Does the Anime have an effect on the Popularity of some Pokemon?

[Rainbow-Rain]

Just out of curiosity, do you guys think that the Anime plays a big part in how popular some Pokemon are?

Like for example, were Pokemon like Piplup, Greninja, Incineroar, Wobbufett, etc popular even before their had their anime roles?

I vaguely remember Sceptile being the least popular of the Hoenn Starters before Ash got one but now it's the most Popular Hoenn Starter?

Did anyone actually care about Wobbufett before Jessie had one?

Are Rowlet and Incineroar as popular as they are because of Ash's?

Does it work for Pokemon even in the current Generation?

These are the questions I wonder about....

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I'm 100% sure the anime has affected many people's opinions on certain Pokémon. I've heard many people say on the internet that they like some Pokémon because of or at least mostly thanks to their role in the anime.

 

[Okido]

I'd say this is hard to judge, but I think it definitely plays a part for some of them.

In particular, I remember that back when X and Y came out, all three final stage starters were liked pretty equally; at least from what I gathered. But now it's kinda like... when was the last time you heard someone talking about Delphox or Chesnaught?
This is too far back for me to know firsthand, but I also heard that people initially didn't really like Wobbuffet here in the West. But now, pretty much everybody loves Wobbuffet. Heck, I love Wobbuffet!

I think it mostly applies to Pokémon that otherwise wouldn't have been very memorable if they didn't get a major part in the anime, and Wobbuffet is a good example. If not for Jessie's Wobbuffet, I don't think it'd be what it is now... it would just be another random Johto mon. People like Weezing because it was James's iconic Pokémon for a while, but if it wasn't, would you really see as many people who were fond of it?

But for big ones like Piplup or Incineroar, I'm sure the difference wouldn't be too drastic. They would have been popular anyway; maybe not as much as they are now, but still.

 

[Norzan]

Like for example, were Pokemon like Piplup, Greninja, Incineroar, Wobbufett, etc popular even before their had their anime roles?

Greninja was definitely popular (and the most popular Kalos starter) before it even showed up in the anime.

 

[Daren]

From what I recall Charizard being elevated above Blastoise and Venusaur was influenced pretty heavily by the anime.

 

[Enzo]

Oh absolutely. I don't even think this is much of question, imo.

Things that get exposure and good representation (both equally important) tend to get popular pretty quickly.

Also, I think it's important to note that the anime has always been (and still is and will forever be) many people's introductions to the series, and I know people irl who have never even played a Pokémon game but are still fans by just watching the anime. Therefore, some people only know the Pokémon that exist through the anime.

In summary, a Pokémon being well presented to the public, especially in a medium like the anime, where we can explore said Pokémon in much deeper ways the games ever could, will make it very popular. Charizard might be the prime example of this.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

To give a more positive example on the whole "Pokemon popularity affected by the anime", there's Gliscor. I remember how in the very, very early days of Gen 4 just about everybody hated it. It was called "ugly", "a hideous monstrosity", and people lamented how much it "ruined" Gligar. Literally nobody had good things to say about the poor creature.

And then Ash's Gliscor was introduced and the way it was portrayed by being given a personality that was at odds with its supposedly "awful" appearance resulting in something strangely adorable and loveable, with the result being that hardly anyone hates Gliscor these days. One could argue that it being fantastic in the competitive scene helped too, but then take a look at Heatran and the Genies, Pokemon who are all very competitively successful, yet they are extremely polarizing with fans at best. Sure, neither Heatran nor the Genies have gone completely unrepresented by the anime, but their portrayals are no more unique than those of any other Legendary (and in Heatran's case it even seems to be portrayed more like just an ordinary if somewhat rare Pokemon most of the time), so they don't stand out as much as Gliscor did.

 

[Alola]

To give a more positive example on the whole "Pokemon popularity affected by the anime", there's Gliscor. I remember how in the very, very early days of Gen 4 just about everybody hated it. It was called "ugly", "a hideous monstrosity", and people lamented how much it "ruined" Gligar. Literally nobody had good things to say about the poor creature.

