#I'd rather watch Diamond and Pearl instead of this rushed travesty

[wevelocityteampresents-blog]

Pokémon Journeys Mega Rant

I originally uploaded this rant to Deviantart. But nobody really cared about it besides my watchers.

That’s why I’m pasting the entire thing right here. Any fans of the latest Pokémon saga or the spoiled mary sue named Goh should steer clear because like Leon, I don’t hold back. (When it comes to sharing my opinions, that is.)

When it come to Pokémon Journeys, I was always neutral towards it. I didn't find myself liking most of the new characters and I never felt compelled to watch any reruns. However, as I began to watch newer episodes, I realized that this saga was riddled with problems.

One of the main gripes I have with Journeys is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Every saga in the anime at this point focused on the main titles then. With Journeys covering the 8th generation, you'd assume that they'd stick with Galar (with some new Sinnoh/Hisui elements being written in later). What we get instead is an amalgamation of different games. This saga is supposed to focus on Pokémon Sword and Shield. But we also have Pokémon Let's Go! Pikachu and Let's Go! Eevee (from the look of the Kanto region alongside Chloe's Eevee), Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (from the recent focus on Sinnoh), and Pokémon GO. That's 7 different Pokémon games packed into this one saga of the Pokémon anime. My guess for the inclusion of these different titles is due to the story of the Sword and Shield versions.

As you may know, the story for Pokémon Sword and Shield isn't the best. It's a bit shorter than most Pokémon games and has much-missed potential. And it shows. When they focus on Sword and Shield, it's just some story arc that goes on for 4 episodes.

Going back to Journeys, another complaint I have with it are the characters.

Starting with Ash, he's nothing like how he used to be during and before Sun and Moon. He's nowhere near as witty as before and feels kind of bland sometimes. He's also kind of dumb. Extremely dumb. (Not to mention a tad too modest.) As I mentioned in an old status update, there was an episode in Master Journeys where Ash is standing in front of a class of students. Goh gives a presentation about him and messes with him by saying that the only thing he thinks about is Pokémon. Ash contradicts Goh's statement by saying that the only other thing he thinks about is his next meal. This right here felt like a shot to Ash's character. The Ash I know would've bragged on and on about how great of a Trainer he is. Since Journeys focuses so much on the Pokémon world, he could've brought up some of his achievements over the years such as him being the champion of both the Orange Islands and the Alola region. But, no. The writers just had to have Ash make a fool out of himself. They referred to Ash's achievements in the second episode. But I say that's just a poor excuse for fan service.

Speaking of which, what's the deal with the lack of focus on Ash's new champion title. Back then, the internet was excited to find out that Ash won the Alola League. Now that he's a champion, life just goes on. The show rarely acknowledges Ash's Alola champion title and ditches it in favor of a new plot that doesn't rely too heavily on the show's canon. Another thing I hate about this Ash is that he doesn't feel like Ash. He isn't interested in catching any new Pokémon and does the bare minimum when it comes to training for battles in the Galar region that might require the use of Dynamaxing. The lack of catching is all due to one specific character: Goh.

I loathe this kid. I don't know why people love him so much. He's just so incredibly unbearable. Remember when I said that Pokémon GO was one of the many games that was thrown into this series? Well, the incorporation of that game is largely due to Goh. Every episode, he runs around and catches Pokémon with just one Poké Ball. The perfectness of his captures would've been nice for 1 or 3 Pokémon (or half an episode). But when you have this character catch Pokémon without failing just once, it doesn't make him look cool. That just makes him look like a Mary Sue. (And way too much like the Ash from this MAD skit: https://youtu.be/Nr-V6sAxA3g)

