Pokémon anime

Not sure of what XY debacle you're referring to there.

To the second point, they still adapted the game plot anyway. And while I'm not sure about what happens with the expansions, base Sw/Sh looks to have placed more focus on the Gyms and League. Ash's goal now seems like their attempt to split the difference by keeping Leon the target while maintaining the region hopping.

Nor am I, to be honest. Most people would refer to "Ash vs Alain" as the "debacle" but, while I believe that battle ended the way it did because there would be another generation, I wouldn't go so far as to call that a "debacle".

The best I could think of was the writers depending on a Pokémon Z that didn't end up being released to give them a plot for Season 19. To me, that was equaled by the "Best Wishes" writers getting caught flatfooted by the one-two punch of sequel games and Fukushima effectively jettisoning their original Team Plasma plot. Ironically, (or perhaps fittingly,) blogger "The Mattress" theorized that the Team Flare climax that the writers ultimately came up with was refitted from that original Team Plasma plot. I found that theory viable because I noted parallels among the protagonists in hindsight; Mattress focused on the villains.

As for the game plot, while I haven't been watching the episodes, I find that devoting only 4 episodes to a game plot comes off as rather compressed. By contrast, I found the Motherbeast arc to be more pragmatic as the (modified) plot points^note Specifically, explaining Lillie's phobia were spread over the 3 cours prior to Lusamine's arrival. Plus there's the fact that the Tota were covered among the "episodic" parts of the "Half-Arc" and that Team Skull was delayed until Season 22. I don't think that the Eternatus arc even had a Meanwhile Scene prior to those 4 episodes; I certainly didn't see one on Know Your Meme.

Thinking about Riolu/Lucario: I don't think that the desire for Ash to get one was merely because of Wolverine Publicity. Witness: Serebii's teaser blurb for "Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu, Part 1"^note Episode 539 by their count, which has "Mission, Total Recall" as #992(emphasis, mine):

You Should Know This Already, but that Riolu is not the one that Ash eventually got. This two-parter was about 100 episodes before the Sinnoh Grand Festival, which I consider to be the start of the Unovan Dork Age. And while I'm not going to change that opinion yet, I do admit that Ash not getting that Riolu was an example of the "narrative subversion" endemic in the "Best Wishes" saga.

Ash's Gengar, by contrast, is less glaring: The Haunter that got Ash the Marsh badge didn't have a story/emotional connection to Ash; it was just a prankster and would just as easily leave Ash hanging as battle alongside him. The Gengar on this team had a storyline, albeit a recycling of Pignite's.^note Which, in turn, is a recycle of Infernape, and Charizard before it... Still, it was a realtive "meh...", though I wonder if the reaction would have been worse if the connection was realized earlier. I guess that enough time (and fans) had passed for that plotline to be viable again; having a different element and a seeming connection to Chole probably helped.

Guess the anime basically going its own way was better for it, given how the games come out 1. Faster than before and 2. Kind of got unpredictable on what they are gonna do. Sequel games, rushing a generation, who even knows.

....So why have the Anime become way more divisive lately?

Uh doing new stuff means that not everyone is going to be cool with it.

Though sun and moon started off as iffy and become we'll liked so how knows how journeys will be received eventually.

Ironically, Sun and Moon became more well liked over time after it started to cut back on the things that were divisive.

They toned down the gag humor, focused a bit more on character development, and ended with a Tournament Arc like any other series would.

And had Ash actually win to the joy of watchers.

It's weird how Go has become so controversial in a short time, only because of his capturing mechanic. Personality wise he's fine. I haven't really seen people that mixed on a character since Iris. Even all the SM characters despite being received lukewarm at first eventually all gained fans over time.

Granted I don't think any characters have been generally as unpopular as Tracey or Max were back in the day, but I may be dating myself here since the younger fandom growing up with all the more recent series probably have different views on the anime than "old timers" like ourselves watching from the beginning.

Edited by precita on Mar 21st 2021 at 9:51:36 AM

They found it! The Mato drawings of Satoshi and Pikachu

Huh. Hi, Adventures Red.

Dogasu actually responded to me and gave me more context about this book, as well as few extra images of Mato's artwork.

Dumb question: Who's Mato?

Also, why are there no new episodes this week or the following 2 weeks (at least according to Bulbapedia)?

