#as much as i like that specific battle and ash vs paul as a whole... it just kinda proves my point that sending gliscor away at all

[perenlop]

pokeani moments that exist purely to make Me miserable:

the line where they call ash's oshawott a throwaway pokemon in the unova league so they're just flat out saying they think it's a worthless pokemon

to thine own pokemon be true (extra angst points for me bc ambipom was my second favorite on the team at the time)

the granddaughter of the guy who trains gliscor calling gliscor pathetic and weak to her face despite gliscor being an extremely sensitive pokemon

pretty much everything about that gible

blue episode (favorite color but they made it a fetish somehow and also dewott and brionne and meowstic are all there and its so bad)

boxing heracross immediately. also that battle frontier episode where it's literally the only returning ash mon (barring torkoal i think but i dont count it bc its native to AG) to get humiliated onscreen

pidgeot returning but gliscor didn't even show up in the miniseries despite being an Actual Character

[zedpercyfan]

Sun and Moon’s Problem (An Honest Opinion)

For a while now the current state of the Pokémon anime has been something I’ve had mixed feelings about, and it’s been a far cry from its predecessors for sure in terms of characterization and progression. But what’s been really gnawing at me is the fact that for as bad as I find Sun and Moon, it’s shockingly what is making Pokémon — as far as some people see it — popular with the anime community and the general public!  But for as positive as that is, considering that Pokémon is something that is meant to have a wide appeal range, I can’t help but feel that it’s also at the price of loosing what made Pokémon unique.

Allow me to explain, one of the appeals for a show like Pokémon is that it’s an escape from reality where you aren’t bogged by reality where everyday you can travel across forests, mountains, deserts, oceans, and through vast cities collecting badges, meet trainers and Pokémon, and to me that was amazing.  Sure the battling aspect was amazing to have, but the adventure aspect of the anime was a wonderful factor to have, on top of the small cast of characters who could have varying reactions and solutions to deal with the issues of day-to-day travel life.  But then here comes Sun and Moon and completely messes up the formula, Ash suddenly goes from adventurer to school boy in a matter of moments, which is without a doubt one of the biggest flaws to immediately surface for the show.  Ash in all other instances has shown that that isn’t something he’d want to do, most other times he’s clashing with others, and generally it’s clear he isn’t the sort who’d want that kind of life.  It isn’t to say it’s the worse thing ever, but right off the bat putting Ash into school just felt like the first mistake, because by taking away the adventure aspect the show now feels as bland as every other ordinary school based show, and hell, it’s only ‘special’ because — hey viewers — there’s Pokémon at this school...!  ...Yeah, sure...I’m meant to be fascinated by that?

Another annoying point I’ve seen thrown about is that somehow this is making Pokémon ‘better’, now obviously I’m aware that this is subjective to the individual who is more than welcome to their own opinion on the matter.  But what’s infuriating is when these people play these changes off as ‘better in the long run for the whole series’ just solely because it’s less about battling and more about the more slice of life side of the show...but...I really question if that’s beneficial.  Pokémon lately suffers from the most mundane filer episodes ever, people say that the filler is ‘part of the story’ but I fail to see that, characters never really seem to get anything out of their experiences, the reviewers make this sound like the story is continuous but I fail to see that, there aren’t the connections established to make it look like anything was gained at all.  There’s no progression, and hell, barely any of supporting cast have interesting Pokémon, let alone gags, after Marowak and Poipole none of the characters have really had a notable encounter afterwards, the likes of Mallow, Lillie, Sophocles, Lana, and Kiawe feel trapped in this void of nothingness.  Sure Lillie has the most development but I feel she never really goes anywhere with that, and it’s even harder to see her growth when she has nothing to compare it against, she’s not talking over Ash’s battles, she isn’t catching Pokémon, she’s just so underwhelming.  Heck, the other characters supposedly according to one reviewer ‘gain more growth in one episode than the original cast did in the entire series’...what?  I’m sorry but is that really the case with Sun and Moon?

The characters aren’t a group in my view, they feel more like individuals that are crowded without any real reason to get into each other’s businesses, and they never really have any meaningful conversations with one another, there’s never a change in them or their dynamic.  They don’t fight and make up, they don’t go from acting one way to another via any particular event, there’s no change in them.  People say the OS group had trouble but at least they experienced change, Ash and Misty went from hating each other to inseparable, Brock went from not confident to stand up for himself to being able to take the lead in his life.  With Sun and Moon...you really don’t get that feeling, Lillie’s barely shown improvement aside from touching Snowy and the others, and it’s not like Sophocles is helping others out with their issues of telling the truth...heck, Mallow feels like she’s experienced nothing at all so far.