Still not convinced Goh is a Mary Sue? The episode "Serving Up the Flute Cup" shows how awful Goh is as a Trainer. (As well as how bad the series' writing is.) Ash enters him and Goh into this tournament in Hoenn. (Keep in mind that at this point, Goh had never been in a Trainer battle before.) Goh manages to lose in his first match. This loss looks like it really hit Goh hard. And after his Pokémon are healed at the Pokémon Center, he gets mad about his loss, says that catching Pokémon is better, and runs off. You might think that Goh would learn the importance of losing in a game and how you could take those losses and learn from them to improve your skills. But he doesn't. The episode mostly focuses on showing off Ash's skills in Pokémon battles and Goh is rarely in the spotlight. When Goh meets up with Ash again, he just smiles and says how Pokémon battles are a lot of fun. That's it. No lesson learned. No improvement to his character. He just runs off like a baby so he can catch more Pokémon, returns to the stadium, and ends the episode without having learned a thing from his loss earlier. According to the writers, Goh is just a perfect little angel who doesn't need to learn any lessons or face any challenges. Why focus on things like fair play when you can catch a Suicune in a regular Poké Ball (in one throw) or a flying Pidgey. (Just a reminder that Pidgey was the first Pokémon Ash wanted to catch. He struggled to catch it. Yet, Goh managed to catch the same species with no trouble at all. Which shows that Goh BARELY faces any challenges.)

Another thing that bugs me about Goh is how he steals the show away from Ash most of the time. Even in the first episode, Goh manages to have more screentime than Ash. It's gotten to the point where Goh isn't just one of Ash's friends. He's a protagonist who is being juggled with the actual one who's been in the show for over 26 years. And all that juggling makes for stories that can run into various writing mistakes.

Moving on from Goh, I'll talk about Chloe.

There is no reason for Chloe to exist. She barely offered anything new to the show until Master Journeys. For a female lead in Pokémon, she's as forgettable as a math subject. She has no personality other than being smart. Chloe only improves as a character during Master Journeys and even then, she still feels like a walking advertisement for Let's Go! Eevee. Speaking of which, I don't see what's so special about Chloe's Eevee. It can use the moves of its evolutions. But other than that, it's just as forgettable as its Trainer. The show builds up Eevee's powers as it'll lead to something big. (Do we really have to meet all of these Trainers who own an evolution of Eevee?) Personally, the only outcome I see coming from this is that Eevee will learn some powerful new attack. I don't even know why we're still focusing on Let's Go! Eevee since we already did that with Lana's Sandy in Sun and Moon. (Not to mention, Meltan and Ash's Melmetal filled in for content from Pokémon GO.)

While we're talking about Chloe, why do her and Goh have to attend regular school? Most schools we've seen in the show revolve around Pokémon or teach you how to be a proper Pokémon Trainer. But Chloe and Goh's school seems like the type that teaches you about English, or Science, or Algebra. (Like any school you'd go to in real life.) They never explain why kids like Goh still go to regular school even though they're Pokémon Trainers. I just assume that their parents don't think they're ready to go out into the world yet. But why should I, the viewer, have to speculate all of this? As writers, it's your job to explain how things in this world work through a little thing called world-building. (I know the answer might be in one of those old books written around the time of the original series. But why should I have to consult an external piece of media for an answer that could've easily been given in the show itself?)

This entire series feels like a complete mess. All they had to do was write a story that continued from where Sun and Moon left off. But what we were given instead were unneeded characters, the most badly written Mary Sue I've ever seen, missed opportunities,  and ruined characters. All of these qualities make Pokémon Journeys what I consider to be THE worst series in the Pokémon anime.

You know what stinks about all of this? The fact that Journeys has already been done before. In the 2000s, a Pokémon spin-off called Pokémon Chronicles began airing. This program focused on different characters in different regions. Most of these characters are old faces (like Misty and Tracey) while some of them are new characters made exclusively for this spin-off (such as Jimmy and Marina). The characters are given more depth. And sometimes, we get to see how certain things in the anime came to be (like how Team Rocket got together and how Brock decided to travel to Hoenn during the events of Pokémon Advanced). And while Ash and Pikachu aren't in it, this show is still as entertaining as the main one. I highly recommend this program as opposed to whatever Journeys has to offer.

I'm glad that Ultimate Journeys is here because that means we're almost done with this garbage saga. As far as I'm concerned, this series doesn't deserve the recognition people on Twitter constantly give it. I hope that the Scarlet and Violet series will be as much of a palate cleanser as Pokémon Brilliant Diamond was.