How can the anime be improved?

[jonathan keller]

Well...it's self-explanatory,lol. How do ya'll think they could improve?

 

[Mikuri]

A battle-oriented, non-sexist goal for the female lead.

That is, if Ash is going to travel around the region completing trials to challenge the kahunas. If the setting of the series is a classroom, then I don't really know what to say. I'll have to see it first before I can say how they can make it better.

Oh, I'd appreciate if Ash's rivals and the villainous team appeared sooner than they did in the XY series.

 

[Alola]

Better story arc and character development for the female lead, most definitely.

Also, for Ash to have a diverse (in both type and personality) team of Pokemon, acquired at a reasonable pace.

 

[Karamazov]

Time to complain!

Spoiler

• Having a group with good chemistry.
• Actual, long-lasting and meaningful character development for Ash.
• Not rushing through Ash's team's development. (Goodra, Noivern)
• Keep Ash from going through most of the journey without a full team.
• Unpopular opinion: just straight-up BW this season and bring back rotation. Hopefully they'll learn how to rotate well this time. I know why people don't like this, but I don't care. This was my favorite thing ever. A team of 8's easy enough to work with
• A team that isn't half Flying types. Also, give his Pokemon good, varied movepools.
• Unfriendly rivals, or at least rivals that actually pose a real challenge to Ash most of the time.
• Ditto good rivals for the companions, if they have them; I don't want another Miette/Nini/Shauna/Jessie/pretty much everyone who isn't Aria.
• Reveal in the first episode that Ash's Alola journey is actually a fake-out; he'll be a supporting character in side-stories, while Alain and Mairin return to be the real leads.
• Don't have three freaking blue-eyed blondes as the travelling companions. Have some diversity in appearances, otherwise the group looks boring. So far the SM characters look different and colorful, so I have hope.
• Any goals the companions have should actually be interesting.
• Give Team Rocket more hilariously bizarre missions and ideas. We've seen a few truly perfect ideas in the past (like disguising themselves as the twerps and causing trouble, or Jessie disguising half of her body as James and pretending to be both of them at once.) I'd love to see more of that.
• Introduce the evil team(s) early instead of saving them for later. Team Flare's arc is fantastic now, but we need some more drama during the main story.
• Good pacing. This show has to deal with 3 years of stuff to cover, yeah, but they could utilize that time a lot better than they do now. My point about rotation and introducing teams early relates to this, because then we'll have more to work with.
• Fucking cut down on the CotD episodes that don't add anything. Or at least use these time-fillers to focus on neglected Pokemon. Both neglect, and these paint-by-numbers episodes have plagues all the series for too long, and are too much. I know we older fans have had to endure them and new kids haven't, but even as a kid I hated these episodes.
• Pointless, but something I know tons of people would love: give a main character a shiny. IIRC, the only shiny we had on the main cast was Noctowl, 16 years ago.
• Go back to the improved moves and combos of DP.
• Keep the flashy angles and scenes XY's battles had.
• Stronger continuity to past seasons.

 

[Jukain]

It is clear that only one thing is worth attention. Just focus on the villain plot and that is all that needs to be done. And don't spend 3 years trying to do it, either. Everyone knows that's impossible. Just one miniseries where you only do the things that are important. All of the good ideas at once. No filler, no sidetracks, no nothing, just plot.

 

[Mew2]

There are several things I think absolutely need to be done to have this series have a chance of being better than XY(Z) and possibly more popular than it in terms of viewers as well.

1. Have Ash advertise the mechanic introduced in the game, mainly the Z-moves,which according to the poster, is happening.
2. Cut down on filler episodes. Despite only being a three year saga, there were a lot of filler episodes in XY(Z).
3. Introduce the villainous team(s) early and have them be an integral part of the saga.
4. Have a battle goal for the female character(s) whoever she/they may be.
5. Have Ash fully evolve his Pokémon much like he did in XYZ.
6. If rotation is done, don't give Ash all three starters since they'll never be rotated. Also, don't favor one or more Pokémon when rotating over the others.
7. Have Ash finally win the League, assuming there will be one in this saga. If not, at least have him graduate the school at the top of his class.
8. If there is a League and Ash, for whatever reason, can't win, at least have the rival that beats him and wins it all be the female player character (assuming she's not a traveling companion. If she is a traveling companion, have the male player character do it). This is also the same should the challenge be to graduate at the top of the class.

