have brought more wide-open spaces to the series, but we need a Pokemon game set in the picturesque Alto Mare as soon as possible.

Alto Mare, otherwise known as the City of Water, is an anime-exclusive location somewhere in the Johto region. Inspired by Venice, Alto Mare is a massive island city where the people travel by canal rather than roads. It’s a notable place in the Pokemon anime because it’s the first populated city Ash and his friends ever visit, and it’s also the first place since Pokemon 2000’s Shamouti Island with its own deep history and lore to delve into.

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Alto Mare is stunning, and the film goes out of its way to showcase this beauty. Before the opening credits even roll, we’re already treated to two skyline shots and a bird’s eye view of Alto Mare as the film’s villains, Team Rocket grunts Annie and Oakley, fly across the ocean in their spy car. Right after that, Ash and Misty compete in a high-speed race through Alto Mare’s canals, giving us a street-level perspective of the city that compliments the long shots of the island and all its splendor.

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Golden sunlight bathes the venetian buildings as Ash and Misty race through the city. Multicolored cobblestone adorns the moss-covered facades and latticed windows as Ash careens through the labyrinthine canals. It’s a place that at once feels both infinite and intimate. In just the first ten minutes, we’re overwhelmed with so many beautiful shots of Alto Mare, including the cathedral-like museum with its stained-glass windows and emerald green parapets, the wide open city center full of hustle-and-bustle, and a huge variety of colorful and elaborate architecture. It’s idyllic in every sense of the word, and that’s before we even get to the impossibly vast secret garden that awaits right in the middle.

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Ash eventually follows the Legendary Pokemon Latias into Alto Mare’s secret garden, a hidden park where Latios and Latias can live in seclusion. The garden goes on for miles in every direction and features natural ponds, massive oak trees, and a canopy that blocks out the entire sky, giving the whole place a lush green ceiling and a permanent warm overcast. If that’s not the perfect place for a Wild Area, I don’t know what is.

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The whole time I was watching Pokemon Heroes, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to explore Alto Mare in a Pokemon game. The tight corridors and canals make it feel like a place where anything could be waiting for you around every corner, and I’d love the opportunity to visit the museum, shop in the city center, and catch Pokemon in the secret garden. It’s a place too special to stay trapped inside a single movie. The Pokemon games have come a long way visually, and if you ask me, Sword and Shield proved that that series has evolved enough to finally do justice to Alto Mare. It’s been a long time since Pokemon Heroes, but if the City of Water ever makes it into a Pokemon game, it will have been worth the wait.

Next: In Pokemon Heroes, Ash Smooches Latias And Becomes A Dad