Pokémon anime

It's still so weird to think this'll be the first series to not have movies with it's characters.

Sun and Moon must just not have impressed anyone if the writers didn't even try to do a movie with them.

Then again, its setting doesn't allow for much moving around and travelling, so it'd be a single area each time (but that might not be a bad thing).

Still, the Sun and Moon cast have been done dirty on that department, but post X and Y, they do seem to be trying to be different.

It would be relatively easy to make a Sun/Moon movie, just have legendaries/Ultra Beasts/whatever appear around the school and the cast has some kind of adventure with them. I think they just got unlucky due to the 20th anniversary happening during SM's first year, that plus the Let's Go Kanto remakes made the entire franchise go into the past and remake old stuff.

Besides that the box office of the movies in Japan were doing poorly the last couple of years so they probably wanted to shake things up. The novelty of Pokemon movies wore out their welcome by the DP era...and after that all the movies blur together in a mess.

Not that all the early pokemon movies were always good either, but they were at least all memorable and distinct. For most people everything from Movie 11-20 all blurs together.

Maybe there's a difference between the American and Japanese film climate, but if sales are flunking then they can always opt for making the films straight-to-video.

The Pokemon movies got so formulaic just like the show, but doing that with a feature length film is way more costly.

It's not that SM was unpopular, the movies just got worse.

The thing is that the decision to make the movie a separate continuity were made before SM had a chance to change up the formula. Ironically, the movies ended up doing what I thought was a better direction for the Anime proper: Continuing (or Rebooting) the Walking the Earth premise with just Ash and his Pokemon as the regulars.

I'm (sincerely) wondering whether the expanded cast that was too large for the standard episodes could have made it in a movie (i.e. a "feature-length" episode).

Some of the movies already had a huge cast like the Deoxys movie. They introduced like 10+ characters in that film in addition to the 4 party AG group and TR. It's no different than SM, same reason everyone but Ash and Tori were background characters in that movie.

https://twitter.com/moa151

Pictures from the Heisei era special. Two includes shots of Ash's Pokemon over the years and include Mr. Mime. Either that is foreshadowing something or someone made a mistake.

Also the Beedrill and Seaking (next to Noivern in the second oic, you see his fins) he caught in those competitions in Johto.

Here's the specific tweet with the images.

BTW is Lapras on there twice (not counting the one floating across the screen in the second group pic)? In the first pic I see him clearly on the bottom row of the grid in the background, but I also see a fin that looks like his behind the Mr. Mime in the foreground. Or is that maybe Greninja's hand just blurred?

Edited by WorldTurtle2 on Jan 4th 2019 at 12:12:24 PM

Mr. Mime counted as an Ash pokemon when he never used it once in 21 years is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.

The list is very thorough, so it's either counting Mr Mime on a technicality or it's a Foreshadowing (we have seen a fair bit more of Delia and Mimey than usual this series, Ash even did the Psychium Z pose with him in the earlier credits).

Edited by Psi001 on Jan 4th 2019 at 9:13:15 AM

Wait... are you saying that Mimey is going to be an 11th-Hour Ranger for the Lanakila Conference?

^^Ash also did the Fire, Ghost, and Fighting poses and he didn't get either of those crystals.

Edited by WorldTurtle2 on Jan 5th 2019 at 11:37:42 AM

I do find it curious that Delia and Mimey were actually included in the credits though, unless they are huge Ensemble Darkhorses in Japan or something.

Also remember we had Team Rocket and Lillie posing in the credits as well.

Edited by Psi001 on Jan 5th 2019 at 7:42:04 PM

Some new titles imply Sophocles Charjabug and Lana's Popplio might evolve soon, it's not confirmed but seems likely due to toy merch as well.

Oddly enough Lillie is literally the only SM character without a single team change or evolution since the saga started. Kiawe caught a Marowak and has two other pokemon (I count Charizard as his), Mallow's Tsareena fully evolved, Lana caught Eevee and now her starter might evolve, and Sophocles has the Pika-clone and now his bug may evolve.

Lillie still is just stuck with Vulpix. We're going to be 108+ eps into SM soon and this is the sagas final year. And you guys thought Serena was slow with only 3 pokemon for all of XY. Lillie who for all intents and purposes should be the main girl with SM seems like she's just staying with Vulpix the entire series. lol

The trick was that Lillie got Snowy a little while into the show.

Even then I can argue Lillie's done far more than Lana and Mallow have. Mallow's sat on her ass the whole series and somehow got two Plot Armored evolutions handed to her, and before Eevee came Lana and Popplio were pretty much background characters in spite of having a Z Move they never used, while Snowy's played a lot into Lillie's Character Development and she has bonded and used her in multiple exercises that weren't just Team Rocket/Skull beatdowns. Snowy is also ironically the only one out of any of the girls' Pokemon that has legit trained for a move rather than just abruptly getting it with zero development.

I admit the girls have been pretty damn static this whole series however. Part of me kinda hopes it is because Lillie will stick for the next series, though that's sweet dreaming.

Edited by Psi001 on Jan 8th 2019 at 2:57:23 PM

Has Team Rocket done anything noteworthy since the Pikachu/Mimikyu fight?

I don't believe so.

Watched episode 103 yesterday.

Brock is still Brock.

The series already wrapped up the main adaptations of the games, so it's just kind of....there.

I know right.

Though Plumeria is showing up next week, but it seems Guzma is still MIA.

There were barely any villains at all in this series. Maybe because Flare was considered so lame they didn't want to bother, especially since Team Skull is just Team Rocket as thugs anyway.

Of course, Team Rocket shouldn't even still be showing up in the series, but what can you do?

The nearest to an accomplishment since then is some of the bizarre ways they've exploited the Z-Moves. In the Pikachu valley episode, Jessie manipulated Let's Snuggle Forever by holding pose and turning Mimikyu into an improvised net, while in the recent Misty and Brock two parter, they managed to make Humongous Mecha that could withstand several point blank Z-Move attacks (you know, instead of just electric attacks).

Whether this means anything in terms of things to come or is just a few token Not-So-Harmless Villain moments is up for grabs, though I suppose it's creditable, usually by the last season of each series, Team Rocket are consistently outclassed. And they never found a way to repel previous series gimmicks like Mega Evolutions.

Oh outside the Terrible Trio, we had Matori Matrix in the Necrozma arc (that was defeated pretty easily). The most recent time the three tried to contact Giovanni, they were also told he was busy. (Come on, Rainbow Rocket....)

Edited by Psi001 on Jan 10th 2019 at 3:06:12 PM

Is that really much of an accomplishment?

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 10th 2019 at 10:05:27 AM

In general, not very much at all. Relatively for them, I suppose it's an improvement. Truthfully I'm just glad the recent few Team Rocket face-offs have at least been funny rather than just bland and repetitive like they were for most of XYZ and early SM. The last one actually felt kinda like something from the original series, with the twerps being sarcastic around them and Team Rocket actually having continuity by trying to tune up their previous scheme slightly.

Still Giovanni being absent gives curiosity.

Edited by Psi001 on Jan 10th 2019 at 3:14:58 PM

I think Psi is the only one here who is genuinely enjoying this series lol

It's definitely a flawed series, but I like the change of formula and a bit more emphasis on dynamics and character-driven plots (even if development itself has been kinda, okay very sporadic).