And then Ash's Gliscor was introduced and the way it was portrayed by being given a personality that was at odds with its supposedly "awful" appearance resulting in something strangely adorable and loveable, with the result being that hardly anyone hates Gliscor these days. One could argue that it being fantastic in the competitive scene helped too, but then take a look at Heatran and the Genies, Pokemon who are all very competitively successful, yet they are extremely polarizing with fans at best. Sure, neither Heatran nor the Genies have gone completely unrepresented by the anime, but their portrayals are no more unique than those of any other Legendary (and in Heatran's case it even seems to be portrayed more like just an ordinary if somewhat rare Pokemon most of the time), so they don't stand out as much as Gliscor did.

Probably because its D/P sprite, which was the only image people had of it for a while, was absolutely atrocious.

Thankfully, Platinum came along and took queues from the anime and its official art (and said art becoming more available, along with its anime appearances).

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Probably because its D/P sprite, which was the only image people had of it for a while, was absolutely atrocious.

Thankfully, Platinum came along and took queues from the anime and its official art (and said art becoming more available, along with its anime appearances).

LMAO!

 

[Okido]

LMAO!

View attachment 155514

Sorry to get off-topic here but OMG how on earth have I never seen that sprite before. That genuinely looks like a placeholder, the poor thing. It really makes me appreciate its cool Platinum sprite even more.

 

[Alola]

LMAO!

View attachment 155514

Sorry to get off-topic here but OMG how on earth have I never seen that sprite before. That genuinely looks like a placeholder, the poor thing. It really makes me appreciate its cool Platinum sprite even more.

...exactly, lol.

I know I was one of the ones who detested Gliscor at first because its face was ridiculously creepy and undetailed compared to the other DP sprites. Seeing Paul's (and later Ash's) along with the much better done Pt/HGSS sprite changed my opinion considerably, though. I still fondly remember using my Gliscor against Maylene's Lucario and Byron's Bastiodon as the "main" matchup

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

A more recent example I can think of would be Cinderace.

I remember when Cinderace first leaked and it got so much hate

Nowadays I rarely find anyone who hates it. Goh's Cinderace is really endearing wouldn't you agree?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

A more recent example I can think of would be Cinderace.

I remember when Cinderace first leaked and it got so much hate

Nowadays I rarely find anyone who hates it. Goh's Cinderace is really endearing wouldn't you agree?

Yup. When I first saw the Galar starters, I didn't have a clear favorite amongst them. But the more I saw them, the Scorbunny line became my favorite of the bunch, and I was so happy it became Goh's starter. Also, IMO, Cinderace has the best signature move of all thr Galar starters.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Yup. When I first saw the Galar starters, I didn't have a clear favorite amongst them. But the more I saw them, the Scorbunny line became my favorite of the bunch, and I was so happy it became Goh's starter. Also, IMO, Cinderace has the best signature move of all thr Galar starters.

Inteleon is my favorite but I must admit, Cinderace has the best animations in the game and Pyro Ball is the strongest Signature move out of any Starter (being extremely good competitively helps)

Goh's Cinderace is just a precious bean and I wish we could see more of him. Definitely made me love the line way more than I did before

Ironically I feel like the complete opposite happened to me with Grookey. I used to like the Monkey a lot more before Goh got one. I just hope the anime makes me appreciate Thwacky and Rillaboom more

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I will admit that I used to be a lot more dismissive of Cinderace when it first came out than now, though in my case Goh's Cinderace has very little with me softening up to the species in general. I think the real reason for me is just that it's the "safest" rabbit design in Pokemon, as every other has one of these issues:

1) being so ridiculously stylized and/or mixed with other creatures in design that it barely counts as a rabbit anymore (Wigglytuff, Azumarill, Whismur, the Nido family, the Eeveelutions, arguably Pikachu and Plusle and Minun)
2) being seemingly deliberately designed provocatively, which kinda makes it uncomfortable at times (Lopunny)
3) being designed to subvert everything people usually like about rabbits, which while novel, is going to be off-putting and annoying to some degree (Diggersby)

