SPOILERS! General Pokémon Anime Discussion

Pikachu315111

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I am starting to wonder what the writters are thinking about Mallow, if they think about her at all. The only important episode was when her Pokemon evolved. She seems like she suppose to be an important character since she is a like the mother of the group worrying about others, but doesn't do anything really active.
*Cynical Mode Activates*

Well you see a poll was done and AshxMallow scored surprisingly low. Meanwhile AshxLana and AshxLillie scored high and are about neck-to-neck. Obviously this means a push to make Lana and Lillie more developed because they're the popular waifus while Mallow can just go suck a mushroom for all they care. Lana gets a Z-Ring and Waterium Z, Lillie has an overarching story arc, and Mallow is told to just go back into the kitchen and cook.
 
Lucario will be on Gladions team.

Because no matter what, since it's introduction it's always made an appearance in each saga (Mystery of Mew movie, Maylene, Cameron, Korrina).
 
*Cynical Mode Activates*

Well you see a poll was done and AshxMallow scored surprisingly low. Meanwhile AshxLana and AshxLillie scored high and are about neck-to-neck. Obviously this means a push to make Lana and Lillie more developed because they're the popular waifus while Mallow can just go suck a mushroom for all they care. Lana gets a Z-Ring and Waterium Z, Lillie has an overarching story arc, and Mallow is told to just go back into the kitchen and cook.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why letting popularity polls decide your plot is a terrible awful idea. Seeing this is giving me Hinagiku terror flashbacks.
 

Pikachu315111

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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why letting popularity polls decide your plot is a terrible awful idea. Seeing this is giving me Hinagiku terror flashbacks.
I was joking, hence my "Cynical Mode Activates"... at least I hope I was joking. Please don't tell me that's the actual reason.
 
TFW you like Mallow...

To be honest, it doesn't surprise me. They barely handled a cast of three with Ash, Dawn and Brock and replaced Serena with Clemont as a background character in XY.

A cast of six was always going to be a wary prospect and it sucks that once again the writing team can not write good characters.

Maybe I'm just asking for too much from a kids show.
 

Codraroll

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Lucario will be on Gladions team.

Because no matter what, since it's introduction it's always made an appearance in each saga (Mystery of Mew movie, Maylene, Cameron, Korrina).
There's a Lucario in the Pokémon: I choose you! movie. It belongs to one of Ash's companions.
 
First off, welcome to Smogon!

Second, that's making a assumption that Gladion even has a full team in the anime or if he'll even need a full team. The direction of the Sun & Moon anime is, for a lack of a better word, aimless. A lot of the time its treated like a slice of life anime with occasionally battling. Because of this not many characters need more than a few Pokemon, especially without there being a standard Pokemon League for trainers wanting to train a full team.

Right now the Pokemon which we were shown Gladion had fits his character: Lycanroc Midnight, Umbreon, and Type: Null. And note he didn't have the previous two in the games. Whether they give him more or not I don't think is the question we should be asking about Gladion, but rather how is his story going to play out (and how differently will it be from the games).

The only trainer who we should speculate about future team members with is Ash since he'll probably be the only one getting a full team. Now we can speculate if the others will get any more, like Kiawe just got an Alolan Marowak so other characters are being allowed to catch Pokemon, but I have a feeling they won't have a full team of six.
Thank you! Happy to be here. I don't want to "jump the gun" when it comes to Gladion and his team the series is nowhere near over. Their could be a possibility that Gladion could have a full team 6. There isn't a standard pokemon league but the creators could make up for that by having a full 6on6 battle between him and ash to make up for lack of tradition. I do agree that other characters will probably not get a full set team I do see new additions that like various pokemon evolving and maybe one or 2 new catches but with the lack of new pokemon in Alola their not faced with many options. Great to have my 1st debate! lol
 

