Trivia / Pokémon the Series: XY

• Acclaimed Flop: While the series was praised by many longtime fans, especially in the West, for its storytelling, characterization (particularly in Ash), and animation at the time of its release, it suffered some of the lowest ratings in Japan the Pokémon anime had ever faced, which was not helped by airing during the height of Yo-kai Watch's popularity and airing in 2015, the first time in four years in which a major Pokémon game was not released. The ratings of the show proved to be so low that the proceeding season, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, would shift its focus to a slice-of-life stationary setting as opposed to traveling the region, and the following movie Pokémon: I Choose You!, would set itself in an Alternate Continuity.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Many people say Serena sings in this series, usually citing Dori Dori as the one she sings. However, Dori Dori is shown to be a literal dream of hers in its ending animation, and Serena herself never wants to or is asked to sing in the series. It wasn't until her reappearance in Pokémon Journeys: The Series where she indicates she can sing by mentioning she was asked to be an idol singer. Even then, she still doesn't actually sing. In fact, most airings of Dori Dori were a version sung by Shoko Nakagawa instead of Serena's Seiyuu Mayuki Makiguchi, whose version only aired as the ending of episodes 113 and 138.
• God Never Said That: One of the staff members of the other Pokemon animations, Satoshi Nakano, said in an interview that they found Ash in this series to be "stiff" and that's why they made him Denser and Wackier in SM. However, Nakano himself didn't actually work on the XY series itself (indeed, he was speaking of being brough on board for SM), so this is not a case of Creator Backlash from the people that actually made XY.
• Missing Episode: The special episodes dedicated to Iris ("Iris vs. Clair! The Road to Being a Dragon Master!!") and Cilan ("The Strongest Duo! Clemont and Cilan!") were never dubbed.
• The Other Darrin: Steven was played in Japanese by Rintaro Nishi during his sole previous appearance, but the Mega Evolution Specials established Kenichi Suzumura as the character's definitive voice for the language.
• Release Date Change: The episode "An Undersea Place to Call Home!" was originally scheduled to be the 24th Episode, both in Japan and abroad. However, the sinking of a Korean cruise liner a few days prior caused Japan to postpone the airing, which eventually also happened to international versions as well. The episode aired several months later as the 52nd episode. The original Japanese version didn't make any edits to fix any continuity issues (aside from using the then-latest opening and ending) while the English dub added extra narration saying that this was essentially a flashback episode.
• Same Voice Their Entire Life: The flashback in "Giving Chase at the Rhyhorn Race!" depicts the younger versions of Serena and Ash with the same voices they'd end up having at age ten. The younger Serena does sound a bit higher-pitched, but it's still Haven Paschall doing her voice.
• Word of God: Director Tetsuo Yajima stated in his interview a few things about the series' development, most notably that Alain was always meant to participate in the League, and possibly knock Ash out of it.

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