Another issue is the handling of the Pokémon...it just doesn’t feel right, at all.  Isn’t the whole crux of having Pokémon is to have partners who can grow to be strong and have their own quirks?  Hell, remember when Togedemaru seemingly had a thing for Pikachu?  I miss that now that I remember it was a thing, sure at first I hated it (btw, as of the dubbed Marowak vs. Electivire episode, that has returned) because it kept popping up and ruining the stories flow, but heck, even that every few episodes wouldn’t be bad because these days it’s as if Ash’s Pokémon don’t have any developed relationships among themselves or with any of the others.  It never feels like there’s anything going on, they feel generic, they don’t have enough interactions with each other because we seem too focused on Ash and co. instead of equal Pokémon and human moments in the past.

Another thing about the Pokémon anime is the inconsistent idea that Ash is trying to be the best, I’m sorry but Gladion is hard to process as a rival, aside from being strong, there’s not a lot that seems to be driving Ash to call Gladion his rival. Gladion isn’t Gary who Ash just hates because of personal reasons, Gladion isn’t Paul who Ash is trying to prove a point to, and Gladion isn’t even Sawyer, who for as much as I hate, was at least someone tat Ash was showing off too, heck Misty wanted Ash to get stronger...but here in Alola it feels like he’s just goofing around with no one trying to make him improve.  In other series Ash was always seen battling his friends and rivals to get better, his Pokémon sparred against each other whilst others watched and cheered, but here there’s something extremely static about it, Ash never battles long enough, nor shows off any skills, instead it’s just an exchange of moves without anything behind it.  Maybe I’m speaking into the void, but the lack of this consistent training on screen, learning new moves, maneuvers etcetera makes every battle Ash has seem...not as cool as it used to be, it’s like he only trains when it’s important to the plot according to a case by case importance in each episode, as opposed to the long run.  Not only that but it’s like he’s not striving for victory...though maybe that’s just me.  Look, I’m not asking for the return of something akin to this apparent ‘Shojo Battling’ theme like in XY, but the least they could do is give us back the relevance of what it means to train strong Pokémon like say in OS-DP. Make the training look good, and show some progress, not simplistic class battling.

I just can’t bring myself to say this series is good.  With the changes they’ve made, it feels like Pokémon have alienated their older viewers who liked them back when they were more focused.  You see one thing about content making is that, yes sure, try to appeal to a wide range, get the most viewers in, but see that’s the problem, when you try to get out to a larger whole you’ll always miss a few people, whereas if you actually try and focus on a specific cohort, you will see the most success because you are capitalizing on what that group wants, as opposed to try and reach out to everyone.  Now I should note that I am by no means a media expert, I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m a veteran critic or that my words should have significant weight.  That isn’t me, I’m not like other people online who act like they’re experts, this is just my a collection of my opinions as a long time fan of Pokémon speaking out to those who are like me.  I don’t wish to invalidate anyone over their views on SM, but to me I feel alienated, the show isn’t as good as it could be, there’s an inferior dub, and the dynamics and direction of the show just doesn’t strike me as special.

I’m not asking for hyper focus, but I’m asking for a more quality writing and characterization, something that actually has a cause and effect on what is happening let alone for it to be actually entertaining.  I’m not asking for it to reach the point where every episode is a must watch, but I ask for at least dynamic consistency, and a bit more entertainment value and character growth, puh-LEASE!

David, aka zedpercyfan’s ramble over.  By the way, I wrote this quite a while ago, and only now am up to publishing it.

[arcanelucario]

So I’ve just caught up on the Sun & Moon anime, and now I’ve seen Ash win the league. His first ever league. And it was beautiful. I feel like I just have to say this, so even though my opinion doesn’t mean much (because haha why should it?) I’m gonna say some stuff here.

My initial reaction to hearing that Ash had won was, as you may know, not a super positive one. To be fair, I hadn’t actually experienced him winning then, but it just seemed weird to me. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the Sun & Moon anime from the start. The art style was a big change from previous seasons, and so it was weird to get used to, the animation was unusual but soon enough I saw the advantages, and the cast...well, I to this day have problems with the main cast.

