History YMMV / PokemonAnime

** ''Pokémon Journeys'' has become one of the most praised series in terms of individual episode quality; whilemany fans have criticized its episodic format and lack of strong continuity, the animation, writing and voice acting (in both English and Japanese) have nonetheless been very well-received. Even despite said lack of strong continuity, ''Journeys'' has been praised for its copious amounts of {{fanservice}} for fans of the other seasons (including adults/parents who grew up with previous seasons), bringing back many characters that haven't been seen for years.

** ''Pokémon Journeys'' has become one of the most praised series in terms of individual episode quality; whilemany fans have criticized its episodic format and lack of strong continuity, the animation, writing and voice acting (in both English and Japanese) have nonetheless been very well-received.

** Very few people expected Ash to catch [[spoiler:Galarian Farfetch'd]], especially right after [[spoiler:Riolu]], another pure Fighting-type.

** [[spoiler: Gary Oak and Iris being featured in the third version of the opening for Journeys took quite a few fans by surprise. While some expected Gary to appear in the series due to his iconic status, given the fact he hadn't appeared in over a decade outside of brief cameos in a BW opening and two recent movies there was still some uncertainty. Iris being teased for a reappearance especially came out of left field for many people, as most fans suspected the XY companions to be the next to be featured in the series and Journeys up to this point had only featured returning characters and callbacks from the original series, XY and Sun and moon (The exception being Matori, who had appeared in every series since her debut anyway)]]

** Gou has become this in the eyes of many a [[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Hop]] fan, thanks to the fact that Hop has yet to appear in the anime and the heavy implications that Gou is going to take his place when the anime eventually gets around to adapting the plot of ''Sword and Shield''.

** Korrina and her Lucario in the ''Pokémon Journeys'' anime; of all of Ash's friends people had been expecting to return, she certainly wasn't high on the list, as while her arc had its fans, she was still ultimately a minor character in the XY series compared to Ash's companions and rivals. Additionally, Mega Evolution had been removed from ''Sword and Shield'', making her and Mega Lucario's return an even bigger surprise.

** The ''Journeys'' new years trailer for 2021 surprised people by revealing an upcoming appearence of [[spoiler:Wikstrom the Steel-type Elite Four member as an opponent for Ash]], which was not a highly expected character due to [[spoiler: never having appeared properly in the series beyond a very brief cameo in the opening segment of the Diancie movie, not to mention being a fairly minor character from ''X and Y'' that didn't get particular focus during or after Generation VI]].

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Pretty much every main character has a long and storied history filled with options to be shipped with, including with each other.

* HoYay: A lot of Ash and Alain's dialogue to and about each other can come off this way, which also isn't helped by the fact that [[spoiler: Ash is the one who ultimately triggers Alain's HeelRealization about Team Flame, not to mention his internal dialogue about Ash during their match with one another.]]

** Ever since the show's inception, the basic red-and-white Pokéball has overshadowed everything. Compared to the wide variety of Pokéballs seen in the games that only continues to get larger with each passing generation, the characters will only continue to fall back on using the red-and-white ball. There ''are'' some rare exceptions, such as Ash and the gang being handed some of Kurt's custom balls during the Johto journey, or how the ''Sun & Moon'' series actually did have some different Pokéballs used for catching. However, the other 99.9% of the time is just the characters using the standard red-and-white Pokéball. For some, this is viewed as a bit of missed potential for not pushing the concept of using different Pokéballs any further, and it became especially noticable by the time of ''Pokémon Journeys'' where Gou's entire quest is centered around him catching a multitude of Pokémon in order to one day get a chance at obtaining Mew. You'd think that this would be the time to finally introduce a character amongst the main cast that will go about using a variety of different Pokéballs to help with his quest of catching different Pokémon, yet he ''still'' ends up relying on just the basic red-and-white Pokéball.

** Some of the special Johto Pokeballs Kurt provided for the original gang were left untouched after handing them 3 Fast Balls, 2 Lure Balls, and 1 Heavy Ball. Brock used a Fast Ball to catch a Pineco while Ash and Misty used the 2 Lure Balls to catch Totodile and Corsola respectively. On the other hand, Ash and Misty never used their Fast Balls for anything while Brock never used his Heavy Ball.

