Pokémon anime

Ash should have been replaced a long time ago, but I can take it or leave it.

His new alternate universe movie counterpart on the other hand is the best version of him.

I won't disagree with this premise. But here's my follow-up:

Does the show fit the franchise?

Is TPC willing to let the franchise be defined by this Anime? Perhaps so, but the intricate systems within the game seem to belie the simplicity of the show. And, of course, there are times that the show gets things like immunities plain wrong. Then again, the writers may be trying for a tactical corollary to Clarke's Third Law, which I have mentally dubbed the "Ash Ketchum Corollary":

Any sufficiently subtle series of tactics is indistinguishible from blind luck.

I'm not saying that Ash practices the former;^note though the more recent outings has one wondering... I'm saying that his effective-reliance on the latter will likely give kids the wrong ideas for a good while... This may be Intended so that a kid that leaves the show but stays with the games will eventually discover these intricices, but it runs the huge risk of having said kid Rage Quit the franchise before the revelation can set in.

There's also the question of "How useful is the Anime to the Franchise?" And by "useful", I mean "Bringing new kids into the fold that would not have otherwise come for at least a full (game) generation", because the errors^note whether artistic license or just plan mistakes effectively disqualify the show's use as a tutorial.

Traditionally-measured Ratings are insignificant; the number of games sold is the true yardstick. And yet, word of mouth (both traditional and Social Media) has established the series firmly in Pop Culture, such that there's no real way to tell who is getting into the series primarily or solely based on the Anime itself.^note Furthermore, any ploys by TV Tokyo would then be passed on by Social Media, further muddying the waters. Granted, the Anime has its own Merch, but only in Japan, and fans of the Pokemon species, or even an alternate version of the character, featured would still probably buy them up. But outside of Japan you don't have that. So how can one tell that the Anime has any impact outside of Japan?

Audience-Coloring Adaptation?

A murder if I ever saw one... EDIT: and Oak

Edited by DonaldthePotholer on Aug 22nd 2018 at 11:59:53 AM

TPC should push its other adaptations more and that would probably solve the issue of the anime being a completely Audience-Coloring Adaptation. Adventures and Pocket Monsters get pretty much no attention but the anime is always getting Mythology Gags and merchandise.

I don't really mind it being an Audience-Coloring Adaptation. There's nothing particularly terrible about the anime, after all. My only real issue is how Lighter and Softer it is than the games.

Edited by Pichu-kun on Aug 23rd 2018 at 7:18:16 AM

Oh, I dunno, the Nihilego storyline was pretty freaking DARK. And some of the villains (hello Grings) seem rather Vile Villain, Saccharine Show.

It was still pretty toned down from the games, especially due to it being so rushed.

My question is "Why are they rushing it?"

Could it be that Ash is actually going back to Kanto for Let's Go?

Also, the series will be moving to Sundays in October, according to Serebii.

No because the Alola region won't be over by November. Ash still has the last Kahuna, whatever trials they showcase, whatever the Alola league turns out to be, if we ever get some Team Skull arc with Guzma, and then the last evolutions/captures for Ash's team.

There's also that 2019 calendar that still shows Ash and the SM characters in Alola, so I doubt anything will change.

I also don't trust a return to Kanto arc will be anything new, we went back there for the last year of AG and aside from like two or three episodes, it was basically Kanto in name-only. If you said the gang were still in Hoenn back then, you'd believe it. Probably the only reason they did it was so May wasn't re-doing Contests in the same region, otherwise they probably would have spread out the Battle Frontier in Hoenn.

Anything going on in the anime lately?

Not much. Necrozma and Lunala showed up. Necrozma bodyjacked Lunala, got thwarted, then bodyjacked Solgaleo when it appeared. Also, the color of Gladion's Ultra Ranger outfit was a great shocker.

Also Matori was in a Team Rocket uniform!

I wonder what the dub will call her "Matori Matrix" unit.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Sep 2nd 2018 at 11:21:13 AM

Kenyuu Horiuchi to replace Unsho Ishizuka as Professor Oak.

So, I guess that the Matori Matrix will be the Anime's version of Team Rainbow Rocket. Also, I have to wonder if this guy is part of that task force...

I guess that prisons in Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos, aren't made of Cardboard. Either that, or Anime!Giovanni is smart enough to beware The Starscream...

I was hoping we'd see older Team Rocket members. (Maybe we still will? Giovanni isn't heading this operation personally yet.)

It'd be nice to see some more old Team Rocket members like Dr Zagar or Biff and Cassidy, or even some of the games admins adapted. I find it a shame that the recent anime never keeps any sort of establishment with the non-Terrible Trio members of Team Rocket besides Giovanni and Matori, despite being the one recurring villain team per series, though I suppose we should be thankful even those two have some involvement this series.