Pikachu315111

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Thank you! Happy to be here. I don't want to "jump the gun" when it comes to Gladion and his team the series is nowhere near over. Their could be a possibility that Gladion could have a full team 6. There isn't a standard pokemon league but the creators could make up for that by having a full 6on6 battle between him and ash to make up for lack of tradition. I do agree that other characters will probably not get a full set team I do see new additions that like various pokemon evolving and maybe one or 2 new catches but with the lack of new pokemon in Alola their not faced with many options. Great to have my 1st debate! lol
*Shrugs* We won't really know until it happens or the series ends, though at the same time don't hold your breath. Sure, maybe if the writers actually were interested in making a Pokemon anime they'd give us a full battle with Gladion... but they aren't. Since XY it started to feel the writers have gotten tired of writing a Pokemon anime and going their own direction/following trends while doing as little as possible to implement any stories the games have. If anything it feels like the writers consider the story of the games as a hindrance, something they have to include because it's part of the games they're advertising.

And yes, adaptations change things, but if they're going to go this out of the way to not make the Pokemon anime a Pokemon anime then what's the point? Showcasing interesting characters? Pfft, even in the games most Pokemon characters are 2 dimensional you think the anime is going to add any more? Infact one of the most interesting things about Ash is his unique battling strategies... and SM isn't that much about battling so you removed the aspect of Ash's character which has him be a character worth watching and following around.
 
I am honestly not ask for much when asking Mallow to be a bit more relevant... I believe. Even the other two male characters get more episodes related to them or getting some development.
In the episode where ash had the trial everybody hates, her role was just to be there. She did nothing but keep the trial a secret... though I guess that is something, amma rait?
 
*Shrugs* We won't really know until it happens or the series ends, though at the same time don't hold your breath. Sure, maybe if the writers actually were interested in making a Pokemon anime they'd give us a full battle with Gladion... but they aren't. Since XY it started to feel the writers have gotten tired of writing a Pokemon anime and going their own direction/following trends while doing as little as possible to implement any stories the games have. If anything it feels like the writers consider the story of the games as a hindrance, something they have to include because it's part of the games they're advertising.

And yes, adaptations change things, but if they're going to go this out of the way to not make the Pokemon anime a Pokemon anime then what's the point? Showcasing interesting characters? Pfft, even in the games most Pokemon characters are 2 dimensional you think the anime is going to add any more? Infact one of the most interesting things about Ash is his unique battling strategies... and SM isn't that much about battling so you removed the aspect of Ash's character which has him be a character worth watching and following around.
Well I do think ash has a unique battling style and "z-moves" do flirt with the idea of his battling style sharpening. As far as the the anime writers I think that this is the most unique series we've dealt with. I also think its the most lack luster, Ash going to school....I mean come on....Maybe a episode but a whole series??? I don't know what they can stretch out with this concept. Then how will they bridge US/UM?.. I guess will have to wait and see. This would have never happen'd if Disney wouldn't have bought the rights to pokemon. Heck the animation is different and you can see that.
 

Pikachu315111

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Well I do think ash has a unique battling style and "z-moves" do flirt with the idea of his battling style sharpening. As far as the the anime writers I think that this is the most unique series we've dealt with. I also think its the most lack luster, Ash going to school....I mean come on....Maybe a episode but a whole series??? I don't know what they can stretch out with this concept. Then how will they bridge US/UM?.. I guess will have to wait and see. This would have never happen'd if Disney wouldn't have bought the rights to pokemon. Heck the animation is different and you can see that.
Ash still has his unique battling style, but the problem is there's not that many battles in Sun & Moon to show it off. Past regions had Ash battling most of the time so at least there was some exciting battles to expect, but Sun & Moon is mostly Ash & co. running around the Alolan islands doing mundane stuff or school work. Heck, I'm finding the Team Rocket segments more interesting because at least Team Rocket are doing stuff that's work towards their goals (also Bewear and Mimikyu are interesting, only Ash's Litten has anything on the protagonists side that's worth paying attention to).