** We're supposed to see Lillie's side of things whenever her strained relationship with her mother is brought up, and her mother certainly isn't the best in the world ([[WhenYouComingHomeDad constantly busy due to her work]]). The problem is that Lillie doesn't really bring this up at all - instead, Lillie is angry with her mother for once evolving a Clefairy that was under ''her'' (not Lillie's) ownership without consent. (If Lusamine's ImagineSpot is to be believed, Clefairy had no problem with evolving.) In the present day, Lusamine brings the whole gang to Aether Paradise for a tour, but when she uses the opportunity to try and make small talk with her daughter, Lillie actually takes offense and angrily storms off with the rest of the gang, more upset with being treated like a child than happy her mother is attempting to set aside time for her (though Ash and Professor Burnet do at least point thi out to her later). [[spoiler:When Lusamine is taken by Nihilego, Lillie continues to treat her mother as selfish and condescending for being absorbed despite Lusamine TakingTheBullet for Lillie's brother. The speech she gave her mother did get cleaned up and made a bit more impactful in the dub as Lillie did say near the end she respected her mother.]] Part of this issue seems to be because of the AdaptationPersonalityChange given to Lusamine. Lillie's behavior works for the game characters, but due to the anime's changes, she no longer comes out as being entirely in the right.

** In-story case. Ash's Charizard was repeatedly trashed, demeaned, and outshone during the episode featuring the Charicific Valley, in order to justify Ash leaving it behind. However, it should be noted that unlike most examples, Charizard is still seen as one of Ash's strongest, coming back after that moment to not only defeat Clair, Gary and injure Harrison's Blaziken, but also becoming the first of Ash's team to defeat a Legendary. Given the head Charizard of the valley was implied to have a ''crush'' on Ash's by a later episode, he supposedly evolved out of being TheRuntOfTheLitter.

** The anime in general tends to fix the complaints about how useless the adults (mainly the gym leaders and Elite Four) can be in the games. Lance is more useful in the two-part lake rage episode with the red Gyrados (with Pryce saving Ash and co the last minute). Norman is useful in helping Ash and co stop Team Rocket, Maylene helps out Officer Jenny in one episode against Team Galatic, while the recurrent Officer Jennys of the series assist the cast multiple times. The best example of all was in the 4 parter episode of XY with Team Flare when ''all the gym leaders'' show up and help stop Team Flare's [[AxCrazy psycho]] boss Lysandre.

* AnimationAgeGhetto: While the franchise as a whole has developed a diverse fanbase over time, after Takeshi Shuudo left, the anime is noticably focused more on young children, with {{recycled script}}s and a StrictlyFormula format of Ash and the gang helping a local, then riding off into the sunset. As such, [[BrokenBase fans of the game either loathe the anime, or look on it fondly.]] It goes double for areas where the anime never aired, or came in late - it's not unusual to find fans of the game who know nothing about the anime.

* AdaptationDisplacement: If you ask anyone who isn't a fan of the games (or at least Creator/{{Nintendo}}-savvy to a minimal extent) what they know about Pokémon, they will very likely answer with anime-exclusive information (i.e. the protagonist's name being "Ash", trainers being 10 years old, Pikachu being the "star" Pokémon, Team Rocket consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth, [[MemeticMutation "Aim for the Horn"]], the Pokémon Theme or Pokérap, PokemonSpeak, etc.). Many ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' players brought in via the NewbieBoom are mostly familiar with the anime, and often use its storyline and depictions of Lugia and Team Rocket in fan concepts and parodies. The presence of {{Recursive Adaptation}}s (including an [[VideoGame/PokemonYellow animefied version]] of the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue original Kanto games]]) doesn't help; almost every game released nowadays uses Ikue Ohtani's voice clips for Pikachu rather than the original sound clips. The game protagonists' popularity also depends on whether they appear in the anime or not.