So it is refreshing that we finally get a conventionally cute rabbit that is allowed to be just a rabbit for the most part. That being said, I still find it difficult to warm up completely to Cinderace because I feel like a lot of its success is... well, fabricated for lack of a better work. I feel like it was deliberately designed to be "the popular one" in a way, what with it getting two signature moves when its fellow Galar starters only got one each, and Cinderace's just so happen to be the best by a longshot. There's also the fact that it was given what is essentially Protean as an Ability, and seeing how that Ability belongs to the fandom darling of the Kalos starters Greninja, I don't think it was a coincidence. That to me just kinda takes away some of the charm. Like I'm not liking it of my own volition, but rather that I am being forced to like it. Does that make any sense?

Sure, you could argue that the anime in general does this for any and every Pokemon it features prominently, but in Cinderace's case I sorta feel like it was designed to be the favorite in every aspect, not just as an anime character.

I think that at least if Libero was more unique as an Ability I would like Cinderace a lot more than I currently do. As is I just feel like it's just "Greninja but Fire Bunny"

 

[Daren]

That being said, I still find it difficult to warm up completely to Cinderace because I feel like a lot of its success is... well, fabricated for lack of a better work. I feel like it was deliberately designed to be "the popular one" in a way, what with it getting two signature moves when its fellow Galar starters only got one each, and Cinderace's just so happen to be the best by a longshot. There's also the fact that it was given what is essentially Protean as an Ability, and seeing how that Ability belongs to the fandom darling of the Kalos starters Greninja, I don't think it was a coincidence. That to me just kinda takes away some of the charm. Like I'm not liking it of my own volition, but rather that I am being forced to like it. Does that make any sense?

I 100% get what you mean. Like how the Star Wars sequels blatantly wanted Phasma to be the fandom's new Boba Fett and it fell flat because of how obvious it was.

I think Greninja was sort of similar to Cinderace in that he was intended to be the popular one; not only was it the one the anime gave the most attention to but it also made it into Smash Bros. and had Protean, an ability it's not exactly hard to tell is gonna be a lot more popular than Chesnaught and Delphox's hidden abilities.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I 100% get what you mean. Like how the Star Wars sequels blatantly wanted Phasma to be the fandom's new Boba Fett and it fell flat because of how obvious it was.

I think Greninja was sort of similar to Cinderace in that he was intended to be the popular one; not only was it the one the anime gave the most attention to but it also made it into Smash Bros. and had Protean, an ability it's not exactly hard to tell is gonna be a lot more popular than Chesnaught and Delphox's hidden abilities.

Yeah, as much as I rag on Charizard's modern portrayals, it at least actually earned its popularity. Sure, the anime probably contributed, but at least in the games themselves it was no more special than Venusaur or Blastoise.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I will admit that I used to be a lot more dismissive of Cinderace when it first came out than now, though in my case Goh's Cinderace has very little with me softening up to the species in general. I think the real reason for me is just that it's the "safest" rabbit design in Pokemon, as every other is one of these things:

1) so ridiculously stylized and/or mixed up with other creatures that it barely counts as a rabbit anymore (Wigglytuff, Azumarill, Whismur, the Nido family, the Eeveelutions, maybe Pikachu and a couple other Pikaclones)
2) seemingly deliberately designed provocatively, which kinda makes it uncomfortable at times (Lopunny)
3) designed to subvert everything people usually like about rabbits, which while novel, is going to be off-putting and annoying to some degree (Diggersby)

So it is refreshing that we finally get a conventionally cute rabbit that is allowed to be just a rabbit for the most part. That being said, I still find it difficult to warm up completely to Cinderace because I feel like a lot of its success is... well, fabricated for lack of a better work. I feel like it was deliberately designed to be "the popular one" in a way, what with it getting two signature moves when its fellow Galar starters only got one each, and Cinderace's just so happen to be the best by a longshot. There's also the fact that it was given what is essentially Protean as an Ability, and seeing how that Ability belongs to the fandom darling of the Kalos starters Greninja, I don't think it was a coincidence. That to me just kinda takes away some of the charm. Like I'm not liking it of my own volition, but rather that I am being forced to like it. Does that make any sense?

