News Pokemon travelling companion poll

[Mikuri]

Recency ? Bonnie was beaten by Tracey , a character who didn't appear since the start of D/P... Greninja who got 4th place behind Infernape wants also to have a chat with you.

No one is saying recency explains everything in this vast world, but it could be a factor here.

And it's beyond me why you apparently *need* to compare the traveling companion poll with the one about Ash's Pokémon. Did they get the same amount of votes? Was it mandatory to cast a vote in all three polls?

The very fact that Max fails to appear in the top ten but Jirachi: Wish Maker appears among the five favorite movies should tell you enough. The result of one poll has nothing do with the other.

 

[Saizo]

No one is saying recency explains everything in this vast world, but it could be a factor here.

And it's beyond me why you apparently *need* to compare the traveling companion poll with the one about Ash's Pokémon. Did they get the same amount of votes? Was it mandatory to cast a vote in all three polls?

The very fact that Max fails to appear in the top ten but Jirachi: Wish Maker appears among the five favorite movies should tell you enough. The result of one poll has nothing do with the other.

I think you don't get the point of the whole poll. If Japanese didn't vote for Max it doesn't mean that they don't like him or that they hate him , they just prefer others characters over him.

For example , I liked the second movie a lot and it is one of my favorite and Misty in this movie was awesome, but if I were Japanese , I wouldn't have voted for Misty because I just prefer other characters over her but it doesn't mean that I hate her or that I don't like her and I still loved the second movie because of her , do you get my point ? So if Japanese liked a movie focused on Max it doesn't mean that Max is their favorite choice to travel with Ash again.

This guy right here just explained really well that the poll had a good variety of overall popularity , nostalgia and recency but recency is probably the factor who mattered the less since everything about XY in the whole poll did really poorly imo except Serena but we all knew that the Japanese love Serena since the 20th anniversary Pokenchi special + the Serena music box selling really well at high price so there's nothing new. Overall OS won easily and Brock is legendary.

Ps : the only thing which upset me about the poll is that Iris got 10th , she got a special episode and Serena is 2nd , still no special? Wtf is wrong with you anime writers ?

 

[Mikuri]

Do you hate Misty? If the answer is no then of course you wouldn't mind that she got a little bit of focus in The Power of One. It's different with Max. The poll shows that people preferred to vote for Iris, who is hated around the globe, than voting for poor little Max.

Also, it's not like Misty was front and center in The Power of One. You can dislike Misty and still enjoy that movie, but Jirachi: Wish Maker has all the reasons people often give when explaining why they hate Max. So it's a little surprising to me to see that movie among the fan favorites when it is basically one hour of Max bonding and playing with Jirachi. Misty didn't appear as much in the second film.

And I wouldn't say everything about the XY series did really poorly when Clemont is ahead of Cilan. Placing sixth is not bad at all.

I'm not dying to see Serena again, but I do feel bad for her fans. I don't think the writers are concerned about past main characters. Dawn and Iris' special episodes aired within six months after their series ended, we're past that point with Serena.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

I waited for awhile for dust to settle up before i give my 2 cents about this.

Results of this poll helped clear up at least to extent whats the real state of things in Japan as far as likability and people appreciation for human protagonist from pokemon anime goes.

For at least 3 years in row lately there started blooming propaganda over some of characters like Misty apparently being "incredibly unpopular, if not even hated in Japan". I always took those claims from others with good grain of salt seeming to blow things way out of proportion. But since i don't know Japanese i had no real way to check veracity of such statements by myself.

Its nice to see that Misty after all has fanbase in Japan and that she is missed over there as well with people recognizing untapped potential left around her story and charm within character. Hence scoring 3rd place in number of votes supporting her comeback in show.

Respectable especially when taking in account fact how Misty wasn't fortunate enough to stay in pokemon series for longer and build around herself larger fanbase like Ash and TR managed to achieve. Thanks to new generation of fans who got into pokemon anime with newer sagas growing up with same characters as we used to.

Still its obvious how all those people who did voted for Misty were not just kids from 90's with good chunk being comprised of newer fans originating from AG, DP, BW or even XY series. Getting to know her character through reruns of older series recapturing their interest for original pokemon girls.
So argument of people voting for Misty just out of "nostalgia" is far from truth , showing how goal development in someone story is not everything if there exists other valuable things, qualities and interests compensating for lack of former. Which Misty happened to have imo.

Although i have to say its very shocking how May and especially Dawn who is always glorified as most popular are behind Misty in that list. I guess times and opinions are slowly changing.

Serena coming at second place was not all that surprising. Pokemon staff went full mode with whole romantic angle centered around her character turning her almost in shipping bait. Very large part of Serena personality, dreams and story is consumed by her crush and feelings toward Ash and many seemed to like that a lot explaining ampurshipping becoming predominant shipping out there.

Serena containing other attributes like being girly girl interested in fashion and giving impression of pop idol with whole dressing up and dancing on stages through pokemon performance also attributed toward her popularity.

Which is something what is currently asked for and liked over there. Although in my book those attributes don't form enough unique and independent character finding we had more eventful girl protagonists over the years in this show.

Brock managing to come out on top was a bit surprising, but nice nonetheless. Its good to see that many fans still hold respect for his character liked role he played in Ash journey and adventure of showe itself clearly missing him.

Regardless of how much some try to justify how removing Brock allowed for "better" character to come (like Clemont and Cilan), it becomes apparent to me how this characters didn't quite managed to live up to standards Brock presence in this show managed to left behind.