The school idea isn't bad, but the problem is it's the only idea they're going with. Despite being a Trainer School, there's not a lot of battling but instead lessons, assignments, and field trips where nothing much happens. In addition they drastically changed the Island Challenge by removing the concept of Captains and just having the Kahuna be in charge of the Trials. While Lana, Kiawe, Mallow, and Sophocles were made into Ash's classmates so are in the show, they've removed Ilima and who knows if they'll do the same for Acerola (not likely, I have a feeling she'll appear in some way) and Mina (which is very likely since even in the games she had a lesser role than Ilima). And what are they going to do about Poni Island's Kahuna? Will it be Hapu? If so, is she just going to appear as the Kahuna or will we see her become the Kahuna like in the games?

How will they bridge the anime with USUM? My guess as little as possible with just stuff from USUM just suddenly appearing. That's what they did for Unova when BW2 came out.

Disney buying Pokemon? Yeah, um, no. Pokemon is fine where it is, as a second party company linked to Nintendo (and being the makers of one of Nintendo's most popular franchises) but at the same time its own company handling merchandise and the games. And even in Disney were somehow to acquire Pokemon, I doubt that would change much. Disney has been pretty hands off with Marvel and I'd imagine they'd be the same way with Pokemon. Pokemon has more to lose getting bought by Disney as Disney isn't a major game company (Disney's biggest game is Kingdom Hearts which is made by Square Enix. And despite 100% owning all the original Kingdom Hearts content they do barely anything with it...) so Pokemon would have less clout as they currently do with Nintendo.
 
I dislike the 'unique' or 'unpredictable' notion that is Ash's battling style. There's literally nothing to tell us what his flair is about. Tierno? Dance. Paul? Status moves and a plan behind them.

Style is the manner of doing something and needs two requirements; (1) have a distinguishable pattern and (2) be distinct from other elements in the category. The only thing distinguishable about Ash's style is that he works best with speedy Pokémon but otherwise has a generic and simple style (using shonen clichés such as the power of friendship and power boosts to win), whilst being a good problem solver.

Put it this way, Ash may have an unpredictable style as said so often in XY. But if you know nothing about dance at all, could you even begin to predict Tierno and his Pokémon?
 
I dislike the 'unique' or 'unpredictable' notion that is Ash's battling style. There's literally nothing to tell us what his flair is about. Tierno? Dance. Paul? Status moves and a plan behind them.

Style is the manner of doing something and needs two requirements; (1) have a distinguishable pattern and (2) be distinct from other elements in the category. The only thing distinguishable about Ash's style is that he works best with speedy Pokémon but otherwise has a generic and simple style (using shonen clichés such as the power of friendship and power boosts to win), whilst being a good problem solver.

Put it this way, Ash may have an unpredictable style as said so often in XY. But if you know nothing about dance at all, could you even begin to predict Tierno and his Pokémon?
I see you watched The RThor's video about that? Yeah, his assessment that Ash's battle style is basically "generic anime protag style" is fairly spot-on. Still, he favors faster Pokémon over defensive/hard-hitting ones.

The problem with less battles that Pikachu315111 mentions is that Pokémon puts the battling part front and center along with their collection. The Animé so far hasn't done much to really bring the latter aspect forward, so if they cut down on the battling as well, nothing that makes Pokémon Pokémon remains.
 
I see you watched The RThor's video about that? Yeah, his assessment that Ash's battle style is basically "generic anime protag style" is fairly spot-on. Still, he favors faster Pokémon over defensive/hard-hitting ones.

The problem with less battles that Pikachu315111 mentions is that Pokémon puts the battling part front and center along with their collection. The Animé so far hasn't done much to really bring the latter aspect forward, so if they cut down on the battling as well, nothing that makes Pokémon Pokémon remains.
I did. I found it pretty good and fairly well argued (I did somewhat disagree with a simple and generic style as while generally true - as you say he works better with faster Pokemon (Pikachu, Charizard, Infernape, Greninja etc etc) over bulky Pokemon (Goodra, Donphan, Torterra) with Snorlax being the exception to the rule (who can still move pretty quick, like vs Greta), hence there is a pattern emerging of speed-based strategies.
 