 

[Azusa Aizawa]

I would love better character chemistry, Pokemon not being caught too late and never getting any substantial feats (I'm looking at you, Noivern. You are big but you were sure not reliable in the slightest), don't have the female character have her battles interrupted, competent rivals with meaningful development and great personalities (even if some BW rivals weren't handled right at least they brung some tension unlike Trevor and Nene), and don't have four fillers in the beginning of a new series (XYZ) that are straight-up horrible imo. There's probably more and I personally find XY(Z) alright but there is a lot that they could have handled better.

 

[SonansuMan]

1) Giving TRio more Pokémon. 4 wasn't enough for XY and XYZ.
2) Give the female lead at least one goal that isn't related to performing with style and fashion, along with biased votes
3) Give less exposure to just one specific Pokémon on Satoshi's team. This is why Onvern can't have nice things.
4) Make TRio appear in nearly every episode, but not have every episode waste time on them.
5) Better dub music, XY's music is bland compared to TPCI's earlier works.

 

[Hidden Mew]

First off, give the female lead an interesting and engaging battle-focused goal. I never want to see anything like Showcases ever again. Those were just awful and boring as dirt. Better character development for the female lead would also be nice. I do like Serena's development, despite how Showcases are one of my biggest problems in XY, but it does feel poorly handled at points, like how not having a goal didn't bother her for the longest time and especially her mother claiming that she'd give up when things got too difficult, despite the show never actually giving that impression of her beforehand. A better handled female character in general would be nice.

Actually having good rivals would be nice. Aside from Sawyer, I'd say that Ash's rivals were pretty bad for various reasons and even with Sawyer, he was handled rather sloppy with getting strong way too quickly just so he could catch up with Ash. Out of all of Ash's rivals, Sawyer and Alain turned out to have the most impact and they were introduced in the series proper way too late. I can kind of understand why Sawyer couldn't be brought in sooner due to being OR/AS promotion, but if they wanted Alain to be Ash's rival and face him in the Kalos League finals, they really should have brought him into the series proper a lot sooner. He was used in the Mega Evolution specials to help build up to his debut in XY, as well as to setup Team Flare's introduction in the series, but with the kind of impact he turned out to have in general, he should have met Ash sooner. Or at the very least was shown to also be going after the Kalos League to help strengthen his Pokemon during the first Mega Evolution special. At least that way, it wouldn't have been like Alain got all eight badges ridiculously fast.

Serena's rivals were all far worse than Ash's rivals though to be fair. They were so bad that I don't think I could even call them rivals when that would imply that they were a challenge to Serena at really any point during her Showcase arc. Aria was more of a goal than a rival, but even then, she'd be more of a rival than someone like Miette or Nini were. I still wonder why Nini was brought back instead of staying as a character of the day like she honestly should have been.

A much better handled team for Ash. Ash's XY team is easily one of my biggest problem with the series because it is such a frustrating mess. They rushed through Goodra's development, left it for awhile and then brought it back for the League because of the open slot. I still wonder why they bothered to leave Goodra if they wanted to get it back. This wasn't like Charizard in Johto where it would make the rest of the Gyms way too easy for Ash. Two of the three remaining Gyms would have put it at a disadvantage. Noivern is at best questionable given how it has no noticeable accomplishments after learning how to fly. Giving Ash a baby Pokemon at that point of the series was a really bad idea, especially when it wouldn't be helpful against any of the remaining Gyms. Ash's XY team is such a mess that I really wonder how much of the series they planned out ahead of time.

More genuine character development for Ash. One of the reasons why I liked the Snowbelle mini arc was because of the impact it had on Ash. He was more interesting than he had been for me in ages, the setup was great, he had some genuinely good character moments and the payoff was good, even though I'm still a bit disappointed that he didn't overcome the whole Snow Warning/Ice Body combination. Yeah, he'll just stick around for the next series and start over from the beginning, but you could make him more interesting and still give him some kind of character development. One of the first things I thought to myself during the mini arc was "When was the last time I could honestly say Ash had character development?"

Having good pacing would obviously be good. The pacing in XY wasn't bad, but it did feel too fast in places, especially the middle where Ash got his badges surprisingly fast. Ideally, I think the series being four years long instead of three could work out better in this regard. I feel like Pokemon benefits more from having a slower pace than a faster one, but this obviously depends more on how long a particular generation will last more than anything else. XY does make better use of its time compared to BW, but there are issues like Ash's mess of a team and especially having Serena not even get her first Princess Key until well over a year into the series that make me think that they can still plan things out better in the future.