Mato was the original illustrator for the Pokemon Adventures (Poke Special) manga before she got sick and a replacement, Satoshi Yamamoto took over.

Serebii is also showing no new eps until the 9th.

And, yes, I'm also curious now. A 1 week break every so often for another show's movie is par for the course. 2-week breaks that don't have Holidays associated with them and you begin to wonder.

So are they're any non-Ash Pokemon that you were surprised didn't evolve? And I mean in general, since we do get a few offscreen or in specials.

You mean for the other companions? I dunno. The writers tend to leave most of the female companions pokemon small and cute or overly girly besides a few, so the fact that Dawn's Piplup/Buneary didn't evolve didn't surprise me. Same for Lillie's Vulpix, but since Tsareena and Primarina are so feminine looking it's obvious why Lana/Mallow's pokemon evolved.

Serena's Braixen staying in its middle form made sense since it's more popular design wise. Pancham was obviously going to stay small and cute, Sylveon is very girly.

Iris' Axew is probably the only pokemon most thought would evolve but never did. Although it might be evolved when Iris appears again this series.

I remember being surprised way back in 2004 when we found out May's Torchic was evolving, mainly because it stayed in its first form for like 80 episodes, and I didn't think it would evolve at that point. In retrospect May's team in general mostly evolving after that was a bit of a surprise, it seemed like the writers did a complete 180 on her team since when Hoenn was airing everyone thought her team was too girly and cute.

Team Rocket as well. Don't remember if there were any rivals or recurring characters that kept unevolved mind.

Speaking of Team Rocket, even though i am fairly certain of what type of replies that i am going to get, i really just don't care that much right about now

I don't care if they had a few sympathetic moments or even a few "heroic" moments, it just burns me up that despite all of the terrible and villainous things that the T Rio have done and said, they still seem to get no real comeuppance for any of it and are free to do it all over again at any later given time, and i really do not believe that them simply "Blasting off" is enough of a form of comeuppance. No, after everything that those three have done, something far serious and lasting needs to be done about the three of them, something that either takes care of them for good or makes them realize that this is not right career choice for them

I mean, what's the most evil thing they've done?

They rarely ever really hurt anyone. And while they've tried to steal a lot of Pokemon, they 100% fail every time.

You could argue that their comeuppance is that they fail even in situations where they shouldn't, or where it's actually unfair that they do fail. The only argument I could make agains that is that it feel like even if they were 100% good people, they'd still get screwed.

I admit, my empathy for them has eroded. It's been shown time and time again that being thieves isn't really what they're good at, but they insist on continuing to do it. I don't feel the least bit sorry when they get their shit kicked in.

At most, their just assholes who think they deserve more than they do. If they just stopped, and left team rocket to perform one of the many odd jobs they seem to excel at, they'd be better off, but nope! Gotta steal them all! Gotta keep trying to take this kid's Pikachu over and over again!

I guess the most fitting thing you could do is just lock them up for as long as such a crime would entail.

I mean, if you're asking for long lasting consequences for villains who've been on the show for decades, particularly three who are practically the poster children for Goldfish Poop Gang...I'd say that ship sailed long ago, if it was ever in port to begin with.

I guess they have had their share of legitimately evil things, particularly early on when they were more frequently actual threats (and even then, it didn't take long for them to get slotted into comic relief). Still, very rarely have they actually done lasting harm.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Mar 28th 2021 at 6:09:52 AM

They are just annoying and have been for a while. Feels like they are intrusive to the plots at many times. And many can't say they are funny anymore.

That too.

Maybe if the series had been willing to get rid of Ash and Pikachu, as TR seems to be inexorably linked with them, but as things stand, those three are going nowhere.

Having Team Rocket suffer any kind of consequences just breaks the premise of the entire show.

I will say that they have a lot of fans, moreso than Ash, really. Dunno how many of them still watch the show (I mean, I mostly just keep up with it via this thread), but I imagine they still enjoy their presence regardless.

My personal gripe is more that the organization as a whole seems to be doing well.

While we have seen setbacks the fact is unlike the others TR still is pretty active. Our trio's success rate might not be great, thing is we're also aware of much more dangerous and competent members.

Edited by Cross on Mar 28th 2021 at 6:20:52 AM