Ash still has his unique battling style, but the problem is there's not that many battles in Sun & Moon to show it off. Past regions had Ash battling most of the time so at least there was some exciting battles to expect, but Sun & Moon is mostly Ash & co. running around the Alolan islands doing mundane stuff or school work. Heck, I'm finding the Team Rocket segments more interesting because at least Team Rocket are doing stuff that's work towards their goals (also Bewear and Mimikyu are interesting, only Ash's Litten has anything on the protagonists side that's worth paying attention to).

The school idea isn't bad, but the problem is it's the only idea they're going with. Despite being a Trainer School, there's not a lot of battling but instead lessons, assignments, and field trips where nothing much happens. In addition they drastically changed the Island Challenge by removing the concept of Captains and just having the Kahuna be in charge of the Trials. While Lana, Kiawe, Mallow, and Sophocles were made into Ash's classmates so are in the show, they've removed Ilima and who knows if they'll do the same for Acerola (not likely, I have a feeling she'll appear in some way) and Mina (which is very likely since even in the games she had a lesser role than Ilima). And what are they going to do about Poni Island's Kahuna? Will it be Hapu? If so, is she just going to appear as the Kahuna or will we see her become the Kahuna like in the games?

How will they bridge the anime with USUM? My guess as little as possible with just stuff from USUM just suddenly appearing. That's what they did for Unova when BW2 came out.

Disney buying Pokemon? Yeah, um, no. Pokemon is fine where it is, as a second party company linked to Nintendo (and being the makers of one of Nintendo's most popular franchises) but at the same time its own company handling merchandise and the games. And even in Disney were somehow to acquire Pokemon, I doubt that would change much. Disney has been pretty hands off with Marvel and I'd imagine they'd be the same way with Pokemon. Pokemon has more to lose getting bought by Disney as Disney isn't a major game company (Disney's biggest game is Kingdom Hearts which is made by Square Enix. And despite 100% owning all the original Kingdom Hearts content they do barely anything with it...) so Pokemon would have less clout as they currently do with Nintendo.
Pokemon no longer is aired on Cartoon Network it is now shown on Disney XD. This is why the change in animation, I feel pokemon dropped the ball by giving it over to XD its not the same. Although Disney XD did at one point air the original X-Men which was extremely edgey and adult as well as other cartoons that I enjoyed (Recess, Gargoyles, Silver Surfer,ect..) They have a decent track record but that was early 2000's and they don't hold the same value as they did now.
 

Karxrida

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Disney XD is actually in a really good position right now. It recently aired the DuckTales reboot, a new Spider-Man show is coming soon, and we're getting more Star Vs. The Forces of Evil and Star Wars Rebels later this year. It also doesn't spam one show 75% of the time like Nick and CN do and has a pretty wide variety of programs (e.g. it still airs Phineas and Ferb reruns), though it does like marathoning sometimes.

Disney XD probably the best of the Big 3 kids networks right now.
 

Pikachu315111

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Pokemon no longer is aired on Cartoon Network it is now shown on Disney XD. This is why the change in animation, I feel pokemon dropped the ball by giving it over to XD its not the same. Although Disney XD did at one point air the original X-Men which was extremely edgey and adult as well as other cartoons that I enjoyed (Recess, Gargoyles, Silver Surfer,ect..) They have a decent track record but that was early 2000's and they don't hold the same value as they did now.
The Pokemon anime is made by a Japanese animation studio called OLM, Inc. and is dubbed by a Pokemon Company USA in-house team. Cartoon Network nor Disney don't have any say in what happens with the anime, they just syndicated it so that the US audience can watch it on TV. Infact, if Disney made the Pokemon show, unless it was done my Disney's Japanese branch which is just a merchandise handing division, it wouldn't be an anime anymore. Also Pokemon in Japan is aired on TV Tokyo, not the Japanese Disney channel.

The change in style, both appearance and story, to the Pokemon anime probably more has to do with a recent successful anime that OLM, Inc. produced: Yo-Kai Watch. A more fluid cartoony animation and slice of life story worked in Yo-Kai Watch so why not do it for Pokemon? We'll just ignore that, despite being both monster catching & training series, they have completely different plots and world and you just can't cram one's style into the other without completely changing the tone from how how they are in the games.
 

