Pokemon Anime General Discussion

[SanPolo4389]

21 hours ago, KHCast said:

Chloe once I realized it was the voice actress for Makoto, shot up as one of my favorite characters lol

I’ll say that she does get more development later on.

 

21 hours ago, KHCast said:

Qs for Journey’s, my update: loved the Alola episode, made me smile all throughout the episode seeing how they didn’t just pretend that series didn’t happen, and to see ash still retains that family bond with everyone there. (And to see what happened to his Pokemon). I really hope they go there again. Also seeing Bewear and the team rocket Pokemon was cute. 

 Maybe it’s just a nitpick from me but it felt like this episode was a bit…..pandering? Especially considering the season was 37 episodes in and already they wanted to go back there so soon.

What do you think of everything else in Journeys?

[KHCast]

2 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

Maybe it’s just a nitpick from me but it felt like this episode was a bit…..pandering? Especially considering the season was 37 episodes in and already they wanted to go back there so soon.

I mean it’s a world journey Ash and Goh are doing, would be a little weird if they just ignored Alola and the potential world building just cause they did sun and moon right before. Especially since there are still a few loose threads that I hope get finished there. It was nice they didn’t just hand wave it all, (again, especially in regards to ash’s Pokemon, who the series routinely just gives the finger after the arc is finished. Still salty about Greninja just leaving and never being seen again). It was nice that they made Alola a place special to Ash, a genuine home where he has a second family. 

 

2 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

What do you think of everything else in Journeys?

Well I finally ended up catching up (as far as the English dub goes). It’s been almost 2 years since I started my binge of the entire series starting with Gen 1 to now. I’ll get to my overall thoughts at some point, but for now, regarding Journey’s…eh? It’s fine.
 

gonna go into some spoiler territory here*****

 

 

It has its moments, but it feels like a lot of things get rushed with no real development. Stuff feels shallow. Like the whole Sword and Shield arc? It all happens at the last second in only like 4 episodes. It makes me kinda wish they just did a dedicated SW/SH arc to better pace this shit. It got done dirty compared to previous arcs. They also change certain things from the games, like Hop doesn’t exist here, Leon’s an only child apparently in this universe, the chairman doesn’t have that regret for his actions, and thus doesn’t turn himself in, Bede is nowhere to be seen so that entire arc with him isn’t a thing, like none of the gym leaders are shown outside like 2 (one of whom is exclusive to sword), etc. and again, all of this wrapped up in the fact, the charm of Galar feels ripped out because, as nitpicky as it is, everyone just has a generic American accent, despite the game making it clear they definitely do not sound like this. It all feels like a last second after thought just because Sword and Shied came out. 
 

Hell, the Mewtwo episode very short lived and underwhelming. Despite Ash and Mewtwo knowing eachother, and VERY light implication from Ash he recalls the events of Mewtwo returns, there isn’t much chatter between them about it, which I felt would have added some extra umph to their battle, as Mewtwo once again challenges Ash’s ideology. (That said, loved the opening referencing the movies. That intro to the world of Pokemon was amazing)
 

Oh, and Goh’s still VERY annoying. I hate his voice, why oh why did they make him sound like this? That said, he had some good moments. That episode where he’s looking for his friend and when they reunite finally at the end got a smile out of me. 

let’s see…I liked them finally giving an explanation to Pikachu’s origins, that explained why it was so reserved and a loner when it met Ash. The music, especially the renditions of sw/sh tracks, were pretty awesome. Scorbunny and Riolu were both awesome (loved the Lucario and Cinderace episode), although, Ash only NOW getting a lucario ngl feels a little late to the party, but better late than never. Ever since the lucario movie I knew it was only a matter of time, just didn’t think it’d be this long a wait lol.

 

But yeah…it’s alright as a series overall? I’d give it probably a 7 out of 10 if I had to rate it. Definitely not one of my favorite seasons, but not horrible. It’s got some big things that annoy me, but it has some very  entertaining moments as well, especially when they reference previous seasons. Oh, and the theme song sucks. It’s not done yet, and luckily a new part drops next month in September so maybe they’ll fix some of the things I had an issue with. Maybe they’ll expand the SW/Sh stuff? There’s still the post-game plotline from the game, the DLC story stuff. That’s the dream anyway. Realistically, I expect they’ll immediately pivot to promoting brilliant diamond and shining pearl (especially since I think I heard Dawn is showing up?) and Arceus. (Unless they pull a Pokemon Origins, for the Arceus stuff)

[precita]

3 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

Maybe it’s just a nitpick from me but it felt like this episode was a bit…..pandering? Especially considering the season was 37 episodes in and already they wanted to go back there so soon.