Iris being on last place is kinda depressing. She never had a chance, Tracey was never given rea chance from fans. And some like poor Max did not even managed to come on this list.

All in all this is very interesting insight in how are things breathing in Japanese pokemon fandom and community.

Sure some will try to discredit this due to sample size of subjects not being large enough. Or how people who voted in here are just fans from their 20's or 30's(obviously not). Due to this list not having characters sorted in way they wanted based on their own preferences.

But realistically i think this list was fairly legit and there's no guarantee that bigger sample size would have different results than one with over 800 participants. Majority of online polls out there trying to measure popularity of some character in pokemon have far less participants .

 

[SinnohEevee]

I doubt 60% of the anime's fans are in their 20s. Seems older fans are a small minority, which is probably why they can just pretend we don't exist.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

But realistically i think this list was fairly legit and there's no guarantee that bigger sample size would have different results than one with over 800 participants.

This goes both ways. There is no guarantee that the results should be the same with more people.

Majority of online polls out there trying to measure popularity of some character in pokemon have far less participants .

But we don't use those polls as evidence on these forums, so they are currently irrelevant.

(P.S. - could you look into tl;dr for your posts?)

 

[pokemon fan 132]

This goes both ways. There is no guarantee that the results should be the same with more people.

That's self explanatory, but im getting impression that one of reasons why so many people try to downgrade results of this poll is solely from subjective nature. Being disappointed that some to their mindset "inferior" characters were higher on list over the others.

But we don't use those polls as evidence on these forums, so they are currently irrelevant.

That's beside the point. Real question in here is how big sample size of participants there is required for people to view survey done on character popularity status as credible, legit.

Statistics work on interrogating certain group of people in order to get basic picture of what is general mindset of entire population. Granted room for error in here exists but its usually very small percentage, and in practice its only real way to do research about anything.

Since trying to interrogate entire population or in this case pokemon fandom (counted in millions) would be basically impossible and colossal task requiring lot of money, incredible amount of time, logistics and field work.

(P.S. - could you look into tl;dr for your posts?)

Im not sure if I understand this question. My posts may be sometime long for some, but I don't view that as bad thing. Preferring to be substantial and detailed in my responses and thoughts.

 

[Mikuri]

I don't see anyone trying to downgrade the results because they're unhappy with the placement of their favorite characters.

Why should anyone be mad at the results? This poll means absolutely nothing for the writers. Misty could be tied with Brock right there in the top and we still wouldn't see these two back in the anime. If the upcoming movie taught us anything is how little the writers care for these characters.

What we're commenting on is how we shouldn't take these results as data coming from scientists. This is an unofficial poll promoted by a website no one has heard of. Just last year we had an official poll where people where asked their favorite Pokémon and Greninja was the most voted out of 720 species. So it is really puzzling when you take into consideration that Greninja was voted the best Pokémon of all time in an official, heavily advertised poll and less than a year later he is not even in the top three.

There was a ceremony in which Greninja got crowned!!!! But we're now supposed to treat the results of an unofficial poll with less than 1k responses as the gospel. I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm trying to invalidate this entire thread because I'm currently crying my eyes out to see Dawn in fifth place. Believe what you must.

 

[SinnohEevee]

What's the % of the anime's fans who are outside the target audience? 10%?
I don't think we are much, there's a reason why the writers have no problem trashing the past (like n XY) and replacing Ash's companions in M20.
They are so popular that they don't need us. They can still do fine if the older fans stop watching.
The games do differently maybe because they have a smaller audience, given you need to pay to get them (in addition to having to pay for the handheld).

 

[Wishy-Washy]

Pretty sure the game audience is bigger than the animes.

 

[Shoutmon]

This wasn't a popularity poll tho so maybe this is why the results were unexpected for some. But yeah, polls can have very different results. For example, NHK recently revealed the results of a poll for favorite anime and the Shaymin movie is the first Pokemon related stuff to show up at 53th place, OS is at 85th,XY&Z is at 209th,Mewtwo movie is at 324th and XY is at 348th. No other movie or season appear. Very different to this poll, were Mewtwo movie was first.

 

[KaylaBaraonda]

Well you could headcanon your favorite Companion as either dying soon after leaving Ash, or not wanting to travel with Ash again because they feel their story has ended. Or know that people will fuck it up.

And you could headcanon your least favorite Companion as wanting\needing to meet Ash again.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm not sure how imagining that one of your favorite characters is dead soon after leaving Ash would really help people feel better about them not being around anymore.

 

[SinnohEevee]

I don't dismiss this poll because of the results, but because it doesn't represent the target audience.
Old fans mean nothing for the executives, look at M20.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

I don't dismiss this poll because of the results, but because it doesn't represent the target audience.

Why should we care about target audience?

 

[Almonds]

Poll 1 : What was your favorite Pokemon movie ?
1. Pokémon: The Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back
2. Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias
3. Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
4. Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker
5. Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai

The fact that the Latis movie is even on this list is proof that these polls aren't to be taken seriously. The rest I can understand. But I also think that the Entei movie should have been on this list.

 

[SinnohEevee]

Why should we care about target audience?

Because only their opinions have an influence on TPC.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

All hail, "Rise of Darkrai!!"

Seriously, that movie in my eyes should've been #1

 

[SinnohEevee]

All hail, "Rise of Darkrai!!"

Seriously, that movie in my eyes should've been #1

How odd was it that the hero was the Pokémon that causes nightmares.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

How odd was it that the hero was the Pokémon that causes nightmares.

It's a self-defence mechanism. I can deal with nightmares all right! *cuddles darkrai*