Codraroll

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Pokemon no longer is aired on Cartoon Network it is now shown on Disney XD. This is why the change in animation, I feel pokemon dropped the ball by giving it over to XD its not the same. Although Disney XD did at one point air the original X-Men which was extremely edgey and adult as well as other cartoons that I enjoyed (Recess, Gargoyles, Silver Surfer,ect..) They have a decent track record but that was early 2000's and they don't hold the same value as they did now.
You know these channels only show the Anime in the US, right? They do not make it, nor are they involved with its animation in any way. Only dubbing.
 

Pikachu315111

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Discontent with the lack of spotlight, our favourite green haired girl turns to drink to cope

Oh, wow, I thought you were kidding but no, from what it looks like Mallow apparently ends up at a bar-like place ran by an Oranguru bartender where she's drinking and talking her problems away, lol.

... Oh I can't resist. *Plays Video Game Confessions music*

This is Oranguru. Oranguru works in abandoned jungle restaurant called the Hidden Grotto. There, some of Alola's most popular Pokemon and even people come in to have a drink. Sometimes they share stories and even secrets, for as we all know, what the bartender hears is confidential; isn't it.

Pokemon Confessions

Oranguru: So I sitting there, tending the counter, when in comes a green haired human girl: young Mallow of Konikoni City's Aina's Kitchen. She sits down, orders a pina colada, and lays her face down on a counter with a sigh. I serve up her drink and, after watching her just take one shot before going face down again, I asked the lass if there was anything wrong. She turns her head enough so she's giving me a Nanu-like glare asking me if I ever felt ignored, taken advantage of, and less important than others around me. Being a Pokemon and a bartender the answer was yes, by the way, but I let her keep going. She points out how she's one of the main characters in the anime and in the games was a Trial Captain. In a previous character focus episode, Lillie got character development on her fear of Pokemon, Lana got a Z-Ring, and Kiawe got an Alolan Marowak. So its now her turn and what did she get? According to her, nothing. Just a forgettable episode about her being underappreciated as the main cook of her family's restaurant. "Well lass", I said, "I'm sure in the episode you'll get appreciation as the main cook". "That's not the issue" she shot back while also taking another shot of her drink. She points out of course she's going to get the "respect" at the end of the episode, but then what? How will any of this affect her character outside of the episode. "I don't know" I said. "Nothing, that's what" she said slamming her now empty drink down, demanding another round. I hastily pour the angry miss her drink and let her drink some until she went back to slouching.
After things quiet down I hesitantly asked her why does she think nothing will come of the episode. "Because I'm the least popular waifu" she said with a sigh. "Waifu? That silly pairing thing? Surely the writers wouldn't care about that" I tried assuring her. She just gave me a look that would make even a Brionne become nervous. "You don't even know" she said in a cold, angry voice. She tells me that since the popularity of Serena last season they wanted to try giving Ash a psuedo-harem this season with her, Lana, and Lillie. Which is odd as all these characters are suppose to be around 10. But she says because of that if the girls don't have enough of a fanbase to support her pairing with Ash then their character development will be dropped in favor of giving more to the other girls. "That's terrible" I said, "so they're just going to do nothing with you because fans don't pair you up with the main character"? Mallow says they'll try again to pair her with Ash, but until her numbers goes up she's literally being put in the kitchen.
After that she finished her second drink, got up, paid her tab, and began to walk out. I wished her luck and she gave me a thanks, though says until things approved she's gonna have a lot of Big Mushrooms to suck. I told her I wasn't quite sure what she meant though she told me to think of its shape and eventually I'd figure it out. Still don't know what she quite meant, mushrooms to me look like little umbrellas. I see a lot of strange things are a bartender. I see a lot of strange things at the Hidden Grotto. So I see a lot of a strange things as the bartender at the Hidden Grotto. That ain't no lie, I swear to it.
 
Isn't it ironic that every time I complain about Mallow not getting anything impactful in the anime, we get a preview of a what seems a Mallow episode? Maybe I should do that more consistently.
 

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