Misty appeared only 43 episodes into Hoenn, which isn't much different than the Alola ep being 37 eps into Journies.

I think people have forgotten back in the days when the writers brought back old characters frequently, they happened pretty early into each series because of the crossover from the previous kids watching.

[KHCast]

FUCKING BALL GUY IS GONNA BE IN THIS. This show wins over the main anime because of that alone, but the fact we also will be getting Hop, potentially a more fleshed out and interesting/accurate take on Galar, other regions and their stories and characters (like Lillie omg I can’t wait to see more of her, she was one of my favorites in the sun and moon anime), etc…god damn, this has me very interested, in the same way Pokemon Origins did.

[DarkRula]

It certainly does look brilliant. Eagerly awaiting that first episode.

[KHCast]

Are each of the episodes only gonna be 30 minutes, or are they like hour long specials?

 

Also, I think it’s funny how Lillie looks more or less like her main anime counterpart (will probably even keep her voice actor I assume), but Leon looks massively different and a lot more serious looking. I quite like his new look. Now just bring in the Galar accents PLEASE, cause god damn their voices were so unfitting in Journey’s

[DarkRula]

No idea, but we'll only be getting the first two episodes this month, with another two in October. The rest will follow in December. I have to assume that they'll be 30 minute episodes, though. What I'd like most is if they were closer to an hour in runtime, to make them feel like individual movies focused on each region.

I still haven't seen Journeys to know how unfitting those accents are, but I can certainly guess.

[KHCast]

21 minutes ago, DarkRula said:

No idea, but we'll only be getting the first two episodes this month, with another two in October. The rest will follow in December. I have to assume that they'll be 30 minute episodes, though. What I'd like most is if they were closer to an hour in runtime, to make them feel like individual movies focused on each region.

I still haven't seen Journeys to know how unfitting those accents are, but I can certainly guess.

They basically didn’t try, and stuck with the generic bog standard American accents literally every region up to that point in the anime used, with none of the English terminology/phrases. Which contradicted the game immensely since reading the text bubbles, it’s very clear Galar heavily was inspired by more English countries. It didn’t feel right in the slightest to do away with all that 

[DarkRula]

That definitely sounds awkward as hell.

[PC the Hedgehog]

21 hours ago, KHCast said:

Are each of the episodes only gonna be 30 minutes, or are they like hour long specials?

Whooooa there, I think you're setting your expectations reaaalllly high there. I assume these will be like previous Pokemon shorts and only be 5-10 minutes each at the absolute max.

[precita]

Yeah I assume they'll be the same length as Generation eps, which going from memory ranged from 5-10 minute episodes. The Twilight Wings eps were around that length too.

Only Origins (which came out way back in 2013, time flies!) had regular 22 minute episodes, but they only made 4 episodes. And man, even just remembering that came out right before XY did in 2013 (since it was to showcase Mega Charizard X)....it's so odd how time flies...that was like 8 years ago now.

The Pokemon franchise is the only franchise that consistently makes me feel old as hell. Next year will also officially be 20 full years since Misty left the series in 2002 (November 2022 will be the 20th year), as well as the 20th anniversary of Hoenn. The fact that May is going to be a 20 year old character next year is blowing my mind. I also figure the only small remote chance for May to get another appearance in the anime is during the 20th anniversary of Hoenn next year, even if it's probably unlikely for her to appear.

[KHCast]

20 hours ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Whooooa there, I think you're setting your expectations reaaalllly high there. I assume these will be like previous Pokemon shorts and only be 5-10 minutes each at the absolute max.

Idk given how much they’ve shown from the sw/sh arc, there’s a lot I assume they’re gonna cover. If this is meant to be like an abridged version of the stories in each game, would be hella awkward to shove that all into a 5-10 minute format. (Like I mean, they could just fast clip through the story points I guess, but that would be massively disappointing. Then again, Pokemon tends to disappoint, so maybe that is what will happen) Like Origins was so well received, I’m kinda shocked (if this isn’t doing similar) they haven’t attempted doing specials in similar formats to that.
 

Will admit, an hour for each of the 8 episodes seems a bit much. But I got my fingers crossed for something with a bit more substance than previous specials outside Origins. 