Edited by Psi001 on Sep 3rd 2018 at 1:15:18 PM

SM 090 also features Necromza, where it'll absorb Solgaleo and Lunala. The key to stopping Necrozma is using everyone's Z-power.

If they want to be game accurate, they need to include the bit where Ultra Necrozma sweeps their Pokemon by immediately nuking them with Photon Geyser repeatedly the moment they try to fight back.

And that's when Torracat evolves into Incineroar and No Sells that stuff.

Does anyone have a source for the following:

• There has been multiple attempts at folding Ash's story, but none ended up working:
  • The original Pokémon movie had a scrapped ending, implying Ash and Misty being married with a baby girl, and his adventure ended with the said movie. Pokémon Gold and Silver happened and this ending was doomed.
  • There was rumors of a plan of writing Ash off after Sinnoh. The Ash vs Paul battle was originally written as Lily of the Valley final with Ash winning the championship and head home afterwards, and create a new, older main protagonist for the subsequent series. Ash's story had to go on, so the already drawn Paul battle was retooled as the quarterfinals, and Tobias was added last minute to knock Ash out in semifinals.
  • Once again Ash was slated to be replaced after Kalos, with him not only winning the league, but also bring home a girlfriend/wife in Serena. The final minutes of the Lumiose Conference was altered so Alain's Mega Charizard would knock out Ash-Greninja instead of vice versa, so Ash would be kept in the series.
  • As if I Choose You, the creators decided to redo Ash from ground up using the movies. It wouldn't surprise me that this original 1996 Ash would be written off after Alola, and the 2017 Ash would replace him for the next season.

Copied from Anime.Pokemon. Was added by technix as an entry under Aborted Arc.

Some of those sound a bit much, though I could buy a few of them.

I do remember hearing about the thing with the Mewtwo movie (and have seen those images you speak of somewhere: an older Misty with a little girl who looks just like her and the Female Harbour Master from that movie). It's questionable if the child is Ash's though, because I recall hearing that Takeshi Shudo had no intention to pair them together, but I can't say how accurate it is.

The Sinnoh thing feels believable, because we all know Tobias was a painfully blatant addition to keep Ash from winning, what with having two frakking legendaries in his pocket. The idea that he was thrown in at the last minute because higher ups still insist Ash must be the hero is something I can buy.

As for Kalos...not sure if I believe the thing with Serena, but I can believe it as well. Ash making it to the finals is really something that should be saved for his victory. But they blew their load early on that one, and now there's not really much they can do in terms of how well he does at a future League. Either he goes to the end again and loses, or he wins...that is if anyone bothers to watch this time, or cares if he does win.

• The actual Aborted Arc in Sinnoh is the Elite 4 Challenge, which Ash would theoretically have undertaken if he won the Lily of the Valley Conference. This is the theoretical reason behind Lucian's early appearance and introduction of the challenge: Why would the challenge be introduced in-story if Ash wasn't going to take it?
• As for Kalos, until we get some Word of God regarding how the episodes after Ash vs Alain would have changed when they decided to switch the winners, there is no arc to abort. It's just an inversion of a Sequel Hook: instead of a minor wrinkle in the end of the story that gets expanded in a future installment, a slight alteration to one plot point "allows" the series to keep going.
  To the individual point regarding Serena: confirming her as Ash's girl, that would have pushed her past Satellite Love Interest and into the Standard Hero Reward;^note Granted, in the Sinnoh scenario above, it could be argued that Dawn was shaping up to be the SHR; leaving Serena to be a Maybe Ever After while pursuing Contests seemed to treat her better.
• And that bit about I Choose You establishing the "new Ash" is nothing but a pipe dream; until we actually see a new series^note either this October or next November with this "new Ash", such a declaration isn't worth the electricity to manipulate the zeros-and-ones to display it.

So, TLDR: I'm not sure about Kanto, rewrite Sinnoh entirely, and just drop Kalos and I Choose You.

That statement is just begging to be taken out of context...

EDIT: That too.

Edited by DonaldthePotholer on Sep 5th 2018 at 8:12:02 AM

That last bullet point absolutely has to go. It's violating the This Troper rule.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Sep 5th 2018 at 5:14:28 AM

Every time a saga comes to an end it has a "final saga" feel to it, but then it goes on. Even then end of AG had people speculating Ash would stay in Kanto as a Frontier Brain and his story would end there, despite him getting Aipom, etc. I remember in 2006 when the first DP anime poster was revealed, it just had Dawn on it and no Ash/Brock, making people think Dawn was getting her own series and Ash's story was ending. Of course we all know how that went.

Of course the end of DP or XY would have also made good series finales if Ash won the leagues instead of losing, but of course it didn't end there either.

The only ones that didn't feel like series enders was the end of BW (lackluster ending, Kalos was already being hyped up), and I assume the end of SM, because obviously this saga doesn't feel like something to end Ash's story with, lol.

According to Serebii, the harem may be expanding...