Letting the evil team, or teams in the case of the Aether Foundation being secretly evil, would also be good. From what I've seen and heard of the Team Flare arc, it's good and that's great, but I do think that not having them introduced until so late in the game is a problem. I think Ash and his friends only encountered Team Flare twice before the arc started. Having them appear throughout the series as soon as possible would be good. Maybe something like a combination of Team Galactic and Team Flare would be nice. They could be featured pretty frequently throughout the series, each of their appearances building up to their ultimate plan and then their final attack resulting in this huge world shattering confrontation and battle. It would feel both satisfying and refreshing for the show to have such high stakes, especially when most of the evil teams before are defeated within a two parter.

XY is a solid good series, but I do feel like it has some serious problems that bring it down quite a bit, at least for me. It's far from perfect, so there are plenty of ways for SM to improve upon it in the future and hopefully, it will.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

No overhype on Ash winning unless he is actually winning.
Decent development on all his pokemon.
No more crush rubbish.
Treat male companion better.
Get rid of team rocket.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Despite his story basically being done after the Gym battle against Ash and the writers really not doing much with him, I think that Clemont was handled relatively well. They clearly didn't really know what to do with him after that battle, which was disappointing, but I think he's been handled the best out of the secondary male leads thus far. He actually had some nice development and it sounds like he'll go back to the Gym, which is the most fitting conclusion for Clemont's character. They can still improve upon future secondary male leads, but all things considered, I thought he was handled fairly well.

Team Rocket is going to stick around forever, much like Ash, so they aren't going anywhere.

 

[kantoskies]

• Have each of the main characters have a goal similar to gym battles/contests/performances. If there's another trio and they each had a goal that was paced like Ash's gym quest, there'd be way less filler and it'd be easier to give equal focus to each companion.
  
• Don't have Team Rocket's motto be stock animation every episode. Or if they must use stock animation, animate 3-5 full motto sequences then alternate/mix and match which clips are used each time. Assuming the Kanto motto is used again there's 5 pairs of lines, so if each pair ("Prepare for trouble/make it double") used a different clip and there were 5 variants to choose from, that's 25 different combinations. Throw in a new variant for a special occasion with a unique theme and it'd be leagues better than what they did in XY/the last half of BW.
  
• More references to the past. I'm not saying have Ash bring up old experiences every episode, but make it seem like the past 20 years mattered. I think DP handled it well, they had older characters come back like May, Butch/Cassidy, and Jessibelle and referenced old events every now and then.
  
• Bring back the older BGM, even if it's not used that much it's still nice to hear and it adds variety. I noticed in XY that a lot of the same tracks were used in the same way most episodes, if older music were used every now and then it would make it less repetitive, especially because there's 5 whole series' worth of music to choose from, not including the new SM music we'll get.
• Make the movies more character-driven. This doesn't matter as much and if there's one point on this list I'd be ok with them not going with it's this one, but I'd like to see the movies be more like the Entei or Jirachi movies. Have them not be obvious (or as obvious) legendary promotion and make it seem like the stories were a priority and not an afterthought.
  
• Introduce the villainous team earlier. This has been said already but while I love the Team Flare climax it would have been better had Team Flare been a recurring threat throughout XY instead of the last 1/3. And if some of the theories out there are true and the Aether Foundation truly acts as the antagonist of the SM games, have it be foreshadowed and built-up so we can understand the betrayal Ash would inevitable feel when he finds out.
  
• FEMALE MAIN RIVAL FOR ASH
• Give Ash actual challenges, having characters worship him for his strength is kinda meaningless if we don't see him struggle.
  
• No Ash-Greninja or anything like it like it
• Better endings, the only good ending XY had that wasn't a one-off was DoriDori
• Maybe give Team Rocket their own arc? Kinda like the meteorite arc but better and have them be in-character. Maybe if Team Skull is introduced early Team Rocket can have an arc where they spy on them/clash with them without running into the twerps? Kind of like XY107 but expanded.