Sure, you could argue that the anime in general does this for any and every Pokemon it features prominently, but in Cinderace's case I sorta feel like it was designed to be the favorite in every aspect, not just as an anime character.

I think that at least if Libero was more unique as an Ability I would like Cinderace a lot more than I currently do. As is I just feel like it's just "Greninja but Fire Bunny"

That's funny because this is exactly how I felt with Greninja and Charizard (and Incineroar to a lesser extent)

They try to force popularity on some of these Starters by deliberately either making them look extremely better than the others or WORSE, they go out of their way to make the other Starters look Bad by comparison.

Who can forgot how often Blastoise is known for jobbing to Charizard?

Or that infamous scene where Incineroar one hit KO's, both Primarina and Decidueye clearly showing who the "Superior" Starter is am I right?

Gen 6 wasn't as bad, with Delphox and Chestnaught being more ignored rather than made to look bad compared to Greninja. Chestnaught and Delphox didn't appear much as the Frog took center stage. But at the very least Braxien (who was more popular than Delphox) got okay treatment

Gen 8 started similar to Gen 6 in the sense that attention was only on the Rabbit line. While the Sobble and Grookey lines were ignored

But that seemingly changed once Inteleon made it's debut last year and Goh later achieved one himself, and while it didn't get as much attention when it was still Sobble/Drizzile, Goh's Inteleon starting appearing almost as much as Cinderace while Cinderace itself surprisingly stopped appearing as often as it did in it's previous forms

It still too early to judge how Rillaboom will be handled, but it hasn't been shit on unlike some other examples so far

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

That's funny because this is exactly how I felt with Greninja and Charizard (and Incineroar to a lesser extent)

They try to force popularity on some of these Starters by deliberately either making them look extremely better than the others or WORSE, they go out of their way to make the other Starters look Bad by comparison.

Who can forgot how often Blastoise is known for jobbing to Charizard?

Or that infamous scene where Incineroar one hit KO's, both Primarina and Decidueye clearly showing who the "Superior" Starter is am I right?

Gen 6 wasn't as bad, with Delphox and Chestnaught being more ignored rather than made to look bad compared to Greninja. Chestnaught and Delphox didn't appear much as the Frog took center stage. But at the very least Braxien (who was more popular than Delphox) got okay treatment

Gen 8 started similar to Gen 6 in the sense that attention was only on the Rabbit line. While the Sobble and Grookey lines were ignored

But that seemingly changed once Inteleon made it's debut last year and Goh later achieved one himself, and while it didn't get as much attention when it was still Sobble/Drizzile, Goh's Inteleon starting appearing almost as much as Cinderace while Cinderace itself surprisingly stopped appearing as often as it did in it's previous forms

It still too early to judge how Rillaboom will be handled, but it hasn't been shit on unlike some other examples so far

Well, I was talking more in terms of gameplay rather than how they're showcased in the anime. Yes, compared to past starter sets, the Gen 8 starters are more balanced in their portrayal, but gameplaywise it's another story entirely, and Cinderace was clearly the favored one there.

I guess it just feels more egregious to me when the games themselves start favoring certain Pokemon over others because 1) they generally feel like they do it less often than the anime does, and 2) the fact that conventionally cool Pokemon can be amazing makes it especially suck when other beloved Pokemon get the short end of the stick because it proves that the devs can make those Pokemon good, they just won't: I mean, just look at poor Luxray for example; there's a Pokemon who has been very popular since its debut, yet absolutely terrible in competitive settings even after all this time...

 

[Daren]

the fact that conventionally cool Pokemon can be amazing makes it especially suck when other beloved Pokemon get the short end of the stick because it proves that the devs can make those Pokemon good, they just won't: I mean, just look at poor Luxray, who has been very popular since its debut, yet absolutely terrible in competitive settings...

Or Flareon, possibly the poster boy of this; it's always been very popular but look how awful it's always been in competitive; they didn't even let it learn Flare Blitz until gen 6.