[precita]

Well the ep is out and it was a little over 7 minutes as expected. They're basically just adverts from different gen of the games.

[Kuzu]

So Generations again.

[precita]

Judging by the promotional artwork the Hoenn episode will feature May and Rayquaza (and maybe Zinnia or Steven, I guess?). I guess even though this is game!May, it's the closest thing people will get to ever seeing May in the anime again. In the Leon episode the male Gen 8 trainer was in it but he was mostly out of focus for Hop and Leon, but I wonder if the other game protagonists will get a bigger role in their episodes.

 

 

[KHCast]

So yeah definitely disappointed it wasn’t 15 minutes at the very least, and especially disappointed they kept the bog standard voices for Galar, BUT I did appreciate how this was used to show a side of Leon that isn’t really ever seen much. The fact he’s having second doubts, and isn’t sure if he’s worthy to hold the mantle after the events with Eternatus. I liked it. Also, the trainer using Inteleon is canon, so I feel vindicated in my choice lol

 

Guess we’ll see what Alola brings to the table. Likely will just focus on on specific event tied to Lilly.

[precita]

On 6/14/2021 at 4:16 AM, KHCast said:

Yeah, Dawn wasn’t anything special (tho it was cool to see her return for a bit), and Brock was really starting to just be there “ just cuz“.

The dated aspects of DP is that Brock was still around and at his most stalest, and Team Rocket were still in every episode back then, and yeah thank god they changed that going forward. Dawn's only issue is that coming directly after May, her personality might seem too similar at first glance, but the writers develop her differently over the course of the series. As a whole the writers managed to make Dawn both a girly and headstrong female lead at the same time, unlike more recent female companions like Serena, Lillie, etc who are too overly passive, girly, and withdrawn. Dawn was a good balance before they stopped the girls from being active battles in recent times.

Ironically enough, I still remember the days people saw May as really girly since she came after Misty. These days you never see people say that anymore, especially the younger fans who grew up with DP onward...they actually see May as tomboyish, lol. Back in the day you'd never see people describe her as that. Just goes to show you how the fandom has changed over the years because of the younger generation aging to teens/adults and becoming the new majority of the online fandom. Things have changed since the early 2000's.

[KHCast]

New episode is out!

This did a REALLY good job at delving into Lillies perspective. Kinda weird not hearing her anime voice, but I like it. The voice actress did a great job here!

[PC the Hedgehog]

So weird hearing Ed Goldfarb music. Wonder how he managed to get roped into working on these shorts in addition to the main anime dub.

[Blue Blood]

Good God I hate these. They're they're just so bland, so cookie-cutter, so melodramatic and such blatant bait with the interpretations of the "epic" or nostalgic moments from the series' history. They really are nothing more than glorified ads. Twilight Wings was the same, and so was Generations. 

[KHCast]

I think a big issue with these shorts I have is that…well they’re shorts.  A lot of these end up feeling like they were pulled out of the oven to early, and things aren’t able to sit in your head long before the things done. It’s especially obvious with the sun and moon episode I feel. I like Lillie, I like her story arc with her mother and brother. There were interesting bits in the episode, as I said, I liked the attempt at delving more into Lillie’s experiences, but there wasn’t really much time to develop, explain, etc. and as a result, shit gets crammed in, characters of note only make cameos and don’t say anything, or just one line, etc. it’s frustrating cause there’s definitely something better I can see there if they gave each episode more time to flesh things out. Something more akin to Origins would be ideal, (my dream would have been each generation was a hour long special that covered the events of each game from beginning to end, but that was never gonna happen) but alas. 

[precita]

I imagine the reason we don't get full episodes is because they don't want any other anime competing with the "main" Pokemon anime with Ash. It's the same reason all the Pokemon special manga never received an animated adaption. They know fully well if they ever made another full-fledged Pokemon anime (even if it was only 26 episodes or whatever), people would prefer it as an alternative to Ash's show.

It makes sense why after 23 years, there's never been any different anime continuity outside the main series besides shorts/specials or short-lived stuff.

 

[Guergy]

That actually makes way too much sense. Some of these shorts are much better than anime that I ended up liking theme even more. 

[KHCast]

Episode 3 is out 

I have little experience with the story of X and Y the game, but I know the anime one…eh, I think I like the anime X and Y more. 

 

[SanPolo4389]

 

Well this is interesting that they’re doing this.