 

[Shadao]

Heh. Reboot the entire series and make it a completely new Ash and Pikachu in the process. I've heard complaints of XY&Z not referencing enough from previous series. And I've also heard complaints about XY&Z Ash being too overpowered, not relatable and perfect despite having nearly 20 years of experience to reach that point. And of course, that will lead to debate about whether Ash should be competent or go under a reset in order for him to be relatable to new kids. Since XY&Z shows you can make a Pokémon anime without relying on the old continuity (as in direct references and not flashback retcons), I feel would be much easier and safer to simply have a new different Ash and Pikachu altogether to avoid the BW fiasco.

The issue with XY&Z is that it set the high bar of what is to be expected of Ash from original series to XY. Living up to that standard would be a momentous task and quite frankly almost impossible without completely changing the genre. And Sun & Moon shouldn't be burden by stuff from the past if they want to start fresh and anew.

 

[Kallyle]

Have Ash bring back some of his older Pokémon from time to time for the purpose of training the newbies. It would allow for some nice development and new dynamics for Ash's Pokémon that haven't been done before. For example, have Greninja treach Ash's Rowlett about stealth and attacking from a distance, or maybe have Noctowl improve Rowlett's flight capability. If Ash ends up getting a Crabrawler, maybe bring back Scraggy and have them grow stronger together through practice battles.

Heck, have more interactions between Ash's Pokémon in general. It allows for nice development and helps to spread out the screentime.

 

[Jaye]

One thing for they could do that wouldn't require much upheaval at all: introduce more conflict in the main group.

Nothing is more dull than a group that gets along so well they never argue, never have disagreements, and never have a bad thing to say about each other. XY's group is like this to me. Individually they may be okay characters but as a group they aren't interesting to me. Serena, Clement and Bonnie all admire Ash and never pick on his flaws at any point. Ash will never say a bad thing about them. They very rarely disagree over anything. There's zero internal discord. And that's why, for me, come the end of the series this group won't seem all that close.

I'm not asking the characters to be mean as such, but come on, it's a group of kids perpetually in each other's company. There has to be things they don't agree on. Like why have I never seen a group round on Ash for never helping out around the camp? Why does no one ever question why they're stopping their progress by helping out random people? Has there ever been a companion who thought taking on the bad guys was a bad idea and questioned Ash's decision to do so? Just simple things like these that can make a group more interesting. And when they work through difficulties together they'll be a closer group. Not to mention it adds layers to each character within the group.

Team Rocket are a perfect example of this done right.

Maybe Sun and Moon will do this if it has a wider and more diverse cast of characters. I hope it does. Best Wishes was the only cast since the Original Series that attempted to do this but failed because they didn't balance it - Iris was antagonistic to Ash and Cilan but they were very rarely antagonistic with her, so it made her look bad.

 

[jonathan keller]

One thing for they could do that wouldn't require much upheaval at all: introduce more conflict in the main group.

Nothing is more dull than a group that gets along so well they never argue, never have disagreements, and never have a bad thing to say about each other. XY's group is like this to me. Individually they may be okay characters but as a group they aren't interesting to me. Serena, Clement and Bonnie all admire Ash and never pick on his flaws at any point. Ash will never say a bad thing about them. They very rarely disagree over anything. There's zero internal discord. And that's why, for me, come the end of the series this group won't seem all that close.

I'm not asking the characters to be mean as such, but come on, it's a group of kids perpetually in each other's company. There has to be things they don't agree on. Like why have I never seen a group round on Ash for never helping out around the camp? Why does no one ever question why they're stopping their progress by helping out random people? Has there ever been a companion who thought taking on the bad guys was a bad idea and questioned Ash's decision to do so? Just simple things like these that can make a group more interesting. And when they work through difficulties together they'll be a closer group. Not to mention it adds layers to each character within the group.

Team Rocket are a perfect example of this done right.

Maybe Sun and Moon will do this if it has a wider and more diverse cast of characters. I hope it does. Best Wishes was the only cast since the Original Series that attempted to do this but failed because they didn't balance it - Iris was antagonistic to Ash and Cilan but they were very rarely antagonistic with her, so it made her look bad.

So...you mean like what they did with misty,

 

[Desdar300]

Just have him succeed this time around and don't flunk him otherwise a lot of parents will be upset

 

[jonathan keller]

Just have him succeed this time around and don't flunk him otherwise a lot of parents will be upset

Lol, that's what I thought too.

 

[PrettyVenomoth]

I'd say no dumb gimmicks like mega evolution or fusion evolution but it's too late for that.

 

[Ablaze]

Make Ash look better? Better animation? But that's not gonna happen is it? They are already making him look like a doofus.