* AdaptationDisplacement: If you ask anyone who isn't a fan of the games (or at least Creator/{{Nintendo}}-savvy to a minimal extent) what they know about Pokémon, they will very likely answer with anime-exclusive information (i.e. the protagonist's name being "Ash", trainers being 10 years old, Pikachu being the "star" Pokémon, Team Rocket consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth, [[MemeticMutation "Aim for the Horn"]], the Pokémon Theme or Pokérap, PokemonSpeak, etc.). Many ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' players brought in via the NewbieBoom are mostly familiar with the anime, and often use its storyline and depictions of Lugia and Team Rocket in fan concepts and parodies. The presence of {{Recursive Adaptation}}s (including an animefied version of the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue original game]]) doesn't help; almost every game released nowadays uses Ikue Ohtani's voice clips for Pikachu rather than the original sound clips. The game protagonists' popularity also depends on whether they appear in the anime or not.

** The ''Journeys'' series. Ash catches a Gengar and a Riolu, (both highly-requested Pokémon for him to catch), the series travels across all regions and brings back old faces like Korrina and the Alola gang.

** The ''Journeys'' series. Ash catches a Gengar and a Riolu, (both highly-requested Pokémon for him to catch), the series travels across all regions and brings back old faces like Korrina and the Alola gang, and '''''[[spoiler:the Mewtwo from Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie''''''' is implied to return in Episode 46]].

** The ''Journeys'' series. Ash catches a Gengar and a Riolu, (both highly-requested Pokémon for him to catch), the series travels across all regions and brings back old faces like Korrina and the Alola gang, and '''''[[spoiler:the Mewtwo from [[Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie the first movie]]''''' is implied to return in Episode 46]].

** Ash catching a Gengar and a Riolu in the ''Journeys'' series; aside from both being highly popular species in their own right, fans have long been annoyed that Ash did not keep the Haunter he befriended in the Sabrina arc on his team permanently, and many had expected him to catch a Riolu during ''Diamond & Pearl'' due to Lucario's SeriesMascot status and to tie in with Ash's established Aura abilities. As a result of these, Gengar and Lucario are among the most frequent CanonForeigner Pokémon included on Ash's team by Fanfic writers, so him actually capturing these Pokémon in the anime was very well-recieved by the fanbase.

** Bewear was already a powerful Pokémon upon its debut in the games, being able to destroy anything in its path by accident, but its anime counterpart ramps this up to the point where it can leap several bounds into the air and on top of buildings, and even run so fast that it can tread water[[note]]For the record, Bewear can't even learn Surf[[/note]]. Bewear even manages to top this feat by running on water for at least ''three days'' without any sign of exhaustion, ''from Kanto to Alola''. When finally forced to battle, it fought toe-to-toe with not one but three Ultra Beasts, managing to keep a stalemate with Buzzwole, and outright ''destroying'' Pheromosa. The one and only time it ever got decisively overpowered was against TheDreaded Guzzlord, and even then was the only character shown able to keep pace with it individually without Z-Moves.

** Korrina and her Lucario in the ''Pokémon Journeys'' anime; of all of Ash's friends people had been expecting to return, she certainly wasn't high on the list, as while her arc had its fans, she was still ultimately a minor character in the XY series compared to Ash's companions and rivals.

* GrowingTheBeard:
** In Japan, ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' showed that Pokémon stories could entertain adults as well as children through compelling characters and interesting storylines - which was one of Takeshi Shudo's goals from the beginning - and the next couple of films followed suit. In the US, the film was dubbed as a straight-up kids' movie (mainly due to 4Kids bowdlerizing the film by changing Mewtwo from a complex character trying to find his purpose in life, to a generic "destroy the world" villain, most likely due to the belief that kids would find the plot too confusing) and only became popular with adult fans years after its debut, but either ''Anime/Pokemon3'' or ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'' more or less filled this role instead.
** The movies ''re''-grew the beard later on after years of FranchiseZombie accusations and diminishing returns that came to a head with the late Unova and Kalos movies. Starting with ''Anime/PokemonIChooseYou'', the approach to the yearly ''Pokémon'' movie was shaken up drastically, with a different story approach and artstyle for each one. The movies since that era have been significantly better-received than the pre-reboot movies, with ''Anime/PokemonThePowerOfUs'' being widely praised and becoming the first ''Pokémon'' movie to get a "Fresh" rating on Website/RottenTomatoes.