Ash obviously I always liked, he’s the main character, how can I not? And Lillie was really the only other main character I always liked. She was a lot like herself in the game, and was actually bearable. Mallow, Lana and Sophocles were really annoying in my opinion. I just couldn’t stand them 9 times out of 10. Kiawe I liked for the most part, though he too could be a bit too much at times. However, I still grew to love them all too. The whole cast grew on me and became memorable, just like any of Ash’s traveling companions.

Anyway, onto the league itself. Coming off of the XY league, and the XY series itself it was a drastic difference. In XY we saw Ash with the strongest team he’s ever had. All fully evolved (aside from Pikachu), a psuedo legendary, and a Greninja with a unique form. It seemed like he would be unbeatable with that team, and then he lost. Looking back, that loss makes a lot of sense, and his win in this league makes a lot of sense too.

First of all, Ash winning a league after coming 2nd in the previous one makes a ton of sense on its own, and him coming any lower would be a massive kick in the balls. But that’s not the main reason why it makes sense. Watching the Alola league, and especially the final battle between Ash and Gladion reminded me why I love Pokemon, and it showed me why Ash deserved to win.

Pokemon, and specifically Ash’s journey, was never about having the strongest team with the best stats and best moves or whatever makes you think they’re the best. That was stuff we’d see in trainers like Paul and Trip, and it’s something we’d learn was wrong. For Ash, Pokemon aren’t tools, they’re his friends. On these journeys he makes these lifelong friends, both human and Pokemon and forms unique bonds with all of them. His friends are beings he can fight with and at the same time have fun with. So what if they are weak looking, small or not fully evolved? It’s their friendship and bond that makes them strong.

In the initial battle royal, Ash and his friends looked out for each other, and all made it through to the top 16. Then we saw Ash fight Faba, putting his Meltan’s unique ability to use and winning the fight. While Meltan is a small Pokemon, it’s because of how Ash uses it that it is strong.

Then we saw Ash fight Hau, a new friend of his who he got along with easily and well. In this fight not only did Ash fight a friend, so did his Rowlet, facing off against Hau’s Decidueye. And Ash won this fight too. He worked hard with his Rowlet whose strange but fun personality helped it win, and it’s determination (along with a new move) proved to be part of it’s strength.

Then he fought Guzma, an important bad guy who had a rivalry with Kukui. This battle proved that winning isn’t always what’s important, and because of Ash winning Guzma got to learn something. So far, this league had been something amazing to see.

And finally, the final battle came to. Ash vs Gladion. Another new friend and rival he had fought with a few times over the series. Watching these two fight, the way they fought, the way they had fun. It was beautiful. I actually teared up at one point. Two trainers, two friends fighting with everything they had. Even if Ash didn’t have fully evolved Pokemon in his fights, he knows that’s not all it takes to win.

Melmetal, Pikachu and Lycanroc against Silvally, Zoroark Lycanroc. 6 strong Pokemon, each with their own strength, weaknesses and friendship with their trainer. Watching them in the two episodes fight for the title of champion with their trainer, it was what the whole series is about.

And then...before Ash and Gladion had sent out their Lycanroc’s, they laughed. Right in the middle of their battle, they just started laughing. Because they’re friends and because they’re having fun. Which is what Pokemon is all about. Making friends and having fun. And then we saw them in an intense battle. Lycanroc vs Lycanroc, rivals themselves, fighting for the win. While the battle itself based on looks alone seemed to be on a smaller scale than fights in previous series, that didn’t matter. This fight was just another one of the many types you come across in the world of Pokemon.

Eventually, Ash won. He finally did it. He won a league, and we were there to watch him. His friends were there to watch him. Even his mother and hometown professor. The perfect place to win, and he reacts with confusion, because just like us, it was weird, unusual. We didn’t know if and when it would happen, and Ash didn’t know when he’d finally win either. But he won in this regions first ever league which was kinda cool to see because he’s the only trainer with experience in that sort of thing, and now it’s something that’s a part of history.

Pokemon has always been a big part of my life, and now I, along with everyone else who watched, witnessed history in the making. A truly beautiful thing to see, because Ash deserved it. After all these years, he won a league, and now we get to see what happens after such a thing. Ash has always deserved to win, he just always also had something new to learn, and that’s what we’ve been watching him do. Part of his journey is complete, he’s won a league, not something everyone can say they have done. But there’s still more for him to do, for him to learn on his quest to become a Pokemon master, whatever that may mean to him.

You fucking go, Ash.